LARGO - The Pinellas County School Board on Tuesday delayed final action on a controversial plan that would steer Pinellas County students to schools in their own neighborhoods. ...more

December 11, 2007

When faced with a major decision, learning how others decided is valuable input that can often save a lot of time and effort. For example, I believe I read that over 5,000 communities wrestled with whether its school superintendent should continue as an elected position and only 30 (.04 percent) determined that it should. To me, that means that absent some unusual circumstances unique to this community, Highlands County will not be number 31. ...more

November 29, 2007

Pasco County and School District officials kept getting detoured today about who will pay for road improvements near new schools and how much. The leaders met for two hours this morning, only to decide to meet yet again, Dec. 11, to try to settle the issue once and for all. ...more

November 20, 2007

What with finding most of its high schools on the national "Dropout Factory" list and having a hard time accounting for money at some of its schools, you'd think the Pasco County School District would have enough on its hands. You would be wrong, judging from an idea the School Board is kicking around at the moment. ...more

November 14, 2007

With the help of a $45,000 Florida Learn & Serve Grant, Gulf High School reading coach Victoria Mudry has spread the word about hurricane preparedness among her students and Pasco County. ...more

November 11, 2007

Now that five of its elementary schools have to be restructured because they fail to meet federal No Child Left Behind standards, the Pasco County School District is lucky to have lost its oversight responsibility regarding charter schools. ...more

October 24, 2007

School District's Forum? Regarding 'Student Safety Paramount At King High' (Other Views, Oct. 8): ...more

October 15, 2007

Are Pasco residents witnessing another long tenure taking shape in the school superintendent's office? With Republican incumbent Superintendent Heather Fiorentino ready to kick off her re-election campaign next week, political observers are wondering if Democrats will find a challenger for the 2008 contest. ...more

October 13, 2007

The Highlands County School Board is on to a great idea. They want to "workshop" the possibility of changing the way we hire school superintendents in our district. We like the idea of considering whether the board appoints school superintendents or whether they are elected. As most folks know, in Highlands County we elect our school superintendent. It's done that way in some smaller districts around the state, but the majority of districts hire superintendents. For many people moving here from other areas, it seems strange that the school superintendent is an elected office. No special education is necessary to land this important post, and no experience is necessary. If you get enough people to vote for you, and have the money to run for office, you have as good of a chance as someone who has spent his or her entire life administering and teaching. Having someone unqualified in that position is scary to a lot of people. ...more

September 16, 2007

Should the superintendent of Highlands County Schools be elected or appointed? If you own or operate a local business (builder, Realtor, restaurant, etc.) If you are a practicing professional, if you depend on the growth and prosperity of our county for your livelihood, or you are a parent with children in our public schools, you should be concerned that some of our local public schools have consistently been graded D schools. Do potential new residents decide not to locate in Highlands County because of the reputation (deserved or not) of some of our schools? Have businesses that could provide quality jobs to our area decided not to locate in Highlands County fearing that they could not attract qualified employees (with school aged children) because of the reputation of some of our public schools? ...more

September 16, 2007