What is P.A.C.?

Parents who are concerned about education issues in Polk County, Florida. The goal of PAC is to reclaim our education system and to demand the accountability of the Polk County School Board  and Superintendent to parents. The (soon to be ex) Superintendent is fond of stating that he is the CEO of the Polk County School System, but he has forgotten that he answers to the share holders - the parents.

If you are interested in joining PAC or have a question or information to pass on to us, please call 293-6450 or contact us by e-mail at any of the following addresses: rwms@gate.net, tillman@ithink.net, or dac2884@aol.com.
 

Issues being addressed by P.A.C. currently or in the future:

• Voter Registration Drive for all parents - This has begun. We have registered about 75 parents so far and will have voter's registration forms at all P.A.C. events. If we don't vote, we will never be able to make a change.

• Selling our children's names, addresses, and ages. - We already have a victory on this issue. The School Board has changed their rules to prohibit this practice. State representative J.D. Alexander has agreed to sponsor legislation to stop releasing this information to general businesses without parental permission. The bill has already passed unanimously in the house of representatives, and awaits passage in the senate and signature by the governor. At the request of P.A.C. members, the School Board is also making policy changes to prevent students from giving personal information to campus visitors. This was the result of a modeling school that was making presentations at middle school girls and getting their information to try to convince them to enroll in their modeling school. This was supposedly part of the "School to Work" program.

• Uniforms - we need a parental opt out for those opposed to this policy. - P.A.C. has filed a lawsuit against the Polk County School Board and Superintendent Glenn Reynolds to restore our parental rights. 544 parents and children are plaintiffs in this suit.

• Tardiness counted as unexcused absences - this needs to stop.

• Portables - we have too many at our schools.

• Low pay for teachers - 54^th of 68 districts in the state (and the PCSB is offering only 2% raises this year). - P.A.C. addressed the PEA on August 26th. We addressed the school board on Sept. 14th to show our support for a decent raise for the teachers.  PAC also attended a PEA meeting and a negotiation meeting.  We have also written editorials and contacted school board members in order to push for a fair raise for our teachers. Teachers finally won a 5% raise in Feb. 2000.

• Lack of School Nurses

• Lack of Resource Officers - only 46 resource officers for 109 schools. Chris Hughes of P.A.C.  addressed the PCSB on Tuesday, August 24th , 1999 on this issue. Chris was appointed to the Safe and Orderly Schools committee by the board because of his concerns and because the board recognizes the P.A.C. is a voice for the parents of Polk County. The problem now is that the sheriff's office is of the opinion that the schools have enough resource officers and does not want to pay for any more (the sheriff's office pays about 75% of the cost of resource officers). This is despite the fact that the sheriff's office pays 100% of the cost for resource officers in some counties.

• Lack of Textbooks This is apparently not as big a problem as many parents thought in the past. The Superintendents office has assured us that funds are available for books - the principal simply has to  request them. If anyone thinks children at their school do not have adequate text books, please let us know and we will investigate to find out what the problem is.

• High Failure Rate (25% of elementary students went to summer school this year) Tim Tillman of P.A.C. was appointed to the curriculum committee to help address this issue. P.A.C. has created a web site to help students use the internet tutorials to improve their grades.

• Polk County FCAT scores - below state average

• Accountability of administrators, principals, and teachers

• Chain of command when people are on vacation - allowing work to go unfinished

• All school board meetings should be held in the evenings (6:00 or 7:00 P.M.). - Nearby Osceola and Orange counties hold all of their school board meetings at night, there is no reason why Polk county cannot adopt this policy to make it easier for working parents to address the board.

• All public hearings should have notices sent home with all affected students 15 days prior to and day of meeting.

The Parental Action Committee (PAC) Recommends that Polk County parents take the following actions to resist the current uniform
policy:
 

•      Do not sign the Student Code of Conduct.
•      Do not sign student/parent/school contract for Title 1 schools.
•      Do not supply your child's social security number.
•      Refuse to change into loaned uniform (for sanitary or other reasons).
•      If possible, attend school with child first day.
•      If you would like to peacefully protest the uniform policy, please see us about getting buttons or tags.
•      Be respectful and courteous, (don't take it out on your school's administration).
•      DEMAND EVERYTHING IN WRITING , particularly if asked to leave.