POLK SCHOOL CHIEF SAYS LEGISLATURE WANTS A "TRAIN WRECK"

Since she was hired as Polk County's first appointed school superintendent, we haven't heard a great deal publicly from Dr. Gail McKinzie, but she had some words to say Thursday during a "State of the School District" address at the Lakeland Yacht Club which was reported by the Lakeland Ledger.

Dr. McKinzie believes, as I do, that the Florida Legislature is basically hanging school districts out to dry when it comes to funding mandated requirments such as the federal "No Child Left Behind" act and the class size reduction amendment, passed by the electorate nearly three years ago.

"The state's answer to this class-size reduction is, `No, we're not going to change our minds, you can just rezone or go to double sessions. . . So that's a challenge because I think they want the train wreck. And they'll get it."

The Ledger reports:

While McKinzie said that class-size reduction poses a facilities and teacher-recruitment challenge, she said the federal No Child Left Behind law is even more complex and problematic. No Child Left Behind demands improvement among schools in several areas, including teacher quality and student achievement among all demographics.

She said No Child Left Behind really requires districts to change the way they function, not simply build more schools or hire more teachers.

She said that's what makes No Child Left Behind the most significant challenge. "I think that the No Child Left Behind is really an educational challenge," she said.

And while fielding a few questions from the audience, Dr. McKinzie noted a couple of other challenged that the local district faced, among them the increasing number of Hatian students.

She said these students pose a challenge because some have never been in school before, and many do not speak English.

"There are not a lot of people in the county that can translate Haitian Creole," she said.

Dr. McKinzie came to Polk County last November after 17 years leading school districts in Missouri and suburban Chicago.