The Crisis We Face and What We Can Do

During the 2008-2009 school year alone, the Manatee County School District has had to reduce funding for our schools by $30 million. These cuts required dramatic steps on our part including the elimination of 68 district-level positions, denial of step-pay increases, and district wide pay cuts. These drastic measures were employed to salvage as many jobs as possible and to do our best to keep our classrooms from being directly impacted.

Now it appears the budget for the 2009-2010 school year will require another $20 million cut for our school district. There is no way to keep these levels of cuts from reaching into our classrooms.

We believe it is time to demand that the state of Florida live up to its constitutionally-mandated pledge to “make adequate provision for the education of all children residing within its borders.”

To clearly communicate our needs to our community, we are establishing a School District Speaker´s Bureau to bring these budget issues home to our faculties and our School Advisory Councils. We will also hold Town Hall Meetings at each of our six traditional public high schools and speak to any civic group who will have us to enlist support and to gather input for ways to meet this challenge.

In addition, we will actively and aggressively call upon Governor Charlie Crist and our state legislators to meet their obligation regarding educating our children.

We also need you, concerned parents and citizens, to contact our legislators and Gov. Crist to let them know your thoughts about these damaging cuts to education in our state.

To review detailed information pertaining to our school district´s budget situation, please click on the link below. We truly appreciate your interest in the children of Manatee County and thank you for your continued support.

Tim McGonegal
Superintendent
Manatee County Schools

Budget Cuts: Speakers Bureau Information