School Board narrows superintendent candidates to five
By ALEXANDRA CALDWELL
Article published on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008  |
PINELLAS COUNTY – The Pinellas County School Board voted to interview five candidates for superintendent and held the first public meeting on the proposed budget on Thursday, July 29.
All five superintendent candidates are from Florida, including Pinellas County interim superintendent, Julie Janssen. The candidates are:
- Alberto M. Carvalho – Associate superintendent for Miami-Dade Public Schools. He lives in Hollywood, Fla.
- Nicholas M. Gledich – Chief operations officer of Orange County Public Schools since 2004. He lives in Ocoee, Fla.
- Julie M. Janssen – Deputy superintendent and interim superintendent of Pinellas County Public Schools. She has been deputy since 2006, and she lives in Treasure Island, Fla.
- Barbara M. Jenkins – Chief of staff of Orange County Public Schools since 2006. She lives in Windermere, Fla.
- Sherrie Nickell – Associate superintendent of Polk County Public Schools since 2005.
All will be invited to Pinellas County for a series of interviews Aug. 27 and 28, and the school board will hold a workshop Sept. 10 at 9 a.m. to decide to whom they will offer the position. The board is scheduled to vote on the new superintendent at the Sept. 23 school board meeting.
The school board also hosted the first public hearing about the proposed budget July 29. Florida’s legislature decreased its funding statewide by $695.7 million, according to the budget booklet handed out at the meeting. Therefore the state passed this off to the taxpayers, the board explained, with an increase in the required local effort by $364.9 million statewide, or 4.62 percent.
Pinellas County received some state and federal funding, but had to come up with 62.41 percent of its total $1,466,679,129 budget with local funds.
The public criticized the extra impact on taxpayers and offered suggestions, such as replacing buses with few students aboard with vans. The board said the state reduced their funding per student by $200, requires the local taxpayers to pay certain amounts and mandates that they use full-size buses.
There will be another public hearing about the budget at the Sept. 9 board meeting.
In other news, the board approved the contract for Life Force Arts and Technology Academy Charter School that is scheduled to open in Clearwater for the 2008-2009 school year.
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Article published on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008
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