High attrition rates continue to plague school district

By MEGHAN BRADBURY news@breezenewspapers com

The School District of Lee County continues to lose employees at a heavy rate, which officials hope to stymie through such things centralized hiring and guest teachers

Human Resources Executive Director Robert Dodig told the school board last week that the district is coming off of a year when it hired the most new school-based instructional staff of 678 employees, which was also the year it lost the most employees, 929 In fiscal year 2020, there was only a 134 position gap

“To keep up with it we have to do more to reverse the trend with employee termination,” he said

For fiscal years 2021 and 2022, the percentage of instructional personnel turnover is at 29 percent, compared to fiscal year 2020 of 19 percent

“It increased in post-COVID year The 29 percent includes not just people that left the district, but people that transferred within the district,” Dodig said “Eleven point seven percent in fiscal year 2022 transferred within the district, 17 percent terminated or left employment with the district ”

Non-instructional personnel turnover was at 34 7 percent for fiscal year 2022, compared to 26 7 percent the year prior

“Our benchmark in our strategic plan is 8 percent, which we have never met,” Dodig said.

The district, however, has exceeded the 75 percent mark of converting offers to hires with fiscal years 2021 and 2022 exceeding 80 percent

The critical issue lies among the percentage of teachers separating for non-compliance with credential requirements Dodig said the district’s percentage of teachers separation for failing to comply continues the four-year trend below the 3 percent benchmark.

One of the current and future strategy developments include enhancements to the insurance and benefits package, as well as centralized hiring within the next six months Dodig said the centralized hiring will take the burden off the schools, as the central office will send five or six teachers who would be eligible to be interviewed to the schoolhouse

“We are in the process of moving forward with guest teachers and the possibility of using a company in hiring guest teachers,” Dodig said, adding that they are also looking into hopefully expanding their cultural exchange program “We have 20 cultural exchange teachers ”

Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier said he has been sitting down with teachers to get a climate of their conditions and what they are looking for, with the top two being pay and benefits He said people join an organization and business as a sense of purpose and ability to make an impact

“If we can hire 678, but not lose 900, we are fully staffed Certainly teachers are hard to find and support professionals are hard to find Human resources is finding them,” Bernier said “It has to be about retention and reten- tion is a process that starts on onboarding and continues in our school building We should have more of a focus on what does it take to keep teachers ”

Bernier said the goal is very simple, human resources will be effective if they use it as helpful and responsive He said their primary mission is to be helpful and responsive to drawing employees and making them effective.

“I really applaud you going and talking to teachers without administrators,” Board Chair Armor Persons said “We have to listen up and they have to speak up That would solve a lot of problems before they decide to leave We need to be proactive, get some groups together on a regular basis to talk ”

Board Member Sam Fisher said it comes down to human element, the culture of a school, which he said they need to improve upon, so talented students come back and teach within the system

Board Member Jada Langford Fleming agreed that it is about the culture of the school, where the children grew up, which encourages them to get into the field of education and return to the district to start their career

“I knew there was wonderful teachers that inspired me to go into education It starts from there At the end of the day teachers want to feel valued and what they do matters As a teacher, you said the word impact You want to make impacts, especially in a career like this Teachers want a personnel connection and want to be seen as professionals,” Langford Fleming said

Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program offers four award levels

By MEGHAN BRADBURY news@breezenewspapers com

When students enter the ninth grade t h e y l e a r n a b o u t t h e F l o r i d a B r i g h t F u t u r e s S c h o l a r s h i p P r o g r a m , w h i c h includes some new additions including volunteer or work hours to meet requirements

School Counseling and Mental Health

Director Lori Brooks said the Bright Futures Scholarship is a lottery-funded scholarship for high school graduates for high academic achievements.

To qualify, a student must be a Florida resident and a U S citizen, or eligible noncitizen; complete the Florida Financial Aid Application during their senior year; earn a standard Florida high school diploma from a Florida public high school; not have been found guilty to a felony charge; accepted by and enrolled as a degree, or certificate, seeking student at an eligible Florida public, or independent postsecondary institution within five years of high school graduation; and enroll in at least six non-remedial semester hours per term

There are four award levels under the B r i g h t F u t u r e s S c h o l a r s h i p , w h i c h i n c l u d e s F l o r i d a A c a d e m i c S c h o l a r s Award at 100 percent tuition; Florida

Mollusk count

mollusks along the study area,” shell museum curator and Science Director Dr José H Leal said “The count will serve to provide comparisons with similar data gathered in January 2022 by members of the Sanibel-Captiva Shell Club and national shell museum volunteers These comparisons will help provide insights on the general effect of Hurricane Ian on local populations of sand-inhabiting mollusks ”

The volunteers, which included island residents as well as shell enthusiasts, enjoyed light breezes and cool temps for the early morning adventure at the lowest tide of year In teams of two, they walked a half- or one-mile segment of Sanibel’s beaches to count the live mollusk species observed on beaches and in the shallow waters that could be seen from the water’s edge.

Medallion Scholars Award at 75 percent of tuition at a four-year university or 100 percent tuition at a two-year college; Florida Gold Seal CAPE Scholars is determined annually per credit hour and Florida Gold Seal Vocational Scholars is also determined annually per credit hour

FAS and FMS both require 16 high school course credits, which breaks down to four English credits with three including substantial writing; four mathematics at or above the Algebra 1 level; three natural science credits with two must have substantial laboratory; three social science credits and two world language credits For FAS students must have a high school weighted Bright Futures GPA of 3.5 and 3 0 for FMS

In addition, the FAS looks at both ACT and SAT For 2022-23 graduates must earn a 29 on ACT and 1330 on SAT for FAS and 29 for 2023-2024 graduates for ACT and 1340 on SAT FMS has a 25 for ACT for 2022-2023 and 2023-24 graduates and 1210 for SAT for both graduating classes as well

Brooks said this year students can submit 100 paid work hours in place of the 100 volunteer service hours. It must be one or the other and cannot be combined

From page 1

Service Hours Or Volunteer Hours

The GPA scores are from the best attempts of the 16 courses, as some students take additional math, or science courses.

“They take the best performance measures from each semester and recalculate that among the 16 to obtain the appropriate GPA,” she said, adding that they will also super score multiple attempts on ACT and SAT scores

The award requirements for GSC is earning a minimum of five postsecondary credit hours through CAPE industry certif i c a t i o n s a n d c o m p l e t i n g 3 0 s e r v i c e hours

G S V a w a r d r e q u i r e m e n t s i n c l u d e achieving a required weighted minimum

3 0 grade point average in the non-elective high school course; take at least three full credits in a single career and technical education program; achieve the minimum 3 5 unweighted GPA in the career education courses; achieve the required minimum score on SAT, ACT, or the Florida P o s t s e c o n d a r y E d u c a t i o n R e a d i n e s s TEST exams and complete 30 service hours

T e a c h i n g a n d L e a r n i n g D i r e c t o r Candace Allevato said the merit-based program requires students to apply and work their way through the program She said counselors and college and career specialists are key to the process of sharing information about the Bright Futures scholarship program

Allevato said there are also curriculum expansion opportunities, advanced diploma opportunities through earning AICE, or IB diplomas, which waive the SAT and ACT scores as long as the student meets the volunteer hours

“We can now say all 15 high schools have an advanced diploma pathway,” she said S t u d e n t s a r e a l s o g i v e n e x p a n d e d national assessment options through taking the ACT and SAT test on the district’s campuses

The district also hosts a Financial Aid Night, which is in partnership with the F o u n d a t i o n f o r L e e C o u n t y P u b l i c Schools The night focuses on guiding the student and parents through the documentation needed to ensure they complete the application process

Every year training is also provided to ensure the counselors and career specialist to make sure they know the requirements.

See SCHOLARSHIP, page 3

“We were thrilled to partner with the shell museum on this important initiative,” SCCF Coastal Watch Director Kealy McNeal said “Once again, we were amazed by how quickly all the volunteer slots filled up Our community has been so generous with their time in helping with many aspects of post-Ian clean-ups and wildlife counts ”

With red tide counts at medium levels recently at Lighthouse Beach, the volunteers also noted over 100 dead fish and one dead loggerhead sea turtle there, which was reported to the SCCF's sea turtle team

A live White Baby Ear, which looks like a flattened moon shell, was the most surprising find Three classes of mollusks were spotted in total, including gastropoda, bivalvia, and polyplacophora