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Schools Seek Parents' Help

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By KENNETH KNIGHT

kknight@tampatrib.com

Published: April 1, 2009

NEW TAMPA - Hillsborough County School Board member April Griffin said she feels like Charlie Brown's schoolteacher when she travels to Tallahassee to talk to lawmakers about increasing education funding.

"The lawmakers hear ... whaa-whaa-whaa," she said, imitating the sound associated with the adult voice in the "Peanuts" TV specials.

The comment drew laughter from a room of New Tampa school parents, one of the few lighthearted moments at a meeting dominated by four school board members pleading with residents to petition their legislators to support more money for education.

"We have cut about all the fat we can cut," Griffin said. "When I ran for office I was one of the outspoken critics of fat in the school system. I can't do that anymore."

Griffin, joined by school board members Carol Kurdell, Candy Olson and Jack Lamb, spent nearly two hours at the New Tampa Regional Library urging some 30 parents to take a more active role in petitioning the Legislature for more school dollars.

The school board members were the invited guests of the New Tampa Coalition for Change to discuss the school district's budget woes. The New Tampa organization is associated with the Hillsborough County Democratic Party, but the meeting Wednesday night was not a political event, organizers said.

The debate over whether Florida ranks 47th or 50th in funding per student drew the ire of some in the audience.

"Either way it's ridiculous," said Sharon Samek, a member of the coalition and who also serves as legislative liaison for Wharton High's Parent-Teacher-Student Association. "It's a crisis situation."

Kurdell agreed, saying it is time the Legislature established a stable source from which to fund primary and secondary education.

"It will be up to the citizens of this community to help us convince the legislators it's important for them to do the right thing," she said.

"We are desperate for your help. If you want to take up a cause, take up one for the children of Hillsborough County."

"Don't write letters," Lamb said. "They get pushed off to the side; send e-mails or phone calls."

The school board outlined a series of cost-cutting tactics - such as cutting the number of school employees, not renewing teaching contracts, adding employee furlough days or reducing time for art education - it is considering implementing to shave millions off the budget. The district is facing cuts of more than $150 million.

Some parents who said they would be willing to pay higher property taxes asked the school board members why they hadn't publicly supported the idea. The board members said they had not been asked to address the issue.

While the board members responded to questions from the audience about the money crisis, they attempted to avoid inquiries about cell towers on school campuses, an issue of growing interest in many parts of the county, including New Tampa.

Sase Persaud, a Pride Elementary parent, told the school board representatives he had lost confidence in their ability to represent the best interest of children based on their support for cell towers on school grounds.

Carrie Grimail, a Dale Mabry Elementary parent who helped form a coalition called People Against Cell Towers at Schools, said she was disappointed by the board members' pleas to residents.

"We expect them to take the lead on this," she said of finding additional dollars for education. "They want us to do their work for them."

Kurdell said after the meeting she considered the questions about school cell towers a distraction from the purpose of the meeting, which was to discuss ideas on how to increase education funding for Hillsborough County schoolchildren.

Reporter Kenneth Knight can be reached at (813) 865-4842.

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