5/3/11 - Response from Clay County and Email to Tommy Hazouri

1:30 pm - Got the mail today and there was the response from Clay County Board of Education.  They have declined Hunter for admission in to Plantation Oaks Elementary due to lack of room in the 2nd grade class for next year.

2:00 pm - Called Clay County Board of Education, no other good schools that are close enough for me to drive him to and from every day have an opening for out of district students.

2:30 pm - I made the decison that instead of running from Chimney Lakes Elementary and the problems there, I am going to fight them head on.  I then sent the email below sent to Duval County School Board Member Tommy Hazouri for him to help make something happen...countdown begins to going to the media about this...

From: Kelly Johnson [mailto:kellyjpc@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2011 2:31 PM
To: 'THazouri@aol.com'
Cc: 'willisp@duvalschools.org'
Subject: RE: I hope you can help me further

Mr. Hazouri,

I think I need your help now, and I hope that you will take this matter seriously now.  I received a call about a week ago from student placement telling me that Hunter was approved to be released from DCPS.  I have contacted Clay County to find a new school for my son to go to, but unfortunately, they are full for 2^nd grade next year in all the ones that are acceptable to me and not a crazy distance from me.

Since I wrote the original letter I have seen teachers get upset over lack of support from the principal when a parent was harassing them for no good reason, I have learned from countless other parents that Ms. Knott (the principal at CLE) is out of touch with the school, is rude to the parents when she does talk them, does not make herself available to the parents unless you plant yourself in the office on a day she is actually at the school and wait for hours (as I did earlier in the school year) and overall the morale with the teachers seems to be extremely low due to this woman being in the position she is in.

At what point does DCPS realize that there is a problem with a principal?  Apparently it’s not when they find out that she failed to report that a teacher was putting my child in a closet and closing the door.

I am not threatening you in any way with this, but apparently I have to do something to make DCPS wake up and stop ignoring a rather large problem at a school that is mostly full of wonderful teachers!  So, I will allow you the time to look into this and for somebody to offer me a resolution at that school since it is obvious that even though I was granted a release I cannot find a new school for my son.  If I have not heard back from somebody at the school board with at least an update on how not only the investigation into the events that led to my letter, as well as the overall issues at that school prior to the end of this week, then I will contact every media outlet in the area, and possibly on a national level as well with my story and I will get the attention that is needed to be received on Monday morning.

This is no longer acceptable…our teachers don’t deserve to have a principal that ignores their needs or fails to give them support.  The parents of CLE deserve to have a principal that is there to help when there is a concern, not one that thinks if she ignores the countless voicemails, emails, and notes left for her that the problems will just go away.  Our children deserve a principal that will stick up for them, not one that is so absent from the schools that most of the kids think that Assistant Principal Mr. Hill is their principal and have no idea who Ms. Knott is.

Duval schools owes me, as well as every parent at that school, a resolution…no matter what the budget issues are, our children deserve more than DCPS is giving them.

I look forward to hearing back from you on this matter before Monday morning.

Thank you,

Kelly Johnson

4/26/11 - Call From Student Placement at DCPS

12:00 PM - DCPS Student Placement called me.  They have agreed to release Hunter from Duval County Schools.  They told me to contact Clay County to find a school that has availability for him as an out of county transfer.

2:40 PM - I went to Plantation Oaks Elementary in Oak Leaf area.  I completed the form requesting non-resident placement at that school as it is a great school and is close to the house.

4/20 - Email Response from Tommy Hazouri

From: THazouri@aol.com [mailto:THazouri@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 2:50 PM
To: kellyjpc@gmail.com
Cc: willisp@duvalschools.org
Subject: Re: I hope you can help me further

Dear Ms. Johnson, thank you for your email, and also for copying me on the letter you sent to the superintendent.  I appreciate you sharing your concerns with me, and will look forward to the superintendent reviewing and responding to you.  I will also discuss this matter with him, after he has thoroughly reviewed this situation.  Please know, your letter is important to the district, and to me, personally, and I will try to assist in resolving your concerns.  Sincerely, Tommy Hazouri

4/20 - Email to Tommy Hasouri, Duval County School Board

Dear Mr. Hasouri,

Please find attached a letter that I sent to Duval County Schools superintendent, I understand that it is under investigation and awaiting a reply from the principal.

I only hope that you can help me to see that this is dealt with in the correct manner and that my son, as well as all children in Duval County, receive the resources to succeed in school that are mandated by law.

Thank you for your time.

Kelly Johnson

Phone Numbers, Addresses and Email Addresses

If you would like to contact the officials that are responsible for making the rules that are being broken, I have included the names, phone numbers, addresses and email addresses for each of them below.

If you are a parent who wishes to voice concern about the lack of physical excercise in the schools, please click here to see my sample letter to Duval County Schools Superintendent.

I have also created a sample letter to our law makers here in Florida asking them to think hard about where they cut money from the budget, and not to hurt our children.  You can see that letter here.

Ed Pratt-Dannals
Superintendent
Duval County Public Schools
1701 Prudential Drive
Jacksonville, FL 32207
Email him using the form at http://www.duvalschools.org/static/aboutdcps/superintendent/ask_superintendent.asp

Find your school board representative here http://www.duvalschools.org/static/aboutdcps/schoolboard/overview.asp

Commissioner Eric Smith
Florida Department of Education
Turlington Building
Suite 1514
325 West Gaines St
Tallahassee, FL 32399
Commissioner@fldoe.org


State Representative Daniel Davis
Suite 10
8970 103rd Street
Jacksonville, FL 32210
Email him at http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/sections/representatives/emailrepresentative.aspx?MemberId=4495&SessionId=66


State Senator Stephen R. Wise
1460 Cassatt Avenue
Suite B
Jacksonville, FL 32205
wise.stephen.web@flsenate.gov


Contact him here: http://www.flgov.com/contact-gov-scott/email-the-governor/
Office of Governor Rick Scott
State of Florida
The Capitol
400 S. Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001

Sample Letter About Florida Education Cuts

Please send this to your lawmakers about education cuts.

Dear <NAME>,

As a parent of a Florida student, I am outraged by the budget cuts that our state is proposing on education.  These cuts hurt the very future of not only our state, but our country as a whole.

Commissioner Eric J. Smith's op-ed, "Florida education: We see progress on all fronts," on the state of education claims that Florida has made tremendous progress given the hand that the state has been dealt.

While the state ranks near the top on reporting, standards and accountability, its record on outcomes is less than stellar. Florida rates a C across the board on establishing a foundation for education and on college and early childhood readiness, plus a D on student achievement. Florida's rating on the National Assessment of Educational Progress is average for middle schools and near the bottom for high schools compared to other states, but its scores for elementary reading and minority students are among the top.

These disparities stem from the state's abysmal record on school spending, on which it ranks third to last. We can do better and we should, but further cuts are not the answer.

Our children deserve to not be cut back, they deserve to have a safe environment to learn in where the teachers are not overworked, underpaid and left with too many children in the classroom to be able to effectively teach of them to the best of their abilities.

Our teachers deserve to know that the work they are putting into our children each and every day is noticed, appreciated and that they are not going to be pushed aside while lawmakers run all over the state and country on tax payer dollars that could have been used to fund our schools instead.

It's time our lawmakers stop telling our children and their educators no and start instead telling others no when they are asked to go to various states or to run down to Miami to discuss a budget deal, isn't our capital city Tallahassee anyway?

Priorities need to be made and our children need to start coming first.

Thank you,

Sample Email to DCPS About Lack of Daily Physical Excercise

For contact information for who to send it to, please see my contact info posting here.

Dear Superintendent Pratt-Dannals,

I am the parent of a Chimney Lakes Elementary School student and I wanted to express my concerns about the lack of physical activity that our children get and the trend to recommend testing for such things as ADD, ADHD or other behavorial problems when a child is a bit too active in the classroom.

First, I want to highlight an alarming trend. Over the last 10 years, Florida schools have decreased the time allocated for physical education while increasing the time that kids spend sitting in the classroom.

Across the country and right here at home, childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions. In 2007 research showed that 33% of Florida’s youth were obese. Researchers suggest that the childhood obesity epidemic is largely due to a decline in regular physical activity and a diet that is high in empty and fat-laden calories.

According to the American Heart Association, a lack of regular physical activity can hurt a child’s academic, social and emotional development. Research shows that healthy children learn more effectively and achieve more academically. Experts agree that increasing physical activity is the most important component of any program designed to combat childhood obesity, yet many Florida schools have cut back on PE programs as well as any sort of physical exercise time, even though it is mandated by the Don Davis Physical Education Act that they receive 30 consecutive minutes of physical exercise per day.  At Chimney Lakes Elementary the children do not get a “recess” on days that they have resource, which includes art, music and media center time.  During these resource periods (with the exception of P.E. class) the children are immobile and therefore are not getting the mandated 30 consecutive minutes.

We must give Florida youth the opportunity to live healthy lives by providing them with more education on the importance of nutrition and the opportunity to be active in a quality PE program.

Therefore, we ask that you put a system into place that holds the schools accountable to get the students active for no less than the mandated 30 consecutive minutes each day.

Thank you,