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Editorial: Challenges, opportunities in and out of classrooms for new school year
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That was fast.
Seems like only yesterday that seniors were graduating and we were wrapping up the 2007-08 school year.
And here we are ready to open the 2008-09 school year, with classes starting in public schools for an estimated 80,000 students in Lee County on Monday and in Collier for about 41,500 students on Tuesday.
It is bound to be a year with distractions, starting with school board elections in each county and continuing with budget uncertainties, which will be in the spotlight for a tax-realignment referendum in Collier on Nov. 4. Student head counts, which affect jobs, will be monitored as families move in and out of the area.
Collier opens three new elementary schools — Mike Davis in Golden Gate, Palmetto in Golden Gate Estates and Eden Park in Immokalee. Lorenzo Walker Technical High School in East Naples, in its third year, will welcome a new classroom building that will complete its transition from portables. Lee will open five new schools, though none of them are in the Bonita-Estero-San Carlos park vicinity.
A glow lingers from the 2007-08 school year ending on a positive note with news of improved scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. In both Collier and Lee, most schools open the new school year with grades of A or B; other schools have more work to do. Both school systems keep up the quest for A grades overall.
All of us can pitch in by driving extra carefully where students are walking and biking to and from school and allowing a little extra time on our morning and early afternoon commutes. There will be school buses and other additional traffic.
Be prepared.
That is good advice for inside the classroom as well.
A successful and safe new school year to all.
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