To the Editor:
Just coming to light is the Marion County School Board’s (MCSB) recent board approval of plans for a new $41 million facility for school board administrators, officials, the board, and everyone and everything except the needs of our students who are now ranked in the lowest quartile of student achievement. This exorbitant plan, in my honest opinion, will do nothing but expand an already bloated educational bureaucracy and red tape engine to the detriment of the students, their parents, and the teachers, all three groups whom this board needs to prioritize, first and foremost.
Not only would the historic school building be endangered or excavated entirely, but the turf building of six figure administrators would expand exponentially. Rather than an expansion of an administrative apparatus, we need expansion of an initiative to boost our students at all grade levels up out of the cellar of Florida student achievement ratings. Attention to discipline is vital.
Furthermore, we need plans and programs put in place now to help students being impacted negatively by the draconian pandemic imprimaturs. Psychologists are coming forward daily with how damaging the masking of facial expressions for young children is. Their ability to relate in a confusing world needs help, not hindrance. The recent Joe Rogan interview with Dr. Malone is poignant indeed as the doctor details what a damaging effect these rules are having and will have on our future generations of children.
Where is the board’s $41 million planning for these priorities? Where are the board’s plans to get back to the basics of the three “R’s” as we all were taught, not the latest educational fad? MCSB, please re-think and re-prioritize what you are doing here.
Suzanne Eovaldi
Ocala resident
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