|
|
WHO: The school district is the eighth-largest in Florida among the largest 40 nationally. Polk has almost 160 school sites and centers including 61 elementary schools, 17 middle/junior high schools and 15 senior high schools. Also included are charter schools, vocational and technical centers, adult schools and alternative schools. More than 88,000 students are enrolled. The district is the largest employer in Polk County with more than 11,500 employees. About half of those are employed as teachers. The mission of Polk County School Board is to ensure rigorous, relevant learning experiences that result in high achievement. BUDGET: The general fund portion of the 2005-2006 budget is $623.3 million. Approximately 84 cents of every dollar of the general fund goes to teaching, supervising, transporting, feeding and counseling students. Twelve cents of every dollar goes to operating and maintaining places of learning. Four cents of every dollar goes to central and fiscal services. Operating revenue sources comes from the state (63.6 percent) and local sources (22.7 percent). The 2005-2006 budget was approved on September 13, 2005 by the School Board. NATIONAL HONORS: Bartow High’s International Baccalaureate School was ranked by Newsweek magazine in 2005 as number 253 of the nation's top 1,000 public high schools. Rankings were based on the number of advanced placement or International Baccalaureate tests taken by all students divided by the number of graduating seniors. The Harrison Center for the Visual and Performing Arts was recently ranked in the top six percent of all secondary art schools by New York’s Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, one of the nation’s oldest and most distinguished colleges of art. FLORIDA COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT TEST (FCAT) : FCAT is the state’s accountability program for schools and measures student achievement. 87 percent of Polk schools are at or above the state standard. More than half of Polk schools, 56 percent, have an A or B grade. Nearly half of all elementary schools, 47 percent, have an A grade. 95 percent of middle schools are at or above the state standard. 64 percent of high schools are at or above the state standard. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Nearly 28,000 community members provided assistance in schools last year as volunteers. More than 1 million hours were volunteered. DIVERSITY: The student body is approximately 58 percent white, 23 percent black and 17 percent Hispanic. There are more than 5,000 students whose primary language is other than English. GEOGRAPHY: Polk County, with more than 1,850 square miles, uses nearly 500 school buses. Buses transport 45,000 students traveling 42,000 miles daily. That's the equivalent of driving roundtrip from New York to Los Angeles six times.
|
|
