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School Board Member Going Grassroots For Amendment 8
September 20, 2010
One Escambia County school board member is going grassroots in his effort to tell voters that he believes in Amendment 8.
The entire school board has spoken out in favor of the amendment on the November ballot that relaxes class size issues. Now District 1 board member Jeff Bergosh, who was recently re-elected to another term — is recycling his campaign signs into pro-Amendment 8 messages.
“I have recently learned that I can recycle my old campaign signs and re-paint and re-use them to advocate for the passage of Amendment 8,’ Bergosh said. “I have begun to make signs and deploy them around town, and if I can at least get people to wonder what Amendment 8 is– that will be a good start.”
“Amendment 8 is a very important issue and will save Florida taxpayers billions of dollars if passed. Perhaps even more importantly, Amendment 8 will increase opportunities for students statewide because it will give local districts badly needed flexibility,” Bergosh said.
As of this school year in Florida, individual classes were capped at 18 students for kindergarten through third grade, 22 in fourth through eighth grade, and 25 in high school, with the limits having been phased in since the amendment was passed in 2002.
The proposed amendment on the November ballot would allow class sizes to be calculated in a more lenient fashion. If passed, the class size would be calculated at a grade-level average, not an individual classroom cap, allowing some classes to go above the limit.
Pictured top inset: Escambia School Board member Jeff Bergosh cuts a template in order to spray paint signs (top photo) in favor of Amendment 8. Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
17 Responses to “School Board Member Going Grassroots For Amendment 8”
YES to amendment 8. It is not about the quantity but the quality of a classroom. For those that are not happy with the public system, than charter schools or private schools are the way to go. My children are in charter school this year and what a difference from public school. I need to vote YES on amend. 8 to keep my kids in the charter school. If it does not pass, they risk being withdrawn by reverse lottery, teachers jobs are at risk and future enrollees are at risk as well. We need to look at the bigger picture here. VOTE YES!!!!
NO to amendment 8. I am a teacher ( mathematics, high school) and I have 45 students in a some classes. All I want is the bell to ring for that time to be over. More than 35 students is too much, and who ever say class size does not matter, GO TO THE CLASSROOM for 1 week and try to teach 45 kids. It is not fair to them, because they don’t get my best, just a very irritable tired teacher!!!
PLEASE vote NO on amendment 8. Our children deserve the best education possible and they will have a better chance if the teachers don’t have more children than they do now. Where are the teacher aides? GONE! Where are the parents to help out? GONE! The school board is elected to serve the people (including young people) and all should be defeated in re-election if they can’t put education first.
Oh sure ppl just be worried about your pocket book instead of your children.
Thats is just like this town.
It’s always about the money and never about the children.
Have any of you been paying attention to how the teens write on here.
Let’s just make the class sizes too large for the teachers to give any
help at all to those who were “NOT LEFT BEHIND”,
They want larger classes and less teachers, can’t you see this? You can’t learn with 40 students and 1 teacher
This is nuts anyone with commonsense can see it, classes sizes are large enough as it is. Why do they want to get rid of teachers?
The main problem with class size limits was the legislature failed to properly fund the law when it was passed by the voters of Florida. If Prop. 8 passes the system will return to its old manner of “packing em in.” PE classes might have 50 students and core classes might have 35-40. This is never effective as a learning tool. The District is broke and will do what it has to in order to financially survive. All assets of the District should go to support the student in the classroom chair. Everything else is window dressing. We tend to forget that too often! We do not need Prop. 8. It is a band aid on a deep wound. Do not be misled.
Yes to 8
i agree with the ones on here saying no to 8 !!! our kids already dont get the help they need .
As a school volunteer and mother of 3 kids, this makes my blood boil. No to 8!!!
When my children have 40 kids in their elementary classes, who can I complain to and it not fall on deaf ears. “Pile them on in” will be our new ECSD motto.
To Frank I totaly agree that was the purpose for the lottery, but when the voters voted it in the state pulled the rug out from under us.
Hopefully EEA will actually bargain to help the teachers with the insurance issue this year. It is a shame that over the last few years EEA has not bargained to keep health care affordable for the teachers. Many have to decide between making a house payment and having health care. With union dues at $50 a month per teacher, I hope they will work a little harder on this issue.
Let me say Bad idea!
Class sizes need to be limited more than they already are. I have children at northview and almost all of their classes have over 30 students in them. so much for the 25 student cap, and we wonder why students do not get the individualized attention and instruction and often times end up doing busy work and “project based learning” This also explains why the teachers are worked so hard!
My vote will be”NO” on this and my other vote will be to remove our school board rep. if they support this bad idea. This Amendment is bad for schools, teachers and students. The only people who win are the politicians because they say it saves money, it may but at our childrens expense!
I would urge everyone to learn more about this and make your own decision on election day.
Jim Reynolds-don’t let your carrier get by with that.
http://www.healthcare.gov/news/blog/lettertoAHIP.html
I certainly don’t support Amendment 8, but I would support an education policy that would allow individual schools to have larger classes if the citizens in their school district want larger classes, then Bergosh et al could put their kids in classrooms with 40 students if that’s what they want for their own kids.
Are you kidding me Insurance is going up after Obama Care Passed????
I am stunned
If the State had NOT ROBBED the Education budget when the Lottery passed we would not have this problem.” it was to add to the budget NOT BE THE BUDGET”…shame on them…
Not only do the teachers have to worry abouy this have to worry about the insurace going up so high most can not afford. WILLIAM PLEASE DO STORY ON THIS.