Schools report year of varied milestones

It took 35 tons of clay and 290,800 rolls of toilet paper to educate about 100,000 students in the 1999-2000 year, ending today.

By KELLY RYAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 7, 2000

Some have dreaded knowing today was coming. Others have counted the days, hardly able to wait.

Today is the last day of school.

The last time to sing songs and color pictures. The last time to slip notes to friends. The last time to cheer school colors.

What kind of year was 1999-2000 in Pinellas County public schools?

Schools prepared for the all-important assessment tests, hoping to get good grades in the state's accountability system. Veteran teachers and principals retired. Anete Vasquez of Palm Harbor University High School was a regional finalist for state Teacher of the Year.

Some high school students and teachers lobbied for school to start later next year, but the School Board wasn't ready to make the change. The district started two new initiatives to help students learn algebra and reading.

Seminole Middle School won the U.S. Department of Education's Blue Ribbon School award. Azalea Elementary in St. Petersburg won the Governor's Sterling Award for Quality.

Tarpon Springs High School musicians performed in Carnegie Hall, and an eighth-grader went to Washington, D.C., to represent Pinellas County in the National Spelling Bee. A sixth-grader won a national contest for designing a Mother's Day card.

The Pinellas County School Board voted on a plan to end court-ordered busing for desegregation, struggled with charter schools and clamped down on the kind of clothes students can wear on campus.

Every day, there were victories -- a child learning to read -- and heartbreaks -- a student who isn't accepted to his first-choice college. These statistics don't tell all of the stories of the year, but provide a glimpse inside the county's schools:

Students enrolled, prekindergarten through 12th grade:

September 1999 -- 109,785

May 2000 -- 107,605

Elementary schools with mandatory uniforms 9

Elementary schools with voluntary uniforms 16

Number of elementary schools 82

School buses on the road daily 575

Number of miles traveled daily 52,000

Number of miles traveled this year 16,000,000

Number of students who ride buses every day 44,000

Bus accidents 261

Percentage of accidents not a result of driver error (considered non-preventable) 59 percent

Students who received free or reduced-price lunch 41,846

Cost of full-price lunch:

elementary $1.25;

middle and high $1.50

Students with mental, physical or emotional disabilities 22,583

Students considered academically gifted 5,469

Applications to magnet and fundamental schools 9,858

Students accepted to magnet and fundamental schools 2,867

Fall 2000 starting salary for teachers $28,800 plus $1,000 bonus

Salary for Superintendent Howard Hinesley $151,913

Salary for School Board member $33,303

High schools that require students to wear computerized identification badges 10

Total number of high schools 16

Number of suspensions, first semester 1999-2000 -- 9,714

Number of suspensions, first semester 1998-1999 -- 10,293

Number of expulsions, first semester 6

Number of expulsions for guns, first semester 0

Number of expulsions, first semester 1998-1999 39

Number of expulsions for guns, first semester 1998-1999 4

Number of fire drills 1,370

Number of lockdown drills 140

Charter schools 3

Number of times School Board discussed charter schools since January 10

Schools with extended-year schedules (210 days instead

of 180) 1, with two more approved for 2000-2001

Number of teachers who retired this year 170

Number of nationally certified teachers 47

Number of teachers 7,400

Number of graduating seniors 5,234

Number of students named National Merit semifinalists, National Hispanic Scholars and Achievement Scholars 44

Rolls of toilet paper used 290,800 (20,659 miles)

Tardy slips needed 513,000

Construction paper used 3,596,350 sheets

Lunch trays used 10,132,500

Clay molded 35 tons

Source: Pinellas County Schools

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