nhsehs

It is, and we're getting what we pay for in most situations. In TX, the operational costs of athletics are covered by budget allocation (uniforms, necessary equipment, etc). Programs will fundraise, but that is for discretionary items. It does boggle my mind how, while property tax increases will never fly here due to retirees, if we moved a fraction of a decimal of a percent of the bed tax or sales tax towards public education, we would fundamentally change education in our state. It would mirror the TX model (it isn't perfect, but it's a good model). 65k for teachers right out of school (get more of the best and brightest), well-funded programs, facilities communities can be proud of. Get back to making the school a central part of the community, not an after-thought or black mark.

It would take a smaller county that has $$$ and values the educational system. Can’t have an overabundance of retirees, whose interests do not lie in public education. Collier, Sarasota, etc wouldn’t work because retirees wouldn’t vote for higher taxes to go toward public education. Okaloosa, Bay, Walton, St Johns come to mind. They would have to vote to make property taxes around 3% or pass a substantial sales tax (penny tax or more). As far as panhandle coaches pay, Okaloosa used to combine HFC/AD to make it an admin position and they were paid as such. They recently removed the requirement for HFC to also be the AD, allowing other coaches to be the AD. It gave women more of a chance to be AD. When they redid their HFC pay structure, they made it so the minimum pay is 75k unless your experience/degrees take you over that. I believe Walton still combines and Bay doesn’t combine but has a great setup for HFC. Teaching pay in the panhandle isn’t great. They meet the new state minimum but, historically, many teachers are military spouses whose pay was the second income, so there didn’t seem to be a major push for higher wages. Walton county has recently raised teacher pay and advertised across county lines to poach teachers, which is a good move on their part. The academic side of schools shouldn’t function like a business as we have to provide for all students, regardless of their circumstances, but administratively schools would do well to function like a business. Pay more, attract and retain talent, COMPETE. The bottom line is an entire county has to value education and want to make an investment in it. Because if the size of the districts, it’s hard to get a majority on that same page.

Hopefully this will make sense. To put your situation in TX terms, the Palm Harbor area of Pinellas would likely be its own independent school district (PHISD). That is a huge distinguishing factor that separates TX schools from FL. In this setup, PHISD sets forth policies and infrastructure in a way that reflects their community’s values. Because they are an affluent area, ~3% property taxes bring in an immense amount of money. That allows them to attract and retain high caliber teachers/coaches/administrators by paying them well and providing them with the resources they need (one of the noteworthy things about TX is that teachers do not complain about pay and there are FAR more young people going into education because it is a viable career due to the pay). The other benefit of this is that when PHISD pays well, similar districts like “South Tampa ISD” or “Venice ISD” must follow suit to compete for high quality workers. For less affluent/city areas that may not have the high residential property tax revenue, this is taken care of because skyscrapers and commercial real estate are taxed at the same rate (which is why TX oil towns have great school districts…an Odessa oil tank is taxed just like a Highland Park mansion). So PHISD can pay staff competitively at their discretion. They can also pass municipal bonds for capital projects that reflect their community’s values. They want an 8,000 seat stadium, new fine arts building, turf installation on practice fields, baseball and softball fields (happens more than you think in TX), put it to a vote and get the community to agree to it. The smaller scale of the district allows you to get things done that are important to that community, not be held back by the differing interests across the county as it is in FL. The smaller school districts make districts compete and race to the top, instead of what we do in FL which is to do legislative gymnastics to get by paying teachers/fund schools minimally because there is no incentive to with no competition for personnel and families. Districts complete for families to live in their district just like they compete for teachers and staff. In your example where Palm Harbor has support but others do not, the TX model would make it so that that area is not bound by the other areas. It really is a great setup by can’t happen in FL due to state law mandating each county be its own school district.

I taught/coached in TX for awhile. This is all true. Smaller school districts, higher property taxes and a commitment to investing in youth (not just athletics...look at their fine arts facilities...the schools are immaculate) are the differentiators.

As with most policies in public education, the rule isn’t there because it’s a best practice. It’s there to prevent litigation.

If he hasn't played yet, he is immediately eligible. If he has played, he is ineligible to play unless he's: 1. A dependent of active-duty military personnel whose move resulted from military orders. 2. A child who has been relocated due to a foster care placement in a different school zone 3. A child who moves due to a court-ordered change in custody due to separation or divorce, or the serious illness or death of a custodial parent. 4. Authorized for good cause in district, private or charter school board policy. So, it really depends on what the new school/district considers to be a good cause move.

This is why Metro/Suburban/Rural, rich/poor, public/private aren't the issue. The number of GA-4s in a program is the single biggest differentiator among programs. Playoff system needs to reflect that.

You don't have a clue about what you're talking about. That region is brutal. Talent-wise, Enterprise was at an extreme disadvantage. There are multiple teams in that region that would win state in FL fairly easily.

Only thing about a multiplier is it touches on the issue of out of boundary issue, but doesn't directly address it. If 10 kids transfer in to take AP Calculus, that doesn't affect football. It also doesn't account for fake addresses, which are used more often than not. Also, how much of a multiplier, what number represents the value of a transfer? People talk Metro/Suburban, public/private etc and what they are getting at is how to group schools who get transfers more easily than others. It makes more sense to just group teams by transfers and cut out all the periphery talk.

Transfers are the issue. Nothing wrong with kids going where they want to go, but they create the imbalance. The issue isn't public/private, metro/suburban, rich/poor. There are schools that get them and schools that don't. There needs to be a system that groups teams based on that. Have an Open Division, but make it based on the number of incoming transfers. All FHSAA teams will be places into districts based on geography and enrollment (pre Metro/Suburban split). 8 classifications (Rural + 1A - 7A), 16 districts per. District champions are automatic qualifiers and the remainder of the playoff qualifiers are determined by Maxpreps ranking. At the conclusion of the regular season, the 32 teams with the highest number of incoming transfers (tracked by GA-4 forms) are placed into Open Bracket. If a district champion is moved to the Open Division, the 2nd place team becomes an At-Large qualifier, assuming they are not in the Open Division. If they are, then the 3rd place team becomes an At-Large qualifier, and so on. If there is a tie for the 32nd most incoming transfers, the team with the higher Maxpreps ranking moves in to the Open Division.

Not to hijack the thread but here's my thought on playoffs. Go back to 6-8 classifications based on enrollment/geography (before Metro/Suburban). Play district/non-district schedule, then take the 32 teams who have the most transfers (tracked by GA-4 forms) and put them in an Open Division bracket. Everyone else fills out the 1A-8A brackets with district champions in automatically and Maxpreps/RPI/whatever ranking system determining at-large bids.