Teachers blame poor F-CAT scores on Gov. Scott

The Lake County School District has found itself at the bottom of the list in Central Florida in a state-wide ranking, and now the teacher's union is demanding some changes to fix it.

Teachers are already required to do much more than what happens in the classroom, but the union says if the F-CAT scores are to come up then all of the extra responsibilities have got to stop.

In the first ever statewide ranking of Florida's school systems, Lake County landed in the bottom third, and the teachers’ union places part of the blame on Gov. Rick Scott.

"It is abundantly clear that Gov. Rick Scott and the commissioner of education place the value of student F-CAT scores as the only measure of a quality education,” said B. Grassel, president of the Lake County Education Association.

Grassel does not believe the F-CAT should be the determining factor of success or failure.  However, since it apparently is, the union now wants the school board to make some major changes. 

"Classroom teachers should not be required to participate in bus or car duty or breakfast or lunch duty," said Grassel.

It is part of a list based on a survey of district teachers who want to spend their entire work days teaching and planning, instead of all those extra responsibilities that fill out the schedule.

However, no board members responded publicly to the suggestions.

Superintendent Susan Moxley said steps will be taken to bring up those F-CAT scores.  Until then, Lake County schools are closer to the bottom than the top.

"What I know is, what we're doing is not producing the results as indicated by ranking students by F-CAT scores only," said Grassel.

The results of the Lake teachers’ survey will also be turned over to the state commissioner of education, but changing teacher responsibilities means those additional duties will either fall into the lap of the individual principals or the school board.

So far, the board does not seem interested.