PORT ST. LUCIE — Shirley Littlefield’s eyes filled with tears as she picked up her daughter, third-grader Elizabeth, from what was truly her last day of school at Port St. Lucie Elementary.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Littlefield said. “We’re getting split up, and it hurts.”

The 34-year-old building closed its doors to students, teachers and staff on Wednesday as part of a plan to deal with St. Lucie County School District budget constraints.

Closing the school, as well as Southbend K-8 and Anglewood Center, which taught pregnant teens, is expected to save $30 million next year. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Cheers, tears and roses were on display before a standing-room-only crowd in the auditorium of Port St. Lucie Elementary Monday night.

The gathering was to say goodbye to the 34-year-old school that is being closed in June as part of the school district’s plan to save $30 million next year.

“We have always been a family,” said Deb Mock, a reading coach who has taught at the school 31 years. “We’ve been there for each other through all the challenges we’ve had — hurricanes, flooding, the deaths of faculty members. We always strived to do the best for our students,” she added.
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VERO BEACH — Indian River County Administrator Joe Baird was charged with driving under the influence Saturday night.

“I would like to apologize to the public and (Indian River County) commissioners and I will continue to work hard for the county,” Baird said Sunday. “This is a personal matter and I plan to handle it personally.” (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Seven city employees from the Engineering Department were laid off on Friday because of a lack of work, according to city officials on Monday.

Officials aren’t sure if or when more layoffs will occur because of the slowdown or because of the city’s upcoming budget cuts.
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STUART — Martin County’s lowest-paid workers will keep fighting the county’s furlough program because they can’t afford a 5 percent pay cut, a union leader said Tuesday.

Teamsters Local 769, which represents 275 of the county’s clerical and blue collar workers, will ask the Public Employees Relations Commission to resolve the contract dispute through binding arbitration, said Mavis Curley, the union’s chief steward in Martin County.

The furlough program requiring all county employees, except fire rescue workers, to take one unpaid day off per month starting Friday violates the Teamsters contract, Curley said. Under the contract, a workweek is 40 hours.
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TALLAHASSEE — The long-sought Indian Street Bridge, along with 16 other transportation projects expected to bring money and jobs to the Treasure Coast, got the green light from the state Joint Legislative Budget Commission Wednesday.

The 14-member commission comprised of Senate and House members agreed, without debate, to accept $3.8 billion in federal dollars that will pay for a cornucopia of projects targeting transportation, health and education.

Backers say the package will help the state recover from the worst recession in decades.
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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

FORT PIERCE — An independent audit shows the county will have $5.6 million to carry forward to the 2010-11 general fund.

The number — in line with county expectations from a Dec. 8, 2008 workshop — is provided there is no tax rate increase, no increases in wages for county employees, that there is a loss of 20 percent of taxable property value and there is a hiring freeze, officials said.

“What needs to be stressed here is that there is a plan” to overcome projected tax losses, County Commission Chairwoman Paula Lewis said.

The county plans to use the extra money to balance the 2010-11 budget, but the money could be pulled into the 2009-10 budget to pay for items such as school resource officers or to put more money in the emergency reserve fund. The county’s fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.

The number could change if County Property Appraiser Jeff Furst overestimated the loss in taxable value. Furst anticipated the county would lose 20 percent of its taxable property value, but that number could be worse than actual numbers, Furst said. The final numbers will not be available until July.

If the county loses only 19 percent of its taxable property value, the county would gain about $1.6 million extra.
By Eric Pfahler, TCPalm.com

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — State Road 70 east from the St. Lucie and Okeechobee county line could get a jump-start from $37 million worth of stimulus money.

The road-widening project for a 5- to 10-mile stretch east of the county line is one of four transit projects in St. Lucie County and 11 throughout the Treasure Coast placed before the Florida Legislative Budget Commission to review for federal stimulus money.

The road widening has been planned and designed but lacked the construction money to complete, St. Lucie Transportation Planning Organization Director Peter Buchwald said.

“Any project that’s been in the cycle for so long is a benefit,” Buchwald said. “I wish the TPO priority projects, which are Crosstown Parkway, Kings Highway, Indrio Road and Midway Road, would get funded as well.”

Another key project on the Treasure Coast is the $200 million-plus Indian Street Bridge between Stuart and Palm City.

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MARTIN COUNTY — Is this the right time to build a $9.7 million swimming pool complex on Willoughby Boulevard?

Martin County commissioners wrestled with the answer on Tuesday after listening to a glowing report from David Weller, a father of a competitive swimmer, on the potential of the complex that would combine a recreational pool area with a competition pool.

They also heard from Jim Sherman, assistant county administrator, who said the county could recoup about 80 percent of the cost of running the pool each year, based on an estimated cost of $756,000 annually, but this figure was questioned as being too optimistic.

Commissioner Edward Ciampi, a champion of the pool that would be built with the ½-cent sales tax money already earmarked for this purpose, said this was the time to move forward with the pool facility because construction firms could come in with competitive bids.

But Commission Chairman Susan L. Valliere stood firm.

“I think this is a wonderful project. I just think the timing is wrong,” said Valliere. “We are looking at pay cuts, we are laying off some of our people, there is 10 percent unemployment and climbing. This pool is luxurious and these are not luxurious times.”

Valliere was the only dissenter when the commission voted to approve the conceptual plan for the aquatic complex, and a design-build proposal. Sherman said that once this proposal was in, it would help solidify the cost of the complex.

However, the The commission also directed Sherman to request that the design-build company reduce its fee up to 25 percent.
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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Budget cuts have hit the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test again.

On Tuesday, the Florida Department of Education announced it would eliminate all FCAT summer retakes and a portion of the science FCAT. Sample test materials also will be eliminated and schools will no longer receive printed score reports.

“As you are aware, all aspects of education are facing budget reductions, and the statewide assessment program is no different,” Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith wrote in a letter to school superintendents.

In November, the state made about $18 million in cuts to the statewide assessment program. It discontinued the FCAT Parent Network that allows parents to look up their kids’ scores on the Internet, eliminated 10th-grade FCAT retakes and is not placing sticker seals on certain test documents.

Students need to pass the reading and math sections of the 10th-grade FCAT to graduate high school with a standard diploma.

Last April, the state cut the multiple choice portion of the FCAT writing test at a cost-savings of $2.5 million and the norm-reference test — which compared Florida students to their peers across the nation.

In Smith’s memo “Changes to FCAT in 2009 and Beyond,” he wrote that no changes were being made to the 2010 FCAT reading and math tests and that the writing test would be administered in February and reading, math and science would be administered in March.

When the new FCAT is implemented in 2011, testing will be later in the year and performance tasks or constructed-response questions will not be included, leading to faster turn-around time and an easier transition to computer-based tests, Smith wrote. (more…)