ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Expecting state lawmakers will make good on a prediction of 10 percent less support for public education next year, St. Lucie County school officials are turning to the district’s 5,000 employees for ideas on how to cut spending instead.

Schools Superintendent Michael Lannon is asking workers to submit their cost-saving ideas to budget@stlucie.k12.fl.us.

Tuesday, he and School Board Chairwoman Judi Miller also announced there will be two town hall meetings at 6 p.m. at the Fort Pierce Central High School auditorium to discuss budget cuts. The first will be Feb. 26. The second will be March 31, after the School Board meets to consider employee compensation for next year.

“To date, legislators have been reluctant to increase revenues to address this (school funding) crisis,” Lannon said in a letter sent to all employees Wednesday. “Therefore, we have no choice but to begin planning ways to reduce our budget for the 2009-10 school year.”

By James Kirley, TCPalm.com

FORT PIERCE - A kindergarten teacher who asked her students last year to vote on whether a then 5-year-old boy could stay in her class said today that she never meant to embarrass him and regrets her actions.

Wendy Portillo, a veteran teacher, testified at an hearing to appeal her punishment, occasionally wiping at tears and looking away from television cameras.

“If I could take that morning back, I would,” she said.

(more…)

A teacher who asked her students to vote a boy out of his kindergarten class was, but for that single lapse in judgment, one of “St. Lucie County’s premier educational giants,” a lawyer said today at her appeal.

Wendy Portillo, a 12-year teaching veteran, meant no harm and regrets her actions, said her lawyer, David Walker of Stuart.

Portillo is appealing the recommendation of Schools Superintendent Michael Lannon that she be suspended without pay for a year, returned to an annual contract and prohibited from teaching elementary-age students in St. Lucie County.

Melissa Barton, shown with her son Alex, filed a complaint seeking compensation from the St. Lucie school district.

Portillo, who didn’t testify today, dabbed at her eyes with tissues while her lawyer talked about Lannon’s recommendation.

“For Wendy Portillo, what’s done and said (here) will determine whether she can do what she loves and was born to do,” Walker said.

If she wins with the state Division of Administrative Hearings, Portillo will earn back pay from the school district. The hearing at Fort Pierce City Hall is expected to last several days. (more…)

Judi Miller

Michael Lannon

FORT PIERCE - St. Lucie County School Board Chairwoman Judi Miller and School Superintendent Michael Lannon have invited members of the public to have coffee with them this month.

Miller and Lannon will hold the first coffee meet-and-greet at 8 a.m. Jan. 26 in the community room at Fort Pierce Central High School, located at 4101 S. 25th St.