"Progress, not perfection" has been Okaloosa County School District Superintendent Mary Beth Jackson's motto since being elected to represent 30,000 students and over 3,000 faculty and staff members.
Your school system is a vital part of our community and, on any given weekday, 15 percent of Okaloosa’s population is at one of your schools.
Recently, the Crestview News Bulletin published an editorial asking whether “bullying” had become just another buzzword.
Florida law and Okaloosa School Board policy define bullying as “systemically and chronically inflicting physical hurt or psychological distress on one or more students or employees."
“Bullying” is not just a buzzword to us, but a key concern of your school’s administration, faculty and staff. Inappropriate or aggressive behavior is still met with disciplinary and corrective action, even if it does not meet the state’s definition for “bullying.”
The state annually audits our policy and procedures to verify our district’s compliance with state statutes.
In a recent report, Florida schools ranked near the top in prevention of bullying. (Editor's Note: The Sunshine State was ranked the 10th best overall at controlling bullying based on nine factors by WalletHub. See the full report here.)
Does that mean we have it perfect? No! But we constantly work on progress.
PROVEN RESULTS
Our results are proven. For instance:
•We placed fourth in the highest percent of “A” schools, with 36 earning that designation.
•Three of our high schools (Fort Walton Beach, Niceville and Collegiate) rank in the top 75 of all high schools in Florida!
•We have specialized education programs. Students who want to be in a medical profession should consider the SSTRIDE — Science Students Together Reaching Instructional Diversity and Excellence — medical program in Crestview or the biomedical program at Fort Walton Beach High School.
•Crestview and Choctaw have great engineering programs.
•IT studies? Niceville High School.
•International Baccalaureate? Choctaw.
•Our Choice Institute is also filled with many excellent industry certification programs.
PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT KEY
Parents have great choices for educating their children in our public school system.
But education must be done in a safe environment. While we train our faculty and have an outstanding school resource officer program with the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, at the end of the day, parental involvement is still the determining factor in student success.
Nearly 20 years ago, Baker students created a video called “Tell Somebody.” We updated that video for 2015, and we will show it to all 30,000 students. This video features students talking to students about how to handle situations that may arise in their schools.
We ask that parents and their students view the video together and spend a few minutes discussing it.
If you do not have internet access and would like to view the video, please contact your child’s school principal to schedule a viewing.
On behalf of the superintendent, school board and all of our district employees, I want to assure you that your school system takes bullying, and student safety, seriously, and we need your involvement as we continue to make progress towards perfection.
Henry Kelley is the Okaloosa County School District's Office of Community Affairs program director. Follow him on Twitter>>
What's your view? Write a letter to the editor or tweet News Bulletin Editor Thomas Boni @cnbeditor.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Bullying: not just a buzzword in Okaloosa schools (VIDEO)