Lutz Supports McCormick

Hello, you are receiving this email as you currently or previously have had your child work with me at the Lutz Center for Counseling and Assessment. Please know that this email is in response to several clients requesting my opinion on the upcoming election for Superintendent of Santa Rosa County Schools. Feel free to delete this message if you prefer not to read about local politics.

As you are aware, this is an election year. While the national political scene gets the lion’s share of attention in the media, local politics are important to us as tax-payers and particularly as parents. I am writing to encourage you all to vote in the upcoming primary election on August 14 (or use early voting August 4-11). In particular, I wish to call attention to the election of the next Superintendent of Schools for Santa Rosa County. As there is no Democratic opponent the election will be decided on August 14. There are two candidates, the incumbent superintendent Tim Wyrosodick, and the challenger – Dr. George McCormick. I am encouraging all my clients, past and present, to 1) VOTE and 2) familiarize yourself with both of these individuals, their experience and track record, and their positions on issues such as services for children with disabilities, use of corporal punishment in Santa Rosa County, one-bid contracts, use of taxpayer money for direct classroom use, and the other important educational issues. Information on these candidates can be found online.

For what it is worth, I have researched both candidates extensively and strongly support Dr. George McCormick for Superintendent of Santa Rosa County Schools. My reasoning is below for those interested.

Santa Rosa has historically been a high performing county with many, many A rated schools. Recently, and for the first time, all of the High Schools were graded below an A. This past year, 7 of the 20 elementary and middle schools had at least one grade letter drop on the statewide assessment. Teachers are being fired each year while administrators are given hefty raises. Less than half of the district budget is actually used on direct classroom services and is instead funnelled to one-bid contract recipients for endless and sometimes fruitless projects. Students with disabilities are NOT having their needs met and the county willingly paid a fine to the State to avoid having to comply with the voter-mandated class size reduction. The current superintendent has been the captain of this ship that is starting to take on water….we need someone who has the experience, values, and drive to fix these problems. Dr. McCormick will end one-bid contracting, end the secretive practice of advertising jobs to only a select few candidates, and will work to increase the services for students with disabilities in Santa Rosa County. In addition, he will see that more of the district budget is used to hire high quality teachers, decrease administrative costs and waste, and work to end the ineffective practice of corporal punishment in Santa Rosa County. I encourage you all to review Dr. McCormick’s credentials and positions on his webiste, http://www.electmccormick.com/

I hope you are all well and look forward to continuing to help any of you in any way that I can,

Appreciatively,

Joshua Lutz, Ed.S., NCSP

Licensed School Psychologist

Lutz Center for Counseling and Assessment, LLC
http://www.lutzcenter.com/
1-888-317-1517 phone/fax

91 Baybridge Drive
Gulf Breeze, FL 32561