Message from the Superintendent:

For over a year, Bay District Schools has been working on the now well-known Race to the Top federally-funded grant and initiative.  There has been an enormous amount of energy and time devoted to making the RTTT grant a collaborative effort among all stakeholders – including teachers, administrators, and union representatives.  Thus far, our primary focus has been on establishing new evaluation instruments for teachers and administrators that incorporate a student achievement element.  These new instruments will encourage our teachers and administrators to become more effective by rewarding those who reach specified levels of student growth and success. 

I hope you use this website as a resource to better understand BDS’s RTTT goals and strategies.  I encourage you to check back often as we continue to update you on the work being done in the various RTTT committees.

Race to the Top has one fundamental goal as its core- increase teacher quality to improve student achievement.  USDOE and FLDOE established very specific criteria that would enable school districts to meet this goal.  When FLDOE presented the application for funds, the criterion was arranged into thirteen projects.  Of the thirteen projects, three do not apply to Bay District Schools because we do not have any schools listed in the lowest 5% of the state.  In order to receive the 3.4 million dollars available over the course of the next 3 ½ years, the Bay District School’s application agreed to comply with the standards presented in the remaining nine projects. 

This Race to the Top website is arranged into those nine projects.  Please explore the different links available and be informed as Bay District Schools Races to the Top.
 

The Florida Department of Education also has a website that tracks and updates state level information.  This information is used as guidance for district level Race to the Top participants.  The site can be accessed at http://www.fldoe.org/arra/racetothetop.asp. Historical as well as recently posted information is provided.  Should you be interested, you can receive automated emails whenever the site is updated.  See the section titled, "Receive E-Mail Updates About Race To the Top."