Jay Wheeler
School Board

As the Chairman of the Osceola County School Board it is fair for the public to know what my top priorities will be for improving public education in the Osceola County School District.

Understand that student success will always rise to the top, falling just behind student safety. Insofar as student safety is concerned, I am also the parent of students who have attended and will continue in our public schools since kindergarten and are currently in High School and Middle School, and will remain in the Osceola School District until graduation. I have no reservations about the safety of my own children in our schools.

In order for our students to succeed and compete at the highest levels for both college and career endeavors the Osceola School Districts number one educational priority right now has to be the integration and upgrading of our digital/computer technology throughout the entire school district. With FCAT being replaced by Common Core testing in less than two years, we must make technology changes quickly. Unlike FCAT, which is a paper and pencil test, all Common Core testing is online. There are those who will argue if that is good or not. The School District does not have the luxury of that debate. Online testing for Common Core is not an issue, it is a fact.

Understand that we have some schools that will need a bunch of new computers. While that seems simple on the surface, it is not. Of those schools needing more computers, some do not have the infrastructure to accommodate those computers. Those schools will need bandwidth upgrades, more data ports installed, etc.

The next technology leap we must take is to get our schools to the point where students can bring their own devices such as laptops, smart phones, tablet computers to take notes on, download content, manage schedules, etc. The first step is to have an acceptable use policy for students who already have their own data plan for that device. The real leap for the School District is to upgrade the infrastructure of our own data network so students can use our district highspeed data network with a guest access protocol with the appropriate firewalls for security, at every school.

The final and maybe most significant piece of this puzzle is teacher laptops. At present we have too many teachers using laptops that are more than five years old. While it is easy to say use what you have until it dies, like an old car-that logic does not apply to instructional technology. Understand that we have and are still equipping classrooms with the latest technology such as smart boards. Many older computers do not interface properly with smart boards, which negatively impacts student achievement and makes that smart board an expensive tool not being used. We need to get to a point where teacher technology is upgraded every five years, which means as a district we are upgrading twenty percent of our teacher technology every year.

Every day we lag in technology is another day our students fall behind students in China, Europe, India, Japan, Singapore, etc. While we do not have a bottomless pit of money, we must spend our resources wisely to do all we can to keep our students competing at the highest levels. Right now the Osceola School Board must invest in technology upgrades district wide to. To that end, at one School Board meeting every month, I am going to request an update from district leadership on where we are on the road to the upgrades we need with our digital technology, and to stress its importance it will be at or near the top of the agenda.   

On another topic, Kelvin Soto and Tim Weisheyer have already brought fresh ideas and a renewed sense of purpose since being sworn in as Osceola School Board members last month. Both have integrity that is beyond reproach and an intellect that is welcome and has been sorely needed on this board for some time.

If anyone has any questions about this or anything else I can be reached at 407-973-4141. Or via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .   

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Jay Wheeler is the chairman of the Osceola County School Board.