LAND O’ LAKES – The Pasco County School Board honored Michael Baumaister, chief of safety and emergency operations, during its March 4 meeting.
Baumaister was recently recognized as the FIRST School Safety Specialist of the Year by Florida’s National Summit on School Safety.
District officials credit Baumaister for evaluating and enhancing the safety program established in 2018, improving processes and organizational structure.
He also developed numerous procedures and safety plans, fostering relationships with school administrators.
His motto, “Safety is everyone’s responsibility, and we cannot turn schools into prisons,” guided his efforts.
Within his first 90 days, he visited every school, creating support documents and opening communication lines to ensure the safest environment possible. Since his hiring in 2020, there have been significant improvements in infrastructure, safety policies and oversight, according to Pasco County Schools.
Prior to joining the school district, Baumaister retired as a major with the Tampa Police Department after serving there from 1996 to 2020. He also worked as a deputy with the Pasco Sheriff’s Office.
Superintendent updates board on homework
The school board learned that a plan to grade students on their homework will be implemented at the beginning of the 2025-26 school year in September.
Superintendent John Legg, who was elected in November, told board members during their Feb. 4 meeting that he thought the homework that teachers assign to students should be part of what’s used to determine their grades.
This would reverse a decision made by the school board three years ago to not have the results of students’ homework count toward their grades.
Legg had initially hoped to have the policy change become effective by the end of March. However, the decision to wait until the fall to implement it is the result of students being too far along at this time in the current school year.
Legg said teachers who had been preparing to implement graded homework in their classes also need several more months to do so.
Teachers won’t be required to insist their student’s homework must be graded according to Legg.
Board gets update on Fox Hollow walls
The school board also learned that the decision to enclose the kindergarten pod and fourth and fifth grade sections at Fox Hollow Elementary School is having a positive effect.
Doing this has reportedly significantly decreased the amount of distractions occurring there.
“We need to ensure every classroom is a distraction-free environment,” Legg previously said.
This work is part of an effort to install walls to enclose up to 700 classrooms in schools in the district.
Legg told board members during their Feb. 18 meeting that installing the walls would also make those classrooms safer for students and teachers.
Fox Hollow Elementary School’s staff previously made it known that they wanted their school to be the first in the district for this work to be done.
There are about 700 open classrooms throughout the school district. It will take about two years to enclose all of them at an estimated cost of $2.1 million, or $3,000 each, according to school board records.
