9 Bay County schools named Schools of Excellence for 2021-22. Here's what that means

BAY COUNTY — Nine Bay County schools have recently been named as Schools of Excellence for the 2021-2022 school year.

Bay District School officials and school principals from the selected schools gathered Wednesday to discuss the Schools of Excellence designation and what it means to them.

Denise Kelley, deputy superintendent for BDS, said parental involvement plays a key role in student success.

“We are very proud of all of our schools,” Kelley said. “Schools perform better when parents are involved, and we would like to thank our parents who are involved with these schools and for being that person to build a connection between school and home that students carry throughout the day.”

How the Schools of Excellence program works

Determined by the Florida Department of Education and Florida Statute, Schools of Excellence are schools that consistently achieve the maximum number of points possible in Florida’s school-grade calculations. To qualify, schools must be in the 80th percentile or higher for schools comprised of the same grade groupings, such as elementary, middle or high schools.

Related: Bay District Schools launched summer recovery to avoid COVID slide. Did it work?

Also: Parker Elementary is first in Bay County to adopt Community Partnership Schools model

In the 2021-2022 school year, 697 schools statewide were designated as Schools of Excellence. Of these schools, 310 maintained their designation, 333 renewed and 54 met the requirements for the first time.

Non-charter schools that qualified 

• Patronis Elementary School

• Surfside Middle School

• Tyndall Elementary School

• Bay Virtual Franchise

Charter schools that qualified

• Bay Haven Middle School

• North Bay Haven Charter Middle School

• North Bay Haven Career Academy

• Rising Leaders Academy

• University Academy

'Achieve efficiency and beyond'

Bay County students have faced many challenges in the past few years that created obstacles in the classrooms, such as Hurricane Michael and the pandemic. Brooke Loyed, principal of Patronis Elementary, said her school had worked hard to close the learning gaps brought by those challenges.

“Even with all those interruptions, we worked hard each year to achieve efficiency and beyond. I’m proud of every goal our students accomplished because they’ve been so much,” Loyed said. “We couldn’t do it without the support from our dedicated staff and families.”

Larry Bolinger, CEO of Bay Haven Charter Academy Inc., said the community and school system's support contributed to student success through the virtual learning process caused by the pandemic.

“We had parents that were there when they could be and teachers that would make sure our students were being held accountable for what they were learning and keeping learning as fun as possible,” Bolinger said. “We’ve had very little learning loss, and we champion that. We have been consistent and strive to continue moving forward with our learning.”

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Florida names nine Bay district schools as Schools of Excellence