Duval School Board to determine how to help low performing schools
Three schools in Duval County Public School System are having some trouble performing.
On Tuesday night, the school board will vote on a recommended solution to help keep their doors open for students.
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The schools include Susie E. Tolbert, Ramona Boulevard, and George Washington Carver elementary schools.
“Those three schools are in a situation where they potentially could need to have an external operator,” Scott Schneider explained to Action News Jax. Schneider is chief of schools for the Duval County Public School District.
When Action News Jax Courtney Cole went to the Florida Department of Education’s website to look at the grade each school has received in previous years, it provided more context.
For the 2017-2018 school year: Ramona Boulevard received an ‘F’, Carver received a ‘D’ and Tolbert received a ‘D.’
For the 2018-2019 school year: Ramona Boulevard receive a ‘D’, Carver received a ‘D’ and Tolbert received a ‘D.’
For the 2019-2020 school year: Ramona Boulevard received a ‘D’, Carver received a ‘D’ and Tolbert received a ‘D.’
Schools were not given a grade for the 2020-2021 school year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Schneider said MGT of America Consulting, LLC, and Turnaround Solutions, Inc., are the two organizations being recommended to help turn these schools around.
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The future of Susie E. Tolbert and Ramona Boulevard elementary schools rests on the school grade they get at the end of this school year.
“We have to wait for the state to release those grades. It’s typically middle to late June. It could be as late as July. We have a pretty good idea now because we do have our progress monitoring assessments that we conduct,” Schneider told Cole.
One of the schools is already receiving outside help this year.
“That’s George Washington Carver. And that’s because if you receive multiple years of a ‘D’ school you enter into one tier process, basically, for a couple of years,” Schneider said.
If the school doesn’t improve, Florida law requires action to be taken.
According to HB 7069, which was passed into law in 2017, when a school reaches this point, one of these three options has to take place:
1. School closure and transfer of students to a higher-performing school within the district;
2. Management of the school turned over to a charter school; or
3. Management of school turned over to an educational management organization or district charter.
“We do involve the community in making that choice,” Schneider said.
Cole also reached out to Turnaround Solutions, Inc. She is still waiting to hear back.
However, Cole did speak to members of the MGT team, but they weren’t able to do an interview with her before my deadline.
But what she was able to pull from their website shows they’ve had previous success with schools in counties that include but are not limited to: Hillsborough, Madison and Hamilton counties.
“Anybody that’s going to be an external operator has to meet certain state guidelines. So, they have to have a proven record of success and actually have to be on that state recommendation list,” Schneider explained.
It will cost between $430,000 and $600,000 for each of the three schools to get help from the consulting companies.
When Cole asked how this would be paid for, Schneider said the money won’t come out of taxpayers’ pockets – it’s coming from the state.
Ahead of any outside help, Schneider said DCPS is currently taking steps to help these schools improve.
“Our schools that are in this situation have more resources than almost any other school in the district. Those resources include funding, but they also include additional outside vendors that have additional programs, including Acaletics and Mainstream,” Schneider said.
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