We should help our schools and students thrive, not just survive

Carlee Simon
·5 min read
COVID has magnified issues that already existed in our district, like the achievement gap, attendance and the mental health problems plaguing many of our students. But it’s also given us an unprecedented opportunity to address those issues.
COVID has magnified issues that already existed in our district, like the achievement gap, attendance and the mental health problems plaguing many of our students. But it’s also given us an unprecedented opportunity to address those issues.

There is a tendency to hunker down during a crisis, to simply ride it out. Alachua County Public Schools is taking a different approach.

COVID-19 is the biggest challenge our nation’s schools have faced in a very, very long time. Teachers and staff, students and families have all sacrificed and suffered during the last two years. Unfortunately, we still don’t know when this pandemic will end or what "normal" will look like when it does.

Certainly our schools could just tread water until it’s over. But our students, families and community deserve better. It would be wrong to just throw up our hands and say. “Wait until COVID is over.” We should help our schools and students thrive, not just survive.

More from Carlee Simon:

Schools have been hamstrung by state leaders on COVID

Alachua County Public Schools undergoing transformation

School Board members’ districts being redrawn to balance populations

COVID has magnified issues that already existed in our district, like the achievement gap, attendance and the mental health problems plaguing many of our students. But it’s also given us an unprecedented opportunity to address those issues, to improve learning for all students and create an environment in which every child can succeed.

With nearly $90 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding from the federal government, we’re already making a difference. For example, students have logged on nearly 1,500 times to our Beyond the Bell after-school tutoring and homework help program, which families told us was desperately needed. High-dose tutoring provided during the school day is helping struggling students in all schools boost their reading skills.

We’ve also expanded existing partnerships and created new ones with local governments, educational entities and community organizations to benefit children and families.

For more than a decade we’ve worked with the Alachua County Health Department and UF Health to provide flu shots in school to students and staff through the nationally recognized ControlFlu program. That experience has allowed us to quickly ramp up COVID testing and vaccination clinics in our schools.

We’ve already seen improvements in the reading ability of many of our kindergarten- through-second-grade students as a result of our new collaboration with the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI), which includes a phonics-based literacy curriculum, engaging learning activities and extensive teacher training. UFLI also worked with us to offer a summer reading program for struggling students last year, and we’ll be offering it to even more students this summer.

We’re also taking our long-standing relationship with Santa Fe College in new and exciting directions. Through SF Achieve, Santa Fe staff embedded in each of our high schools will provide individualized coaching to students who need help getting to college.

Sixteen families are currently enrolled in the new ACB (Achieve, Conquer and Believe) Excel program. Every Tuesday and Thursday evening and one Saturday a month at the Professional Academies Magnet@Loften High School, parents are trained for good-paying jobs as certified facilities maintenance technicians while their children are supervised and tutored. The families are even provided with meals and information about other community resources. Our vision is to expand this program to include other career options in the future.

Our district is pursuing partnerships with the city of Gainesville and UF with the vision of establishing a community cultural arts center for youth in the former Duval Elementary School facility in east Gainesville. We are also finalizing discussions with representatives of Gainesville For All to establish a family learning center based at Metcalfe Elementary School.

Through these and many other initiatives, we are focused on identifying and addressing both short- and long-term needs in our district.

We recently conducted a survey of parents, students, employees and other citizens to get their input on how we should best spend ESSER dollars. The results helped us create our application for the newest round of ESSER funding. The survey results, the application and an ongoing dashboard showing how ESSER funding is being spent is available at www.sbac.edu/ESSER.

Public input will continue to be an important element of our decision-making process. This spring we’ll begin holding community meetings and offering other opportunities for local residents to tell us what they want for and from their schools. That feedback will help guide us as we develop a new strategic plan for the district. We expect to address issues ranging from the rezoning of schools to curriculum, from facilities to equity.

In my very first column as superintendent of Alachua County Public Schools, I made it clear that I could not do the job alone. Fortunately, I haven’t had to. During the last 13 months, this community has stepped up in an amazing way to support our students and schools. And, of course, our teachers and staff continue to go above and beyond the call of duty despite formidable challenges. I appreciate their efforts more than I can say.

Of course, there is much more work to be done, and we will do it. We owe it to our children to keep moving forward despite the current or any future crisis.

We recently celebrated the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., who once said that “every crisis has its dangers and its opportunities.” My goal as superintendent of Alachua County Public Schools is to manage the dangers of the COVID-19 pandemic while also embracing the opportunities it has provided. Our students need and deserve no less.

Carlee Simon, Ph.D., is superintendent of Alachua County Public Schools.

Join the conversation

Send a letter to the editor (up to 200 words) to letters@gainesville.com. Letters must include the writer's full name and city of residence. Additional guidelines for submitting letters and longer guest columns can be found at bit.ly/sunopinionguidelines.


Journalism matters. Your support matters.

Get a digital subscription to the Gainesville Sun. Includes must-see content on Gainesville.com and Gatorsports.com, breaking news and updates on all your devices, and access to the Gainesville.com ePaper. Visit www.gainesville.com/subscribenow to sign up.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Carlee Simon: COVID has magnified problems but created opportunities