Leon County: Bond, Pineview elementary schools soar with award-winning turnaround

During the 2018-19 school year, the Bond and Pineview elementary schools were performing poorly, recording D and F grades, respectively.

Leadership changes were made swiftly at the top with new principals given the charge of improving performances at the two Title 1 schools. That challenge was soon met by Bond Principal Delshauna Jackson and Pineview Principal Carmen Conner.

By the time students returned to campus from remote instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, both schools rose to a B grade.

In the 2022-23 school year, Bond maintained a B and Pineview received a C.

Those student success stories have earned both south side schools the distinction of being the only two in the Leon County School district to be awarded the 2024 Exceeding Expectations award from the East Coast Technical Assistance Center (ECTAC) of Florida, an organization that monitors school improvement.

“We don’t have to go to Atlanta or Orlando or Vegas to learn about best practices, we have it right here,” Superintendent Rocky Hanna said of Jackson, who attended this week's school board agenda review meeting.

The Exceeding Expectations award is given to Title I schools that demonstrate achievement on state assessments. Benchmarks include student demographics, English and math proficiencies, learning gains and school grade history.

Out of 3,409 schools assessed in the state, only 35 met the bar.

In previous years, learning gains were calculated into school grades to account for higher averages on state assessments each year. In 2023 however, they could not be calculated due to new benchmark standards and the new FAST assessments implemented by the Department of Education to monitor progress throughout the year.

Conner and Jackson say their turnaround strategies focused on more than school grades, but also a change in each school's learning culture.

“The challenge was to change the climate and the culture of the school and the grade at the same time,” Conner told the Tallahassee Democrat this week.

When she arrived at Pineview in 2018 it was stigmatized by an F grade.

Backed by her own experience as a teacher of 14 years at Hawks Rise Elementary and as assistant principal at Roberts Elementary, Conner supported her teachers with tools and resources and guided the school to a B grade.

“It was the sacrifice of the teachers and their giving that has allowed our students to give their best when ultimately tested,” Conner said.

Jackson arrived at Bond in 2019 with two turnaround schools under her belt, Gretna Elementary School and Havana Middle School, both in Gadsden County.

Both leaders said they focused their efforts on teacher buy-in and support for students who need a little more help. Both hold tutoring services before and after school and take the support further with Saturday school. They also encourage teachers to utilize data as a tool to monitor deficiencies.

At Bond, students spend about an hour and a half every Friday testing and the assessment data is sent to her to be analyzed, so teachers know where to focus lessons for the classroom or individual students in the following week.

"There's a need for a shift from using data for compliance to using data for improving student performance in each classroom," Jackson said. "At our school teachers are not just turning in data to me for the sake of doing so, we actually use it to inform what we're doing in our classrooms with our students."

Both schools were recognized as Exceeding Expectations schools at a school board meeting this week. With the award, they will be invited to go to the ECTAC Exceeding Expectations conference this summer in Orlando to network with other turnaround principals.

Alaijah Brown covers children & families for the Tallahassee Democrat. She can be reached at ABrown1@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Two southside school are 'Exceeding Expectations.' Here's how