Warrington Preparatory Academy just finished its first year. Here's how it went
If year one was about setting the tone for Warrington Preparatory Academy, year two is about building on what they started.
With the new school year comes some changes in administration, including the hire of Principal Delvin Vick, and Assistant Principal Shenita McCastler who will work alongside longtime Warrington music teacher, Assistant Principal Caleb Lovely.
Vick follows former principal Erica Foster, who was hired on as the school’s inaugural principal, but left the position this summer. Warrington Preparatory Academy has declined to disclose whether she was fired or resigned. However, they did provide the News Journal with a statement on her departure.
"Due to privacy issues, we are never able to address personnel issues. We respect all employees, regardless of the circumstances of their separation from our company. Warrington Preparatory Academy is a unique school and CSUSA was asked by the Escambia School District and the Florida Department of Education to take over the school to give students a new opportunity for success. This undertaking has been monumental, and change is difficult. CSUSA has an excellent reputation for providing equal employment opportunities for all. We hold all employees to high standards for excellence and professional, appropriate behavior in the workplace. The company just earned Great Place to Work certification two years in a row. To best serve Warrington Prep students, we must look forward and continue to build upon our relentless commitment to student greatness in school and in life. We are very pleased that Mr. Delvin Vick has joined our team as our new principal and look forward to his leadership in the coming year."
Vick is no stranger to turnaround schools. He brings 25 years’ experience in the academic field as a teacher, vice principal and principal. His most recent position, principal of a charter school in Clearwater, focused on positive culture shifts that reduced discipline incidents and increased graduation rates. He sees the potential in Warrington Preparatory, or as he calls it, “W.P.A.,” but knows it is not an easy road ahead.
Four years to score a C
Many Warrington students started the school year performing two or three grades academically below where they should be. Charter Schools USA has four years to get the school's grade up to a C. However, if they raise the grade at any time within those four years, they will earn a 15-year renewal. Year one just wrapped, but Florida’s school grades have yet to be released.
From recent state testing data, Vick learned that about 75% to 80% of their students are performing at a level one or two, which is considered under-grade level per Florida's progress monitoring achievement levels.
However, they did see students make progress within the tiers of level one and two. Some students even made the leaps from being considered well below grade level, level one, to exemplary at level five.
Assistant Principal Caleb Lovely credits the progress to staff giving students ownership over their education. They would schedule meetings, review the student’s strength and weaknesses, and the students would voluntarily start tracking their performance. He can sense the satisfaction that comes from their own hard work and accomplishments. But he's not just looking to produce high-testing students, he’s looking to create global citizens.
“The continued trajectory has been positive ... we had some bumps in the road, but at the end everything started falling in line, and we had more buy-in, not only with our staff, but our students and community,” Lovely said. “Students were excited to come to school. Students were owning their data. They were taking this test seriously, and they wanted to be successful. …I can say that was done very well this year. We allowed our students to take ownership of their educational experience, and they loved it.
“At the end of the school year, we had students screaming out the bus that, ‘We love you’ and ‘We're going to miss you.’ I've been here for 10 years, and other things have been yelled out the bus,” Lovely said jokingly. “But I'm telling you, a majority of our kids just love to be here.”
Vick’s plans go far beyond test scores. His focus is on the future of the Warrington community and the citizens that they are cultivating.
“It’s bigger than people know,” Vick said of Warrington Prep’s mission.
State eyes are still on Warrington Prep as they work their way out of their inherited turnaround status, but Vick is looking forward, not back.
“We always think about what's at stake, versus what's possible. I want to focus on what's possible,” Vick said. “It's possible our students could be working with the with the Navy even closer. It's possible that we could have businesses partner with the school at a high level. It's possible that our students will be graduating and going to Harvard, Yale. It's possible they'll go to (Florida A&M University) and come right back here and serve in this community. So, I think that's the bigger picture. I think a lot of schools that are in turnaround sometimes limit what's possible for students because they just want to do what's safe. Year two, I don't think I'm going to play it safe. I think I'm going to push the envelope for what's possible for our students and our families.”
Now that they have established expectations and procedures, McCastler, who has over 21 years of experience in education, said they will be digging deeper into helping students reach their goals.
“I just want to make sure that I am utilized to the max. I am ready for the hard work that has to continue to happen,” McCastler said. “Now they're ready to learn, and we're able to individualize what their needs are to get them to that next level to help them achieve those goals, rebuilding those dreams and aspirations that they all have.”
Teacher retention and intense coaching
While it can be difficult attracting teachers to work at turnaround schools, Lovely said teacher retention is the highest he has seen at Warrington in a decade. The employees that stayed after the first year “stayed here for the right reasons, because they’re here for the heart of our students, and they want to be a part of that change,” he said.
The school mantra of creating “strong minds and good hearts” doesn’t stop at the students, but applies to teachers, too, according to Vick. There are characteristics they need to model to students.
“Everyone we've hired over this summer, we see the potential of them being some of those optimizers for our students,” Vick said. “They're there to make our students not only just stronger and better in their academics, but also in their lives,” he said. “Those are the questions that we ask … are we finding people with the same values? Do our people have passion? Do they do they follow their purpose? Do they have integrity? Is there grit?
“Right now, I feel pretty good about the team we have,” he added.
Administrators will have the time to work alongside teachers, now that they don’t have to worry about discipline as much as they did in the first year, Vick said.
“This year is going to be a year of intense coaching, feedback, practice, preparation … we’re going to make this a kind of place where adults can get support when they want to try a new learning strategy. They'll have the coaches here to do it. We have the administrators here to help them, support them,” he said. “Now it's time to see, can we bring it in the classroom? Can we differentiate instruction? Can we meet the needs of every child?”
Discipline is down, attendance is up
Issues that used to be present at the beginning of the school year, such as discipline and absenteeism, no longer steal student’s instructional time like they used to, according to Lovely.
That has taken a recipe of building trust, setting expectations and being consistent. According to Lovely, students are noticing the difference and don’t miss the old ways.
“We had a good bit of students were on paper, they were level ones (in testing), but as soon as we showed them how much we cared about them, next thing you know the testing scores show that they’re going from level ones to level fives … they just felt good to be a student here at Warrington and accredited to some of the attendance issues we used to have,” Lovely said. “We don’t have attendance issues like we used to have before. We still have a lift, don’t get me wrong. It’s not easy. But a lot of students are just owning it and they want to be here.”
While there will be a brand-new batch of sixth grade students next year, there have rising seventh and eighth graders to lead the way.
“Our systems are strong and established to the point that it becomes a part of our culture,” Lovely said. “When it comes to a student arriving at school − they're not here just to have fun, they're here to see themselves grow. And so last year's positive momentum that we built … we're going to revisit those systems and reinforce them so that we can put out the best possible educational experience for our students.”
Vick said part of the positive decisions students are making is tied to their confidence in themselves, and in their school, which leads to a decrease in disciplinary issues.
“When kids feel smart, they feel confident to take those risks. They feel confident to make decisions about their school. When new people come in who might not share the same values − a new person can come in and they may misbehave, and the kids in the school look at you like, ‘Look at that person. We don't do that here.’ That's what I want. I want kids (saying) ‘But we don't do that at WPA. You can take that mess back to some other place.’”
Vick has seen it before in schools he has worked at like Warrington, and he knows it can happen again.
“It can happen here − chess champions, math champions, Quiz Bowl champions, spelling bee champions. I mean, the sky's the limit. You just take the barriers off,” Vick said. “I don't want to hear ‘these kids’ anymore … ’our kids’ will do some amazing things.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Warrington Preparatory Academy finished first year. Here's how it went
