Leadership Academy

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Community Sensitive Attendance Planning October
23, 2007
Dr. Clayton M. Wilcox, Superintendent of Schools
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Community Support

• When parents with students in school were asked
  How would you rate your childs school?
• 87 said good or excellent.
• 93 of parents with students in fundamental or
  magnet programs rated their childs school as
  good or excellent.

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• We have gone to great lengths to be inclusive and
  respectful of our community in building this
  plan.
• We have surveyed our community.
• Worked with a task force of leading citizens and
  representatives of the community.
• Solicited the thoughts and concerns of hundreds
  of team members within the organization.
• Read and considered hundreds of e-mails, letters
  and phone messages.
• The board and administration have met in numerous
  open public meetings. We have broadcast those
  meetings on television and through webcasts.
• We have been transparent in our deliberations to
  the point of seeking an embedded reporter to view
  every substantive meeting of the design team.

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• We have held public meetings in locations across
  the county.
• We have taken our message to multiple community
  groups including the NAACP South County, area
  ministers, rabbis and business leaders. We have
  met with parents and SAC and PTA groups.
• We have discussed this plan on television through
  interviews and call-in programs.
• Presentations have been made to area service
  clubs followed by question- and-answer periods.
• This plan has been well vetted, and it is well
  thought out.

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The Foundation of Success

• This plan strengthens and maintains great
  educational opportunities for all students
  throughout the county.
• This plan ensures all students access to peers
  from multiple cultures and diverse backgrounds
  who possess a broad variety of skills, talents
  and abilities.
• This plan capitalizes on community partnerships
  and resources.
• This plan is predicated on the equitable
  distribution of resources.

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Foundations of Success

• This plan creates logical and predictable feeder
  patterns for our families.
• This plan provides a school close-to-home or
  close-to-work attendance option for families.
• This plan provides attendance options for
  families who want something other than the
  opportunity afforded by a close-to-home or
  close-to-work location.
• This plan will reduce the costs associated with
  student transportation or at the very least curb
  the growth of the costs associated with
  transporting our students.
• Home may include before- and/or after-school
  child-care options.

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Revisiting Our Guiding Principles

• Predictable feeder pattern
• Multiple school options
• School close to home
• That students have access to peers from multiple
  cultures and diverse backgrounds who possess a
  broad variety of diverse skills, talents and
  abilities
• That transportation issues are reduced for
  parents and families along with transportation
  costs for the district
• A simple application process
• A uniform set of rules for the entire county

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Community Sensitive Attendance Planning

• We will move with great care over the next few
  years to develop predictable attendance patterns
  predicated on close-to-home school assignments
  or other close-to options families elect.
• To the greatest extent possible, we will build
  articulation patterns keeping groups of students
  together as they move through their school years.
• Elementary, middle and high school students will
  have a menu of schools and programs available
  as options.

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How Will It Work?

• For planning purposes, all students will have a
  community sensitive assignment school. This
  close-to-home or close-to-school assignment
  will be designated in the districts student
  information system.
• However, the students current school will be the
  assumed best option for families who have
  participated in the districts current student
  assignment plan. Currently enrolled students may
  stay at their current school until they complete
  the highest grade at that school site.
• Only incoming kindergarteners, sixth-grade
  students, ninth-grade students and
  new-to-the-district students will be assigned to
  a school that is close-to-home.

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Elimination of Reverse Sibling Preference

• When a younger sibling prepares to enter school,
  the younger sibling will be assigned to his or
  her older siblings current school.

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• Students in specialized programs within the
  district at transitional points (grades six and
  nine) who meet all of the requirements of those
  programs will be placed in the corresponding
  grade-appropriate program.

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• The options following this slide will be
  complimented and enhanced by a new district
  commitment to open enrollment options for
  families though Special Attendance Permits (SAP).
• The SAP will be primarily subject to the
  following limitations capacity within schools
  and programs, the familys ability to transport
  their child to the alternative location and the
  concentrations or sparcity of student services.

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High School Options

• Close-to-home school
• SAP schools
• Magnet Programs
• Fundamental School
• Career Academies
• Centers of Excellence
• Partnership Programs
• Charter Schools

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Middle School Options

• Close-to-home school
• SAP schools
• Magnet schools
• Fundamental schools
• Fundamental-like programs
• Intermediate schools
• Partnership schools
• MEGSSS/IMAST

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Elementary School Options

• Close-to-home schools
• SAP schools
• Magnet schools
• Fundamental schools
• Charter schools
• Partnership schools

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Elementary School Choice (Magnets)

• Perkins, Bay Point, Melrose, Jamerson and
  Sanderlin will have countywide magnet status
• Jamerson and Sanderlin will have a preference
  developed to assure full utilization of the
  facility.

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New Elementary Magnets

• Jamerson and Sanderlin will have countywide
  magnet status
• Each school will have a preference for applicants
  who do not require district-sponsored
  transportation.
• In the event that a school has more applicants
  than seats, those applicants who are closest to
  school will gain additional preference for the
  first 20 students in each grade level.

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• Current area magnet programs will retain area
  magnet status (expanded area A).

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Elementary Fundamental Schools

• All elementary fundamental school seats are
  countywide.
• Transportation will not be provided to any
  elementary fundamental school student.
• School-initiated applications for fundamental
  status will be solicited through a defined
  process beginning in the 2008-2009 school year.

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Fundamental Middle Schools

• Fundamental school options are countywide and
  based on application and assignment practically
  speaking, however, most
• Curtis and Tarpon Springs Fundamental students
  will articulate to Coachman Middle
• Lakeview, Pasadena and Bay Vista articulate to
  Southside or Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle
  School
• Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle School will
  move to countywide status. Unused seats will be
  assigned to nearby students who commit to the
  fundamental school model on a space-available
  basis.
• Students attending fundamental middle schools
  will be offered a seat at Osceola Fundamental
  High School.

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• Parents of students who qualify for Exceptional
  Student Education services or English for
  Speakers of Other Languages services will
  exercise their options from a list of schools
  offering the needed services for their children.
• Students with extended grandfathering
  privileges extended through the October 2000
  Student Assignment Plan will have the commitment
  made to them honored.

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• We will exercise a manual assignment plan for
  students who
• Enter the district during the school year.
• Have been dismissed from magnet or fundamental
  schools.
• Were assigned to schools using false information.
• Need to be assigned to a different school by the
  directors of school operations.
• The current student assignment appeals process
  will be moved forward in this plan as currently
  contemplated and approved by the Pinellas County
  School Board.

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• Eligibility for Extracurricular Activities
• As currently contemplated and Pinellas County
  School Board and approved in a manner consistent
  with the activities governing bodies recognized
  by the Pinellas County School Board

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Generally Speaking

• Transportation will be provided to those who
  reside outside the two-mile walk zone or have a
  hazardous condition as specified in rule or
  statute serving as a barrier within the walk
  zone.
• For specialized programming or services,
  transportation will be provided according to
  current practice or by rule and/or statute.

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Not Black and WhiteSeptember 07 - A Joint
Publication of NSBA and the College Board

• School districts can pursue diversity-related
  goals through various means including
  appropriately designed race-conscious policies
  aligned with evidence-based educational goals
• Overcoming the legacy of societal
  discrimination can never be a compelling
  interest justifying race-conscious measures
• Policies designed simply to achieve population
  parity, statistical proportionality and the like
  are simply unlawful.

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Equity

• Sandy Lane 9,008
• Lakewood 8,656
• Kings Highway 8,643
• Perkins 8,450
• Tarpon Springs 8,372
• Sanderlin 8,058
• Jamerson 8,039
• Blanton 7,908
• Tyrone 7,710
• Maximo 7,664

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Average Per Area (Fund 100 and 420)

• Dollars Spent Students Avg. Spent
• Old A 108,201,792 15,564 6,952
• Old B 82,646,146 13,061 6,327
• Old C 46,934,218 7,173 6,543
• Old D 66,442,071 10,185 6,578
• 76,056,057 11,496 6,600

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Averages Sometimes Mask Differences

• 9,008 vs 4,770 (52 of 9,008) SL/R4238
• 9,008 vs 5,398 (59 of 9,008) SL/B3610
• 6,873 vs 4,918 (71 of 6,873) T/CF1955
• 9,603 vs 4,903 (51 of 9,603) O/S4700

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• Based on the performance of students in reading,
  math, science and writing 90 of 120 eligible
  schools were designated as an A or B schools in
  2007 (75).

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Achievement

• More students are reading on grade level today.
  The biggest gains, as measured by FCAT, are for
  African-American and Hispanic students. This is
  true for elementary, middle and high school
  students.
• More students are taking the PSAT test than ever
  before in Pinellas County (450 test takers in
  02-03, more than 1,300 today).

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• The number of Advanced Placement Exams taken has
  increased by 60.
• The number of exams taken during this time frame
  has increased by more than 100 for
  African-American students (though the overall
  number of exams is less than 300 of the
  districts 6,600 exams taken).

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• The graduation rate for on-time graduation is up
  4 for all students since 2003-2004.
• The graduation rate for African-American students
  is up 9 for this same time period.
• The graduation rate for Hispanic students is up
  more than 7 for this same time period.

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• The number of students demonstrating proficiency
  (level 3 and above) on FCAT has increased in
  nearly all grades in reading, math and writing.
• This is true for all students regardless of race
  or ethnic origin.

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Equity and Excellence

• We have expanded prekindergarten experiences.
• We have a consistent model for the implementation
  of best practices our Classroom Instruction
  Support Model, and we have Curriculum Support
  Teams in every elementary school.
• We have created the Success Zone or Region V 20
  schools that have been targeted for systemic
  improvement.
• We have developed the University of Florida
  Partnership to enhance our professional
  development systems and leverage best practices.
• We are creating Centers of Excellence, while we
  have maintained and in fact improved our Career
  Academies.
• We have re-energized and renewed our commitment
  to adult education on the pTEC campuses.

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• Through the dollars generated by the referendum
  we have greatly enhanced the visual arts
  curriculum and our performing arts curriculum.
• We have enhanced our elementary and secondary
  reading programs.
• We have provided powerful new technology access
  to students through the application of referendum
  dollars.

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• We have created the Office of Advanced Studies
  and Academic Excellence in 2007
• We have increased opportunities for students to
  participate in more advanced and rigorous course
  work.
• We are eliminating barriers to participation in
  honors and Advanced Placement classes for
  historically underrepresented student populations.

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• Strengthened our partnership with St. Petersburg
  College, most visibly through the expansion of
  our partnership schools.
• We have strengthened our partnership with the Chi
  Chi Rodriguez Youth Foundation, building a larger
  and more vibrant partnership school.
• We have recommitted our support to the districts
  5,000 Role Models of Excellence Program.

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• The metaphor of buying a car has been used to
  describe this process and I think that is an apt
  metaphor
• I recently bought a new car
• I knew what I wanted I wanted a fuel efficient
  car both in town and on the road.
• I wanted a turbo-charged 275 horse, 3.6 liter,
  V-6.
• I wanted a six-speed transmission.
• I wanted 19-inch wheels, front-wheel drive.
• I wanted a four-door cross-over SUV with seating
  for seven or eight and with room for storage.
• I wanted the vehicle to be safe in fact I
  wanted the vehicle to have the highest crash
  ratings of any of the cars in its class.
• I wanted a navigation system, entertainment
  package and a quiet ride
• I wanted it in the color I wanted with the
  interior options I wanted
• I wanted Blue Tooth technology.

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Community Sensitive Attendance Planning October
23, 2007
Dr. Clayton M. Wilcox, Superintendent of Schools