The Laker/Lutz News

mySchool

Extra help to be provided for struggling students

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Pasco County Schools is planning to extend its school day to provide extra help for students who are struggling.

The Pasco County School Board on Jan. 19 approved a plan to invite elementary and secondary school students who are lagging behind to take part in the longer day.

Vanessa Hilton, the school district’s chief academic officer, said schools “have done a great deal of work, communicating with families about their options for semester two. In particular, lots of outreach to families of students who are struggling, or not making progress, in particular in MySchool Online.

“They spent a lot of time trying to welcome them back into in-school learning,” Hilton said.

The state required districts to develop and implement expanded spring academic intervention plans, including supplemental services and expanded learning opportunities, for those students who are not making gains or making progress.

To address that issue, the district will provide intervention needed in reading and/or mathematics, from Feb. 1 through May 22.

The program will run for 90 minutes at the end of the school day on Monday through Thursday afternoons, with an option for three-hour Saturday school for secondary students.

Transportation and snacks will be provided.

“Additionally, as part of the plan, we’ll also be building a monthly progress report to be shared with families, not just with students in extended learning, but any students who are not meeting expectation,” Hilton said. “That way, everyone is well-informed about how our students are progressing. This data is also required by the state.”

The extended learning will be offered in all schools. Students who meet the district’s criteria will be invited, but not required, to attend.

“This is not compulsory,” Superintendent Kurt Browning emphasized.

The district has reached out to parents of struggling students to help the students catch up.

“It is still up to the parent, as to whether or not they want their student to stay the extra hour and a half, Monday through Thursday, or take advantage of the Saturday session.

“It is there for them. We are spending great sums of money to make sure their students are successful and where they need to be, but the parent still calls the shots,” the superintendent said.

School board member Allen Altman said he wishes the district could require students who are struggling to receive the extra help. He said he’s personally aware of situations, and teachers have told him of others, in which students and their parents are both entirely disengaged.

While the district can’t require students to attend, Altman said it should strongly encourage them to do so. He doesn’t want the district to be held responsible for the lack of progress — when the district is extending opportunities for students to improve their academic performance.

Hilton also noted that if there are students who continue to be learning virtually, but are struggling, “it is entirely possible” for them to attend the extra instructional sessions.

However, they would need to do so at school because the grant funding for the program requires face-to-face instruction.

“School leaders and teachers really do want to serve students who are struggling,” Hilton said.

She also addressed Altman’s concern.

“I do know that their invitations will be more like recommendations. That’s also what they did to try to encourage families to come back from MySchool Online, if students were not successful there,” Hilton said.

Published January 27, 2021

Learning options go on, in Florida

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Parents will continue to have the choice of keeping their children at home for remote learning through the second semester of the school year.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran made that announcement during a joint news conference on Nov. 30.

Pasco County Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning also discussed the state’s new executive order during the Pasco County School Board’s Dec. 1 meeting.

The order “does allow for the continuation of the mySchool Online learning model,” Browning said. “It also does hold school districts harmless, financially, and I would add, with some caveats. We are still working through the details of the order, as it relates to the financial matters.”

The district must submit a plan to the state by Dec. 15, which outlines how it will identify struggling students and provide learning supports.

“Needless to say, staff is working feverishly to not just submit a report, or a plan, but submit a plan that represents how we’re going to support all of our students, and especially the struggling students,” Browning said.

“The plan will require specific steps for progress monitoring,” the superintendent added.

The plan will cover how the district plans to take “even more aggressive steps” in identifying students that are not having success, Browning said.

The district will be making contact with those parents, who then will have a choice between sending their student, or students, back to the traditional brick-and-mortar model, or to continue on with mySchool Online.

If they want to continue remote learning, they must make that affirmative choice.

“That is going to add another level of complexity,” Browning said.

“I will tell you, there will be a district-wide approach to this. There will not be different procedures in different schools,” the superintendent said. The procedure for identifying struggling students and notifying parents will be the same, he explained.

School board member Colleen Beaudoin asked the district to provide additional support for secondary teachers who are in schools where a significant number of notifications will have to be made.

Browning responded: “That is one of the issues that we’re trying to figure out.”

The district also is working on the best approach for notifications to parents.

“Do we send a certified letter home to moms and dads, with a return receipt, so we have written confirmation that they received it. Do we make phone calls? Who makes those phone calls? What information are we sharing with them? What is the measure of success?

“Those are all issues that we’re having to deal with, with guidance from Tallahassee,” Browning said.

While the district works this out, some other district tasks are being put on hold, he added.

Beaudoin said her perception of the press conference was that the state would like to get students back into traditional classrooms.

Browning agreed: “We do know that the Commissioner (Corcoran) was pretty clear yesterday, in his assessment about kids that are struggling: They need to be back in bricks-and-mortar environment.”

But, Browning said he’s pleased the state is continuing to give parents the choice.

“I will tell you that I understand, with where we find ourselves with COVID, particularly on Dec. 1, 2020, I understand why there are parents that do not want to come back into a bricks-and-mortar environment,” he said.

The superintendent went on: “The numbers, because of the measures and steps that we’ve taken as a district, have been relatively low.”

In fact, the number of positive cases among students is about ½ of 1%, he said.

In large part, the cases on campus are not resulting from spread at school, but are originating elsewhere, Browning said.

At one high school, for example, about a dozen students were sent home that were directly tied to a birthday party, he said.

“You go to parks and ballfields, and you will see full parks and ballfields — and I might add, with no masks, or very few masks,” the superintendent said.

Browning also noted that he’s been in constant contact with Mike Napier, the health officer for the Florida Department of Health — Pasco County.

“He’s concerned about the direction that we’re headed — not we, as a district, but we, as a community, are headed with COVID cases,” Browning said.

Board member Beaudoin urged parents to help ensure their children’s success.

Browning said the district needs to give assurances to Tallahassee that it is adding additional supports, and those supports, he said won’t be cheap.

“Miss (Olga) Swinson (chief finance officer), and I, and others — we talk about the funding piece and how we are going to be able to get the dollars that we’re going to need to have in order to provide these supports that the department expects us to provide to these students,” he said. “It’s a sticky wicket.”

School board member Alison Crumbley said the district needs to analyze why students are struggling. “We need to break it down,” she said.

Published December 09, 2020

COVID-19 complicates school start

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Students in Pasco and Hillsborough counties are set to begin a new school year on Aug. 24, but not all of the students will be headed to campus.

In Pasco County, students have three options for learning — amidst the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Some students are expected to arrive at Pasco campuses on Aug. 24, while others opt for two versions of online learning. In the mySchool Online version, students are connected virtually to their assigned schools. With Pasco eSchool, they have more flexibility in the schedule and pace of learning.

In Hillsborough County, classes begin on Aug. 24, with all students beginning the school year through online learning only, until campuses open for students on Aug. 31. Like Pasco, Hillsborough is offering three learning options — face-to-face instruction and two virtual approaches.

Pasco and Hillsborough county students are set to return to school on Aug. 24, either in-person or virtually. (B.C. Manion)

Of course, there’s nearly a week before school begins, so it’s not inconceivable that these plans could change again.

As of press deadline for The Laker/Lutz News, there were two legal actions pending over whether school districts must comply with Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran’s Emergency Order that requires a face-to-face learning option on public school campuses.

The school year is already starting later than initially planned, with both Hillsborough and Pasco starting on Aug. 24, rather than Aug. 10.

The Hillsborough County School Board then voted to begin the district’s school year with four weeks of online-only instruction.

That decision came after a panel of medical experts advised against reopening schools until the COVID-19 positivity rate declined to about 5%.

Corcoran, however, rebuffed Hillsborough’s temporary online-only plan.

Corcoran said Hillsborough’s new plan was inconsistent with the reopening plan the district previously had submitted to the state that had been approved.

Hillsborough Superintendent Addison Davis then took a trip to Tallahassee, to seek middle ground.

That didn’t work.

After Davis returned, the district announced that “state leaders rejected two different phased-in models our district proposed that would have delayed our brick-and-mortar opening while ensuring our most vulnerable student populations were served in a face-to-face capacity.”

So, Hillsborough’s school year will begin with one week of online, with brick-and-mortar campuses opening on Aug. 31, for students choosing that option.

Meanwhile, in Pasco County, the school district plans to follow its Aug. 24 opening plan.

However, the United School Employees of Pasco has filed a lawsuit, seeking return to online learning only, until the COVID numbers come down, per the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pasco County Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning and the Pasco School Board have stood behind the district’s reopening plan. Not following that plan, they have said, would jeopardize state funding.

The Florida Education Association’s motion for injunctive relief from Corcoran’s Emergency Order has been scheduled for mediation Aug. 18, and if necessary, for court hearings on Aug. 19 and Aug. 20.

The decisions being made at the state and school board levels have caused parents and teachers to make a variety of personal decisions.

Ben Langston, of Long Lake Ranch in Lutz, said he and his wife, Rene, decided to enroll their children, Connor and Avery, in a private school.

The Langstons had been planning to send the children to Oakstead Elementary, but switched those plans because of the uncertainty with what will happen with public schools.

They want Connor and Avery to have an in-school experience, rather than online, because they believe it offers a superior form of learning.

Cindy Smith, an art teacher at Land O’ Lakes High School, on the other hand, has made a different decision: She’s retiring after 31 years in Pasco County Schools.

“It was very difficult. It took me months to decide it,” said Smith, who taught Art 1 through Advanced Placement.

“I didn’t feel like it was wise to go to school and expose myself to the possibilities of COVID, at my age,” Smith said.

She doesn’t think that virtual teaching is effective for secondary art classes, although she said it would be a safer option until COVID-19 cases decline.

The teacher said she’ll miss teaching and her students.

“I’m sad about it. I’m sad for my friends. I’m sad for my students. How horrifying to think any one of them could die because of one person, or a few persons’ decisions,” Smith said.

She added: “I’m concerned that parents may not be taking this seriously enough.

“I don’t think they understand the hazards and the dangers and the concerns that we, as teachers, have. We love our students, we love our jobs, but to put us in a danger, death-threatening kind of situation is unreasonable,” Smith said.

Despite the focus on COVID-19, there also are other developments associated with beginning the 2020-2021 school year, and that includes the opening of Cypress Creek Middle School.

The new school, on Old Pasco Road, will serve students in grades six through eight.

Students who have been housed in a portion of Cypress Creek High School now will be moving to Cypress Creek Middle.

Other students previously assigned to John Long Middle, will join them, providing long-needed relief from crowding at John Long Middle.

Students from Wiregrass Ranch High also have been reassigned to Cypress Creek High, but the full effect of that boundary change won’t be immediately felt because the school district grandfathered the junior and senior class at Wiregrass Ranch.

Two new public charter schools also are opening this year, in Wesley Chapel — Pinecrest Academy Wesley Chapel in Avalon Park Wesley Chapel and Innovation Preparatory Academy in the Connected City area of Wesley Chapel.

Published August 19, 2020

Pasco Schools uncertain about COVID-19 impacts on growth

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Pasco County Schools expects to experience some growth in the coming school year, but the district remains uncertain about just how much.

The district has been projecting a growth of slightly more than 1,900 students, district-wide, including charter schools.

But, Chris Williams, the district’s director of planning, said he’s not sure whether that projection will hold up.

“I’ve been looking at the situation and the housing situation with COVID-19, and the big question is are we going to hit our 1,900 growth? I don’t know if we are, it’s hard to tell,” Williams said, during a Pasco County School Board budget workshop session on July 7.

“I do anticipate that we will have growth,” Williams said.

“I don’t know that we’ll hit our 1,900. We may. But, with a slowdown in housing, we may not get that high,” Williams said.

In a 6 p.m. board meeting the same day, Superintendent Kurt Browning addressed a parent’s concern about trying to choose an option for next school year, at a time when COVID-19 is spiking.

The school district is offering parents three choices for the 2020-2021 school year: Traditional brick-and-mortar; mySchool Online, a more structured approach to online learning than during the last part of last school year; and Pasco eSchool, which offers greater flexibility for virtual learners.

A caller into the telephonic board meeting expressed concerns about having to choose an option so many weeks before school starts, when so much still could change.

Browning reassured the parent that parents who choose the brick-and-mortar or mySchool Online won’t be locked into their choice.

There’s less flexibility with Pasco eSchool, he said, because that’s a separate entity with its own curriculum and different funding method.

The district’s initial deadline for parents to make a choice was July 1, but it extended the deadline to July 8, to give parents more time.

Browning said the district’s options resulted from extensive feedback it received from stakeholders through a Thought Exchange and discussions with stakeholder groups.

“We need to have decisions made by parents so that we, as a district, can allocate positions,” Browning said.

The district understands this is a trying time, Browning said. “We have to be flexible. We do know that things are changing literally hourly.”

The superintendent also addressed the issue of requiring face masks.

Board members appeared to be leaning toward mandatory masks during a previous workshop session, but Browning said he wants the district to hold off on that decision for now.

“We’re monitoring that situation. We’re looking at research, best practices,” Browning said, adding that the district is working with the Florida Department of Health in Pasco County.

“We’ll make a decision as we get closer to school start and that decision will be made public to our parents as soon as it is made,” Browning said.

“We will be making decisions right on up to the day that teachers return on Aug. 3, and we’ll be making decisions right on up, including to the start of school on Aug. 10.

“We know that parents are eager for information. They’re eager for accurate information.

“We’ve received hundreds, if not thousands, of questions,” Browning said.

School board member Megan Harding said that she has been flooded with emails and telephone calls relating to masks.

“I think that’s been a lot of worry for parents, on both sides,” Harding said.

Deputy Superintendent Ray Gadd said the district has been working on guidelines, so it will be ready to use them, if that’s the direction the district decides to take.

Browning said he prefers to monitor the situation and make a decision closer to the start of school.

“I think it’s a little premature at this point. I understand the parents want either a yes or a no, but things are changing. And, quite honestly, they are changing hourly.

“I think having guidelines in the que, ready to go for consideration, is a wise move. But, I think it’s early to make a decision about masks right now,” the superintendent said.

Published July 15, 2020