Highland Lakes Elementary parents protest a shift of the assistant principal to a new school.
By RICHARD DANIELSON
Published August 30, 2003
PALM HARBOR - He seems to know every child in school by name.
It's one reason parents of students at Highland Lakes Elementary School say they love assistant principal Larry Slyck.
It's also why they were stunned Friday to learn that administrators intended to transfer him to another school beginning next week.
"He's incredible. He's wonderful. It would devastate our school and the kids to have him out," said parent Julie Peluso, whose son Andrew is in the third grade at Highland Lakes.
"The parents will do anything and everything" to keep Slyck at the school, she said. "We will picket. We will do whatever it takes."
Peluso said news spread quickly after a staff meeting Friday morning at which Slyck's transfer was announced. By late afternoon, more than 30 parents had called in protests to Oscar Robinson, the School District's Area 1 superintendent.
Highland Lakes principal Carolyn Sinclair did not return a call from the Times, and Slyck declined to discuss the matter Friday afternoon.
But school administrators said the decision had nothing to do with his performance, which they praised. Slyck, 57, has worked for the school system for 29 years and has been at Highland Lakes Elementary since the 1996-97 school year.
"Larry is an outstanding assistant principal," Robinson said. "He brings a lot of knowledge and skills."
The reassignment of assistant principals is something the School District goes through every year, and it often leaves one or more school communities upset.
"It has nothing to do with Larry himself," School District spokesman Ron Stone said. "It's really a formula-driven issue. It happens. This isn't the first time."
The School District has never budgeted to put an assistant principal in every one of its 82 elementary schools, so it uses a formula to determine which schools need them most, Robinson said.
About 10 days into the school year, administrators plug a variety of numbers into the formula: enrollment, the number of students in special education programs, the number on free or reduced lunches and the number of buses carrying students to and from school. Different categories are weighted differently.
This year, the district has 55 assistant principals for its elementary schools. After the numbers were crunched, Highland Lakes Elementary ranked 56th, Robinson said. Though he understood that the school's enrollment of about 725 was up slightly, he said other factors also influenced Highland Lakes' ranking. They included:
Fewer than 20 percent of the school's students receive a free or reduced-price lunch. By comparison, more than 80 percent of students at some other schools qualify for the low-cost lunch.
Highland Lakes sees eight buses a day. Some schools have more than 30.
Highland Lakes has relatively few special education programs, and no autistic, emotionally handicapped or severely emotionally handicapped programs, he said.
Robinson spent much of Friday afternoon returning parents' calls to explain the reason for the decision.
"I know they would prefer it not happen to that school," he said. "I think they at least understand it. I'm not saying they agree with it, but they understand it."
Administrators have not decided where Slyck will be transferred, but it's likely to be one of five elementary schools: Bardmoor in Seminole, Pinellas Central in Pinellas Park, Southern Oak in Largo, or High Point or Belleair, both in Clearwater.
There is another option.
Elementary schools that don't receive an assistant principal receive instead half a personnel unit, usually for a curriculum or training specialist, Robinson said. Sometimes two schools will combine their halves and share an employee.
Others, faced with similar losses in the past, have come up with the money themselves to cover the other half of the assistant principal's slot that they would otherwise lose. One school got a business sponsor to contribute toward such an effort. Others have discussed using bonus money from Gov. Bush's A-Plus school grading program to round out the position.
As an A school, Highland Lakes Elementary will receive a bonus, though it was unclear Friday how much that will be.
It's also up to the school staff to decide what to do with the money. It can be used for a variety of purposes, including teacher bonuses. Robinson said he understood that a meeting to discuss the idea had taken place at the school Friday, but he didn't know what happened.
"I know Highland Lakes is looking into that," he said. As a result, he said, administrators will leave Slyck in place until Wednesday so the school can make a decision.
