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Schools

Attractor schools: Try, try again

County educators are excited about a new set of academic offerings to entice students and achieve racial balance.

By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published April 7, 2005

TAMPA - It's not always easy to learn from failure.

But Hillsborough school officials say they have figured out why their elementary school attractors didn't work, and produced a plan to revamp them.

Gone in August will be 20 programs that did not increase diversity by drawing children to fill empty seats. Chief among the ideas discarded will be extended school days.

The new programs will be more heavily focused on academics. Four elementary schools in the urban core - Potter, Just, Sheehy and Washington - will begin advanced academies.

Alexander Elementary on Lois Avenue, with Hispanic students forming about 85 percent of the student body, will launch a two-way language immersion program. Its goal is to help children become fluent in English and Spanish. The district will not pursue single-gender classrooms because of legal complications, but will review the idea for 2006.

Too many educators look at students from low-income neighborhoods - often at racially or ethnically identifiable schools - and lower their expectations, district chief academic officer Donnie Evans said.

This endeavor will force teachers and parents alike to understand and accept that those children can learn, too, he said. It also should help families living outside the immediate attendance zones to see that those schools provide positive learning environments, he added.

In other words, the attractors would become more attractive.

Principals plan to introduce the ideas in the coming weeks. They're already excited.

"A lot of times we don't stretch people, especially in areas like ours," Potter principal Oryan Speed said. "We don't put them up to meet a goal. We just meet them where they are. Here at Potter, we're going to stretch them. It's really going to be a tremendous program."

He plans to strictly enforce the school's uniform policy, which didn't really take off this year as many kids refused to participate. He also expects parents to volunteer, something he says happens too infrequently now.

If families want to opt out, that's their prerogative, Speed said. The district has chosen partner schools that children can attend instead of the academies and still get transportation.

Potter students would go to Carrollwood, Just to Grady, Washington to Rampello, and Sheehy to a school to be determined (either Robles or Mango).

Speed figured any seats that are emptied would quickly be filled by families who want their children to attend the new, state-of-the-art school.

Manuel Duran, principal at Alexander, guessed that the language immersion program will be so popular he will have to turn people away. It will begin as a pilot program, with just one classroom per grade level.

Already, eight teachers have offered to participate. Once families in the area know about it, Duran said, "they'll be fighting to get in."

He contends the idea makes sense, especially for Florida, where Spanish is increasingly used. Hispanics are now the largest minority group in Hillsborough public schools.

"My goal some day would be to see a total bilingual, bicultural school," he said. "That's a smart economic move. . . . We've got seats available. We've got a lot of potential."

Duran expected that many non-Hispanics would have an interest, so they can better understand and communicate with neighbors. The Hispanic students would be "the glue to bring them together."

The staff will ask the School Board to formally approve the new programs later this month.

Board member Doretha Edgecomb, a retired principal, was thrilled with the proposals.

Prep academies should draw families that crave high expectations and challenging course work, she said. A language immersion program will help children who must survive in a global economy.

"You can learn a lot of your best lessons from failing," Edgecomb said, acknowledging that these new ideas came from the ashes of programs that didn't work.

Informational meetings will be scheduled for the week of April 18, and parents will have the opportunity to apply for the new programs from April 20 through May 6.

Families living in the school choice transportation zones would be eligible for busing. Others could apply but would have to provide their own transportation.

Jeffrey S. Solochek can be reached at 813 269-5304 or solochek@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 7, 2005, 01:22:13]