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Letter to the editor

Pinellas leaders happy with new grades

By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published June 8, 2005

A quick glance at Pinellas' letter grades pleased administrators, said district spokesman Sterling Ivey.

Seventy of the district's 82 elementary schools earned either As or Bs. Ten elementaries - Bay Vista Fundamental, Belleair, Campbell Park, Dunedin, Fairmount Park, Sexton, North Shore, Northwest, Rio Vista, James B. Sanderlin, San Jose, Shore Acres, Skycrest, Tyrone and Woodlawn - improved by a letter grade, and South Ward Elementary rose from an C to an A.

Six elementaries lost their A grades: Belcher, Kings Highway, Lealman Avenue, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and Southern Oak. Blanton Elementary, which has earned an A for the past two years, fell to a C.

The news was encouraging at the middle school level. Largo and Kennedy middle schools pulled their B grades up to As. Meadowlawn, Pinellas Park and Riviera raised their grades from Cs to Bs.

Only one of the six high schools the district feared could drop from a C to a D - Lakewood High - actually did. Two others, Dunedin and Tarpon Springs, maintained Cs. Clearwater and St. Petersburg high schools improved from Cs to Bs, and Seminole rose from a C to an A.

Five of the eight high schools that earned Ds last year - Boca Ciega, Dixie Hollins, Gibbs, Largo and Osceola - failed to improve their grades. But Pinellas Park High rose from a D to a C, and Northeast and Countryside high schools raised their grades from Ds to Bs.

See tomorrow's Times or sptimes.com for the rull report.

[Last modified June 8, 2005, 15:19:16]