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Schools

Tutor program to aid only 10% of those eligible

Hillsborough County school officials say they don't have the money to handle all who qualify.

By MELANIE AVE
Published August 24, 2005

TAMPA - Federal law says more than 40,000 Hillsborough County students are eligible for free tutoring this year because their schools failed to meet education standards.

But on Tuesday, School Board members approved a plan to provide tutoring to only one in 10 of those eligible, or about 4,700 students. The tutoring will cost more than $6-million and be offered by 38 private companies beginning in October.

Providing tutoring to every child eligible in 60 schools across the county would eat up all of the district's $42-million in federal funds, said Jeff Eakins, who oversees the system's requirements under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which mandates the tutoring.

Superintendent MaryEllen Elia said the school district will spend the legally required percentage of the federal money it receives to comply with No Child. But to offer tutoring to every eligible child is a near impossibility, she said.

"We're going to spend that 20 percent until we run out of money," Elia said. "Theoretically, you could use a lot more."

The No Child law, the centerpiece of President Bush's education policy, requires high-poverty schools that fail to meet federal standards for three years in a row to offer tutoring.

Last year, three Hillsborough schools offered the service. This fall, 60 schools will offer it.

Letters will be mailed to the parents of all of the students in those schools next month. But only those children who qualify for free- or reduced-price meals and who are deemed the most academically challenged will get tutored.

Educators expect a public relations dilemma once parents learn their children are eligible for tutoring but the district doesn't have the money to offer it.

"We're going to be turning away kids with real need," said Walt Bartlett, Hillsborough's director of federal programs. "There are going to be parents who are real upset with us."

Parents may choose from a list of state-approved tutors, who will offer an average of 30 one-hour sessions to students.

Board members seemed baffled by the tutoring requirement and worried whether the district would be able to properly evaluate the providers, many of whom are out-of-state companies.

"This is another unfunded mandate created for for-profit companies," said board member Jack Lamb, president of the Florida School Boards Association. "We're taking money away from schools and giving it to for-profit companies that don't have to be held accountable."

In other business, board members approved new criminal screening checks for contract workers to comply with the Jessica Lunsford Act.

Letters will soon go out to more than 8,000 vendors, such as construction companies and classroom photographers, telling them they must pay the $85 fee to have their employees fingerprinted. The law takes effect Sept. 1.

Officials will make random checks to make sure workers have been properly screened.

Meanwhile, Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim Norman presented board members with his proposal to build an estimated $40-million sports complex north of Plant City that would be available for area students. Last month, commissioners placed the complex on a list of projects that could be financed with money from the half-cent community investment tax.

Norman asked the School Board to support the complex. But board members said they had too many questions. They will vote on the issue at their next meeting on Sept. 6.

A perturbed Norman said: "To deny your kids this opportunity is outrageous."

"Nobody is saying we don't want to do it," said board chairwoman Candy Olson. "Some are saying we want more information before we get behind it."

Board members also were briefed on the district's new "Superintendent's Diploma of Distinction" program.

Graduating seniors can earn the special diploma by completing a minimum of four advanced placement classes in at least two subjects; earning a minimum score of 3 on advanced placement tests; and maintaining an overall weighted grade point average of at least 3.0.

They must also participate in the SAT or ACT program, complete 75 hours of community service, attend test review sessions and take exams for all advanced placement courses in which they are enrolled.

Board members named Folsom Elementary principal Karen Bass the new principal at Bryant Elementary. They also named Durant High School assistant principal Theophilus Hill the principal at Alternative Education West. Both positions are effective today.

The board suspended Oak Grove Elementary third-grade teacher Leah Wilson, 23, without pay after she was charged earlier this month with possession of marijuana.

[Last modified August 24, 2005, 01:14:20]