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Uncertain future for school for at-risk kids

By ANDREW SKERRITT
Published April 23, 2006

It's a troubled time for operators and students at the Richard Milburn Academy, a Pasco County charter school.

Earlier this month, school district officials notified the charter school that its accounting problems were so severe the school could shut down. Some School Board members were fearing that the doors could close any day.

Charter school officials insist they'll stay open. They'll do so without district money. Officials say they've overpaid the charter school by more than $200,000, although an executive of the for-profit company says the amount is considerably less.

School officials are working on a report on the school's performance. When superintendent Heather Fiorentino looks at the report, which could be ready as early as this week, she'll make a recommendation to the School Board.

She could push for the school to close. She could recommend a corrective plan.

Either way, things are going to change at the New Port Richey school. They have to.

Folks are unhappy with the way the school has been operating. One recent issue is the graduation rate.

Fiorentino was troubled when she heard that only 11 of the school's 32 seniors are ready for graduation. That's 34 percent of seniors. Last year, 40 percent of the charter school's senior class graduated. But you can argue this is a school for at-risk students, those who weren't going to graduate anyway.

At-risk students are supposed to be Milburn Academy's specialty.

Just because these students have problems is no reason to accept lower standards, the superintendent says.

And for the students who aren't going to graduate, it doesn't appear the school offered them alternatives, such as taking the GED test.

If I were a parent of a Milburn student, I'd be concerned.

So concerned are district officials about the status of seniors that they recently convened more than a dozen guidance counselors to spend a whole day going through the academic records of all 170 students at Milburn Academy.

They reviewed the records to see which students were on track to graduate and which weren't. If the student wasn't on track, then they had to figure why not and get him on track. District employees were doing work charter school employees are paid to do.

Their task was made even more difficult because some paperwork wasn't even in the state of Florida, said Nancy Scowcroft, who oversees charter schools for the Pasco school district.

Scowcroft isn't your typical, hostile-to-charter-schools district employee. She used to run a charter school. She's an advocate for Florida's 10-year-old charter school experiment.

But now, Scowcroft is more concerned with individuals than ideas, specifically those students who are in danger of not graduating.

After all, just because these are at-risk students, she says, that doesn't mean they're not capable students. They may need more motivation, they may need more one-on-one attention. They may need more discipline, whatever it takes. "It's about kids, not about money," she says.

Obviously, the historic tension between school districts and charter schools is at play here, say charter school officials.

Plus given the makeup of the student population, Richard Milburn Academy corporate executives expect their graduation numbers to be lower. The school attracts students who skip classes, fail courses, and are a year or two below grade level. It's a measure of the company's success that some of these students are even graduating, says Robert Crosby, who oversees the corporation's Florida schools.

"We take them all," he said. "We do the best we can with these kids."

Obviously, not everyone agrees.

Andrew Skerritt can be reached at 813 909-4602 or toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4602. His e-mail address is askerritt@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 23, 2006, 00:49:08]