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1 Bay Point celebrates, but sister school slips
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
© St. Petersburg Times, ST. PETERSBURG -- Two schools, one elementary and one middle, are inextricably linked. The magnet schools for math and science sit side by side, with the grade school a feeder to the middle at a complex by 62nd Avenue S and 22nd Street. When grades for the state's schools were released last week, the two Pinellas Point institutions, Bay Point Elementary and Bay Point Middle, received different news. Bay Point Elementary dropped from a B to a C and Bay Point Middle vaulted from a C to an A. While one principal rejoices, the other is downplaying the importance of the statewide tests that for the past three years have labeled schools good, bad, mediocre and even failing. "We are thrilled, no doubt about it," Dennis J. Griffin, principal of Bay Point Middle School, said of his school's improved grade. "I am happy for the teachers and students, because they worked real hard. And the bottom line is, we've had quite a few kids really improve." Bay Point Middle is one of nine middle schools in Pinellas County that received A's. The other south county middle school earning an A is Southside Fundamental School, a back-to-basics public school at 1701 10th St. S. Gaye Lively, principal of Bay Point Elementary School, does not think the grade her school received is an adequate assessment of its achievement. Her school dropped to a C because too few fifth-graders scored high enough on the FCAT's math portion. Half the students needed to achieve Level 3 or higher. Only 43 percent did. So the B dropped to a C. That class, she said, has been at a disadvantage since kindergarten. "The class was always very crowded. . . . What we found was that in the kindergarten, first and second grade, the class size was very large," she said. Also, compared with the rest of the school, where 32 percent of the students currently are enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program, the percentage was 45 percent for the fifth-grade class. Socioeconomic status affects how well children test, said Ron Stone, spokesman for Pinellas District Schools. Kathleen Germack, whose 9-year-old daughter, Dylan, is in third grade, is concerned about Bay Point Elementary's drop but still praises the school. "The teachers are wonderful here. I love them," said Mrs. Germack, who has volunteered at Bay Point Elementary for seven years. Mrs. Lively said parents do not seem concerned about the school's recent grade. "Our parents have in the past voiced that there is too much emphasis placed on testing and grading. I think they would like a good, solid, safe learning environment, where the total child is considered," she said. "There is value in assessment, but overemphasis can also hurt us." Cindy Ripley, whose son, Zack, 13, is enrolled in Bay Point Middle School's traditional program, is not impressed with the school's higher grade. "I was talking to my son about it and I said, how much did they prime the kids to take the FCAT? How often were you studying for the FCAT instead of doing other things?" she said. Mrs. Ripley said her son did not think that too much emphasis was put on preparation for the statewide test, "which is kind of surprising. I kind of find that highly doubtful," Mrs. Ripley said. At Bay Point Elementary, Mrs. Lively expects a better grade next year. "I think that the steps we have taken in the last three years to make the changes at the primary grades will be evident in the future tests," she said. Griffin, Bay Point Middle School's principal, said he believes two factors made the difference in his school's scores this year. "One, we restructured our dropout prevention and academic improvement programs to really emphasize reading and math. Then we had a grant from the school district to run an enhanced learning program," he said. Both Bay Point Middle and Bay Point Elementary will soon move into new facilities on their 62nd Avenue campus. The grade school will move into its new building in the fall, while the middle school is expected to move in 2002. Speaking of his sister school, Griffin is unconcerned about its slip. "Many of those teachers at Bay Point Elementary, I hired. I know them to be a fine group of people. A fine group of teachers," said Griffin, who has been principal at Bay Point Middle for 11 years and also served as principal of the elementary school for two. "What we know, kids come through in groups and they seem to have their own personality and weaknesses, and in any given year, you might have a group of students who have strengths or weaknesses in a given area," he said. "You have to look at performances over the long range, and Bay Point Elementary has always been excellent."
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