New principal in a choice era

St. Petersburg High is ushering in a new leader. She weighs in on everything from the end of court-ordered busing to Gov. Bush's grading plan and early start times.

By LENNIE BENNETT

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 8, 1999

ST. PETERSBURG -- Linda Benware will become principal of St. Petersburg High School on Jan. 3, a move the Pinellas County School Board made official Tuesday afternoon.

Benware, 53, has lived in St. Petersburg for most of her life, attending south county schools, as did her husband and their children. During her 22-year career in the school system, she has effected and been affected by change, especially that wrought by 27 years of court-ordered busing for desegregation. She has been in charge, in their early days, of two major initiatives the school system designed to bring diversity to schools, first as district supervisor for gifted programs and then as head of the magnet and choice programs.

Linda Benware, 53, has had a 22-year career in the school system. [Times photo: Fred Victorin]

In an unconventional move, she chose to leave central administration and become principal of Tarpon Springs Middle School, because, she said, "I wanted more involvement in a school, to get more in depth."

She becomes the leader of Pinellas County's oldest high school, which houses both a traditional curriculum and the International Baccalaureate magnet program, at a crossroads in Pinellas County history. With the end of the court-ordered desegregation plan and the beginning of school choice, Benware and other administrators are charged with finding ways to keep student populations diverse, to accommodate the diversity of their needs, and to cope with new methods of assessment and accountability.

She sat down with Neighborhood Times staff writer Lennie Bennett on Monday morning to talk about her perception of education in lower Pinellas County now and in the coming years and her vision for St. Petersburg High School. What follows is an edited version of the interview.

Q: How have the magnet and choice programs, for good and ill, changed education in Pinellas County?

A: Magnet programs have provided two avenues for change. One, not every one of our children is cut from the same cookie cutter. Our world is much, much more diverse at a much earlier age for students than it was. The magnet programs have provided students an opportunity to be challenged in a variety of means. We can't forget the true role of magnets as well, promoting integrated schools. You attract the student into the school of the race or the particular sector of the population that you want to add to the diversity of the school. You asked me what's been the flip side of that. One, restriction on numbers. It's heartbreaking for families that call you and say, my child has five years already of strict piano training, really needs to be in Perkins (Elementary, the arts magnet school), and yet it's a computer random selection. And it needs to be a computer random selection so that it is open to everyone. What is the other downfall? The sheer geographic shape of our county and the distance some students have to come. Some of the other downfalls ... it creates somewhat of an elitist atmosphere.

Q: What are some of the biggest differences you see between north Pinellas and south Pinellas County schools?

A: Well, the biggest differences are ... the south county's much more diverse; it has an opportunity to prepare kids for the real world, whereas I think north county is a little bit more sheltered. I think south county is much richer in tradition, St. Pete High especially.

Q: There is a prediction that, with the end of court-ordered busing, some south Pinellas County schools will become mostly populated by black students. Given a choice, will parents send their kids great distances no matter the appeal of the school?

A: I think the potential exists for the schools to become more heavily populated with black or minority students. I truly feel as a principal of a school and the administrators that work with me and the teachers that work with me that it is our responsibility to market our school as widely as we can within whatever cluster ... and I have no idea what those clusters are going to end up looking like. I don't think anyone knows right now ... but it is our job as much as it is our job to patrol the hallways, be in the lunchroom, overlook their curriculum, it is our job to market that school and to be out there doing the best we can to attract whatever population it is that we need, to keep the school as diverse as possible.

Q: What concerns do you have with Gov. Bush's grading plan?

A: I truly agree with what Dr. (Howard) Hinesley and our board is trying to do, to have them take a better look at it. I'm not saying throw it out altogether because I do think that the motivational pieces in there, that shock factor, you must look at this data because you're going to be graded and money coming into the school is going to be based on this grade. But there are some issues that really have me perplexed, and one that stands out quickly is comparing two totally different groups of students when, for example, in the middle school, the eighth-graders that set the bar went on to high school, (and) a whole second group came in. And while I have looked carefully and researched that group coming in, I could have predicted what would have happened based on the previous year's scores of that particular student body or that group of kids. And it did. Our scores dropped. Was it because teachers were more ineffective? No. If we're looking at groups of kids earlier and how they're testing and what we're doing with them, that may begin over a period of years to iron out some of those differences, but it's still comparing me to you, and we're two totally different people, two different groups. And that I have a problem with. I also have a problem with not looking realistically at the mobility rate, the free and reduced lunch, at some of those poverty issues.

Q: Talk about the International Baccalaureate program at St. Pete High. Do you oversee the entire school, including the IB program?

A:Yes.

Q: It is, really, two schools; there is often very little interaction between the two student bodies. And so, yes, you have achieved on paper an integrated school profile, but still have segregated education.

A: And you still have that in a school that does not have a magnet, to some degree. When you look at the levels of the honor, the APs (advanced placement courses), within any high school, you are going to have some degree of natural segregation. That happens. I think my job as principal is to explore every possible avenue for those students to be intermingled, as well as the staff members. I think it's important that staff members have an opportunity to work with some IB students as well as IB teachers to have some opportunity to work with non-IB students. Again, that crossover only makes our own experiences richer, so I'd like to see more of that opportunity for the staff members.

Q: Do you see that happening in a school like St. Pete High School?

A: I believe it already is to some degree. There needs to be more of it, and I'll give you a quick personal example. When I taught gifted education, it didn't take me very long to forget what average is. You truly lose sight of what that more eclectic child or that child that has some learning difficulties, or a child that's just average, like most of us are. You forget what that is like. I would like for the students in both programs to know that they are respected, that they are valuable, that you do not have to be an IB student to make a tremendous contribution to the well-being of St. Petersburg High School, that everybody is part of this school.

Q: How do you do something like that when you see after school, the IB and honors students, by and large, go home with loaded backpacks and then you see hundreds of kids walking away with nothing, no books, no notebooks, nothing indicating that they have homework?

A: I can't change the world and I know the obstacles, but I will tell you my experience is that the more attention you give to that individual child, if you walk up and you say, "Hey, let me see that report card, you just got it today. Oh, you did better in this ...' it takes three to five minutes of my time. We want to be recognized and singled out in some way. And it's just like the man on the beach trying to save the starfish ... you can't save 'em all, but you can get one or two at a time.

Q: At St. Pete High, setting aside the IB program, how would you market your school?

A: I think one of the first tasks that I have there is to work with the students, the staff, the community and, of course, the central school administration in developing what are we, as a community of St. Petersburg High School, going to develop as the attractor that would make someone want to come to our school. We know that we're going to attract students with the IB. We know that we probably would not focus on medical; Boca Ciega has that. Technology ... well, technology is a tool, not an end within itself; Lakewood has that particular draw. Northeast High School has some of the academies ...

Q: You talk about attractors, the plan for schools to develop some sort of specialty or focus without its being officially any sort of magnet program and without extra funding. How realistic is that? Can you have a marine science attractor program if you really don't have the money to build a program that is nothing but window dressing?

A: There's a point, especially if you're talking about something as specific as marine science, where you would need some very specific equipment, teacher training, etc. My thoughts for St. Pete High are that we can be more global than that. We have a wealth to choose from right here in the city of St. Petersburg. We have, of course, the university affiliation, and I'm not sure how much we do right now with USF. We have the Poynter Institute, we have the riches of city government right here. I don't know right now how much the community comes into the school. Not just as guest speakers, but as integrated into the development of the curriculum. I'd like to look at some major community projects, involve some technology, some distance learning opportunities that, okay, St. Petersburg has the following challenges or complexities about the community that they're trying to solve. All right, this group of students, let's work on that. How many times do our students go to the City Council meetings? How many times do they have an opportunity to present? How involved are they in what you do here at the (St. Petersburg) Times? How involved are they in the Police Department? What can we do to make the city of St. Petersburg and the oldest, most established high school in this city become much more integrated? That's what I'm looking at.

Q: And, at the same time, you're also looking at a lot of students who graduate from high school not reading. How do you fix some of those fundamental things?

A: Well, I wish I had a solid answer for that. What I can tell you is that we as human beings tend to rise to the occasion when we're valued. Let's say if we put a group of students together to work with the City Council on a particular issue, I would not want that group of students to only be IB students. Some of them may not be the best readers. They may have other talents that we could develop so that they would have a greater desire to want to read more effectively. I still think it comes down to motivation. How can we as a community motivate those students? I can't solve all their problems. They're only with me or with the school X amount of hours. But I still am Pollyanna enough to say if a student feels wanted, they feel motivated and have the desire, they're going to respond.

Q: St. Pete High's a big school. How many students? 2,000?

A: 2,150 and right now the school that I'm in has 1,450.

Q: And that's not a small number either. It seems to be a very crowded school; some of the halls become almost impassable at times. Do you think that's going to change?

A: You mean change with choice or change with ...?

Q: Can you make it change?

A: Well, the resources of the school, as far as looking at the budget and what the teachers have and what the needs are, no, I've not had the opportunity to truly be into the nuts and bolts of that. I can't make the students go away and I can't make them shrink any. There's no magic answer to that. You can look at how the students move throughout the day, how your scheduling is in place, do all students need to change classes at the same time, looking at the master schedule, is there some possible variation there? I can't figure it's an easy answer because of the complexity of students' schedules.

Q: One obvious, quick way to make some of the kids go away is to eliminate some of the special permits.

A: I would have to look at the percentage of students and how that's affecting the overall student population.

Q: How is the dropout rate at St. Pete High?

A: The dropout rate is high. In fact, I can give you the numbers at another point. At the moment, they're escaping me. But the dropout rate exceeded the state level, so that was a factor that kept them off the B list. The other is suspensions and how we handle suspensions. Those two areas are things that we're going to look at right away.

Q: This is partly personal, since I have two high school students, but from what I've read, students who start school as early as they must in Pinellas County are at a horrible disadvantage. Can that change? Is that going to change?

A: I agree with the fact that we truly need to look at how can we vary from that and get a good budget figure on that and let all of us participate in the decisionmaking of how much is it going to cost, or what are some other alternatives we can do to get these students on a later schedule? I do agree with you. I think 7:20 in the morning is too early. Let me also say that I think 9:40 is far too late for middle students as well. And you're right, it isn't something that I can solve, but I am very pleased that School Board members are bringing it up as an issue. So many times that we say, well, the high school students need to get there early and we attribute it to two things: the athletic program and the work program. The primary reason we're there is education, and let's not forget that and let's keep that in the front focus. I think 8 o'clock would be just fine for all of us -- elementary, middle and high -- but that's, again, looking at a huge expense for buses. We'll have to see how that evolves.

Q: We talked about the end of the court-ordered desegregation plan and probable changes. Do you perceive anything major happening at St. Pete High within the next year or so?

A: Within the next year or so, no. I think depending on what happens with all of these negotiations that are taking place right now and the unitary status, in three to five years, yes. My role as the facilitator of what will be happening at St. Petersburg High School in the next year, for me, will be to try to get a solid handle on where the school is now and where the school wants to be, and start putting in place the processes to have that happen. There's potential of dramatic change for all of our schools within the next three to five years.

Q: Do you think that teachers can be the moral guardians of education and of students, the way we seem to want them to be, even though they are so restricted in what they can do and teach?

A: I think it's all about responsibility to be the moral guardians of the children of the world. And I know that sounds ... I think it is our responsibility. I think we have to be cautious in the way that we do it and one of the most powerful ways to reach anyone is the role that you portray yourself. I'm hoping at a very early time within my tenure, which I hope will be quite lengthy at St. Petersburg High School, that the people see two things in me. I want them to see me as competent and able to do the job. I have the skills to do the job, I have the leadership ability to do the job, and I have solid character and I want the kids to see that every single day, that I respect them. I want them to respect me. I expect them to have responsibility for their learning as well as the teacher has responsibility for their learning. No one person can do any of this on their own. We have got to bring that total responsibility of everybody playing a role here, I can't do it alone, you can't do it alone, no one can. So that's my message and I want to be a role model for those students and to the staff and to you.

Q: Have you ever personally been involved with any violent episode at a school?

A: Yes, I have. When you have a violent episode, and I've had several, you have to be confident enough in yourself and your staff and the support system you have in this school to be able to act quickly and bring an end to it as quickly as you can. The next step is rapidly and quickly as you can get the communication out there as to what happened, what you did and open your doors for any suggestions of how you may have handled it differently. There isn't any way that any one of us, whether you're the manager of a major mall, or you're the mayor of this city, the police chief or the principal of St. Pete High, that you can avoid something happening at some point. Our job is being prepared and communicate.

Q: You would probably never have foreseen the escalation of violence among students against their peers. Over two decades, what else would you say have been some of the major changes you've seen in education and in schools?

A: The amount of knowledge that students are expected to have mastered as compared to what I left high school knowing and what students have now. Now with the Internet, we are truly an information society. And because of this information, because of what they know and what they're exposed to, we have a different student. We have to challenge the student that is challenging us academically. We're no longer the educator, the person standing in front with all the knowledge -- "You sit out here while I give it to you and next Friday you get to give it back to me on a test."

Q: What's your first order of business going to be on Jan. 3?

A: Oh, Jan. 3. I certainly want to be, as quickly as I can, involved with the students. I want to be involved in as many activities as I can, not just between classes and in lunch and things like that, but to let them know that I'm a real person and that's also very important to the staff because I know that certain elements of my reputation precede me and some of those may be very positive and some may not.

Q: What would might not be positive?

A: Well, I have extremely high expectations and sometimes that gets me in trouble, so I'm sure some people are sitting there thinking, oh, she's going to expect me to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week and she's going to be expecting me to know exactly how to integrate technology into all my classes, and she's going to expect, expect, expect, and that's going to drive some fear into some people. They don't really know me.

Q: Do you think, by and large, when a student graduates from high school the school system has failed or has succeeded?

A: Oh, I don't think you can paint that with one brush. We have succeeded with many, and we have not succeeded with many. How you go about solving all that ... one starfish at a time.

Q: Any last words?

A: We've been talking for what, at least an hour and a half? I've enjoyed this. I feel I've been candid and honest with you. I do not operate with hidden agendas. I can't; I'm not sophisticated enough. Do I really care about the school system and the students as much as I have portrayed in the last hour and a half? Yes, ma'am, I do.

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