School Board votes down proposal that would have made 50 the minimum score for assignments, delays student code of conduct changes to August

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the July 16 School Board of Alachua County meeting, the board voted down a proposal that would have made 50 the minimum score for assignments and postponed amendments to the student code of conduct to their August 6 meeting. They also heard from teachers’ union representatives who are unhappy with the state of contract negotiations, received confirmation that Alachua eSchool will continue for at least another year, and heard a request from Member Sarah Rockwell to oppose any application submitted for the Newberry Charter School.

ACEA update

During the agenda item designated for the teachers’ union, ACEA President Carmen Ward said the negotiations on their next contract are “not great.” She said the SBAC team had threatened to “go to impasse” if the union did not “move off of [their] stronghold… around early release Wednesdays.” She also said the proposed raise is 1.6%, and “we definitely did not think that was acceptable.” She said the union offered a compromise of a monthly early release Wednesday, but the SBAC team stayed at 1.6% and “continued to behave as if we were at an impasse and did not negotiate in good faith.” She said the union is asking for a 3.4% raise.

ACEA Service Unit Director Crystal Tessman said that if a paraprofessional steps in to substitute for a teacher, they only get an extra $25 per day, and that is prorated by the hour, so it could be much less. She said the district pays between $105 and $144 per day to hire a substitute, so the district could pay a higher supplement to the paraprofessional and still save money over hiring a substitute. She concluded, “I hope this information somehow has not clearly been presented before and that it is now very clear that $25 a day is exploitative and unacceptable.”

After a number of SBAC employees spoke during general public comment about how much the cost of living has increased, Member Tina Certain said, “We have been very generous.” She said school boards have little control over their funding in Florida, and “we have to operate within that allotment of the money that we have… I’m not one to want to nickel and dime employees. I believe in paying fairly, but we have the constraint where the five of us are not deciding on the total amount of funding, and… we have to operate the school district, the buildings, buses, staff pay… I’m not insensitive to the cost of living, increasing – or not. But the five of us up here do not control the amount of money that comes into this district… There’s only a limited pot of money.”

Alachua eSchool

During a discussion about a renewal of the district’s contract with Florida Virtual School, Superintendent Shane Andrew clarified that the one-year contract gives the district the flexibility to evaluate the program and the number of students being served, now that the legislature has made it optional for districts to have their own virtual platform. Andrew also noted that eSchool is moving to Duval Early Learning Center at 2106 NE 8th Avenue. New students will be accepted to Alachua eSchool this year, and families can contact Mrs. Alvarez, the eSchool principal, Monday-Thursday.

Student conduct policy

During the second reading of amendments to the student conduct policy, Certain made a motion to approve the amendments, and Member Kay Abbitt seconded the motion. 

Rockwell said she had repeatedly expressed her concern that the code of conduct does not include a matrix that provides “a clear layout of the progressive discipline and what the possible repercussions are for different infractions… I think this does a disservice to everyone because students don’t know what the consequences are for a first infraction, a second infraction, etc. Parents don’t know. Teachers don’t know. And then we also have very inconsistent implementation across schools because parents, teachers, and students don’t know what the implementation expectations are.” She said other districts have this and added, “I just can’t, in good conscience, keep voting for a student code of conduct that I think is missing such a critical piece.”

Executive Director of Exceptional Student Education Kathy Black said that a previous matrix was not effective because consequences vary so much by age that “it almost comes down to doing it by grade or age.” She said the Discipline Committee recommended removing the matrix. She said that principals, assistant principals, and deans use a matrix, but staff did not recommend putting it in the Student Code of Conduct.

Abbitt said she agreed with Rockwell that a matrix would be helpful because it would remove most of the subjectivity in consequences. She added, “Our behavior is kind of out of control in the classroom, and I think it’d be very beneficial to have something like that. And so I’m for having a matrix, and it might not have worked years ago, but if you have something that’s very clear, and if teachers, deans, principals, students, and parents are educated on it, and if it’s followed consistently, I bet some behaviors would improve.”

Certain thanked staff for removing the controversial definition of “defiance”  from the policy but said she was not sure she was “buying into the matrix thing.” She asked whether staff had looked at Orange County’s list of behaviors and consequences: “Maybe we can find some happy medium.” She asked whether they could look at this again in a future meeting instead of making an immediate decision. 

Staff Attorney Susan Seigle said they could take it up at their August 6 meeting, but if it delayed past that date, they would have to start the whole rule-making process again.

Chief of Equity Edwards: “We’re trying to minimize the level of disproportionality that exists in the district.”

Chief of Equity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement Anntwanique Edwards cautioned that “when we are looking at being hard and fast and consistent and ensuring that students receive consequences, I want to be very clear that we also look at our data and the disproportionality that exists in our district. So when we start saying that we are going to use this matrix and we’re not going to have any flexibility to not have referrals – are the children who are most likely to receive those referrals and discipline children who are of color? I have some concerns because it works both ways if we make it such that there isn’t any professional latitude for people to make decisions about things that could also jeopardize a population of students who are already very challenged within our district. And so that has been part of the discussion as well because we’re trying to minimize the level of disproportionality that exists in the district.”

Although there was already a motion on the floor, Member Leanetta McNealy made a motion to pause the discussion and take it up again on August 6. After advice from the Board Attorney, the original motion was withdrawn, and Certain seconded McNealy’s motion to table the discussion until August 6. The board voted unanimously to approve the motion.

Student progression plan

Next, the board took up amendments to the student progression plan, including a recommendation to make 50 the minimum score for any assignment; a change from the last reading of the policy included a change in the grading scale “to reflect an F=50-59%.”

Rockwell made a motion to approve the amendments to the policy, and McNealy seconded the motion. 

Abbitt said she still opposed the change in the grading scale. Rockwell said she supported it: “We all got a stack of articles of the research that backs this as evidence-based practice.” However, Rockwell did not think that a child who did not turn in an assignment should get the same grade as a student who “tries their best and still fails.” She suggested that they “look mathematically at what would make sense,” which might be a 25 or 30 if an assignment isn’t turned in.

Abbitt: “I don’t even know how we’ve gotten to this point, to where we would even suggest a change like this.”

Abbitt countered, “I don’t think there’s anywhere in society where you can get 50% for doing nothing. If you don’t come to work, they’re not going to pay you 50% of your salary. I feel like we’re teaching a lesson that – if I don’t turn in the work, I should not get any credit for it at all. If I did my best and I got a 30%, I got a 30%. It doesn’t mean that I know 50% of the material… As a teacher, if I were grading a paper and a child got a 20%, a child got a 50%, that gives me a lot of information. I don’t even know how we’ve gotten to this point, to where we would even suggest a change like this.”

Certain said, “After really deliberating over this, I don’t think we should change it.” She said grades are an early warning signal for parents that something is not right, and changing the grading scale could lead to students getting good grades but not passing the standardized tests required to graduate.

During public comment, a high school teacher said she opposed changing the grading scale.

After public comment, McNealy said she was “from the old school: zero is zero. I am not in accord with this policy.”

Certain asked to modify the motion to not change the grading scale and “stick with the former grading scale.” She said she was fine with the other changes to the policy. Rockwell agreed with the amendment to her motion.

McGraw asked if there were any phone calls, and a woman who said she was a teacher but wanted to remain anonymous said the change is a “one-size-fits-all solution” that is “not proven.” A parent also called in to disagree with the change. 

Superintendent Andrew commented, “Just for the record, we should use a grade point system. An F should be a 0.0, a D- should be a 0.5, a D should be a 1.0, a D+ should be a 1.5, a C should be a 2.0, a C+ should be a 2.5, a B should be a 3.0, a B+ should be a 3.5, and an A should be a 4.0. Then by the time our students get to high school, they would understand the GPA system that’s required for them to be admitted into an institution of higher learning.”

The motion passed unanimously.

Newberry Charter School

During board member requests, Rockwell said, “I wanted to respond to the situation with Newberry Elementary. My understanding – and Mr. Andrew can correct me if I’m wrong, but the school district and this board are operating from the understanding that, based on the statute and corresponding administrative rules, all three conversion votes failed, and until a charter application is actually submitted, there is nothing we can do at this point. We have said that the votes failed. If there comes a time when an application is actually submitted, then we can challenge the validity of that application even existing. And determining whether or not to challenge that would be a board vote, I believe, because it would probably involve hiring legal counsel and spending money and would come before this board. And I cannot speak for any of my colleagues, but I can speak for myself that if that happens and it comes before the board, I will support challenging it legally.”

Rockwell continued, “As far as I’m concerned, that conversion vote failed. The corresponding turnover we had in faculty and staff at Newberry Elementary shows that this whole process has been extremely detrimental to that community. The people spearheading it – some of their concerns for Newberry Elementary were valid, and we could have sat down and had discussions before this charter conversion process started. I used to speak to Mayor Marlowe all the time… But that’s not what happened. What happened was a campaign that has torn apart a very tight knit community, created a harsh division in that community, and it’s ultimately harmed the children of that community, and that breaks my heart, not to mention the fact that as an elected official of this county and of this school district, one of my jobs is to protect our taxpayers’ investments, and converting a school that is not failing to a charter, in my opinion, is not good stewardship of our taxpayer dollars. So I have opposed this verbally, vocally, wholeheartedly, from the beginning. So I just wanted to say that.”