The Santa Rosa County School District announced it has received an ‘A’ letter grade from the Florida Department of Education for the 12th consecutive year, according to a school district press release. The grade was based on results from the 2014-2015 school year. The results were delayed to due to legislative action requiring a review of the newly implemented Florida Standards Assessment.
“Hopefully, school grades will be released earlier for the 2015/16 school year,” said SRCSD School Board Chair Jennifer Granse. “We are always working to do better and it would be most helpful to receive scores at the beginning of the school year rather than the end.”
Granse was thankful for the continued hard work of teachers and students in making it possible to continue the school district’s streak of maintaining the highest grade level.
“Again and again, our teachers and students have shown that under the most difficult testing situations, they can still shine,” she said. “I am so grateful for their diligence and commitment to providing our students a quality education.”
A majority of SRC public schools scored an ‘A’ baseline grade. Only three schools received a ‘B,’ including AvalonMiddle School, East Milton and BagdadElementary Schools. CentralSchool, W.H. Rhodes Elementary and KingMiddle School received a ‘C’ grade. No schools in the district reported a lower grade.
“I feel very confident as we continue to expand academies and our STEAM initiative. You will see our school grades increase over the next few years,” Superintendent Tim Wyrosdick said. “I am so proud of our teachers and administrators serving in each of our schools. We will celebrate these grades today and tomorrow begin to examine how we can do better.”
Wyrosdick is also appreciative of those working outside the schools in the community in order to make sure the school district maintains an ‘A’ grade.
“Santa RosaDistrictSchool’s continued and lengthy success is a result of the quality of partnerships between our board, teachers, community members and parents,” he said. “This success demonstrates the commitment to excellence our parents and community expects.”
Both East Milton and BagdadElementary Schools saw a much improved letter grades after receiving ‘D’ letter grades in the previous school years.
East Milton Elementary Principal Terry Paschall said the school’s educators were working diligently to improve the letter grade for the past three years.
“We have been working with the state, we started targeting certain areas and reprioritizing,” she said.
Paschall said the school also changed their mindset by not allowing the school’s high poverty level define the school’s performance when it comes to testing.
“We do not allow that to be an excuse and it has paid off,” she said.
In addition to the students and teachers, Paschall also credited the parents for being more involved with their children’s education. She said the school regularly invites parents for family night’s at the school which allow parents to participate in games promoting school academics through hands-on activities.
Bagdad Elementary Principal Daniel Baxley is also thankful for the continued support of parents, so much so his school is working to organize a small celebration for parents, teachers and students.
He also credited former Principal Linda Gooch, who now serves as the principal at S.S. Dixon Intermediate in Pace, for implementing a program called ‘Capturing Kids’ Hearts’ last year. Baxley said the ‘Capturing’ program really showed improvement in the third through fifth grade levels.
“It builds relationships through words of encouragement and professional development,” Baxley said.
He said the teachers were prepared to teach the curriculum required for the newly implemented Florida testing assessment.
In his first year at Bagdad Elementary, Baxley anticipates the continuation of building relationships among students and teachers in which teachers are expected to further research professional development skills and students are expected to track their progress through the curriculum.
Baxley said having further community involvement for the school’s recently unveiled ‘Little Free Library,’ which promotes literacy throughout the Bagdad community.
“It’s bringing the community together with parents, teachers and students, like one family,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Santa Rosa County School District receives “A” grade for 12th consecutive year