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WEAR TV questions how District deals with closed schools
The Escambia County School District has closed 19 schools in the last 12 years. The majority were in African-American neighborhoods. WEAR TV reported on it last night. Unfortunately, the story turned into a real estate advertisement.
Good Report Card for ECARE
ECARE is making progress in its quest to prepare children for kindergarten. One promise ECARE made was to provide tutors for children in pre-k classes at Global Learning Academy. While the number of volunteers is small, the numbers reflecting the progress made is very uplifting. In October and [...]
A. K. Suter construction makes no sense
People are in an uproar over the $25 million proposed road construction on Pensacola Beach, but little is being said about the $21 million the School District wants to spend on a new A.K. Suter Elementary School. A.K. Suter has 367 students. It's enrollment is flat, despite allowing students [...]
Save A.A. Dixon
Superintendent Malcolm Thomas has made it known that he plans to recommend in March that the school board issue A.A. Dixon Charter School of Excellence a 90-day notice of its intent to close the school. The school board can reject it, but, to date, they have been rubber stamps for whatever Thomas [...]
Superintendent misleads PNJ and Board
On Saturday, the daily newspaper reported that "Escambia County School Board members said they were disappointed the district didn't receive any credit from the school(A.A. Dixon) when the donation (of three school buses) was announced earlier this month." The announcement of which the board is [...]
Gupta and Vena named Sunshine STEM scholars
Preeyal Gupta of Pensacola High and Roman Vena of Pace High have been named among the Florida Panhandle’s highest achieving science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students. They will join their peers from around the state Thursday and Friday in Orlando to be honored during the [...]
Allegations surface concerning Navarre High baseball coach
The Daily News reported that former Navarre High baseball coach Mickey O'Quinn resigned after allegations of inappropriate behavior surfaced. O'Quinn was being investigated by the school district for “kissing female students, changing student grades, inappropriate texting to students, [...]
A.A. Dixon Gets a Set of Wheels
Buses are something that most schools probably take advantage of, however the strain from renting them has cost A.A. Dixon Charter School of Excellence $150,000 a year on transportation. Board President, Rev. LuTimothy May took the task on of tracking buses at auctions. He found three, red-lined [...]
Escambia and Santa Rosa counties lag behind in AP exams
The Flordia Department of Education released an announcement that for the third year in a row, Florida had the highest percentage of high school graduates taking an Advanced Placement (AP) exam while in high school according to The 8th Annual AP Report to the Nation® released today by the College [...]
Black Man, White Robes
There’s a big difference between Daryl Davis and some of the friends he’s made over the years. He’s black and they were in the Klan. In an effort to explore the issue of racism, Davis traveled the dark road of the Ku Klux Klan. He arranged meetings—without revealing his race—and [...]
Thomas to spend $16.5 million on new E.Ward Middle
Superintendent Malcolm Thomas is a numbers guy. When dealing with the African-American community, his mantra is always about numbers. He closed Spencer Bibbs rather than upgrade because of attendance. He threatened to close Lincoln Park for the same reason. Other schools aren't given the same [...]
C-SPAN in Pensacola
You’ve watched it in the middle of the night on television, now come aboard the bus. The C-SPAN Campaign 2012 Bus will be making a couple of stop in Pensacola this Friday. The bus is currently on its Road to the White House tour, named after the channel’s signature political [...]
Elementary Schools Academic rankings
Top 25% Helen Caro #221 Molino Park 236 Suter 294 Pine Meadow 342 Cordova Park 383 Scenic Heights 392 Bratt 402 Top 50% Byrneville 564 Blue Angel 620 Lipscomb 684 Oakcrest 805 McArthur 879 -------------------------------- Bottom 25% Pleasant Grove 1402 Spencer-Bibbs (closed) [...]
Middle School Academic Rankings….not so good
There are 583 middle schools in Florida. Escambia County only has 4 in the top 50%--one of which, Brown Barge, is a magnet school. Top 10% Brown Barge #46 Top 20% Ransom Middle #111 Top 50% Ernest Ward #200 Bailey #225 ------------------------ Bottom 40% Ferry Pass Bottom [...]
High School Rankings – Academic, not sports
Out of 404 public high schools in Florida: Top 25% West Florida #30 Top Third Pensacola High School (courtesy of IB program) #111 Northview High #138 Top Half Washington High #199 Bottom 15% Escambia High #342 Pine Forest High #362
Buzz: Teachers must hand in tax returns to district office
I'm hearing that the District administration is asking teachers send in copies of front page of their federal income tax returns to comply with an internal audit. This seems like a huge invasion of privacy. I thought conservative Republicans ran the Escambia County Public School District.
Blueprint for keeping college affordable
In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for a comprehensive approach to tackling rising college cost. Here's his blueprint: Creating New Incentives to Promote Affordability and Quality • The Race to the Top: College Affordability and Completion will promote change in state [...]
Schools Make Education Fun
Taking a break from FCAT preparation, students at A.A. Dixon Charter School were treated to a night of skating at Landmark Skate and Fun Center last night. “Our students have been working very hard,” said Principal Kathy Bearden-Colbert. “We wanted to reward them and let them know we [...]
Dixon and the District and the ‘Steep Hill’
School district officials wanted to shut it down. It was $100,000 in the hole and labeled as “failing” by the state. But a semester down the road, A.A. Dixon Charter School of Excellence is still striving toward its goal. The Escambia County School District gave the charter one academic year [...]
Buzz: Suter to be replaced with $20 million new school
The Escambia County Public School District has closed three schools in African-American neighborhoods. The Superintendent would like to add Lincoln Park and A.A. Dixon to his hit list. The Superintendent isn't as harsh with schools in white neighborhoods. We're hearing that A.K. Suter [...]
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