CHARTER SCHOOL CONVERSIONS
He criticized the school board for dragging its feet in converting the failing Warrington Middle School to a charter school.
Just so you know, DeSantis didn’t invite any school district administrator or board members to speak.
The Escambia County Public Schools administration and school board failed several times to turn around Warrington Middle under School Superintendent Malcolm Thomas. During Thomas’ tenure, the middle school earned one F and 7 D’s from 2012-2019. The School Board fought converting the school to a charter school run by Charter Schools USA. The State Board of Education forced the district to hand over the school.
“Most people know that if you receive two straight Ds or Fs on your school grade, then you are put into something called’ turnaround status.’ And that means that the school district has two years to implement a plan for improvement,” said the governor. “Now, that did not work here in Escambia County with this school when this happened, and this has happened over a number of years.”
DeSantis criticized the school board for “dragging the feet” and trying options other than conversion to a charter school that didn’t work. He added, “So then, they said we’re going to do the charter, but it took forever to be able to do the charter contract. And so the Department of Education and the State Board both got to go in and say, ‘Okay, listen, the statute says that you have to choose a path forward. You have to execute that path forward, and if you don’t do it soon, then we’re going to withhold your salaries for the school board.’ Well, they changed their tune very quickly then, and they got in and did a contract with Charter Schools USA to bring us to where we are today.”
He pledged to not let that happen again. The new law will “add some oomph to our turnaround school status in terms of the charter school component.”
The new law, which he plans to sign when it reaches his desk, speeds up the process of converting to a charter school:
A school receiving consecutive low-performance evaluations is deemed a “turnaround school.” If the district’s plan to turn the school around does not succeed, the pathway for the school to find new direction and leadership should be simple and efficient
These changes will eliminate lengthy and drawn-out negotiations between the incoming charter school and the school district to ensure no student is trapped at a failing school in Florida.
A charter school must give preference to kids in the previous school zone and must serve the same grade levels as the previous school.
The charter school cannot be charged rent for the facility and the school district cannot charge an administrative fee.
DeSantis said, “If you know something’s not working, we have a responsibility to act and act quickly. We shouldn’t be dragging our feet. They shouldn’t be taking years and years. You act, and you remediate, and that’s what this bill’s doing.”
The Florida School Superintendent for Charter Schools USA, Eddie Ruiz, said he hoped the bill would streamline the process. He also praised Escambia County School Superintendent Keith Leonard for helping with the transition.
“The bill that the governor is going to sign hopefully will help future struggling schools turnaround in a more streamlined fashion,” said Ruiz. “We were the guinea pigs; we didn’t get that right away. We’ve been getting help, but this bill will open up the red tape that may be out there to get action down to where students need it and do what’s right for them.”
He continued, “At the end of the day, the district has stood hand in hand with us during the process, saying, ‘Whatever you need, let’s get it done.’ They realize we’re in this together, and it’s about our kids here in Escambia County.”
BOOK CHALLENGES
The Escambia County School District and School Board are defendants in the federal court in a lawsuit regarding books they have removed from school libraries. Pen America, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, has reported that more than 1,600 books have been challenged and removed from schools in Escambia County.
Gov. DeSantis touted the importance of parental rights in approving books in schools but blamed bad actors for the logjam of book challenges statewide. He said, “The idea that someone can use the parents’ rights and the curriculum transparency to start objecting to every single book to try to make a mockery of this is wrong.”
In Escambia County, the first book challenges were made by Northview High teacher Vicki Baggett, who doesn’t have children in the school system. She challenged over 100 books. Baggett has since traveled to school board meetings in Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties, preaching the evils of literature.
Under the new law, Baggett would be limited to only one monthly challenge per district. DeSantis explained, “If you don’t have kids in the school district, you still are a citizen. You still can be interested in education, but you’re going to be limited to what you can be objecting to. You can raise an objection, and these are limited to one a month because what we found is you have activists that are going in there and they’re objecting to everything under the sun, and it’s from all ends of the political spectrum.”