The Escambia County School District is struggling to reach an agreement with CharterUSA regarding Warrington Middle School before the May 1 deadline. Board chairman Paul Fetsko has called a special meeting at 8 a.m. on Friday, April 28, to discuss it.
Fetsko has been concerned with the changes that CharterUSA has proposed – including eventually making the school a K-12 academy that wouldn’t be obligated to enroll Warrington children – and the attitude of the State Board of Education.
On WCOA’s “Real News with Rick Outzen,” he pointed out that the Florida Department of Education has dictated how the school has been run for the past eight years.
“The state board and the DOE has all the power, all the control, gave all the directions, and with authority and power comes responsibility,” Fetsko said. “But they have neglected to assume any responsibility for the decisions they made instructionally at that school for eight years.”
He continued, “We, being Escambia County, were not permitted to run our own program. We had to follow what their directions were.”
For more on this story, read “Warrington Middle in Jeopardy.”