Inside Warrington Middle School ‘revival’ meeting

Yesterday Superintendent of Schools Malcolm Thomas and County Commissioner Gene Valentino held a town hall meeting to reportedly come up with solutions to revive Warrington Middle School, the 10th worst middle school in the entire state of Florida.

How could the school go from a ‘C’ school 2009 to a ‘F’ in just four years?

Those attending the meeting learned it can’t be Thomas’ fault – after all he fired the principal and entire staff that helped it get that ‘C’ and pumped $6.5 million into the school. According to Principal Sandra Rush, it’s not the teachers’ fault.

The problem must be with the parents, kids and the Warrington community. That’s the message many walked away last night.

There was no action plan or timeline given for the school.

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Here are our notes on the meeting.

The two-hour ordeal drew about 100 people, who included about a dozen parents, a handful of students, a few mentors, a lot of school district officials, including all five board members, and more than 30 Warrington teachers and staff members.

School district and county commission representatives ate up the first hour of the meeting, while the public input was limited to three minutes each.

Thomas and Warrington Middle School Principal Sandra Rush defended the school and its teachers and said what the school really needs is more community, business and parental involvement to make it a success. Neither suggested how they and their staffs would bring that about.

“We need all of you to work together to make Warrington the best school in the district,” said Rush, who is retiring this year after five years at the middle school and 41 years with the school district.

“We should have every parent here tonight,” Rush added.

Thomas said a formal PTA should be set up. He added he would raise money for instruments or ask for instruments to be donated for about 100 children at the school who wanted to participate in the band but couldn’t because they lacked the money. He said the school does not have a band booster club like most schools.

Thomas, who was short on creative solutions at Tuesday’s meeting, said: “There are things money can’t buy and some things the board can’t approve, like a PTA that’s energized to come and support the school.”

Rush praised past efforts, such as student uniforms. Thomas pointed out that $6.5 million has been spent on upgrading facilities, including $2 million for a technology center and another $600,000 for merit pay for teachers and bonuses to sign up teachers to work at the troubled school.

“A lot of people are not doing much,” Thomas said. “It’s easy to sit out there and throw a rock. This is not the night to throw rocks. We need mentors, we need volunteers, we need business partners.”

Thomas emphasized twice that “It is not an option for Warrington to fail,” while insisting it was finally turning around. Rush’s staff reported, in fact, that on practice FCAT tests in reading, math and science that about 40-50 percent of students were passing compared to 20 percent on last year’s test.

Thomas promised a parent that Warrington Middle School would remain open.

“Let me set the record perfectly straight. It was never an option in my mind for this school to close,” Thomas said. “We got into this fight to fight. We didn’t get into it to get half way to the middle and give up because it’s too hard.”

Meanwhile, Valentino and County Commission Chairman Lumon May both emphasized how critical it is to improve the county’s education system to attract high-paying jobs in technology and aerospace. May called for aligning economic development and education goals. But both lacked specifics on accomplishing that mission.

Valentino said at a meeting with Airbus suppliers in Germany, the company leaders wanted to know about the quality of education in the Pensacola area.

“It’s about you and your children and what you want the future of this town to be,” Valentino said. “Do you want it to be a factory or mill town? Or do you want high-paying jobs that our children currently have to leave our county for?”

May, who represents District 3, said: “We must align our economic development strategy with our educational strategy. We need to have some very hard conversations.”

Rev. Grover Brown also took issue with school administrators blaming parents for Warrington’s problems. He said he attended the meeting on behalf of parents who were working, some on second jobs, or lacked transportation to the meeting. “I think it’s a bad excuse to just sit here and bam on parents. The same approach over and over again is not going to work.”

Sam Matthews pointed out he helped get a grant for after school tutoring and care at Attucks Court, a public housing complex.

Thomas on school discipline: “The tools we have to handle children today is greatly diminished. I would get three licks and get sent back to class. We can’t do that because of liability. We are limited. We are building positive behavior supports.”

Thomas also took issue with suggestions by Florida Senate president Don Gaetz in Sunday’s Pensacola News Journal editorial page on how to turn around Warrington.

“I read it. Everything on his list, except giving $2,000 to go shop for tutoring, we have done. It’s not time for Warrington to speak up. It’s time for Warrington to step up.”