By Danny Federico Riverbend News
The Hamilton County School Board (HCSB) met on Tuesday, Dec. 8, at 6 p.m. in the District Administrative Building, located at Hamilton County High School, 5683 US Highway 129 South, in Jasper, Fla., to discuss and approve various items involving the 2020-21 school year.
During the meeting, four new and revised school board policies received approval, including policies 2.161, Title IX procedures on sexual harassment and grievances; 2.18, prohibiting discrimination, including sexual and other forms of harassment; 5.101, bullying and harassment and 5.105, dating violence and abuse.
Concerns with the 2020-21 Uniform Statewide Assessment Calendar were also brought up. According to Section 1008.22(7) of the 2020 Florida Statues, each school district must complete the Uniform Assessment Calendar and additional required assessment information, publish the calendar to the district website and provide it to the department by Oct. 1 of each school year. Each school must also publish the completed calendar on its website. Because of the fall 2020 testing windows being extended and changed at the beginning of the school year, the spring 2020 testing calendar was impossible to make, until now. This brings concerns that the spring testing windows will be changed.
It was brought to the board's attention that third grades spring reading and fourth through 10th grades spring writing testing windows are scheduled for the days of Monday, April 5 through Thursday, April 15, providing a two week testing window for students and teachers. However, Hamilton's Spring Break is scheduled to begin the week of April 5. This would only leave five days for the schools to get testing and make-up testing done. In order for the schools to receive grades, 95 percent of the students must be tested. According to data gathered from Option-2, or remote learning, the student participation percentage is not possible to make within the period of five days. This is a concern other counties have voiced, as they are also having issues with their Option-2 students. While the State is aware of the school board's concerns, they have no answers or suggestions to provide.
The board has decided to bring the issue back at a later date for further discussion, as they are not enthusiastic about the possibility of having to move Easter break. "If we have to move Spring Break, it would be done under duress," said Johnny Bullard, Board Chairman.
In a continued discussion on Option-2 student performance, concerns for the Spring 2021 Educational Plan were raised. According to the Superintendent of Schools for Hamilton County, Lee Wetherington-Zamora, the State has authorized the continued 2020-21 school reopening plan, called the "Spring 2021 Extension Education Plan." The integration of the intervention plan will begin soon with the targeted effort to reach out to students who are demonstrating a decline in the district's academic expectations. The ultimate goal of the intervention plan is to have all students return to face-to-face learning.
Through the intervention plan, schools will be required to reach out to parents of failing students and have the parent come in to talk about the student's academic progress. If the parent wishes to keep their child in Option-2 learning, they will have to sign off saying they understand the educational risks associated with their choice. The board has already drafted the advisory letter that will be sent out and planned on integrating the plan by Monday, Dec. 14.
As it stands, there are around 20 students enrolled in Option-2 for Hamilton County Elementary School and around 80 students enrolled for Hamilton County High School. While there is no data on the educational progress for the elementary school students, the majority of the Option-2 high school students are not doing well. This is why the key piece of the educational plan is to have students return to face-to-face learning.
Along with having students return to school, the plan also includes an enhanced outreach for truancy, as a major challenge with the online learning platform has been having students sign-in on time and staying signed-in. "Down the line, we don't want anybody that's part of the public school system to come along and say 'my child was unable to get something because you provided an inadequate education and I was not aware of it.' This way, they have to sign off, saying they were aware of it," Bullard said. The plan will also focus on areas regarding professional development in order to make sure teachers have the skills to continue teaching online.
In addition to the approval of policies and discussion of Option-2, Cheryl McCall, Hamilton County's District 1 representative, brought to light a few important achievements for the Hamilton County School District. On Wednesday, Dec. 2, McCall took part in an online State School Conference, which included a section titled "Closing the Opportunity Gap" which was presented by the Florida Partnership for Minority and Underrepresented Student Achievement. During the conference, Hamilton County was placed among the top-10 Florida counties in three different areas. Hamilton County placed eighth in the list of districts with the largest percentage in the past three years in the number of minority students who took an AP exam; third in the list of districts with the largest percentage in the past three years in the number of AP exams with 3+ scores and first in the list of districts with the largest percentage in the past three years in the number of students who took an AP exam.
"Our district has made positive steps in the past few years to make gains in student achievements and successes," McCall said. "This is an affirmation that the continued efforts of all of us working together has made a difference! It's a "plus" for students, parents, faculty, staff and administration."