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Outside consultants are poised to take leadership roles at 10 local schools

 
Hillsborough schools Superintendent Jeff Eakins held his start-of-the-year news conference at Mort Elementary School in 2016 to showcase a community school project there. Now, the state wants to assign an outside operator to Mort if it fails to achieve at least a grade of C. [JAMES BORCHUCK   |   Times (2016)]
Hillsborough schools Superintendent Jeff Eakins held his start-of-the-year news conference at Mort Elementary School in 2016 to showcase a community school project there. Now, the state wants to assign an outside operator to Mort if it fails to achieve at least a grade of C. [JAMES BORCHUCK | Times (2016)]
Published March 23, 2018

Whether they like it or not, 10 area schools that attracted state scrutiny are opening their doors to visitors.

Potential "external operators" have made their first visits to the Hillsborough and Pinellas schools, with much of their work scheduled for April.

The visits are happening at the height of testing season, but they can't be avoided.

Depending on school grades coming in July, these firms might be placed in charge of the schools.

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"We go in and visit every classroom," said Jennifer Reeves of Learning Sciences International, the operator on deck in Pinellas County for Fairmount Park and Lakewood elementaries and Azalea Middle.

"It is a little bit awkward," Reeves said. "There's a trust that we're trying to do the best for them. But this isn't a sales job. We're going to be very candid about what we see and what we don't see."

The 10 schools, with histories of D and F grades, already had been designated as turnaround schools under the state's accountability system.

But in a move that surprised some district officials, the state accelerated the process and ordered districts to come up with contingency plans in case they did not show enough progress in the first year.

Districts were given a short menu of options that included closing the schools or creating district-run charters, essentially a hybrid between traditional public schools and those run by private management companies.

They settled on what seemed like the least disruptive option — the external operator.

• • •

Pinellas chose Learning Sciences International, based in West Palm Beach and with extensive experience in Florida, as it already has a relationship with the firm.

Hillsborough, which put the job out to competitive bidding, selected Indiana-based Phalen Leadership Academies to oversee seven schools: Mort, Potter, Oak Park, Booker T. Washington, Sheehy and Foster elementaries, and Memorial Middle.

Costs could add up to more than $2 million a year for each school district.

Pinellas has committed to using LSI's services regardless of the school grades. The work will intensify for schools that get a D or F, Reeves said.

Jeff Eakins, superintendent in Hillsborough, has said he expects all seven of his schools to receive Cs or better, meaning the consultant would be paid for only a brief stint in July.

"The administrators, teachers and staff at these schools are doing incredible work," said spokeswoman Tanya Arja.

But, while cheering the schools on as they administer the all-important Florida Standards Assessment, both districts have had to welcome in the contractors.

"We have agreed with our contractors to be very, very light on all of our touches," Eakins said. "This is a problematic time line we have been placed on."

Reeves acknowledged the awkward nature of meeting the teachers.

"Of course they're anxious and curious," she said. "People are working hard. Their lack of success isn't because they aren't working hard. This isn't judgment. We just want to help them get better results."

• • •

LSI does not consider itself "a turnaround company," Reese said. That term implies short-term results. "We really want to leave these schools in the end as, hopefully, demonstration sites for other people to take a look at."

For example: Low-hanging fruit, in a school turnaround, would be to focus on children in grades three and above who take the Florida Standards Assessment and, in particular, those on the cusp of passing.

"We know where the fruit is and we're not going to ignore the fruit, but that's not where we're going to stop," Reeves said. "We believe in core instruction, and that begins when the kids step on campus."

Phalen, the Hillsborough operator, is headed up by Earl Martin Phalen, a Harvard Law School graduate whose work began with a successful summer program.

He succeeded in Indiana at turning struggling public schools into "innovation" schools, which share some similarities with charter schools. He said he does not consider himself an ideologue in the ongoing debate about school choice.

"I like to focus on how to give children the type of education that will set them up for the future," Phalen said. "I'm agnostic on how you do that and what government structure you use. Children have to get what they deserve because if they don't, well, we all see what happens when they don't."

Tactics that have helped Phalen's schools in Indiana suggest high costs: Longer days, summer school, and two instructors in every classroom.

But Phalen said he has revised his system in recent years.

"We have a traditional school day and we'll continue that," he said. "We have a traditional school year."

As for staffing, Phalen said he likes to reallocate instructors already at the school so students have regular opportunities to learn in small groups and receive the tutoring they need in language arts and math.

All students in Phalen's schools are called "scholars."

Parents are instructed to get involved, with but with realistic expectations: Ask your child how his day was, sign his reading log, impose a regular bedtime.

Phalen also has come to believe in structured systems of positive reinforcement as an antidote to behavior problems.

"We started out as, 'If you do this bad thing, here's what happens,'" he said. That posture has given way to "a structured process of how we acknowledge the 93 percent of children making great decisions every day. That builds strong school cultures."

• • •

Before agreeing to Phalen's contract on March 6, Hillsborough School Board members asked a lot of questions and found a lot to dislike.

The document was vague about staffing, as Phalen had not yet assessed the schools. Some board members asked why the schools had been allowed to deteriorate so badly that they needed an outside operator.

Susan Valdes cited a state law that allows the district to declare at a state of emergency at a struggling school, which affords greater flexibility. She wondered whether it would make sense to invoke that law for schools that could be in play next year.

But Tamara Shamburger, whose urban district includes six of the seven schools, said it made no sense to complain, or pick apart the contract, when so many students are not getting the education they need.

"These schools have been low performing for a very, very long time because of what we've been doing," Shamburger said.

"We have to stop looking out the window and we start looking in the mirror. I'm not altogether upset about the potential of an external operator coming in because, frankly, our kids need something different."

Staff writer Colleen Wright contributed to this report. Contact Marlene Sokol at (813) 226-3356 or msokol@tampabay.com. Follow @marlenesokol.