The Pinellas County School District has released new details of a plan to use magnet programs to attract families to its most struggling schools, making them more diverse. But some black leaders raised doubts that such programs would help neighborhood students already at those schools.
The School Board on Tuesday will discuss the proposed magnets for Fairmount Park, Campbell Park, Melrose, Maximo and Lakewood elementary schools in St. Petersburg and Sandy Lane Elementary in Clearwater. Documents made public this week explain that a magnet-themed curriculum is one facet of a state-mandated process to turn around these schools, which received F grades last year.
Unlike other magnet programs in the county, all students currently attending the schools would participate in the magnets, officials said. The district solicited feedback from parents and staffers over the past 18 months to determine themes and locations for the programs.
Fairmount Park, which is slated for a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) curriculum, also would offer a performing, visual and graphic arts program with instrument-based classes and ensembles and music production.
Lakewood would offer an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme, a Center for Environmental Science, and Spanish and American sign language classes.
Maximo would have an entrepreneurship program that would bridge a STEM curriculum to real-life entrepreneurship using student projects. The school hopes to establish a feeder program into middle and high school entrepreneurship programs.
Melrose, which has a journalism magnet that has failed to attract students, would offer a more robust Center for Communication Arts and Technology. The curriculum would include digital, print, broadcast and social media, as well as computer coding. In addition, all students would have the opportunity to play violin through a partnership with Ruth Eckerd Hall that introduces students to performance art.
Sharon Reid-Kane, vice president of education and outreach at Ruth Eckerd, said the partnership with Melrose is "premature," but would most likely involve instructors coming to the school to teach violin to students and eventually have them perform on the hall's stage. Ruth Eckerd has established partnerships with seven other schools in the district.
Many studies show that children who get involved in music do better in school, Reid-Kane said. "We are here to help. We're just extending an open hand to arts extension."
Sandy Lane Elementary also would have an arts magnet with a STEAM curriculum and project-based learning.
As for Campbell Park, the district proposes to bring back its marine science program.
Officials aim to start these magnets as early as the 2017-18 school year, but no time line has been set.
They are applying for a highly competitive $12 million federal grant to develop the programs, with the exception of Campbell Park, which would be funded with local grant money.
Schools with "racial or socioeconomic integration evidence of promise" are given priority for the federal grant, although that is not a requirement. Even if the district is not awarded the grant, Pinellas officials intend to move ahead with the programs using other funding.
They say they plan to market the magnets and recruit families outside the schools' zones to make them more racially diverse, while also guaranteeing every neighborhood student a seat.
Still, black leaders fear the magnets would leave neighborhood students behind.
The topic came up Wednesday at a meeting of the group Concerned Organization for Quality Education of Black Students after a discussion about its class-action lawsuit against the district for shortchanging black students.
"COQEBS' position is generally opposed to magnets," said the group's president, Ricardo Davis, who added that he would like to see more detail about the magnets.
The district's deputy superintendent, Bill Corbett, assured COQEBS members that the programs would be geared to all students at each school. But some of them were not convinced.
Former St. Petersburg police Chief Goliath Davis said magnet programs may bring up a school's grade but could create a school-within-a-school that doesn't address the needs of traditional students.
"That's a game and that's a trick," he said, "and we're not willing to buy that."
Contact Colleen Wright at cwright@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8643. Follow @Colleen_Wright.