They don't get it. The Pinellas County School Board, superintendent Mike Grego and the Pinellas Education Foundation don't grasp the severity of the crisis in failing south St. Petersburg elementary schools, the desperate demand in the community for change or the scope of the response required for meaningful improvements. If they don't listen more, think bigger and act faster, it will take the federal government or the courts to deliver hope and a quality public education to students who deserve better.
A yearlong Tampa Bay Times investigation of five predominantly black, poor elementary schools and how they have fared since Pinellas abandoned integration efforts in 2007 has triggered a powerful public reaction. Academically, the schools are among the worst in the state, with eight in 10 students failing reading and nine in 10 failing math. In 2014, there were more violent incidents at these five elementary schools than in Pinellas County's 17 high schools combined. The individual stories from children struggling to learn and fearing for their safety, and from their parents seeking better for their kids, are gut-wrenching pleas for help.
Yet the school district's response has been less robust, too defensive and astoundingly tone deaf. Grego kicked off a crowded community meeting Friday night with a 45-minute PowerPoint presentation better suited for bureaucrats that focused on improvements already in place. The Pinellas Education Foundation chair distributed a two-page letter this week listing its worthy initiatives and complaining "a negative perception now dampens spirits" at the beginning of the school year. Most disappointing has been the reaction by School Board Chairwoman Linda Lerner, who was first elected to the board 25 years ago and has transformed from a progressive bright light to an apologist for a district that has failed its neediest children.
"Absolutely, the students at those five schools are among the very most struggling students in the state,'' Lerner said at Tuesday's School Board meeting. "I understand that. But just to clarify, many of them can read and do math.''
Just to clarify: Many of them cannot read and do math at grade level. Look at the test scores. Visit a classroom. Ask their teachers.
It is a mistake for the school district to focus on damage control. Grego and the School Board can take credit for recent initiatives to steer more human and financial resources to the county's most segregated elementaries: Melrose, Maximo, Lakewood, Campbell Park and Fairmount Park. But the size of their efforts does not match the magnitude of the challenge. There has been an outpouring of public concern for these schools that stretches far beyond their neighborhoods, and the district would be better served by capitalizing on this opportunity to enlist businesses, families and city government in a broader effort to more quickly make a real difference.
Fortunately, waiting for an epiphany by an insular school district is not the only option. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, have asked the U.S. Department of Education to intervene and examine questions about funding and education quality. The Concerned Organization for Quality Education of Black Students, the court-approved group assigned to monitor and enforce the school district's commitment to a quality education for black students, has finally lost its patience with the lack of progress. Rick Escarraz, the lawyer who represents the plaintiffs in a 1964 federal desegregation lawsuit, has heard the frustrations of black families and demanded improvements.
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Explore all your optionsThe federal government and the courts should not have to force Pinellas County to make the large-scale investment needed to improve these elementary schools and provide a quality education to black students in the poorest neighborhoods. But the school district has yet to rise to the challenge, and intervention from Washington or a federal judge may be the last options left.