Five Polk County middle schools held meetings Thursday night to inform parents on their new improvement or Turnaround Option plans.
- Polk schools introduced school turnaround plans
- Struggling middle schools: Kathleen, Denison, Westwood, Shelley S. Boone and Lake Alfred-Addair.
- Bay News 9 education resources
More than 75 parents came to the meeting at Denison Middle School.
"I hope the plan is strong enough to be able to save the school,” said Wendy Lee. “My daughter has wanted to go here for quite a while, and now she's here and the danger of it closing kind of scares me a little bit."
Florida’s Department of Education had threatened to close Kathleen Middle, Denison Middle, Lake Alfred-Addair Middle, Westwood Middle, and Shelley S. Boone in the summer, after it didn’t approve the district’s Turnaround Option Plan.
Superintendent Jacqueline Byrd said the district made changes to the plan and submitted the changes to the state Aug. 15. She said these middle schools will remain open this school year. She believes the state will approve the new plan so her staff scheduled parent meetings at the turnaround schools, so they could be informed.
According to the Turnaround Option Plan, Polk County Public Schools spent an additional $6 million on content area coaches, behavior interventionists, and teacher and staff incentives. Also, the five middle schools built in more time for reading and math and critical thinking. The plan said ineffective teachers were removed from these schools, and effective and highly effective teachers were given incentives to teach there. The teachers will have more time for professional development.
Also, the plan said the principals signed a letter, notifying them they could be demoted or replaced, if their school does not receive a C letter grade following the 2016-2017 school year.
Denison Middle School Principal Terri Christian said she’s ready for the challenge.
"Our school grade this year was two points away from a C,” said Principal Terri Christian. “So we are close. Our staff is excited. We're working hard and we feel positive about making that C this year or higher."
After hearing the new plan, many parents said they felt relieved.
"It made me feel a lot better about it,” said Clare Lynch, a parent of a sixth grader. “I was worried the school was going to close down. I have had two other children come through Denison and this is the first time there's really been an issue with it so I was concerned. "
"I’m not worried enough to pull her out yet. I'm going to have faith in the school, in the school system and my daughter that we can make it work,” said Lee.