WARRINGTON MIDDLE IN JEOPARDY

and Smith met afterward with Senior Chancellor Adam Miller.

State officials sided with Charter Schools USA and criticized the district for failing the Warrington students. Florida Board of Education Vice Chair Ryan Petty cited a visit he made to Warrington where he sat in an eighthgrade math classroom with algebra books sitting on a shelf while the teacher taught students basic arithmetic.

"We have been failing these students for more than a decade," Petty said. "What I don't hear from either of you is a sense of urgency. These kids deserve better. This school needs to be fixed. This board is out of patience with the Escambia County School District."

Fetsko took exception to placing all the blame on the district. "For the last eight years, the State Board of Education and the Department of Education have had the authority, power and control, and they still refuse to take responsibility for their initiatives, requirements and directives not working."

cambia County Public Schools is searching for remedies to salvage a contentious relationship and keep the doors open at Warrington Middle School.

"Where it stands at this point is we need to have a final decision from Charter Schools USA about what is their bottom line and how that compares to our bottom line," Escambia School Board Chair Paul Fetsko said. "Every time they've sent a document, it's had surprises, and the surprises have been more surprising each time."

The deadline for the school district to finalize a contract with Charter Schools USA is Friday, April 28. A signed contract must be presented to the State Board of Education and Department of Education by May 1. State officials will take action on May 2 if the school district and Charter USA fail to agree on terms. According to Fetsko, the state will either take complete control of the school or order its closure.

A New Proposal

Charter USA submitted a proposal to the school district in April that veered significantly from the original K-8 plan. The education management company proposes students in grades 6-8 who live in the Warrington school zone attend the charter school its first year. Charter USA then proposes adding K-5 the next year as a choice option, followed by choice options for ninth graders in Year 3 and 10th graders in Year 4. Ultimately, Warrington will become the only K-12 school in the county and the fourth magnet school.

Charter USA would no longer be mandated to accept zoned middle school students after the third year. School board members insist that zoned middle students be allowed to attend Warrington throughout the partnership.

"The big thing that got me was after three years, those 600 kids that are there now will probably be bussed out to other schools," School Board member Kevin Adams said.

Other areas of contention in the Charter USA proposal include paying the school district a district they plan to erect another facility on the site. The district must build facilities to State Requirements for Educational Facilities (SREF) standards. The same SREF standards do not apply to Charter USA.

"If at any point they decide to discontinue the charter, then the district must assume any debt that was made in regards to facilities," Fetsko said. "We're not just being contrarians. There are valid reasons these proposals don't make sense from a financial, business and education standpoint."

The Florida State Board of Education ordered the district to either close or transition Warrington to a charter school by the 2023-24 school year. The order came after Warrington earned yet another D this past school year. The middle school last earned a C in the 2010-11 school year. School officials said Warrington was on the verge of earning a C in 2019-20, but no grade was awarded due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.

According to the district's general counsel Ellen Odom, closure is no longer an option for the district in the eyes of the DOE because the school board had already opted for a charter school.

Superintendent Tim Smith vehemently opposes closing Warrington primarily for geographical reasons. "Having a complete closure with no school in Warrington is a big problem. It's a problem where we would have to put students on a bus at a couple of locations; one location isn't too far away, but another is farther away and a significant drive."

He hasn't given up on the charter school option. "We want a partnership with Charter Schools USA. This is an agreement we just have to negotiate through and come to a fair and balanced deal that anybody looks for in an agreement."

Tallahassee Trip

Smith and Fetsko traveled to Tallahassee and spoke at the State Board of Education Meeting on Wednesday, April 19. DOE wanted an update on contract negotiations with Charter USA. Fetsko

The district is putting measures in place just in case of a closure, such as determining where to rezone the current Warrington Middle School students and planning bus routes from Warrington to Bailey and Workman middle schools.

"We're in the process of positioning because at the end of the road, if that's what happens and we have to close, we have to move quickly and be prepared," Smith said.

Charter USA blindsiding the district with new proposals only further damages an already contentious relationship. The company has accused the school board of not negotiating in good faith. The board members say the reverse is true.

The contentious relationship with Charter USA extends beyond the school board to the Warrington staff and the school district's operations department.

Charter USA wrote an assessment of Warrington that upset Principal Denny Wilson. He voiced his frustration at the April school board meeting.

"They said the school is academically, socially, physically and emotionally failing students and the community," Wilson said. "I mean, whatever. My teachers, my Rocket family, are academically, socially, physically and emotionally failing their students. This is an unbelievable statement. There is no other way to put it than it's just absolutely wrong."

Proficiency ratings for Warrington students in the 2021-22 academic year fell drastically short of the state averages in language arts, mathematics and science. Its best showing came in math at 25%, well below the state average of 53%. Similar gaps occurred in language arts (-29%) and science (-27%).

Wilson criticized DOE rules for hindering the school. Before the 2019-2020 school year, DOE required nine teachers to be transferred out of Warrington. Wilson said, "Seven of them were 'needs improvement.' I wrote a dissertation requesting that five of the teachers who earned a rating of 'needs improvement' be allowed to re - main at Warrington Middle School. These five teachers just finished their first year of teaching, and they all desperately wanted to remain at Warrington Middle, and they love their students."

DOE rejected the request stating state rule requires only effective and highly effective teachers be at Warrington Middle or any school in turnaround status.

"The major fail of this rule is that it does nothing to ensure equity or guarantee high-quality instruction every day," Wilson said. "The assumption is that when these teachers are transferred out of the school; they are replaced quickly with a teacher rated effective or highly effective. That does not happen. As we all know, we have been experiencing a teacher shortage for several years."

The idea of Charter USA only paying $1 a year for the lease is another issue for Dennis.

"We have worked very, very hard to eliminate $1-a-year leases over the past 20 years," he said. "We have one. Just one. So this would be a backwards step in that regard."

The $1-a-year lease is a sticking point for school board members, too. Each board members opposed the financial terms of the lease.

"You look at their stuff and you realize they have been successful, but it's very difficult to deal with someone who keeps changing the rules every time they get a piece of paper," school board member Patty Hightower said. "I really don't have a problem with their enrollment expansion except for the fact that 30 years at $1 is not acceptable to me."

Running Out Of Time

Time is running out for negotiations. The start of the 2023-24 school year is fewer than four months away, and the school district is already registering students for middle school.

School board member Bill Slayton noted that hundreds of students and parents in the Warrington attendance zone are in limbo while the school district and Charter USA try to finalize a contract.

"Our major objective is we've got to do something for the students in that attendance zone and do it quickly," Slayton said. "Recently, there was a meeting of elementary schools trying to get cards to register for middle school. Guess who had no cards? Guess whose kids came home saying, we didn't get anything? That's where the students and parents are. They need something from us."

Slayton acknowledged that Charter USA holds all the negotiating power. The school district is at its mercy unless state officials change their tune and agree to let Warrington close. Charter USA is the only education management company that expressed any interest in Warrington.

"You're worried about dotting the i's and crossing the t's. There's no way," Slayton said to his fellow school board members. "They're changing that. They're dotting the t's and crossing the i's, and it doesn't make any difference to them what they're changing. It's going to have to fit what they want done. I do not like everything that is in here, but I at least think we're better off (with Charter Schools USA)." {in}