Can struggling schools make grade?

3 principals to get cash, freedom to fix program

Principals at three Palm Beach County schools will soon get more money and more freedom to try to turn around their struggling schools.

Orchard View Elementary in Delray Beach, West Riviera Beach Elementary in Riviera Beach and Lake Shore Middle in Belle Glade will participate in a new “Principal Autonomy” program starting next school year.

The Legislature in May authorized seven school districts to pilot the effort in hopes that reducing bureaucratic rules will improve student performance. The state will evaluate the success of the program after three years.

“These are schools that have have received multiple bad grades and tried everything on the books to raise standards,” Sen. Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, told the Senate Education Committee during last year’s session. “We’re trying to give the principal some flexibility.”

Broward County, which was also selected to participate, started a similar effort on its own last year with two failing schools, Park Ridge Elementary in Deerfield Beach and Walker Elementary in Fort Lauderdale.

The schools failed to show any progress on state tests after the first year, although district officials say they expect to see improvement in the coming years.

In Palm Beach County, the current principals at the three schools will stay in their jobs.

Orchard View Principal Lisa Lee is in her first year at the D-rated school. At the other schools, D-rated West Riviera Tonja Lindsey-Latson and C-rated Lake Shore’s Anthony Lockhart have already made good progress, Deputy Superintendent David Christiansen said.

Lockhart led Lake Shore to its first C grade in five years, while West Riviera barely missed a C, Christiansen said.

Under the state program, the schools will be guaranteed at least 90 percent of the state money their students generate. Other schools are only guaranteed 80 percent, allowing the district to use the other 20 percent for administrative, utility, transportation and other expenses.

The schools also will be exempt from many of state laws and district policies in areas such as textbooks, curriculum and

staffing.

“In the past, we’ve had formulas that you have this many teachers for this grade. Now they will have flexibility to substitute those funds,” Christiansen said. “Maybe a principal wants to hire more teachers for the second grade. Maybe she want more tutors instead of more teachers.”

Schools will still be required to meet the state’s voter-approved Class Size Amendment and follow all collective bargaining requirements for teacher staffing. The schools won’t be exempt from any state-required testing.

Palm Beach County has 15 schools with at least two D or F grades in a three-year period, meeting the state’s eligibility criteria. But the program limits each district to three schools.

“We looked at who were the kind of innovators and transformational leaders who try to do things to optimize resources in a creative way,” Christiansen said.

Several research studies have shown a strong link between the strength of a principal and student achievement.

A 2010 study by the Wallace Foundation, which focuses on the performance of low-income students, found that leadership is second only to classroom instruction for school success.

“There are virtually no documented instances of troubled schools being turned around without intervention by a powerful leader,” the report said. “Many other factors may contribute to such turnarounds, but leadership is the catalyst.”

Palm Beach County has tried several proposals in the past that promised more autonomy. In the late 1990s, five schools were designated as “deregulated,” which was supposed to give them more freedom.

But the schools, including Boca Raton High and Loggers Run Middle, west of Boca Raton, said there were limited benefits, and they had to apply for waivers every time they wanted to exempt themselves from state laws.

Then in 2001, Palm Beach County became one of four “charter school districts,” which allowed the district to exempt itself from certain laws. The district used that mainly to avoid certain state requirements regarding school construction.