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Hernando Today

School Grades Bring Cash For High-Performers

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By LINNEA BROWN

Published: July 9, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Thousands of dollars in "A" school money each year is good for something.

Like a state-of-the-art outdoor education center at Brooksville Elementary School, or additional funds for teachers who teach after-school academic enrichment programs at J.D. Floyd K-8 in Spring Hill.

Those are just two of the ways in recent years local school officials have voted to use their "high-performing school" money, or state funds obtained from either obtaining an "A" ranking or improving by a letter grade, based on scores from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

Due to budget cuts, schools that get financial awards will get $85 per student this year instead of the usual $100.

But local school officials aren't complaining.

"It was a huge boost to my vacation," Brooksville Elementary principal Mary LeDoux said of the news, which came a week sooner than expected.

The school has earned an "A" for the fourth consecutive year since LeDoux took over, and has spent more than $70,000 of their "A" school money from the past two years on an outdoor classroom large enough to house an entire grade level at a time.

Two years ago, the school's staff and school advisory council voted unanimously to use their money to build the center, completed this spring. The center was intended for outdoor science experiments, and is also meant to provide a place to bring presentations "in" to the kids instead of sending them "out" on field trips.

However, school officials cannot simply spend the money as they choose. All projects must fall within specific guidelines set by the state, curriculum specialist Marcia Austin said.

Austin, who worked as principal of J.D. Floyd until this month, explained that the state only awards money to schools that have either maintained an "A" or improved by at least one letter grade from the previous year's grade.

The funds given are based in the number of students per school, and can only be used for purposes that fall within three categories: awarding staff bonuses, hiring additional personnel or buying additional resources to help improve student performance.

"Most schools meet all three of the guidelines or choose to have bonuses for teachers," Austin said.

Because the cost of additional personnel is typically the most costly, the majority of local schools have used their money for other purposes, such as updated televisions or curriculum-based computer programs for classrooms.

However, all decisions must be agreed upon by each school's staff and school advisory council, LeDoux said.

"Especially with the economy the way it is, we'll want to make sure we fund something that the entire staff has a need for," she said, regarding the yet-to-be-decided use of this year's money.

At J.D. Floyd — which earned award money for four of the five years that Austin served as principal — officials have used the money to buy enrichment resources for afterschool programs and technology for the school's environmental science program.

The money is also used to pay teachers for extra hours of providing remediation for students after school, Austin said.

"It's unfortunate that it (must be) curriculum-related, but we need to stay focused on academics," she said.

Either way, administrators agreed that the extra funding itself has never been the main motivator.

"It's not about the money," Austin said. "It's all about the pride it brings — the pride we have in seeing our students achieve, and the recognition that we are a high-performing school and carrying that title."

Reporter Linnea Brown can be reached at 352-544-5289 or lbrown@hernandotoday.com.

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