Pinellas County high schools have a message for seniors and their parents.
If the students don’t complete all their graduation requirements — that’s credits, grade point and test scores — they won’t be walking at commencement in the spring. The certificate of completion that teens could take advantage of in the past no longer exists.
Lawmakers argued the certificate did not set up teens for success after high school.
“With this change we are trying to be as communicative with parents as possible. We know you are going to hear from them in May,” superintendent Kevin Hendrick told school board members on Oct. 21.
Hendrick, a former high school principal, anticipated parents complaining, perhaps as late as graduation day: “‘What do you mean my child cannot walk?’ That is no longer allowable because there is nothing they receive.”
About 600 seniors are not on track to meet all the requirements, said Rita Vasquez, district executive director of high school education. Last year at this time, she said, about 800 students were in the same situation, with 51 ultimately participating in commencement only because they got a certificate of completion.
More than 6,800 seniors graduated with a standard diploma or one of the three other alternative paths that remain in state law.
Vasquez noted that most of the seniors currently off track have not met the 2.0 grade point requirement or passed the state’s mandatory language arts or algebra exit exams. Others may not be on track to pass some required credits, such as a fourth year of math and U.S. government. While many of them might overcome those hurdles, she said, others might fall behind, too.
All families have been alerted to the changes in law, Vasquez told the board, so they can remain vigilant in getting their children to a diploma.
If they have deficiencies on their transcripts, she said, those have been detailed.
Board vice chairperson Caprice Edmond sought assurances that the district is regularly updating families and not just sending a single letter or phone call and hoping for the best.
“What are we doing while we have them in school to encourage whatever they need?” Edmond added. “It’s important for stakeholders to know you are tracking every senior throughout the year to make sure we are doing everything we can to get them across the finish line.”
Vasquez described a series of efforts that schools implement to review each student’s progress and provide services to help them succeed.
“We know every detail of every student,” she said. “It’s constant work, day-in, day-out.”
Hendrick said the district will send families another update on their children’s progress toward graduation in January.