Pinellas County high schools have a message for seniors and their parents.<\/p>\n
If the students don\u2019t complete all their graduation requirements \u2014 that\u2019s credits, grade point and test scores \u2014 they won\u2019t be walking at commencement in the spring. The certificate of completion that teens could take advantage of in the past no longer exists.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers argued the certificate did not set up teens for success after high school.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this change we are trying to be as communicative with parents as possible. We know you are going to hear from them in May,\u201d superintendent Kevin Hendrick told school board members on Oct. 21.<\/p>\n
Hendrick, a former high school principal, anticipated parents complaining, perhaps as late as graduation day: \u201c\u2018What do you mean my child cannot walk?\u2019 That is no longer allowable because there is nothing they receive.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
More than 6,800 seniors graduated with a standard diploma or one of the three other alternative paths that remain in state law.<\/p>\n
Vasquez noted that most of the seniors currently off track have not met the 2.0 grade point requirement or passed the state\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
If they have deficiencies on their transcripts, she said, those have been detailed.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are we doing while we have them in school to encourage whatever they need?\u201d Edmond added. \u201cIt\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vasquez described a series of efforts that schools implement to review each student\u2019s progress and provide services to help them succeed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know every detail of every student,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s constant work, day-in, day-out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hendrick said the district will send families another update on their children\u2019s progress toward graduation in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pinellas County high schools have a message for seniors and their parents. If the students don\u2019t complete all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[113,15817,15819,15818,596,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-19410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-education","9":"tag-graduation","10":"tag-graduation-requirements","11":"tag-high-school-diploma","12":"tag-pinellas-county","13":"tag-st-pete","14":"tag-st-pete-headlines","15":"tag-st-pete-news","16":"tag-st-petersburg","17":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","18":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}