For 15 years, under three different school superintendents, Charlotte County Public Schools have chased the elusive \u201cA\u201d score that all Florida school districts covet.<\/p>\n
This week, the work toward achieving that goal paid off when the Florida Department of Education gave out Charlotte County\u2019s first A rating in 15 years.<\/p>\n
Superintendent Mark Vianello was quick to spread the credit out to every employee in the district \u2014 from teachers to bus drivers.<\/p>\n
But he had praise for others too.<\/p>\n
He said parents have embraced the need to improve and their increased interest in their children\u2019s education has been a big plus.<\/p>\n
And, certainly high on the list, the voters who approved taking a small percentage of the millage tax rate and putting the money back into the schools deserve a huge thank you.<\/p>\n
While we are highlighting Charlotte County for its award, we can\u2019t ignore the fact that Sarasota County earned an \u201cA\u201d grade for the 23rd straight year.<\/p>\n
Sarasota, which is given a financial boost by a similar infusion of a special tax, has enjoyed the added income for years in voter-approved referendums.<\/p>\n
A story in Thursday\u2019s Daily Sun pointed out just how the state determines grades for each school \u2014 a tool used to monitor progress and target where help is needed.<\/p>\n
Since the state started the program in 1999, school grades have sought to keep schools accountable while keeping parents informed on the performance each school.<\/p>\n
Schools are graded \u201cA,\u201d \u201cB,\u201d \u201cC,\u201d \u201cD\u201d or \u201cF,\u201d each school graded based on the components for which there is sufficient data.<\/p>\n
Schools must test at least 95% of their students, according to the FLDOE.<\/p>\n
The school grading system focuses the school grading formula on student success measures, including achievement, learning gains and graduation.<\/p>\n
Lee Swift, who retired in 2018 after becoming the longest continuous serving school board member in Charlotte County \u2014 24 years \u2014 said he was proud of the performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of good people on that school board now,\u201d Swift said Thursday. \u201cAnd Superintendent Vianello has really adapted well.\u201d<\/p>\n
There have been good superintendents since that last \u201cA\u201d \u2014 including David Gayler, Doug Whittaker and Steve Dionisio.<\/p>\n
Gayler was especially singled out by many, including Swift, for his work after Hurricane Charley devastated many of the county\u2019s schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was there when we needed him most,\u201d Swift said.<\/p>\n
Swift also said dedicated school employees \u2014 going way back \u2014 have always been an important part of any success the schools can claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Charley hit, I was driving through town looking at the damage and saw a fellow at Sallie Jones Elementary cleaning up. The guy had a home with a tree laying on top of it, but he was trying to help at the school,\u201d Swift recalled.<\/p>\n
The \u201cA\u201d score means CCPS is among the top third of school districts in Florida. The district is also among the state\u2019s 16 fastest-improving school districts and ranked 21st out of 67 districts.<\/p>\n
Officials attributed the high grade to \u201csignificant academic growth and continued progress\u201d across schools that resulted in a 39-point increase in overall accountability points compared to the previous year, according to a news release.<\/p>\n
We know how hard teachers, administration and support staff worked to get back to an \u201cA\u201d status.<\/p>\n
We salute them for their dedication and resolve to make our schools better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For 15 years, under three different school superintendents, Charlotte County Public Schools have chased the elusive \u201cA\u201d score…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,2853],"class_list":["post-328385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-editorials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328385","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=328385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}