Do you think it’s possible that the district is purposely trying to destroy Paxon high school, formerly one of the best schools in the nation? After speaking to a dozen current and former faculty members, they think that might be the case.
Why else would the district assign a principal to the school with a very questionable track record of success and allow him to remain there after the numbers begin to plummet? The district has also turned a blind eye to him gutting a staff that was extremely successful and making frequent and often capricious changes to teaching assignments?
I am not saying the districts intent was to harm the school and the children that attend it but that does seem to be the districts result and it makes you scratch your head and wonder why it is allowed to continue.
Chris, the answer to your question is NO! Duval County is trying to destroy all of its schools because the incompetent School Board continues to employ such an incompetent douche-bag as Superintendent.
ReplyDeleteRoyce Turner did make some improvement while he was at Ribault. In fact, Reading proficiency (23%) was the highest during his three year tenure. In addition, it seems as if you are only picking on Royce Turner out of a bunch of incompetent principals.
Royce is not the only one. For example, Raines' principal Majova was moved to Stanton because she did a terrible job. With respect to data, Turner is more qualified than her to be principal at Paxon than she is at Stanton. Raines performed its worst under Majova's leadership. At the time of Turner's and Majova's appointments Board members had a lot of influence in determining principals for those two schools. Well that should point the picture on how all 7 of the Board members are incompetent for allowing that.
Chris, you also need to take a look at Douglas Anderson, which has always been an A school but recently they are getting nothing but B grades. At least Turner still has his A grade... and I think he will keep his A, as will Majova.
If you look at the information I have provided below, it examines the grades of our high schools and their reading proficiency percentages for the current school year and the prior school year. I believe you are going to find majority of our high schools are poorly performing but look at their school grades. It is what you call INFLATION!
SCHOOL GRADE CURRENT PRIOR
Anderson B 74 76
Atlantic Coast C 47 NA
Baldwin C 50 50
Darnell-Cookman A 78 82
Englewood C 25 32
First Coast C 30 31
Duncan Fletcher B 56 58
Forrest C 20 20
Andrew Jackson F 13 15
Robert E. Lee B 37 31
Mandarin B 57 58
Terry Parker B 31 31
Paxon SAS A 73 75
Peterson A 32 33
Raines D 12 13
Randolph C 22 23
Jean Ribault C 15 16
Sandalwood B 43 41
Stanton A 86 84
Edward H. White D 27 26
Wolfson C 36 30
There are a lot of battles to fight. If you would like to write something up and send it to me, I would be glad to put it on the blog. The reason I have been mentioning Paxon a lot is about a dozen current and former staff memebers have asked me too...
ReplyDeleteThe difference when Turner came into the school, a school which ran quite well and had an outstanding cohesive faculty. More Gladys Prior award winners that any school in N Florida. He sumarily changed everything with out asking for any input from anyone. He placed people in teaching positions that never have taught that class, or never had any suceess in the past teaching it. He dismantled or negated any and all cooperative collegual relationships in the school. He instituted the failed programs he oversaw while at Rebault. He changed the mission statement of the school and he treats the faculty as despots. That is where the Stanton principal differs. She pretty much saw what she had worked and didn't mess with it. Then Turner went after the faculty. Any Faculty member that had any parent complain was in his cross hairs. FCAT level 1 students that were in AP or Honors classes and the parents complained that their children were having difficulty he went after the teacher to inflate or lower the standards. If the teacher did not lower the bar they were in his cross hairs. Numerous disciplinary infractions were starting to go unanswered. Morale sank.
ReplyDeleteWhy would anyone change something that works? Because they can.
Chris, I do not want to write anything. I believe you do a great job of informing this community about what really transpires behind the scenes. And as for the Royce Turner situation, he can only do what his "beloved" Superintendent allows him. Two incompetent nuts together.
ReplyDelete