The School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) passed a district-managed Turnaround Option Plan (TOP-1) for Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Elementary School at a regular meeting on Wednesday. 

The plan passed on a 4-1 vote, with Board Member Kay Abbitt in dissent. 

Rawlings Elementary School, which is one of five schools in the state approved to act as a pilot for year-round school, earned a D grade in both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, which places it in a “Tier 2” status. 

The TOP-1 plan, which must be turned in to the Bureau of School Improvement by Sept. 1, must raise the school’s grade to a C or higher by the 2024-25 school year to exit turnaround status. 

The plan identifies staff turnover, loss of an intervention teacher and coach to fill instructional positions, poor student attendance, students’ lack of foundational skills and general background knowledge as causes of low performance. 

For school improvement, the plan points to the advantages of year-round school, reinforcing foundational skills, enhancing skills and capabilities of coaches at the district level, creation of an attendance response plan, increased professional development, the addition of a Community Partnership School program, a new framework to identify students in need of support and other strategic points. 

Abbitt said she believes the plan is important in part because Rawlings is now following a year-round school model, which offers an opportunity to try new methods. 

Looking at the 32% of all Rawlings students who are proficient in English Language Arts (ELA), math and science, Abbitt said it is clear that Rawlings needs change. 

“In every area, students went down. So whatever was done at Rawlings last year needs to be completely obliterated, because nothing is working there,” Abbitt said. 

With extra time in the day, Abbitt suggested extra hours spent on reading and math. She also recommended prioritizing and incentivizing certified teachers and called for more concrete solutions to the issues listed in the report, instead of recycling the efforts already in place. 

“If this is a plan that’s gonna be used to turn Rawlings around, then it’s gotta be something different,” Abbitt said. “I don’t see anything different in here, there’s nothing jumping out.” 

Board Member Sarah Rockwell said she shares many of Abbitt’s concerns, but is especially concerned for students with disabilities, who, if the plan does not make a significant change, will mark their sixth year below 41% proficiency at Rawlings. 

The SWA subgroup’s ELA and math proficiency scores were at 3%, and science proficiency at 9%, in the 2023-24 school year. 

“As a former special education teacher, and as a parent of two children with disabilities, all I can say is, this is appalling,” Rockwell said. 

Of the Black student subgroup at Rawlings, 17% reached proficiency in ELA and math in the 2023-24 school year, and 25% in science. Economically disadvantaged students fared a little worse, with 15% proficiency in ELA, 17% in math and 19% in science. 

Rockwell acknowledged that there is overlap, meaning some of the SWD are also in the economic disadvantage and/or black subgroups, both of which have been below 41% proficiency for three years. She said that the struggling students are already identifiable, and the plan does not provide for how to help them. 

Rockwell called for more Exceptional Student Education (ESE) support, and support for teachers who are either out-of-field or temporarily certified, other than simply bringing district-level coaches into the school. 

Some teachers who have experience in coaching and professional development have already left ACPS to work at the University of Florida or a different school district where they can follow those careers, Rockwell said. 

“I worry that if we continue pulling teachers who were providing that support [to hundreds], that in the long term, we are going to have fewer highly qualified teachers in classrooms, and that we are actually, in the long term, losing teachers by doing this,” Rockwell said. 

Turnaround principals Jim Kuhn and Karla Hutchinson assured the board that the district staff is taking the plan seriously. 

“What I can tell you about this particular plan, first, no one at Rawlings is excited about what happened,” Kuhn told the board. “Everybody is looking at this data, has looked at this data and is incredibly upset, not for themselves, but because of the students, and the impact it is having on the students, and what it says about the work that is being done for the students, or was being done to start with.” 

Kuhn noted that this year is already off to a good start, as the school is fully staffed, while last year’s third graders rolled through eight different teachers. He said staff is excited to be at Rawlings. 

Three of the four ESE teachers at Rawlings this year are fully certified, Kuhn said, and the fourth is pending certification. 

Kuhn said pushing district level coaches into classes will help fill instructor positions, and focused walk-throughs will help administrators look for what is and is not working. 

“I know that these have probably been in plans before, but we are earnestly going to be monitoring this and make sure that these changes are taking place as we as we move forward.”