School board prepares for Lake Forest external operator 

The School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) unanimously approved a contract with Instructional Empowerment on Tuesday as part of the turnaround plan for Lake Forest Elementary School. 

If the school’s Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) testing results do not reach a “C” grade or higher by April, it will enter the new school year with extra help from Instructional Empowerment, costing Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) up to $407,560.74 for a year of work. 

When the Florida Department of Education released its 2023 Informational Baseline School Grades in December, Lake Forest’s grade had improved from an “F” to a “D,” but it would need to reach a passing “C” grade to avoid state requirements to bring in outside help. 

In preparation for the possibility, the school board approved turnaround plans for both Lake Forest and Idylwild Elementary School in November, choosing to bring in outside help in both cases instead of closing the schools or making them charters. However, Idylwild improved to a “C” in the December baseline school grades, removing the need for a turnaround plan. 

The district received five proposals from external operator options, according to Jeff Garcia, purchasing manager. A proposal evaluation committee selected Instructional Empowerment as the best fit for ACPS. 

Board member Kay Abbitt expressed frustration at the amount of money being spent on a turnaround option, saying the district needs to find new ways of doing things to fix schools before they reach this point. 

“We’re just paying the provider to come in and spend a half million dollars,” Abbitt said, “to correct something, [when] we could have taken a half million dollars last year and done something with it and we might not be in this mess now. And so, I guess my question is, what’s gonna be different?” 

Board member Tina Certain agreed, saying the school needs to work hard to improve before the April FAST tests so that the contract with Instructional Empowerment can end prematurely. The contract is set up with two phases: the first phase is evaluation leading up to FAST testing. If the school does not reach a “C” in April, it will enter phase two, which involves on-site evaluations, help with strategic hiring and relocation of district resources and teachers, and training for teachers and administration. 

Garcia said the $407,560 listed in the contract is the maximum schedulable based on a daily rate, and how much the district spends depends on utilization. 

Board member Leanetta McNealy, as well as several citizen commenters, said getting parents involved in schools is key to turning around results and making students successful. She proposed that local businesses should band together to allow and incentivize their employees to go into their children’s schools and get involved.  

“It takes more than the five women that sit here on this dais to say what’s going to happen,” McNealy said. 

Certain pointed out that, while parental involvement is important, the responsibility could not be cast entirely on the parents’ shoulders. 

“We need to as an organization, make sure that we’re teaching [students,” Certain said. “That hasn’t always been the case in some of the classrooms. I don’t want to blame families, I want to partner with them.”