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Where Are The Kids? A Look At The Numbers
January 19, 2009
Most students that live in the Carver/Century K-8 School district do not attend the school, and that’s one reason it is now slated for closure. Instead, they take advantage of the fact that the school did not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) to attend a neighboring school or they attend the Byrneville Charter School.
The Escambia County School Board will consider moving toward the final step in closing Carver/Century at their meeting Tuesday night. One of the reasons cited by Superintendent Malcolm Thomas for closing the school is the declining enrollment.
There are 473 students zoned to attend Carver/Century. Just 210 — 44 percent –attend the school. (See the complete breakdown at the bottom of this article.)
Of elementary age children, there are 307 zoned to attend Carver/Century, but only 41 percent — 126 children — are at the Century school. More Carver/Century zoned students actually attend the Byrneville Elementary charter school, with 130 enrolled from the geographic district. Another 32 attend Bratt Elementary and six are at Molino Park. Three attend Jim Allen Elementary, and one each attend Cook Elementary, Holm Elementary and Longleaf Elementary. Another six are homeschooled.
Just a fraction over half the middle school children in the geographic Carver/Century district attend the school. Of the 166 middle school children in the zone, 84 attend Carver/Century. Another 68 are at Ernest Ward, three are at Ransom and two are at Clubbs. There is one middle school child from the district at each: Workman, Brown Barge and Oasis. One child is hospital/homebound, one is under a McKay Scholarship that allows a student with disabilities to attend a private school and four are homeschooled.
“I have no authority to restrict a parent’s choice to send their children elsewhere,” Thomas said. “They are making choices for their children.” Federal law allows students in the Carver/Century district to send their children to other schools like Bratt and Ernest Ward due to Carver/Century’s failure to meet “AYP” — adequate yearly progress. As a charter school, Byrneville Elementary has an open enrollment policy that allows almost any child to attend.
If the school board approves Thomas’ plan to redistrict Carver/Century, the school will close and the students will be in the Bratt Elementary and Ernest Ward Middle School districts.
Comments
15 Responses to “Where Are The Kids? A Look At The Numbers”
I totally agree if the parents will back the teachers up. But when you have parents going to the school and jumping on the teachers and principle and saying my child doesn’t have to be disciplined it doesn’t work and I have seen that happen many times. I used to work in a school in Atmore and I am not just repeating heresay.
Not necessarily, concerned bratt parent. The administration and teachers at Ernest Ward will not put up with any disrespect from students. They demand respect and get it. It is a totally different environment than Carver. I know because I have had a child at each of the schools. I know Byrneville is the same and from the looks of it Bratt is too. They just need to keep doing things the same way and the new students will mostly fall in line and have a better educational opportunity because of it .
And now all of their discipline problems become Bratt and Ernest Ward’s. Two really great schools are about to become two schools with major problems!
I’d rather sandpaper a wildcat’s behind than sub at Carver. Those kids don’t want to learn, they want to run around crazy and be disruptive all day.
Century Girl, check the chart in the article. There is ONE child that was lured away by Brown Barge.
I agree with Former Carver Parent ,discipline is the problem. I went to Carver and it was a good school. I sent my oldest to Century Elementary and then Carver.It wasn’t the best school but it wasn’t as bad as it is now.Even back then in the elementary school the discipline was a joke(get in trouble, go to principal, lecture, candy bar drawer).I vowed never to send another of my children through that school system even if I had to home school them.I want what is best for my children’s education and Century/Carver isn’t it. One more thing. I was told to sub for a day if I even thought about sending my children there and then I would change my mind.So I say to all the people wanting to keep the school open, go sub for a day , you might just change your mind.
I was a supportive parent, speaking to the powers that be downtown on behalf of the school for further programs at Carver, for my child and others. A footnote to that would be that I had never been called down to the school for a disciplinary action with my child either.
One of the problems that I have when Mr. Malcom Thomas and the school board uses the number of students that are enrolled in Carver-Century -VS- the “potential” enrollment… is …that many of our students have been lured away or have been actively pursued by schools such as Brown-Barge because they are the “good performing students”. If the better performing students are stolen, so to speak, away…then not only does that affect the enrollment numbers but affects the average student grade. Then the community and parents are “beat-up” for lack of interest in the community school. All is not as we are being told. It is though we are being set-up for something that they’ve been wanting to do for along time.
I am a parent and a Century resident who was raised in Century and attended Century’s schools. My husband and I both attended college and now work full time jobs. Unfortunately I agree with Former Carver Parent. I am one of the parents who sent their child back to Carver/Century in support of the school and regretted that I made that decision. My child complains everyday about how she is being treated by other students and how she is not able to vocus or concentrate on the work during class. So I took off work one day just to see if it was really as bad as she was making it out to be. I spent the whole day in class with my child and it was the worst class situation I have ever seen. I spoke with the principal, who told me that he was working on the situation and that it will get better. I am sad to say that the situation has not gotten any better at all. If the children has no discipline, how can they be taught? That is the main problem at Carver/Century and instead of addressing the problems the Board whether close the school and send these same undisciplined children to other schools. I love my community and the children in this community. They are capable bright children who just need the right discipline and direction.
How can a reasonable person blame Mr. Thomas who has only been in office for two months for the ills of this school and community? Schools generally reflect the values and support of the surrounding community. The community abandoned sufficient support long ago. As long as the community continues to deteriorate the schools follow the same. The faculty/staff can only do so much. I wonder if “former carver parent” was a supportive helper at the school or just abandoned her local community school. Schools need supportive parents. It is obvious that Carver Century did not have sufficient support. Sad, but true.
I sent a child to Carver because I lived in the school’s zone and wanted to give the school a chance. Most had heard how bad Carver/Century was, but I said, “It can’t be that terrible because it’s the parents that really make the difference in a child’s education.” Boy was I wrong. The school was already self-destructing from years of no or little discipline. My child would come home and tell me the horror stories about what was going on; students running rampant throughout the place doing whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. With that type of atmosphere, there’s no way to teach students. You only get one shot at providing your child a decent and good education. Thanks to the federal government, I exercised my option to send my child to a higher performing school and my child was better off for that. In my opinion, where there’s no discipline in a school to keep behavior in line, then the education process for the students is doomed to failure.
I totally agree with JD. Why stick your head in the sand and not try to fix the problem within Carver. Sending these kids to an A school is not the answer. Usually when a bad situation is forced on a good situatuion the bad pulls the good down. And don’t jump down my throat about poverty and a bad home life being the cause of not learning in school. I had an alcoholic father until I was a teenager and I sure as heck wasn’t rich. I still managed to get a good education. When parents send a kid to school with the attitude that they don’t have to listen to the teacher and that the teacher had better not touch them when they misbehave what do you expect to happen. It starts at home. I’m sure I will catch a lot of flack about what I have said, but I expect that and I am a big girl and I can take it.
Dear!,
Maybe I should clarify my point. Mr. Thomas and the school board should have focused on the problem of why Carver/Century was not providing a quality education for these children in the first place. Instead of correcting the problem, they have elected to move the students to higher performing schools. Why are they higher performing? Whatever is working at these schools may need to be introduced at the lower performing school. They have elected to increase class sizes and detract from the level of learning at the higher performing schools. Also, the students who have elected to cross state lines to find a quality education are creating a burden on the schools and taxpayers of Alabama. MY POINT- Keep your problems where they are, do not make them my problems. As far as the No child left behind- it has not proven to work!
With all due respect, Mr./Ms. JD, it seems Mr. Thomas is all BUT turning his back on the children. Turning his back on them would be leaving them in an environment where they are NOT learning! Forcing parents to send their children to a school that is not performing well is NOT an option for the superintendent. According to the No Child Left Behind Act which is federal & did pass, the parents in the district are just exercising their right & there’s not one thing Mr. Thomas or the School Board can do about that. The community has had time–the members of the community who really wanted the school to stay opened have rallied with no avail. These children will be much more productive, educated members of society as adults because of Mr. Thomas’ decision. They will have twice the educational/extra-cirricular opportunities, resources & staff at the other schools in the district. The majority of parents of the children in the district have already made those opportunities a reality for their children.
So, please…don’t blame Mr. Thomas for something that we can all see is not his fault. These parents have rights under federal law & the Escambia County School Board has no jurisdiction over that. The community has rallied, the majority of parents have obviously spoken, & the writing is on the wall. This is, perhaps, the best decision for the children’s educational needs. What good parent/government leader would deny ANY child the increase of opportunity these children are about to receive???
I understand the numbers you listed came directly form the Escambia County School District; however they are missing a number of students. These students attend school across state lines. Obviously they are not listing an address in Florida where they can be counted in the Carver/Century geographic area. I know the agreement between the two states is ending this year, so this number may rise as some (not all) of the Florida students will be forced back across the state line. I feel everyone would be better served if the Escambia County Florida School District and the citizens of Century focused on returning all the students to the Carver/Century schools. If the money that will be spent busing these children were used to increase their level of learning experience at the schools instead of closing them. SHAME ON YOU SUPERINTENDENT THOMAS FOR TURNING YOUR BACK ON THESE CHILDREN!!! Moving a problem instead of facing it head on, has shown you and the rest of the school board lack leadership and vision!!