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Thomas: New School Year Brings Focus On Improvement
August 19, 2013
As about 40,000 students head back to school today in Escambia County, Superintendent Malcolm Thomas says the district is ready for a successful school year.
“We are looking for new ways to engage students,” he said, “and teachers are working every hard toward that goal.”
Following last year, when a majority of Escambia schools dropped one letter on their school grade, Thomas said the focus will be academic improvement.
One simple target will be tardiness. If a student misses the first 30 minutes every day, the superintendent said, that amounts a significant amount of class time over the course of a week or a month. Part of that focus will be geared toward parental responsibility.
“We are also going to bring back a better focus on attendance,” Thomas said, “especially at the elementary level.” Awards will return for monthly perfect attendance to encourage other students to attend school everyday.”
Thomas said statistics show the majority of students in Escambia County with low standardized test scores miss more than 15 days per year.
“We are going to have a clear focus on incentives to improve,” Thomas said. “And we are going to have a great school year.”
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5 Responses to “Thomas: New School Year Brings Focus On Improvement”
@ Me,
You have a valid concern! I would call your school board member (Patty Hightower) and discuss this with her. I’ve gotten good results from your district’s board member in the past when I had transportation issues. I live in district 5 now, and I take my daughter to school.
Focus on getting the things our children need on the North End. I shouldn’t have to send my child to a school that’s an hour away because the county can not afford to send help help here. It’s not right nor fair for our kids.
Heard conversation between staff at one of the F schools. They were talking about the Tardy problem at their school. Seems kids were coming in accompanied by Parent or Guardian who signed them in. Why up to an hour or more late for school? “We went for breakfast” or “Her / Him stayed up late watching t.v.” or “I thought it more important for them to spend quality time with me instead of rushing to school”. Kids miss school and SOME parents are to blame.
To “Bewildered” sounds like an advocate for Boarding Schools. Don’t talk too loudly or Jeb Bush and buddies will be al over that idea.
Happy New Year to out schools, teachers, admin, ESP’s and parents and kids.
THOMAS: NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM, SOMETHING SERIOUSLY NEEDS TO BE DONE ABOUT THIS. I would like to know who I could talk to about the schools transportation system. There are like 20kids including mine who stay off of Burgess Rd almost to Davis Hwy who have gotten their bus taken(bus stop location was: Burgess&Chapel St) because they are saying that they are in a walking zone and this needs to be re-evaluated. Someone needs to come out and see where the kids are having to walk from. Out of the 20kids maybe 3 of them are in the 3rd grade or higher all of the others are smaller. Not only is Burgees Rd a busy street but all the other streets that they have to come down are busy streets also. This is to far for these small kids to be walking and something needs to be done about this. Do you know of someone that could help?
Mr. Thomas stated: Part of the tardiness problem will be geared toward parental responsibility. He hit the nail on the head – our educational system is falling behind in the civilized world because a lot of children don’t have responsible parents. Over the weekend I watched a discussion on TV that raked the failure of the Mobile School System over the coals. The 4- member panel unanimously put all the blame for the failure of our educational system on teachers and administrative policies. They don’t care that kids come to school dirty, hungry, without shoes, etc, etc, and therefore the kids can’t learn and have behavioral issues. Schools should provide showers and hygiene supplies, clean clothes or uniforms, maybe washing machines for the older kids to use, etc, In essence, teachers and the educational system should take over more responsibility to raise a child. How much time is spent on learning is secondary!!! SOME PEOPLE SHOULD SIMPLY NOT HAVE CHILDREN IN THE FIRST PLACE..