Meeting With the Superintendent....Another NEW School Coming to Beulah?

I had an excellent meeting with Superintendent of Schools Dr. Tim Smith Yesterday.  New Schools, School Discipline, Concurrency, possibly a Boarding School--the conversation was wide ranging...

Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit down and speak with the Escambia County School District's new Superintendent of Schools for about an hour at my office.

The meeting was facilitated and organized by District 1 School Board member Kevin Adams.

It was good to meet Dr. Smith and hear some of his ideas for the future of the district.  And discussions soon turned to the topic of the need for another school out in the fast-growing Beulah community of District 1.  The school district has shown interest in the OLF-8 property for a school site--however the ask of a minimum of 25 acres seems high.

Kevin Adams stated he is interested in constructing a K-8 facility on OLF-8.  (Ironic, I also thought a K-8 was the right move for Beulah and on OLF-8 back in 2013--but I was over-ruled and the middle school in Beulah was built instead, after which the students from the closed Woodham Middle School were "zoned" into the new Beulah Middle School--which I did not support doing.....oh well, win some and lose some--it happened and I lost that one 8 years ago....)

According to Superintendent of Operations Shawn Dennis, whom we briefly  conferenced into yesterday's discussion--a minimum of 25 acres would be needed for such a facility.  The Superintendent asked Mr. Dennis to look into vertical designs for such schools--in an attempt to lower the required number of acres.  Dennis indicated he would do so.

In the background of this meeting, I see a growing chorus of online posters who want "Beulah High School."  Would the district build a new K-8 and then "repurpose" the huge Beulah Middle School as a High School?  Who knows?

But does the student population (which has been declining steadily for over a decade for various reasons) even justify construction of another, a brand new, high school--if all of the existing ones have excess capacity (with the exception of Tate, WFHS, and B.T. Washington High?)

I mean--what is the % Capacity for PHS, Escambia, and Pine Forest?

I want to assist with the school district in every way I can from my current position as a commissioner.  I attended and graduated from these public schools, as did all of my children.  I am a MASSIVE public school supporter.  So this was my pledge to Superintendent Smith at yesterday's meeting--to be a big supporter.  So later today my office will be requesting specific student number/grade level information from district staff so the county can work with the school district on the district's acreage request  for a school site of the type needed in the area the district apparently wants it--on OLF-8

We had the opportunity to discuss other areas of concern--including lack of impact fees and/or concurrency.  I told him I was bringing the topic of school concurrency to an April BCC meeting--as the 2013 BCC stripped concurrency from the land development code at that time.   He asked my opinion about challenges facing our students from my experience as a former local board member for a decade-- and I told him without sugar-coating the pills.  I told him about the massive, ongoing issues with disparate treatment of students with respect to discipline, the bullying incidents that were covered up by staff, and grade inflation at some middle schools that watered-down academic rigor.  I told him that student discipline and allowing some students to rack up 50-60 referrals for violent behavior was driving out good students and good parents--exacerbating the district's declining enrollment.  I told him I was and am an ardent supporter of the Camelot program locally;  I told him we need the Camelot model for all three levels--elementary, middle, and high school--in my humble opinion.  Then we talked about Newpoint and what a fiasco that was.

We ended the discussion on a topic that remains important to me--the desperate need for a publicly funded, charter boarding school like a "Seed" style facility.  They have them in other parts of the country, in other areas of Florida---so why not Pensacola?  We have a lot of students living in abject poverty and generational dysfunction--- no mom, no dad, nobody looking after them.  And these students will continue to fall through the cracks in large numbers without major intervention locally.  The Superintendent seemed genuinely intrigued by this idea---so I'll be following up with him on this specifically.  And with the CSC coming online now that the voters approved it--who knows?  Maybe that group could help with the funding of a SEED boarding school locally?  Maybe the stars are lining up.  Maybe.

Stay tuned!