New Sign For Freedom High As Eagle Project

Austin Channels (left), a Boy Scout with Troop 180, built this sign for Freedom High in Tampa Palms as his Eagle project. Austin (with Freedom principal Kevin Stephenson) will graduate from the school next May.

To achieve the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest rank for scouts with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), Austin Channels had to lead a project that would help his community.

As a student at Freedom High in Tampa Palms, who will start his senior year this fall, Austin wanted to do something to impact his school for good.

“In previous years, there was a football sign that was up with the football schedule,” Austin explains. “Every year, they had to make a new sign and print it just for the new football schedule.”

So Austin — with the help of his mom, Kim — came up with the idea for an interchangeable sign that could make announcements for all the sports and other important school-related info.

Austin got approval from the school and led a team of fellow scouts and family members to conceptualize, design, build and implement the sign, plus add lighting and landscaping. He had to do his own fund raising to purchase materials, and says he met his goal of about $800 by selling T-shirts.

He worked to pick the perfect spot for the sign, where it could be seen by cars both entering and leaving the school.

Now, Austin’s sign will be maintained by the school, with student assistants changing the words on it as needed.

A final phase of the project will be to add clear plexiglass and a lock, so that no one can switch the letters around without the school’s authorization.

Austin is glad to be able to use his Eagle project as a platform to do something significant at his high school.

“It was cool to give back,” Austin says. “After being there for years with everyone teaching you, it’s good to give back to the school a little bit.”

Austin’s Eagle project is the culmination of his many years in Scouts, starting with Cub Scouts, when he was in third grade at Tampa Palms Elementary.

To achieve the Eagle rank, he’ll need to complete a Board of Review, which he expects to do soon. Once he earns the Eagle rank, his family will host a celebration this fall.

“It’s not as easy as other people made it look,” says Austin, who explains he’s seen many older scouts complete their Eagle projects, “because you’re leading everyone, you’re not just doing the project.”

Austin is a member of Troop 180, which meets at Compton Park in Tampa Palms. He says the best thing about his Boy Scout experience has been some of the incredible trips he’s had the opportunity to take, such as a 50-mile backpacking trip through the mountains of Wyoming, including Yellowstone Park.

He says his journey to earn the Eagle rank is just another part of his Scouting experience, and he looks forward to finishing out the year with his troop before he completes the program when he graduates high school.

“It’s like mountain climbing,” Austin says, “You climb one, but then there’s another one a little bit taller that you can climb.”

His dad, Steve, who is a teacher at Freedom, says Austin’s scouting experience has taught him skills and helped him to be more self-reliant than many kids his age.

“Austin has little side businesses repairing cell phones and doing car repairs that has taught him to appreciate money,” says Steve. “He bought his own car with his own money, after saving for several years. Not many teenagers do that.”

Steve says his son has spent a lot of his time this summer doing yard work for elderly neighbors, including one he drives to various appointments and whenever she needs a ride somewhere.
“It’s been a delight to follow his journey,” says Steve, “and yes, I’m really proud of him.”

5 Things That Have Changed As New Tampa Students Head Back To School

With students throughout Hillsborough County now back to school for the 2018-19 school year the same day this issue is scheduled to arrive in your mailbox, there are many changes that make this school year different from last. Here are five things that are new since your students were on campus last spring:

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office deputies went through intensive “active shooter” training this summer in preparation for the new school year. (HCSO Twitter)

 

1. School Security
In the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High shooting on Valentine’s Day of this year, a new state law requires armed security on every public school campus.

While the law has changed, it won’t appear much different from what’s already been in place on most New Tampa public school campuses.

Freedom and Wharton high schools, Benito and Liberty middle schools and Turner/Bartels K-8 school will continue to have a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) deputy or Tampa Police Department (TPD) officer on campus.

At our area’s six elementary schools, one TPD officer or HCSO deputy will be assigned to each school. Previously, one officer served multiple campuses.

While it is planned to have an armed school security officer at every elementary school, employed by Hillsborough County Public Schools, the school district says it will take time to hire and train the necessary personnel, so elementary school campuses will have law enforcement officers from the local agencies to “fill that temporary gap and ensure the safety of our schools,” according to a statement provided by the Hillsborough School District.

What may be different, though, is the fear felt by parents as they send their kids back to school.

Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) International is a national professional organization for educators that has surveyed attitudes toward public education every year since 1969. This year’s poll finds that one in three parents fear for their child’s physical safety at school. PDK describes that as, “a sharp increase from 2013, when just 12 percent said they were fearful.”

Wendy Arroyo, whose two children attend Wharton and Benito, says she believes the school campuses are safe but, in the back of her mind, “There’s always a little bit of fear that something might happen today,” she says. “Unfortunately, that’s the reality that we live in now.”

Local principals say their campuses are continually monitored for safety and improved as opportunities are recognized, with some improvements being provided by the district and some coming out of school budgets.

“We have always tried to secure our campus in every way, shape and form, from every angle,” says Benito principal John Sanders. He and other local principals say they continue to do that on an ongoing basis.

 

2. Bell Times
Every school in New Tampa has a new schedule this year. Elementary schools start at 7:40 a.m. and finish at 1:55 p.m., middle schools start at 9:25 a.m. and finish at 4:20 p.m., and high schools start at 8:30 a.m. and finish at 3:25 p.m.
The biggest change is at Turner/Bartels K-8 School, which starts at 7:40 a.m. and finishes at 2:35 p.m. this year.
Last year, Turner/Bartels’ school hours were 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“It’s a huge change for our families,” says principal Cindy Land. “It’s bittersweet. Parents are excited because their younger kids will be able to participate in after-school activities, but older kids are used to the later (start and end) times.”

Parents of students at all schools are making changes in their routines to accommodate the new schedules. Elementary and middle schools have before- and after-school care, called HOST (Hillsborough Out of School Time) to help working parents who need to drop off or pick up their children outside of their school’s hours.

“Drop off doesn’t happen until 9 a.m. now,” explains Benito principal Sanders. “HOST starts at 7 a.m., but if you’re not in HOST, you can’t walk in or be dropped off until 9 a.m.”

 

3. Newly Assigned Schools
A major boundary shift has happened, with students living in several New Tampa neighborhoods heading to different schools this fall. Students living in Cory Lake Isles and Arbor Greene who previously attended Pride Elementary have been reassigned to Hunter’s Green Elementary (HGE).

School records show that, as of the end of July, 250 students are now enrolled at HGE who were previously at Pride. Many students who were reassigned from Pride were given the opportunity to stay there using the school district’s “school choice” applications. The number of students who chose to do that will not be available until after school starts.

“People are very excited,” says HGE principal Gaye Holt. “It’s been a very positive transition.”
Meanwhile, residents of the Morgan Creek apartments neat I-75, who were previously assigned to HGE, have been reassigned to Clark, which is a couple of miles closer to Morgan Creek residents.

Residents of K-Bar Ranch and Addison Park apartments in Cross Creek have been moved from Heritage to Pride.
More than 550 students who were bused to Clark and HGE from the area surrounding the University of South Florida now attend schools in their own neighborhoods, which created space at both HGE and Clark to accept students from Pride and make room for the expected growth in K-Bar Ranch.

4. Fewer Buses, More Cars?
Expect to see a few less school buses on the roads in New Tampa for the 2018-19 school year, as many students have been reassigned to schools closer to their homes. Hillsborough County Schools doesn’t provide buses to students who live less than two miles from their assigned school.

Hunter’s Green has prepared for the change – with just four school buses on campus this year, compared to 10 last year – by doing some construction to accommodate the expected increase in car traffic and those students who will be walking and biking.

Drop-off and pick-up car line traffic will now enter HGE via Cross Creek Blvd. A new roadway circle that accommodates cars two-deep was constructed to aid in the lineup of traffic, especially for the afternoon pick-up line.
Designed to minimize traffic impacts along Cross Creek Blvd., Principal Gaye Holt says the new path is expected to accommodate 110 vehicles in the car line at once.

 

5. Wharton’s “New” Principal
A new principal who is a familiar face to many locals has taken the helm at Wharton High, which suffered some negative publicity last year about student safety at the school.

Mike Rowan was the principal at King High on N. 56th St. until he officially became the principal at Wharton on July 1.

Rowan is a resident of Pebble Creek and a parent of a student who graduated from Wharton this past spring. When the school first opened in 1997, becoming New Tampa’s first high school, Rowan was a social studies teacher and soccer coach. In 2006, he was named assistant principal for administration (APA) at Wharton. He served in that capacity for five years before being named the principal at King.

Wesley Chapel Schools Earn Top Marks In Latest School Grades Report

School grades for the 2017-18 school year were released by the Florida Department of Education on June 27, and Wesley Chapel’s schools continue to perform well, including a pair of schools that improved over last year.

Of the area’s 14 schools, only Weightman Middle and Wiregrass Ranch High scored better than they did last year, when both earned Bs. This year, however, they are both A schools.

“We are very excited to have earned an A rating this year,” says Robyn White, principal of Wiregrass Ranch High. “It is due to the hard work of the teachers, students, parents, and community. We really focused on our areas of weakness and worked toward students achieving mastery of the standards. While an A rating is great, we still have work to do and will continue to move forward in the 2018-19 school year.”

Of the nine elementary schools in Wesley Chapel, four received A ratings, four received a B, and just one — New River Elementary — received a C.

Both of Wesley Chapel’s middle schools earned As, while its combined middle/high school, Cypress Creek, received a B. Wiregrass Ranch High received an A, while Wesley Chapel High received an B. (See chart)

Most of the schools stayed the same from the previous school year, with only two schools dropping a grade. New River Elementary dropped from a B to a C, and Wesley Chapel earned its first B since 2010, after seven years in a row as an A school.

School letter grades are based on the compilation of individual scores on statewide tests, called Florida Standards Assessments (FSA), at each grade level. The letter grades are a snapshot of a wide variety of factors, with nuances that aren’t always apparent from the single letter assigned to each school.

“The Wesley Chapel schools traditionally are high performing, and the 2017-18 school grades continue to reflect their students’ success on state exams,” says Linda Cobbe, the public information officer for Pasco County Schools. “While a school’s state-assigned grade does not tell the whole story about its overall quality, we know that the combination of dedicated teachers, engaged students, and supportive parents in these schools is reflected in those outstanding grades.”

Cypress Creek Middle High, which opened for its inaugural school year last fall, received a B in its first year..

“We are incredibly pleased with our grade, and I am so proud of our faculty, staff and students,” says principal Carin Hetzler-Nettles. “As a staff, we are truly thrilled to get a great look at our data as a school as compared to other schools.”

Because Cypress Creek did not have seniors, the school’s graduation rate and college and career acceleration points were not factored into its grade for 2017-18. They will be factored in the upcoming school year and next year’s grade.

“Overall, our students made us proud,” said Pasco County Schools superintendent Kurt Browning in a media release. “Can we do better? Yes we can, and I expect to see continuous improvement every year, in every school, and at every grade level.”

The complete DOE report is online at FLDOE.org/accountability/accountability-reporting/school-grades/.

Six New Tampa Public Schools Earns ‘A’ Grades For The Second Straight Year

School grades for the 2017-18 school year were released by the Florida Department of Education on June 27, and New Tampa’s schools continue to perform well.
Considering just the letter grades, all of the schools in New Tampa received the exact same grade as the previous year.

“The grades remained as they were,” says Anna Brown, Ph.D., the area superintendent for Hillsborough County Public Schools. Dr. Brown, who oversees all of New Tampa’s public schools, says, “We had no declines, but, within those grades, many schools actually increased their grade point, turning out an even stronger A.”
One such school was Chiles Elementary in Tampa Palms, which has had an A rating every year since opening in 2001. Principal Terri Evans says this year’s scores may be the highest ever achieved at the school.

“We have 32 points more than we had last year,” says Evans. “We had a big jump in learning gains and in the bottom quartile, and we’re especially excited about that.”

School letter grades are based on the compilation of individual scores on statewide tests, called Florida Standards Assessments (FSAs), at each grade level.
Learning gains describe how much each individual student gained from one year’s test to the next, and the bottom quartile describes the students who scored the lowest on their FSAs at the school.

“I think a letter grade is a bit of an overgeneralization,” Evans continues, “but I also think that to maintain that A every year, we have to be a really great school in a lot of ways. I’m hopeful that it reflects all that we do — that we have that kind of a school where kids want to go to school and learn and families want to be involved.”

The area’s other A schools are Clark, Pride and Tampa Palms elementary schools, and Benito and Liberty middle schools.
Turner/Bartels K-8 School earned a B, while four schools earned a C: Heritage and Hunter’s Green (HGE) elementary schools, as well as both of our area’s high schools, Freedom and Wharton.

While the consistency in grades is encouraging for the schools that continue to earn As, those that earned Cs are once again disappointed.

“For as hard as we work and what a wonderful school we have,” says HGE principal Gaye Holt proudly, “the letter grade doesn’t show what everyone expects of us.”
Dr. Brown agrees. “School grades are created by the state, with their definition of one way to categorize schools,” she says. “When you walk on the campuses, the grade of C is not reflective of the quality of teaching in each classroom or the quality of the relationships we have with our students and families.”

Despite some high-profile challenges at Wharton High, Dr. Brown says she is encouraged that its letter grade did remain the same, and didn’t drop.
She says that all of the schools in New Tampa have many very high-achieving students and excellent teaching and that all of our area schools are positioned well to provide excellent service to the students of New Tampa.

“The bottom line is, this is how we’re measured,” says Dr. Brown, “so we need to dig in and make sure we’re meeting every student’s needs at their individual level.”

Parents of Hillsborough County public school students who want to view their child’s FSA scores, including FSA End of Course exams, can view them at https://testscores.sdhc.k12.fl.us.

The complete DOE report is online at FLDOE.org/accountability/accountability-reporting/school-grades/.

New Union Park Charter Academy Set To Open In August At  Full Enrollment!

Union Park Charter Academy is Wesley Chapel’s first charter school and is expected to open fully enrolled, with 615 students in grades K through 6. (Photo: Giuliano Ferrara)

Wesley Chapel’s first charter school will open this fall. Demand for the school is clearly high, as enrollment already is full and there’s a waiting list at every grade level.

Union Park Charter Academy — called “UPCA” and pronounced “UP-kuh” — has 615 students scheduled to start school in kindergarten through 6th grade when it opens for the first time on August 13.

One thing you won’t find is classrooms of kids filling notebooks that transcribe lectures. In fact, the rooms at the school aren’t even called “classrooms.”

“The design of the building allows us to really meet the personal needs of individual students,” says the school’s founding principal, Tracy Ware. “The design of the building is in communities. What’s exciting is that there are so many options.”

Instead of traditional classrooms, each grade level meets in a common area with all of the teachers for that grade level. Students then move into one of the spaces available to them. That might be a learning lab for larger groups of students and a teacher. Or, it could be an area with flexible seating where students sit on creative furniture, such as “wobble boards” (no worries about kids leaning back and toppling over a four-legged chair), or stand at a high-top table.

There also are areas for small group projects, where students can go inside a glassed-in room and work without distraction, but still in complete view of the teacher.

The school is responsible for teaching to state standards and testing using statewide standardized tests.

“What sets us apart is not what we teach — it’s how,” explains Ware. “We have opportunities to use more technology and divide children up based on learning style, with four teachers teaching the same curriculum at the same time, but bringing it to children in different ways.”

UPCA is the newest school by Charter Schools USA, which currently manages 84 schools in seven states, serving more than 70,000 students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

Charter schools are public schools that operate under a contract — called a charter — with the local school district. Each charter school is independently governed by its own board of directors, and employees do not work for the local school district. However, Pasco County Schools is responsible for some oversight, ensuring that the school is in compliance with its charter and local, state and federal regulations.

Charter schools are required to be non-profit organizations.

As a charter school, it is a tuition-free option for parents looking for an alternative to the public school to which their child is assigned. This fall, Pasco County is expected to have 5,513 students enrolled in a total of 12 charter schools, with UPCA the only one located within Wesley Chapel, although a second charter school, Pinecrest Academy, is expected to open in 2019 at a site to be determined.

Ware was previously an education cluster manager responsible for leading and coaching principals and senior leadership teams using international standards she practiced while serving as a principal in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). In Abu Dhabi, she opened a grades K-5 school, where she promoted clear collaborative relationships between staff members with various backgrounds from all over the world.

“Ms. Ware is the perfect fit for our new innovative school opening in Wesley Chapel,” said Charter Schools USA’s Michelle Thompson, the company’s regional director of education for Florida’s west coast. “We knew we needed someone who will approach educational solutions from an entirely new mindset as we open a brand-new school with such an open and collaborative environment.”

A Focus On Technology

In addition to the innovative building, another unique aspect of UPCA is its focus on technology.

“Technology gives us more opportunities to reach students,” says Ware, explaining that smart technology will be used throughout every learning community, including an iPad issued to every student in grade 3 and higher.

“Teachers can flip the classroom,” because of this technology, explains Ware. Instead of traditional homework — where Wade says that incorrect practices can actually hurt a student’s ability to learn something correctly — a teacher can use video or other means to introduce a lesson at home that will be experienced the next day at school.

In addition, Ware says she’s excited about the level of involvement she’s already seen from the parents of the students who plan to attend. Many students can walk or bike to school, she says, and more than 90 parents signed in to the school’s first Parent Teacher Co-Op meeting (similar to a PTA).

The school’s students have already voted to choose its mascot, which is the Comets.

“The things that really set this school apart are its design, our use of technology, parental support and community investment,” says Ware. “Students have an opportunity to be innovative and creative, and that’s what we’ll provide at Union Park.”

Ware says that although there is a waiting list, interested parents should not be discouraged from applying, because some students who are enrolled now may not attend due to relocations or other factors.

“Even if they’re on the waiting list,” Ware explains, “there’s a good chance they could be enrolled this fall.”

Union Park Charter Academy is under construction at 32775 Oldwoods Ave. in Wesley Chapel. For more information, stop by its temporary office at 3830 Turman Loop, #101, between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, call (813) 358-7306 or visit UnionParkAcademy.org.