While parents on St. Thomas are planning protests in hopes of stalling the upcoming closing of Evelyn Marcelli Elementary, V.I. Education officials announced Thursday a range of other "consolidation and restructuring" plans they said are fueled by a dwindling budget and push to get students to do better.
The afternoon press conference at the Curriculum Center — which was packed with everyone from the Education commissioner to the teachers’ union leader — comes on the heels of a Wednesday night meeting with parents at Marcelli, in which the district’s superintendent announced her decision to shut the doors permanently at the end of the school year.
While parents were adamant in their opposition, Superintendent Jeanette Smith-Barry said the decision was based on the need for more repairs, staff, parking and other critical items at the school. Parents and other residents in the community, however, have contended that the transfer of the school’s principal, Whitman Browne, to Guy Benjamin School on St. John, was a "purely political" move.
"We have been looking at things that will balance out the teams and putting people together that can make a stronger school," V.I. Education Commissioner LaVerne Terry said at Thursday’s press conference, where she confirmed the news about Marcelli’s closing.
"The Virgin Islands is political, so it’s hard for people in general to separate any major decisions from politics, but sometimes that is not the case," she added, saying that all of the upcoming shake-ups were not spur-of-the-moment decisions, but rather the result of at least two years of "careful consideration” where the "entire education system” was evaluated.
More recently, however, dwindling enrollment has slashed some student numbers in the St. Thomas-St. John district, and with the department feeling the pinch of a struggling economy, the money needed to continue funding some of the smaller schools just isn’t there, Terry said.
But moving Marcelli students to either Jane E. Tuitt, Leonard Dober and Ulla F. Muller schools doesn’t mean worse neighborhoods and a poor education—the other schools are just as good and have room to absorb the students, while teachers will be redistributed throughout the system, she said.
And as for the territory’s remaining schools, any moves to shift around administrators are in large part an effort to fill gaps that need to be addressed, to boost student achievement and, in small part, to take care of lingering issues that might be having adverse effects on the faculty, staff and student populations, officials said.
"Instead of looking at each school’s staff in isolation, we looked at the staffs as part of the total district to determine how best to utilize our resources," Terry said. "This was the case when considering administrative moves."
Referencing the schools’ adequate yearly progress (AYP) results, superintendents in both districts said they were looking to boost achievement — particularly in subgroups, such as the English language learners and students with disabilities — by putting a staff in place that could meet the school’s needs.
St. Croix Superintendent Gary Molloy, for example, said he decided to move St. Croix Central High School principal Chermaine Johnson over to Juanita Gardine Elementary because of her background in special education.
"Juanita Gardine has a large special education population that is underserved," he said after the press conference.
St. Croix has been in an uproar recently after students protested the transfer of St. Croix Educational Complex Principal Kurt Vialet to Arthur A. Richards Junior High—a move that Terry also confirmed Thursday.
Focusing on the schools’ principals, Molloy also announced the transfer of: Willard John from the Career and Technical Institute to Educational Complex; Janasee Sinclair to Central High School; Debra Abel from Juanita Gardine to Alexander Henderson; Susanna Smith from Henderson to the alternative education program; and Daphne Williams from Arthur Richards to Lew Muckle Elementary.
On St. John, Browne will be taking over at Guy Benjamin, while that school’s principal, Dionne Wells, will be moving over to Julius Sprauve.
On St. Thomas: Lydia Lettsome will be moving to Leonard Dober Elementary; Felix Durand to Joseph Sibilly Elementary; Lois Hassell-Habtes to E. Benjamin Oliver Elementary; Laura Chesterfield to Yvonne Milliner-Bowsky Elementary; Mario Francis to Edith Williams Alternative Academy; Sidney George to the Raphael O. Wheatley Skill Center; and Dahlia Adams to Adult Education.
And, as the budget cuts are expected to keep coming, Terry said there might be additional changes in the pipeline, as schools will be asked to reevaluate some of the "luxuries"—such as instructional coaches—that they’ve received during times when the department had more money. Nothing is definite, but there could be instances where, now that the budget is tight, some areas could be further cut back, she said.
While some of this has been accomplished through attrition, the department has had to shave more funding off in the last couple months, bringing the grand budget cut total to $9 million.
"This is going to have real, severe implications for the department," Terry said later.
Thursday’s budget wasn’t all about the cuts, however. Terry also announced that there will be a strong push to boost the territory’s AYP scores in the upcoming year.
Though half the territory’s schools made AYP last year, since 2007 there have been three elementary schools and middle schools that have never made the cut, Terry said.
"Starting this year, all schools will have to reach a much higher standard to make AYP," she said. "So instead of 37.7 percent of the students needing to make the standard in reading in grades 3 to 8 this year, 53.3 percent of the students will need to make the standard in order to make AYP."
Terry said higher standards will "put additional stress on the schools," particularly those who have never, or are just barely, hitting the benchmarks.
Additional efforts to boost student achievement are being led by deputy commissioner Sarah Mahurt, who explained after the press conference the process of improving the schools’ professional development standards.
Pushing administrators to do more walk-throughs, stressing oral language development and writing, and even bringing in new textbooks are some of the initiatives she said have either been done, or being looked at in hopes of raising student achievement.
