INDIAN RIVER COUNTY – The Indian River County School District has lost its “academically high-performing” status one year after receiving it because one school did not meet its class size requirement by less than one-half a student.
The lost status means that the school year cannot start early as planned this fall and the district’s calendar advisory committee will have to reconfigure the calendar. Beachland Elementary School on the barrier island did not meet its class size requirement in grades kindergarten through third by less than one-half of a student – .44, according to the Florida Department of Education.
“It is so minute,” schools spokeswoman Patty Vasquez said of the overage.
There are four requirements districts have to meet in order to receive the high-performing status, of which class size is one. The other requirements include having a district grade rating of an “A” two consecutive years or more, not having a single district-operated school with an “F” grade, and having no material weaknesses or instances of material noncompliance noted in the most recent annual financial audit, according to the Department of Education.
Beachland Elementary is expected to resolve the class-size issue by the start of next school year and if the district remains current with the other high-performing requirements, it should be able to reclaim the academic status when the next review takes place.
“I don’t think it occurred to us at the time,” Vasquez said of Beachland’s non-compliance affecting the district’s status.
She explained that if district officials thought the .44 class size overage would have jeopardized the status, the calendar committee would not have gone forward with proposing an early start to the calendar.
Vasquez added that the district knew Beachland was over capacity in the lower grades and had requested a waiver from the Department of Education, explaining the district’s circumstances. That waiver was denied.
The Board of Education reviews the state’s school districts annually to determine whether or not the districts have met the four high-performing requirements.
The Indian River County School District received the designation for the 2009-2010 school year; it’s first time. The 2009-10 school year did not start early.
Vasquez said the main impact the lost designation would mean for the district is on the calendar.
The district had planned to have the 2010-11 school year start on Aug. 18. Instead, the calendar committee will now have to craft a calendar with a traditional start date of Aug. 23.
The committee expects to meet next week.
“I don’t know what they’re going to do,” Vasquez said of the committee in trying to hammer out another calendar.
The committee had planned to present its proposed calendar to the school board on Tuesday. That is now on hold. When it might go before the board for consideration remains unknown.
