Students to Get a Break on Transfers Those at Some Failing Schools Get a Chance to Attend the Best.

By TOPHER SANDERS

Duval County high school students who attend certain failing schools will for the first time be able to transfer to academic powerhouses Paxon School for Advanced Studies, Stanton College Preparatory School and Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.

The School Board decided on Tuesday to allow incoming ninth- graders at Raines, Andrew Jackson and Forrest high schools to have the chance to go to Paxon, Stanton or Douglas Anderson for the school year that begins next month. Students entering grades 10, 11 or 12 at the failing schools are also eligible, but will have to either audition or have their records reviewed by the district.

The three magnet schools are under capacity while the only other schools that would have received transfers, Fletcher and Mandarin, are over capacity.

“The intent is to spread students around so no one school is overly impacted,” Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals said.

If their school has received two F grades on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in the past four years, including the last year, students have been able to transfer to higher-performing schools. Raines, Jackson and Forrest were on the double-F list this year. Until Tuesday’s decision, their students’ choices for the coming year would have been limited to Fletcher and Mandarin.

Letters will be sent to parents of eligible students by the end of the week. Parents will have until July 31 to contact the district. State law requires that transferring students be provided transportation by the district.

Pratt-Dannals initially proposed that Douglas Anderson, Paxon and Stanton be offered only to 10th-, 11th- and 12th-graders who had taken honors or advance-placement courses. Pratt-Dannals said he wanted to ensure that students were successful in their new schools. Those who hadn’t taken AP or honors courses would have had the option of going to Fletcher or Mandarin.

School Board members said providing the magnet schools as options would help the schools share the task of improving the district and student performance.

So they were added to Fletcher and Mandarin as transfer options, without the precondition of honors or AP courses.

“My goal was that every high school in the district have an equal responsibility in eliminating the achievement gap,” board member Brenda Priestly Jackson said. “It should not be borne by Fletcher and Mandarin. It is unfair to those schools that are already at capacity.”

Several board members felt the best students at Raines, Jackson and Forrest would want to transfer, putting those schools in an even more precarious situation for the FCAT next year.

The fear that strong students would leave double-F schools was one reason why the magnet high schools hadn’t been offered as option in the past, Pratt-Dannals told the board.

But Priestly Jackson and other board members felt the magnet schools haven’t played enough of a role in improving the district as a whole.

“What is the role of those schools in eliminating the achievement gap?” she asked. “What is their obligation to educate the child who is behind?”

Tuesday’s decision might mean more competition for the roughly 750 spots available to students who want to transfer. Doug Ayars, the district’s chief operations officer, warned of a possible influx of students who attend private schools who are zoned for one of the failing schools and want to take advantage of the opt-out option.

“If I could save $12,000 a year, I’d consider it,” Ayars said.

Those parents will not get letters because the district does not have their addresses, Pratt-Dannals said.

Last year, 148 high school students opted out of Ribault and 154 students opted out of Raines, the two schools who were on the double- F list.

Students interested in Douglas Anderson and their parents will have to meet with schools officials to discuss possible disciplines, Principal Jackie Cornelius said. The students will then have to audition, she said.topher.sanders@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4169

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