Course correcting school zoning in North Marion

Photo: The new Fordham Early Learning Academy, which was the old Evergreen Elementary School, is shown on West Anthony Road in Ocala, Fla. on Wednesday, July 6, 2022. Evergreen Elementary School has been closed since May 2021 when the Marion County Public School Board voted to close it due to low student performance and bad test scores. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022.

The Marion County School Board continues its brainstorming to correct zoning issues in North Marion County since the 2021 closure of Evergreen Elementary and overcrowding of nearby schools.

Superintendent Diane Gullett organized information from her facilities, staffing, and transportation team to share board-requested rezoning data at the Feb. 24 work session.

After the information was presented and the public attendees expressed confusion, Board Member Allison Campbell paused and provided background on this discussion.

Campbell said issues arose after the closure of Evergreen Elementary School and the rezoning of those students. Evergreen Elementary School closed due to low-performance ratings and has since been converted to the Fordham Early Learning Academy to serve Pre-K through second grade.

The closest alternative school for former Evergreen students would have been Oakcrest Elementary School. However, it had similar low performance ratings and was in turnaround status, Campbell said. Therefore, she said students had to be bused further from their school zones for academic purposes.

Even though Oakcrest has not had turnaround plans since then, she said the board “never course corrected” and rezoned the students there.

“All of the other students that have continued to move into what used to be the Evergreen zone are now being bused to Ward-Highlands, College Park and Shady Hill,” Campbell said.

A school that receives an “F” school grade or two consecutive “D” grades has a year to conduct an improvement plan, followed by two to three years to carry out the turnaround plan, according to the FLDOE. The department says if the school passes with a “C” within that time, it no longer has to continue with the plan but is monitored.

Board Member Nancy Thrower said Evergreen did make a passing school grade the year it closed, but the staff was “exhausted” from the effort it took to do so.

“The system pretty much crushed them,” Thrower said. “The kids did great and so it was very important for them to go to schools that were high performing to continue that success, but Evergreen did not close because it failed.”

Campbell said she recalls that teachers were leaving Evergreen and the students lacked the academic support to continue.

Board Member Sarah James said the schools the students currently attend are over capacity, while Oakcrest is under capacity and can afford to take the students in. James said staff would theoretically be seeking positions at Oakcrest as the units of students are cut from the schools they are leaving to rezone.

“Not only would this put Oakcrest at a fuller capacity, but it would also alleviate some pressure points we have at Ward-Highlands where we have a tremendous amount of portables,” James said.

Eric Ostanik, Supervisor of Transportation, said driving the former Evergreen students to Oakcrest would require one or two bus runs. Ostanik estimated the cost for transportation for the first year of the plan with one driver costing $25,000, two drivers costing $57,200, and the run fuel costing $3,600.

He said students wouldn’t spend any additional time on the bus with this change since they drive further to Shady Hill now versus the closer location of Oakcrest.

“That’s why we’re having this conversation today because as long as Oakcrest stays out of turnaround status, and the hope is that they will stay that way, the most logical location is for those Evergreen students to go to Oakcrest because of how close it is to what used to be Evergreen Elementary and what Fordham is now,” Campbell said.

Result

Given that Oakcrest received a “D” grade last school year, administration requested this year’s progress monitoring data from the superintendent before any rezoning plans were finalized.

Campbell recommended another year of academic data with Oakcrest’s turnaround being the reason students did not attend the school initially, and her concern is that the low performance will reoccur.

 “If we land in the same spot as we did last year, then this conversation is premature,” Campbell said.

Gullett provided the requested document to the board at the end of the meeting, including Oakcrest’s third through fifth graders’ progress monitoring data from last year and this year.

Although James was in favor of approving the rezoning plan to boost Oakcrest’s population and academic performance, Campbell said the math scores were as concerning as she thought and was not in support of the plan taking place the next 2025-26 academic school year.

Thrower agreed with Campbell to hold off on enacting the plan. While she said she also understands James’ point that more kids could make a difference in grading, based on the document’s results, she said the timing is delicate.

“There’s a time to do this,” Gullet said. “I don’t think the time is now.”