With a new school year just beginning, Hernando County Schools have received some positive reviews recently about the previous school year.
Late last month, the Florida Department of Education released its annual report on school and district grades. Hernando County received a ‘B’ grade with 59 percent in total points, an increase of 1 percent from 2023.
Weeki Wachee High, Springstead High and West Hernando Middle all rose from ‘C’ to ‘B’ and Fox Chapel Middle improved from a ‘D’ to a ‘C’ this past school year. All four of the county’s ‘A’ schools – Chocachatti Elementary, Challenger K-8, Gulf Coast Academy and Hernando e-schools – maintained that grade.
Suncoast Elementary, Westside Elementary, Gulf Coast Elementary and Nature Coast Technical High also stayed at a ‘B’ grade. “These results affirm the incredible focus that our teachers, school administrators and instructional staff maintained throughout the school year to prepare students,” said assistant superintendent of teaching and learning Gina Michalicka in a statement released by the district. “I know that over the next few weeks, school teams will be diving deep into their results to find opportunities to improve. Today, we extend congratulations to all of our schools who dedicate each day to helping students succeed.”
As for the remaining schools, Hernando High, Eastside Elementary, Spring Hill Elementary, J.D. Floyd Elementary, Parrott Middle, Central High, Explorer K-8 and Winding Waters K-8 all stayed at ‘C’ grades. Brooksville Elementary, Pine Grove Elementary, Deltona Elementary, Moton Elementary and B.E.S.T. Academy went from ‘B’ to a ‘C’ grade.
At an Aug. 13 workshop, the Hernando County School Board was presented with the results of three surveys conducted with students, staff and parents concerning school quality, employee engagement and student engagement.
The student survey was distributed amongst those from third grade to 12th, with 77 percent participating for a total of 13,447 responses. An overwhelming majority of students believe they have teacher support, with 87 percent providing positive responses when asked if teachers want them to do their best, 77 percent if teachers don’t give up on them and 73 percent if they think teachers will help them with their schoolwork if necessary.
“This area has always been super strong for us,” said Sonsee Sanders, the school district’s director of research and accountability, who handled the student survey part of the presentation. “Our students have always responded with high, high marks for our teachers and the level of support they provide.”
Interestingly, 85 percent answered positively when asked if they follow all rules, 81 percent if they’re kind to all students and 91percent if they’re kind to teachers. Sanders noted that while those high percentages might produce skepticism that students answered truthfully, only a small percentage of students account for most discipline problems.
“It’s a shout out that 83 percent of students in our district only have zero or one discipline for the entire school year,” Sanders said.
She also pointed out that for the third year in a row, a strength of the district was the future aspirations of the students. When asked if they plan to continue their education after high school, 77 percent of students answered positively. Also, 85 percent believe they will find a career that interests them and 77 percent are excited about future opportunities.
Where the district has struggled is convincing students that what they’re learning will have long-term benefits. Only 33 percent provided a positive response to the question of whether what they learn in school relates to the outside world and just 42 percent when asked if what they’re learning in school relates to their future.
Additionally, only 48 percent answered positively that their classes were interesting and 45 percent that they were challenging. “What I learned that’s relevant, 33 percent is too low of a number,” board member Mark Johnson said. “That needs to increase. We have to explore more relevant issues for the students. I think that’ll come about partially when the new aerospace certifications come out either later this year or for next year that we’re working on.
“I also think we’re relying too heavily on computers and that’s taking the interest out of the classroom. I think if we go away from the computerization or as much as they’re getting all that screen time and get back to letting the teachers teach, we’d get better results. Because that’s what teachers love to do.”
“I was very happy with the results, but it is discouraging when students can’t understand how it relates to the real world,” board chairperson Linda Prescott said. “I know there’s always been an emphasis on saying, ‘Well, why are we learning this and how will this help you?’ In some subjects it’s a little bit easier to do, especially in the technical ones. But I know that we’ll come up with a plan and that will go up, I have no doubt.”
The data from this survey has been given to the principals of county schools so they can use it to create an action plan.
“Just in speaking with principals informally lesson planning was huge for them because they can incorporate those real-life problems, real-life scenarios,” Sanders said. “Those data chats with students, when you take a few minutes to sit with a student and go over their data and how it ties to what their future goals are going to be, and you have those conversations about this is where you’re at and this is what you need to do to get to where you’re going.”
In the staff survey, which had an 80 percent participation rate, all questions received at least a 75 percent positive response with the exception of one, as only 68.49 percent answered positively that their workload was reasonable. Over 90 percent had positive answers about whether employees feel valued, the district strategic plan focus being clear, and to questions about supervisor support, expectations and trust.
School culture was the most important retention factor for employees by almost double anything else at 40.3 percent.
“Whatever we can do to help our school leaders build a positive culture at their sites, it’s key,” said Matt Goldrick, director of human resources, during his part of the presentation. “And I think we see that when administration moves, staff sometimes follow. Because people want to work where the culture is good, where it’s fun and where they’re appreciated.”
There’s also been a slight increase in alumni of county schools returning as employees, up to 28.77 percent.
“The whole nation has a shortage of teachers and a shortage of school staff to fill the schools,” Goldrick said. “The more we can do to recruit people who live here and went to school here, the more likely we’re going to see those numbers rise and that’s going to be part of our retention and recruitment plans.”
The parent survey saw a decrease in responses, calling into question the length of the survey and the possibility of breaking up the survey into smaller portions distributed throughout the school year.
Most responses about the staff, school safety and school district communications with parents were highly positive. One result, however, caught the attention of some board members. Only 80 percent of parents answered positively that bullying is not tolerated in schools.
“That we have to work on,” Johnson said. “Hopefully, with the changes we’ve made in the student conduct handbook, that’ll be addressed. But that can only work if the teachers believe and use the system the way it’s intended. If they don’t follow through with the discipline as it’s intended, we won’t move those numbers.
“Those numbers are horrible. We should have zero out of five parents saying that bullying is perceived to be tolerated in the school district. That’s off the charts; one out of five, 20 percent. Think about it. That’s five kids in the classroom are going to say, ‘Oh, bullying is OK.’ That’s not good. We need to change that. We need to change that culture.”
