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Superintendent touts positives in meeting on Middleton High

Tribune photo by KEVIN WIATROWSKI

About 200 people gathered on plastic chairs and a lunch table or two in Middleton's cafeteria to discuss the fate of the school.

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 18, 2009

TAMPA - Middleton High School alumnus Gary Ellerson came to this morning's community meeting with Hillsborough schools officials hoping to hear how the district planned to lift the troubled school off the state's watch list.

He left early feeling disappointed.

"I thought that some of the issues that needed to be identified and laid out might have been identified," Ellerson said. "I'm still left in the blind as to what's causing the poor performance rating."

Ellerson was among about 200 people who gathered on plastic chairs and a lunch table or two in Middleton's cafeteria to discuss the fate of the school.

School Board member Doretha Edgecomb, herself a Middleton alum, said she had sought the meeting with school officials to dispel rumors circulating in the community that the school might close or be converted to middle school.

"A meeting like this is the best way to put side those fears," Edgecomb told the gathering.

Historically black Middleton was closed in the 1970s as part of an effort to desegregate Tampa's schools. The school was reconstituted in 2002 at the urging to graduates and community members.

Superintendent MaryEllen Elia promised to hold regular meetings with Middleton's supporters to keep the community abreast of the improvements going on at the school known more for its gang activity than for its academics.

Middleton received another rating of D from state officials this year, landing it on the list of schools at risk of state intervention. The only other school on that list this year is in Miami.

"We want to know what the school board plans to do to improve that," said Calvin Simmons, president of Middleton's alumni association. "We've got to get rid of that 'D.'"

Elia spelled out the situation in two broad strokes: things are better at Middleton than many people know; and the school's poor reputation is a result of negative media coverage.

"They don't want you to see the positive," Elia said of the media.

The superintendent walked the crowd through a lengthy roster of those positives:

The school district has spent more than $1 million at Middleton on new staff and training for current teachers aimed at improving students' performance.

The number of students taking at least one Advanced Placement class has nearly tripled in the last three years.

The number of students referred for disciplinary action has dropped 60 percent in the last three years (the school population fell by 37 percent in the same period).

Students have won recognition for activities from Japanese language classes to math to rocketry.

"We've made gains at Middleton High School. But gains aren't easy," Elia said. "I'll tell you point-blank we are not where we want to be."

She conceded the school's drop-out rate remains unacceptably high and she asked for the community's help in pinpointing ways the school at 4801 N. 22nd Ave. can improve overall. Audience members offered a variety of suggestions, including keeping the property cleaner and encouraging more parental involvement.

Joshua Browne, who tutors Middleton students at the nearby HOPE center, was unconvinced by Elia's list of improvements to the school's staffing and curriculum.

"Fundamentally, they would be helping out students, but they're not," he said. "It's been a 'D' school for four years."

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 731-8168 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

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