TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Middleton grads fear for school

New Channel 8 photo by KATE CALDWELL

Middleton High alumni worry about the longtime pillar of Tampa’s black community.

ADVERTISEMENT

By ADAM EMERSON

aemerson@tampatrib.com

Published: June 29, 2009

TAMPA - Middleton High School alumni gathered throughout the weekend to pay homage to the school and its 75 years of history, but their thoughts often turned to the school's troubled present.

What, they ask, is going to happen to Middleton, a school that spent the past year under the state's watch and failed to show it can improve without intervention?

Standardized test scores showed the school's worst-performing students made gains, but not enough to ward off significant changes to the way its staff administers an education.

School officials, including the district's superintendent, have said it's too early to say what changes they'll make, but alumni from decades past say they're growing impatient.

Starting today, many said they will begin calling administrators at the district's office and sending a barrage of e-mails demanding to know how the district plans to turn around what has long been a pillar in Tampa's black community.

"Do what you have to do to make it successful now," said Denese Meteye James, a 1969 Middleton graduate who gathered with other alumni at a reunion picnic Sunday in east Tampa's Rowlett Park. "Get with the parents and get with the neighbors and ask them for help."

A year ago, the state placed Middleton High on a list of a dozen Florida schools requiring "intervention," which called for an infusion of reading and math coaches and for the district to develop improvement plans.

Since then, more of the school's worst-performing students have boosted their performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, but overall FCAT scores dropped.

When the state released its report card for public education two weeks ago, Middleton's grade remained a D.

Now any number of fixes could take effect, including a restructuring of the school's staff.

If that doesn't work and the school's performance fails to improve enough by next year, Middleton may face a more drastic overhaul by the state.

That prospect has alumni upset, said Fred Hearns, a 1966 Middleton graduate and past president of the school's alumni association.

It was Hearns who, during the school's 75th anniversary reunion celebrations over the weekend, urged alumni to call district administrators and ask them: "What is the plan?"

School board member Doretha Edgecomb, who stopped by the alumni picnic Sunday, said that she'll ask Superintendent MaryEllen Elia to meet with the alumni association and tell its members what the district intends to do.

Such a meeting could also dispel any rumors that the school will close or that the district is uninterested in its success, Edgecomb said.

Some alumni, though, say they want more than assurances.

Last school year, they tried to get students into the H.O.P.E. Community Center for after-school tutoring, but only a few trickled in. Many alumni, including Hearns, say the school did little to encourage students to visit.

James A. Hammond, a local civil rights activist who graduated from Middleton in 1946, said the school needs more tutoring, smaller class sizes and two instructors in every classroom.

"Whatever they're doing is not working," Hammond said.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT