Dozens of people packed a Hernando County School Board meeting Tuesday night to voice opposition to the district dismissing all the teachers at Moton Elementary School in Brooksville.
- Moton has received "D" rating past 2 years
- Superintendent said drastic action needed to be taken
- Tenured teachers to be re-assigned
For the past two years, Moton has received a "D" rating and has been on the state's list of the lowest performing schools.
Superintendent Lori Romano said if the district didn't take drastic action, there was a risk the school could have been closed down, converted into a charter school or turned over to outside management.
"Let's stop pointing fingers at each other," Romano said at the meeting, reading from a prepared statement. "Let's stop criticizing each other, and let's be who we are and be what we are, and that's an amazing community doing great things for children, and let's fight to keep Moton open as our school."
One by one, residents took to the podium to address Romano and the school board, some calling the decision "hurtful" and "insulting" to the teachers, many of whom received high ratings on their evaluations.
"By pink-slipping an entire school, what you have done, whether you meant it or not, is you sent the message and the insinuation that these teachers are just not good enough. As a fellow educator, I find that very insulting," said Tiffany Fiore-Frost.
The decision is also drawing criticism from the Florida Education Association. President Joanne McCall said it's the students who will suffer, particularly since the decision was announced just as testing is getting started.
"We're telling them that we're going to change your school, we're going to uproot your teachers, we're going to change everything in your school because we don't believe you're going to make the cut score of these tests. What does that do to a kid's psyche?" she said.
Tenured teachers will be re-assigned to other schools in the district, while newer teachers will have the option to re-apply for a position within the district or look for work elsewhere.