Teacher Pat Tomford takes kindergartner Joshua Upson outside at West Jacksonville Elementary School to talk to a parent on the phone. The call prevented a discipline referral. - Carrie Rosema/staff

West Jacksonville works to improve poor performance

By Nancy Mitchell
Times-Union staff writer

At West Jacksonville Elementary on a recent Friday, AmeriCorps volunteer Jonathan Delifus mesmerized a group of fifth-graders with a simple experiment about fire.

''We're scientists here,'' Delifus told them, as he put vinegar in a soda bottle, added baking soda and used the carbon monoxide emitted to extinguish a candle's flame.

Eight students in one of Jacksonville's lowest-performing schools watched intently, then excitedly recited the three parts of fire: ''Heat - Oxygen - Fuel.''

Delifus is a recent addition to the school, part of a battery of aid sent in after West Jacksonville made the state's list of critically troubled schools last year. It's help that seems to be paying off.

The school stayed on the state's list this year, though by a slim margin, marking the third year in a row its fourth-graders have performed below minimum standards on basic skills and writing tests.

Its scores schoolwide are typically among the lowest in the Duval County school system.

Ask some school system officials, teachers and parents why, and they often point to factors beyond the school's control - things such as poor preparation at home and a lack of parental involvement.

The school is in a run-down, low-income neighborhood. Ninety-six percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch. About 85 percent of the students live in a federally subsidized housing complex.

It has 401 students and 86 PTA members.

''These children come from homes that are not the best,'' kindergarten teacher Pat Tomford said. ''Sometimes they're coming toschool with baggage.''

But other schools face similar challenges, and do better. At Brentwood Elementary, for example, students surpassed the school system's average score on the Florida Writes! writing test this year.

Nancy Snyder, who oversees both schools as assistant superintendent for elementaries, puts ''superior leadership'' first in listing what makes a school succeed.

She said West Jacksonville Principal Sylvia Johnson, in only her second year, is taking the right steps, and student test scores already are improving.

''What you do see at West Jacksonville is actually the same thing you would have seen at Brentwood if you roll the clock back five years,'' Snyder said. ''It doesn't happen overnight.''

Johnson replaced Kenneth Stewart, who was transferred in 1995 and is now working as a fifth-grade teacher at Seabreeze Elementary. Stewart was rated ''below expectation'' in leadership, decision-making and judgment in his last evaluation as principal. He had been principal for six years.

Stewart declined to discuss his work at West Jacksonville. He disputed the evaluation, according to records in his personnel file.

Kay Price, who works in professional development for the school system, was part of a school improvement team sent into West Jacksonville in November. She said team members observed school activities and talked to teachers, parents, students and staff.

''What we kept hearing over and over again were absolute raves about the current administration and the impact it's had on the school,'' Price said.

''Sylvia Johnson has helped make tremendous strides. In time, I think, she's going to get the school where it needs to be.''

Johnson, giving a recent tour at West Jacksonville, doesn't dwell on why the school has fared so poorly in the past.

Instead, she watches the children's reaction to Delifus' science experiment with a smile, seeing two keys to helping her students improve: an infusion of outside support and teaching that holds student attention.

Her first job as principal is ''a challenge,'' she said, but she is optimistic about the school's future.

''You have to truly believe every child can learn and I do,'' said Johnson, a 20-year teaching veteran. ''Maybe in different ways and at different rates, but our job as educators is to find out how to teach them.''

It was the school's inclusion on the state troubled schools list that prompted a flurry of activity, including more tutoring programs, new technology and teacher training.

Five computers were put in each classroom, along with a software program in math and reading that has shown preliminary success at other schools. Nine teachers were trained to use all types of books, rather than textbooks only, to get kids' attention.

Business and volunteer involvement has increased, and grants are bringing in more help. A grant written by area university faculty is paying for five volunteers with AmeriCorps, the federal program providing college money in exchange for service, to assist teachers and to act as one-on-one tutors with students. Other grants written by West Jacksonville teachers paid for an after-school reading program for students and their parents, and for a field trip to Kennedy Space Center and materials to help the school's business partner, IBM Corp., teach kids about rockets and math and science.

Test scores have gone up. Last year, 16 percent of fourth-graders, the age used in compiling the state troubled schools list, scored above the national average in reading. That number was up to 30 percent this year.

''We're already on the right track,'' third-grade teacher Linda Stalcup said. ''Give us time. We're doing it.''

More needs to be done, Johnson said, and some changes are on the way. Among them:

Discipline, a problem cited by some teachers, will be addressed with the implementation of the ''Fighting Fair'' peer mediation program next year. West Jacksonville Elementary reported 58 fights last year in its annual school report, one of the highest numbers reported by elementaries.

A $3 million construction project, to be completed in the fall, will mean an end to six long-standing portable classrooms and help alleviate cramped space.

The project will add six classrooms and a media center, remodel the existing media center into two classrooms and add parking space and a new bus driveway.

''It might help the morale of the neighborhood just to see money being spent on the school,'' said Tomford, the kindergarten teacher.

The school is being wired for the Internet as part of the construction project, beefing up its electronics magnet program. West Jacksonville also is adding 32 laptop computers for fourth-graders next year and will allow the laptops to be taken home, provided parents undergo training in their use.

Parental involvement is being encouraged by using an Americorps volunteer as a parent liaison. The volunteer will hold workshops this fall to help train parents in job and parenting skills. Two computers have been set aside for parental use.

Johnson said she would like to get a high school diploma program for parents started at the school, to encourage their education and to make them comfortable in the building.

West Jacksonville PTA President Edna Brown also is thinking of ways to involve parents. She's been considering incentives, such as giving away plants, to get parents to attend PTA activities.

Brown said it's not that all parents are busy with work or school, because many are not. Often, they make excuses.

''People just say, I'll come the next time, and they don't,'' Brown said. ''If parents would get more involved and make sure the children are doing what they're supposed to do, like homework, the children would feel better about what they're doing and try harder.''

Johnson would like to have the space to set aside a resource room just for parents, with computers and books just for them. She'd also put enough money for an art teacher on her wish list, she said.

But she said she's happy with the progress now being made.

''We're excited because we're finally getting things done,'' she said. ''You have to take time to grow a school. It's like a garden really.''