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Eight Hillsborough County Schools in takeover status

The county is still trying to determine what company will run the failing schools.

TAMPA, Fla. — With just a few weeks before the start of the new school year, Hillsborough County is still working to figure out which external educational company will run four of eight schools that earned too many D and F grades from the state.

James Elementary, Kimbell Elementary, Robles Elementary and Sulphur Springs K8 schools will all go to a new contract that has yet to be determined. Folsom, McDonald, Oak Park and Foster elementaries will all be run by Phalen Leadership Academies, which already has a contract to run struggling schools in the district.

"The solution is that the community needs to recognize what's happening, what's happening to their own children, and stand up and do something about it,” said Tina Young of Project LINK, which supports families with students in Hillsborough County Schools. "I think we all have to take responsibility for our children, for our community."

Young said the families her non-profit group supports often struggle to meet the basic needs of their children, and this makes it difficult for those students to come to school ready to learn.

“A lot of people don’t understand why a child may not come to school, or may be late for school or may not have food to eat, or maybe not even have a home to go to,” she said. “But it doesn’t understand why you may not understand why somebody has ended up in a situation. The concern is that we need to come together and help others, help our children to be successful.”

School board chair Tamara Shamburger agreed. “We have to think about the socioeconomics of what's happening in these communities, the trauma that these kids are dealing with … that's preventing them from learning or getting the skills they need,” she said. “But also, from a district perspective, we continue to deal with vacancies with our teachers, and kids having to deal with substitute teachers. Kids don't learn as well when they don't have a certified, committed teacher in front of them."

Hillsborough County Schools Superintendent Jeff Eakins said the district is working to provide resources for these students and works to partner with community organizations that help students succeed.

“We certainly can partner with some of the organizations in those communities that ultimately are providing support,” said Eakins. “Our parent organizations, we also know that early childhood is a big component to helping these students become kindergarten-ready. That accelerates their literacy rates as they come in and that’s what we’ve been seeing across the community in what used to be some of our D and F schools — it really is about how we’re addressing those students early on.”

Eakins said the district will choose an external operator by the beginning of August to run the four schools. State law requires districts to either close schools, reopen them as charters or select an external operator to run them if they have consecutive D or F grades.

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