WINTER HAVEN, Fla.-- For the first time since 2010, Polk County schools received a B letter grade from the state. It's an achievement that's showcased on billboards across the county.
- Polk County schools receive B letter grade
- No Polk County schools earned F grade
- Garner Elementary improves from F to C
It's also the first time in seven years that none of Polk County's public schools earned an F letter grade. Seven schools earned a D, down from 17 in the 2016-2017 school year, according to the district.
The district's Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Michael Akes, said he knows the district's overall improvement is not only good for the students, but it could also make it more enticing for larger companies to move into Polk County.
"For the majority of our parents, the majority of the community members, they're going to look at that school district's grade. So we definitely understood the importance of moving it from a C to a B and our goal of moving it to an A," said Akes. "But it is economic development that provides our high demand, high wage jobs to come in the community and incoming business. All of our surrounding districts, we can now say we're right on level with them."
One of the schools that saw drastic improvement was Garner Elementary School in Winter Haven. The school's principal, Qvonda Birdsong, challenged students throughout the year to read 10,000 books.
In return, she promised to kiss a pig.
"They read 10,000 books by February," said Birdsong.
During a school assembly, she fulfilled her promise. She said it was a struggling student's idea.
Along with the fun incentive, she said the community definitely stepped up to help. One anonymous donor gave the school $15,000 for incentives.
Birdsong said she used it to buy bikes for kids with perfect attendance. Others stopped by the school to mentor and read to children.
Birdsong believes all of the reading, attendance gains and community support definitely helped.
"It was very difficult. This school went from a double F to a solid C, and so for the last six years it has had three Ds and three Fs," explained Birdsong.
Despite the jump in letter grade, the district admits it has lots of work to do to improve students test scores.
Civics was the only state exam where more than 65 percent of the district’s students got a passing score.
Passing the Language Arts exam wasn't only an issue at Garner Elementary but across the district. Statistics from this year indicate only 46 percent of students in Polk County passed the Florida Standards Assessment English Language Arts Exam.
"Reading is the toughest one to move," Akes explained. "One of the things you look at when you talk about reading is really where does the gap occur? We're firmly committed to what we got to do to close that reading gap is kindergarten, first and second grades. It's in primary grades."