Lewis Elementary is an ‘A’ School

The state found a mistake in its annual school grading system last week, and once the error was corrected, received an A grade instead of a B for the 2011-12 school year.

When the Florida Department of Education originally released this year’s grades July 11, from the 2010-11 school year.

The department notified Hillsborough County Public Schools Superintendent MaryEllen Elia Friday that the school grades for 17 schools in the district had been miscalculated, according to a press release from the school district. When the calculations were corrected, the grades for these schools increased by one grade level. Lewis Elementary was the only Temple Terrace area school affected by the corrected calculations.

Jen Terry, Lewis’ PTA president, said she learned of the correction last week.

“We were very excited and thought it was a great achievement,” she said. “I think it is evident of the teamwork at Lewis.”

Terry said Principal Kristin Tonelli, Assistant Principal Delilah Rabeiro, teachers, students and parents all work together in order to be successful. Parents even provide tutoring to students through the Partnering to Accelerate Learning program.

“We have great parent involvement,” said Terry, who will have a fifth-grader, fourth-grader and second-grader at Lewis this school year.

Tonelli is on vacation this week and could not be reached for comment.

The corrected calculations also brought the overall school district grade up from a C to a B, according to the release.

“This is a relief to those schools; many of them maintained their grade even during a year of tougher standards,” Elia said in the release. “And it’s gratifying that we as a district were able to maintain our B grade during this difficult year of transition to tougher standards.”

Even before grades were released, the Hillsborough County school district said that it expected grades to be lower this year compared to last year because of raised standards. Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson wrote an open letter to parents explaining the expected impact of the new standards.

“As grades for elementary, middle and many combination schools become available you may notice that some schools have lower grades than last year,” Commissioner Robinson wrote. “That does not necessarily mean that the schools, teachers or students are not doing as well as they were before. There were a number of changes to the state’s accountability system this year that impacted the results.”

High school grades are not expected to be released until late fall, after graduation rates and other factors are calculated.