Whether it’s working through a hurricane or preparing students for the workplace, Monroe County School District wants the best for students in the Keys.
Theresa Axford, superintendent for the Monroe County School District, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM to talk about school issues.
During Hurricane Ian, the school district kept in close contact with students, staff and personnel.
Axford said, “I’m so proud of the work that we were able to do. It’s quite a team. We just stayed in constant communication and that’s so helpful.”
Key West High School was used as a general shelter for people who needed it and that required the building be manned 24 hours.
In addition to the Red Cross and the Sheriff’s Department, a member of the school district staff needed to be there.
Following the storm, all facilities needed to be assessed to make sure it was safe for students to return.
Transportation is also a concern in storms. Anything above 39 miles per hour sustained winds, school buses can’t travel.
Axford said, “A hundred families in Bahama Village and about 200 in midtown were flooded out. So we have students that were really impacted by the floods. I know one family and I said how did it impact your daughter? And she said well a lot of her toys were on the floor. You don’t think of all those things.”
Clean up efforts have been ongoing since the storm ended last week and the district is working to help those families that have been displaced.
Axford said, “Our principals are experts at assessing which families are in need and then getting the resources to them. United Way just did their incredible campaign called Stuff the Bus and combined with Publix Tools for Schools. They raised $54,000, almost 55. Those funds just became available. How wonderful is that that these two things dovetailed?”
There are additional community resources that are filtered into families that need help.
The MOVE Program is Monroe Occupational and Vocational Experiences, which provides student workers for businesses in the community. It falls under Career and Technical Education, where 22 percent of students participate.
Axford explained, “That means that those students are joining the workforce. Our workforce in Monroe County, jobs are out there. Businesses need employees. So student needs and community needs dovetail in MOVE and it creates a wonderful business partnership. Those students can move into the high-wage, high-need jobs of the future.”
A student was recently placed at the Aqueduct Authority where the student will earn $20 an hour.
Axford said, “That’s going to be an opportunity in the future, not only for the Aqueduct Authority to cultivate a possible employee for the future, but for that student to gain all those skills that they will get in working in a business in our community.”
In terms of COVID, is it really in the rearview mirror for our schools?
Axford said, “We have such a fallout from COVID. I really feel the students have experienced academic trauma and that’s because of a lack of consistent schooling. We were in school, but things were interrupted. Students had to stay home for quarantining. They lost so much academic time.”
Standardized test scores at the end of the year showed Monroe County students 10 points behind in both reading and math from where they were before COVID.
Axford said, “That really represents hours of instruction. So I think students really need an additional hour of instruction every day or more. That’s what we are trying to do. We’re working with students individually to find out where their academic needs lie and then we’re hooking them up with before school programs, after school programs. Some schools are running Saturday programs. We’re really trying to face that problem in a positive way.”
One issue for school districts around the country is staffing concerns. Some districts are going to a four-day week to try to entice teachers into the profession.
Axford said, “Instructional time is the most critical factor in education. So I think cutting instructional time dramatically like that is going to have impact. I believe that there can be changes to schedules. For instance, some virtual programs really work and it works for some students. So probably a schedule that was a combination of face to face instruction and virtual could work and may be what those districts are doing. We’re open to looking at anything that will serve the students better.”
Monroe County School District has launched an app for cell phones called MyMCSD.
Axford said, “It’s an all purpose app that parents can use and instead of having to go to two places, if they’ve got students in different schools, they can go to this one stop shop app. You can download it in the app store and we’re really excited to launch it. I’ve been wanting to do this for several years. We finally got it together. I’m enjoying it. I think parents will really like it.”