PANAMA CITY — There will be one less School Choice option for fifth graders on the beach next school year.
“Our capacity is just such that we have to be careful that we have room enough for the students that actually live in that zone,” said Superintendent Bill Husfelt.
At a Bay District School Board meeting Tuesday, board members discussed “clamping” School Choice selection at Breakfast Point Academy for fifth graders going to the sixth grade who are not zoned for the school.
Currently, the school is at 120 percent of its capacity, Husfelt said. A task force assessed how the district could target the issue of overcrowding at the school and closing sixth grade off to students not zoned for the school is “the best way to do it.”
“There won’t be any exceptions until we look at the numbers and if we have room … and it becomes such that it isn’t a problem, then we let students in,” he said. “But I don’t see that” happening.
The change is expected to be minor, impacting about 50 students. But it’s a start down the right path, according to board member Steve Moss.
“I believe this is the first step in regards to maybe alleviating the overcrowding,” Moss said, who is the board representative for District 5, which includes Breakfast Point Academy. “But in the future, if this does not necessarily make the gains that we want it to; we might have to do something a little bit more intrusive that will affect some of those folks, such as, rezoning.
“But right now we’re not to that point,” he added.
Building another elementary school is another option the district has discussed and will almost certainly be realized in the next four or five years, according to the superintendent.
Substitute teachers
Also at the meeting, board members approved a $146,394 substitute teacher bonus program for quarterly bonuses to qualifying substitute teachers.
Substitutes that work more than 100 hours will get $150 and more than 150 hours will receive $250 bonuses per nine-week period. Only one bonus can be earned per nine weeks.
Substitutes pay per hour ranges from $9.26 to $10.
Also Tuesday, North Bay Haven Charter Career Academy received a 15-year contract renewal as a part of its new status of being a high-performing charter school.