"I don’t think in my next life I’ll open two high schools in one year," St. Johns County School Superintendent Joe Joyner told a packed house last week during his State of the Schools address. "But we did it and we did it well. It was all just a fabulous thing."
According to Joyner, the county’s schools are looking pretty good. In fact, he said the 2007-2008 school year was the districts best year ever.
Last week, Joyner made a presentation regarding the state of the school district. The presentation touched on the goals accomplished from the 2007-2008 school year and offered goals for the 2008-2009 school year. He told the mixed crowd of district employees, concerned parents and citizens that the state of the schools is a culmination of how the district gets better every year. He said the only way to get better is to hold yourself accountable and it’s his belief that the district needs to get better every year.
St. Johns County was third in the state for FCAT points, first in the state for Reading and one of 10 districts in the state that has had A schools for 7 consecutive years. In addition, Joyner said SAT scores are 92 points above the state average and 55 points higher than the national average. When it comes to readiness for college, he said seniors in the county are 75.6 percent ready which is higher than the state average of 62.9 percent. There was a 16 percent increase in the number of AP exam takers and a 14 percent increase in exams taken. Additionally the pass rate was 56.2 percent higher than the state average of 44.4 percent.
With the new schools opening up this year, the district removed 101 re-locatable classrooms.
"Its a great thing," said Joyner. "It’s not easy to predict the number of students that are going to show up in your classrooms."
Joyner thanked the principals and district employees for their tireless efforts and said that this was the first year where funding for education went backwards.
"We are a big, big business," said Joyner. "Nothing sets me off the bridge more than wasting money."
For the 2008-2009 school year, Joyner said the district’s goals include developing and implementing enhancements to the delivery system for all students. He said that high expectations lead to high performance.
"This is the community’s district," said Joyner. "We can do better than our graduation rate and our drop-out rate."
In addition, the district will concentrate on developing a comprehensive student nurse plan, a district-wide counseling and social work program, consistent policies regarding attendance and tardiness and expanding the technical options especially at the elementary school level.
Joyner was optimistic about growth in the county and said another goal of the 2008-2009 school year was to implement the school concurrency model that took more than two years to develop.
"We’re ready for the next big developer," he said. "Bring your checkbook."
