Hillsborough County Public Schools Mr. Kenneth Hart, Principal 8302 Montague Street Tampa, FL 33635 Document Generated On December 15, 2014
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Description of the School 2 School's Purpose 3 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement 4 Additional Information 5
Introduction Every school has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and learning takes place influences the processes and procedures by which the school makes decisions around curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The context also impacts the way a school stays faithful to its vision. Many factors contribute to the overall narrative such as an identification of stakeholders, a description of stakeholder engagement, the trends and issues affecting the school, and the kinds of programs and services that a school implements to support student learning. The purpose of the Executive Summary (ES) is to provide a school with an opportunity to describe in narrative form the strengths and challenges it encounters. By doing so, the public and members of the school community will have a more complete picture of how the school perceives itself and the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This summary is structured for the school to reflect on how it provides teaching and learning on a day to day basis. Page 1
Description of the School Describe the school's size, community/communities, location, and changes it has experienced in the last three years. Include demographic information about the students, staff, and community at large. What unique features and challenges are associated with the community/communities the school serves? Alonso High School is one of the largest high schools in Hillsborough County with a current school population of 2610 students. Alonso High School is located off Montague St, in Tampa, Florida. Alonso serves both the Westchase and Town and Country communities. Alonso High School's school population is composed of 49% Hispanic students, 34% white students, 7% Blacks students, 6% multi racial and 4% Asian students. The school population also includes 16% of students with disabilities, 11% of the students are English language learners and 58% of students are on free and reduced lunch. The school has 7 administrators including the principal. Alonso High school has approximately 223 employees of those employees 165, are instructional staff. Due to the size of the school and school community it continues to be a challenge to meet all of the needs of the school today, however despite this challenge. Alonso also has a challenge with a large level of transient students who frequently are English language learners, it both takes time and understanding for these students to become acculturated with the Alonso High School environment. Alonso has continued to maintain a high level of academic success and a wide range of success in all its school programs and extracurricular opportunities. Page 2
School's Purpose Provide the school's purpose statement and ancillary content such as mission, vision, values, and/or beliefs. Describe how the school embodies its purpose through its program offerings and expectations for students. The mission statement Alonso High School is as follows, is a community where excellence is the goal; diversity is valued; integrity is expected and school pride is the result. This mission has and continues to be a guiding force for students, faculty and parents in the community. Alonso High School views it's diversity as its strength and more so understands that integrity is what carries the school through all difficult situations. Excellence has been the result at Alonso as it continues to maintain a high level of academic performance as measured by schools grades by the State of Florida. Alonso High School's vision is as follows; Alonso faculty, staff, parents and community strive to provide a Raven's N.E.S.T; A Nurturing Environment for Successful Teaching. As a result of these pursuits the Ravens at Alonso are nurtured, ensuring that each student is cared for, and each faculty member is given the resources to be successful. Relationships themselves play an integral role in encouraging and supporting all ravens in our school wide mission and vision, this support along with continuous effort has help create Alonso into the school that it is today Page 3
Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement Describe the school's notable achievements and areas of improvement in the last three years. Additionally, describe areas for improvement that the school is striving to achieve in the next three years. Alonso High School has received many prestigious awards and recognitions over the past three years. First and foremost, Alonso High School has been an "A" school for the last two year in a row. Academically, Alonso has achieved multiple recognitions. Alonso had five science students achieve perfect scores on the State's Biology end of course exam in 2013-2014. That is more than any other district school, including International Baccalaureate. In addition, Alonso administrator Larissa Mccoy-Mitti won the Reading Leader of the Year award for the state of Florida in 2012. Alonso students have also excelled through national scholarship recognitions. Alonso High also had two Barnes scholarship award winners in back to back years 2010 and 2011. Alonso also had a student win the Anne Frank Humanitarian award in 2013. Alonso has also achieved many awards in the arts. The Alonso orchestra has received straight superior ratings at district MPA evaluations for the past three years. Alonso High School has also had numerous students make the all county orchestras and have we had a student in the all-state orchestra each of the last three years. Alonso's marching band earned an overall superior rating in 2013. Alonso Theater program has achieved best play for district 9 the past three years. Alonso has also had more district 9 scholarship winners for theater than any other school in the district. In fact the Theater program participated in a state main stage production in 2010-2011. Alonso High has also achieved many accomplishments in athletics. The Raven baseball team won the 2009 and the 2011 FHSAA State baseball title. Alonso was also state runner-up for flag football championship in 2010 and 2011. Alonso had a 2013 FHSAA state champion triple jumper. The softball and flag football teams were also district champions for 2014. Alonso has also been rated very highly in the community as well, achieving a 5 star status the last three school years, for having an active PTSA and other school programs. These achievements have taken Alonso very far, in its pursuit to be the best school it can be. Alonso is continuing to strive to improve its Algebra EOC scores as well as its Advanced Placement passing percentage. Alonso High has a new math coach that is involved in the process providing the proper support with students struggling in EOC courses. Alonso continues to strive to serve its students and school community so everyone receives the best possible education and experiences. Page 4
Additional Information Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections. was founded in 2001 and is located in Hillsborough County, Florida. Braulio Alonso was named after Dr. Braulio Alonso. Dr. Alonso was instrumental in the development of this tremendous high school. Dr. Alonso was a principal in the district, and later the president of the National Education Association. He was a war hero, serving in the 85th Infantry division in North Africa, in fact he was awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. Braulio was a champion for teachers, and improved every institution of which he was a part. Alonso High School in August of 2001 became a part of Dr. Alonso's mission to create an environment that supported the whole Alonso community. He continued to be a part of the Alonso School community frequently visiting the High School and speaking at every graduation until his death in 2010. The function of the school itself was led by its first principal. Dr. Sandy Bunkin. Dr. Bunkin played a key role in hiring all of the teachers and staff of Alonso High school, many of which still remain today 13 years later. Two of her first hires were key founding administrators: Mrs. Linda Phillips, as the Assistant Principal for Curriculum, and Mr. Louis Diaz, the Assistant Principal for Administration. Mr. Louis Diaz was later named the second principal of and serves in this role today. Alonso High School was a convergence of four feeder schools in an un-established high school community. Alonso High School's mascot was named the Raven in 2001, likely picked in a survey due to the Baltimore Raven's presence as the winners of the Super bowl in Tampa Bay. has always had the philosophy of hiring the best teachers available and this philosophy is here today. Teachers are the foreground for a student focused environment that serves an incredibly diverse school community. has consistently been ranked as one of the largest high schools in Hillsborough County. In fact, this current school year, we have seen an increase of enrollment to over 2600 students. The vision of Alonso High school is to create a nurturing environment for successful teaching or an "N.E.S.T" for all students, all teachers, and the school community. This N.E.S.T approach has helped Alonso High School to excel as an "A" rated school for the past three school years. Considering the challenge of a very large school population, a very diverse school community and ever changing testing environment, Alonso High School has continued to serve its community to its best ability. The mission of itself is a community where excellence is the goal, diversity is valued, integrity is expected, and school pride is the result. One thing Alonso has established pride in has been its high achieving band, orchestra, drama, baseball, and Flag Football programs. In fact, Alonso High School earned a state baseball championship titles in 2009 and 2011. Alonso High School has shown over the years, to be a school that continues to advance in its extracurricular programs, athletics and academics. The school culture is one of support of the whole student. This is accomplished by prioritizing the student need to feel accepted and included, respected, and develop relationships with the school staff: these result in diversity being a strength and excellence being achieved. as grown up over time, and thus, has had to create many new programs and initiatives to ensure that it can be a part of the ever-changing face of 21st century education. Alonso High School has adopted many new academic programs from intensive reading to intensive algebra to help students who need to meet the state standards in FCAT and end of course assessments. Alonso has also acquired academic coaches in both math and readings to help ensure that student meet and exceed state wide assessment requirements. Alonso High School has also created many tutoring options for students. These include lunch tutoring in all subject areas, selected after school tutoring and Saturday Success Academy. Saturday Success provides an opportunity for students to come to school on a Saturday from 9am until 12pm to received tutoring in all subject areas, as well FCAT, EOC and SAT/ACT preparation. These academies are very highly attended, with upwards of 100 students attending every other Saturday for this program. This is also used as a discipline intervention in a effort to support positive behavior modification rather than suspensions has also developed several key transition programs for students coming in from the feeder middle schools. First, these students are introduced to Alonso and the school environment through an 8th grade visit day during second semester. Students learn about the campus and some of the offerings of their new High School. Braulio Alonso High also created a Freshman Academy Page 5
program in the summer preceding their entrance to Alonso. This program is aimed at introducing the student to the high school environment and addressing real world issues. That student may encounter during high school including the responsible use of social media and study skills necessary to be successful in high school. The challenge that confronts a large school such as Alonso is to provide the proper resources for each student. Part of this process is to identify students in need as determined through the disaggregating of data and determine risk factors for individual students. These risk factors are analyzed as students are placed in our Multi Tiered Support Systems. These systems include whole school wide interventions, class level interventions and targeted interventions for students. Targeted interventions for students have included behavioral plans, tutoring resources, and counseling and mentor relationships for students. Our school wide initiative of Positive Behavioral Support has been implemented. This system works on the principals of Respect, Responsibility and Relationships. Students are encouraged to follow school wide rules, policies and procedures. In conjunction with this students and staff members are acknowledged by receiving Raven rewards for demonstrating the principals of PBS. The goal of this program is to create a positive school culture which rewards the behaviors that support a culture of respect, relationships and responsibility and fosters an environment of civility and learning. With the 21st century in its wings, Alonso High School has adopted many new initiatives and programs to support its community and school environment through technology usage. Alonso High School has reached out to its school community using its frequently updated website and twitter feed. This also includes parent links ( a phone recorded phone call message system) and texts. These means of communication have been adopted to keep the school community in the loop with the changing testing requirements of high school students today. The PTSA and SAC committees have played an integral role in developing Alonso's relationship with the Westchase and Town and Country communities. In fact these meetings have been moved to meet parents in the community at local restaurants. This connection with the community has helped bring together a massive student and parent body at Alonso High School. Technology itself is has been integrated into classroom culture as teachers and students adopt the bring your own device policies. That being said student's use technology in the classroom to advance their education through teacher adoption and permission of the technology usage. Alonso was one of the first schools to allow technology for educational use in the district. The administration believed that the resources to the future were held in our student's hands. That being said, this institution has made a concerted effort to ensure these technologies are used effectively for the right purpose. Overall, has come a long way from its roots in 2001. It has developed into a high achieving institution that is agile, and ready, and willing to adapt to the changes facing education today. While it has a short tradition, it is values nonetheless have created an academic institution that supports the whole student, encourages growth in the arts as well as athletics and encourages the principle that it is cool to be smart. The relationship between the school, its students, its staff and community has been essential in developing an environment where everyone is supported. This support has help maintain Alonso High school as an "A" rated school by the State of Florida, but more importantly an "A" rated staff, students body and faculty. Page 6