MIDLAND, Texas — Starting next school year, changes will be happening at Lamar Elementary School as they enter into a partnership with Third Future Schools.
"Third Future Schools will be an in-district charter for Midland ISD. They are already operating at our Sam Houston campus and they’ve shown great growth at Sam Houston," said Ashley Osborne, Associate Superintendent for Teaching and Learning at Midland ISD.
According to Osborne, due to the low test scores and school performance over the last four years, entering this partnership was the best option.
"When we received that data it became evident that Lamar Elementary had four consecutive years of unacceptable ratings through TEA accountability system," she said.
If they received a fifth consecutive unacceptable rating, the TEA Commissioner would either appoint a board manager to take over the district or close the school entirely.
"We had to look at our options and Third Future Schools does have a great track record of supporting campuses, and that is one of the only ways to enter into a partnership that is one of the only ways for us to mitigate the TEA coming in and doing one of the two things I mentioned," said Osborne.
"They do have their own curriculum and their own curriculum resources. They still follow the Texas essential knowledge skills, which were all required to follow as our curriculum. They do still follow that but they have their own resources that they utilize to hit all of those standards," she said.
As this partnership begins, Osborne says this is the district's efforts in enhancing students' education at the school.
"We really want the community there at Lamar to understand that these are still Midland ISD students, that is still our school, we’re just partnering with Third Future Schools to provide their academics and instruction," Osborne said.
"It is a neighborhood school and we would love for it to remain a neighborhood school so the students can absolutely stay there. There are no fees associated with it so it will just be under different direction and have different opportunities that are not currently in place at Lamar," said Osborne.