GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The Clay County School Board and district staff have their 2020 legislative priorities lined up and it may include the removal of Florida State Assessment for high schools.

Superintendent Addison Davis said during last Tuesday’s agenda workshop meeting there’s a bigger push to put end FSA testing in favor of a larger focus on nationwide tests like the SAT and ACT. He and the board said this is something they’ve wanted for years.

“I continue to put SAT and ACT on here because I think we need to eliminate high-stakes assessments in high schools and punt it,” Davis said. “If a kid is applying to Harvard...wherever...they don’t really care if a student is level one, two, three, four or five on the FSA. They only want to know what your GPA is and what your SAT and ACT scores are.”

Davis said he believes the school district should push the state to remove FSAs and instead, use the money that would have been spent on FSAs to cover the costs of an SAT test for every 10th grade student. The state would save tremendous amounts of money if they wiped assessments like the FSA, according to Davis.

The school board agreed with Davis.

“He’s (Commissioner of Education) is ready to go,” Davis said. “I think he and his team are, in a couple of years, ready to wave all of the assessments in high schools and use the SAT and ACT.”

Two other priorities for the district are teacher salaries and teacher bonuses for those that teach dual enrollment classes.

Davis said the state is looking to increase starting teacher salaries but, to avoid any discrepancies with teachers already hired, he’d prefer to see a holistic raise across the board happen. Instead of just starting salaries being increased, all teacher salaries need to go up, Davis said.

As for teacher bonuses, right now, AP teachers receive a $50 bonus for every one of their students that passes their AP exam. Dual Enrollment teachers, on the other hand, don’t receive the bonus. Davis said both teachers work in the same way and that the end goal is for students to receive early college credit. Davis said he’d like to see their pay reflect that.

The school board will discuss these priorities and more at their upcoming regular meeting on Oct. 3 at 6 p.m. in the Fleming Island High Teacher In-Service room.