The principal and a teacher at a Florida Elementary school have been placed on paid administrative leave after staff singled out Black fourth- and fifth-graders and pulled them into assemblies about low test scores.

The students at Bunnell Elementary School were diverted from their regularly scheduled activities Friday to attend meetings about expectations to improve standardized test scores.

It didn’t matter whether the students had failing or passing grades ‒ the students were selected to attend the meeting based on race, Flagler County Schools spokesperson Jason Wheeler confirmed.

What followed was a five-slide PowerPoint titled “AA Presentation” which noted that Black students had underperformed on standardized assessments for the last three years. According to the presentation, which was riddled with typos, 32% of the school’s Black students scored at Level 3 or above for math and language arts; that number should be 41% according to testing guidelines.

Read the Bunnell Elementary PowerPoint here.

Interim Flagler Superintendent LaShakia Moore apologized Wednesday, saying “no malice was intended” and the improvement effort was “executed in a way that does not align with the values of Flagler County Schools, the Flagler County School Board or this community.” In a videotaped statement posted to the district’s website, Moore said, “Students should never be separated by race.”

As of Thursday, Bunnell Elementary Principal Donelle Evensen had been placed on administrative leave while the district investigates, and a faculty member involved in the effort, Anthony Hines, was also placed on administrative leave.

Evensen had just been named principal of the school in Bunnell, Florida, a couple of weeks before the start of the school year. She had been an assistant principal at the school for four years prior, according to Wheeler. Hines, an exceptional student education facilitator, was hired on Aug. 6, 2019.

Bunnell Elementary School Principal Donelle Evensen, left, was named Flagler County Schools Assistant Principal of the Year last November. She became principal a few weeks before the start of the school year.

‘It should not have happened.’

During a press conference Thursday, Flagler County School Board Chair Cheryl Massaro began with an apology.

“The district does not, does not support in any way the activity that took place at Bunnell Elementary School,” Massaro said. “To the parents and students affected by these actions of the Flagler County community, we make no excuses but extend our apology, all of our apology. It should not have happened. If we had known about it, it wouldn’t have happened. But it came to knowledge after the fact.”