Highlights--Board Open Discussion Meeting, 2-16-12

Budgets, Health Clinic Status, Tip Line, and the (non-social) promotion requirements to enter high school in our district

On Thursday, the board's open discussion workshop took place.  In that meeting, several interesting topics were discussed:

I brought up the idea of the establishment of a waste, fraud, and abuse tip line, to make the district more efficient and to help crack down on theft, misuse, and/or loss of district (TAXPAYER) resources.  The board members present as well as the superintendent seemed interested in pursuing this concept.  The internal auditing department had suggested such a tip-line be established in a management letter
 from June 2007 which I brought to the attention of the assembled group.

Next we discussed what I felt to be the value of a more formalized exit interview process than what we are currently doing, and this met with generally favorable responses from the board and staff present.  This was also something that the internal auditing department had previously suggested. 

My third item did not go over so well.  I suggested that we increase the rigor of the entrance requirements for 9th grade, as it seems at present the bar is set too low (look at pages 42-45 of this document).  Currently, a student can fail up to two core classes and still be advanced to the next grade in middle school, as long as that student "makes up" the failed class utilizing a district "course recovery" mechanisim, such as accelerated course work or virtual school, before the beginning of the 9th grade.  So, theoretically we can have 8th graders finishing middle school with low "D"s across the board, scoring level "1" (lowest out of 5 total possible) on the FCAT, and we are welcoming them into High School with open arms despite dismal showings in middle school. 

My concern is that we have the bar set so low, that many of these rising 9th graders are being set up for failure.  And we see the result of this as we continue to struggle with our "on time" high school graduation rate--a statistic which is now being used against us as a penalty on our overall district grade from the DOE.  I think we should do as many school districts across the nation are doing--we need to make sure kids are ready for high school before we promote these kids to high school.  I believe, at a minimum, FCAT scores should be factored into the middle school promotion decision (a current requirement under Florida law)

School Board Discussion Meeting, Thursday, February 16th 3:00PM

The Escambia County School board will be meeting for our once monthly discussion meeting this coming Thursday, February 16^th at 3:00 PM in room 160 of the Hall Center.

Board Topics that will be discussed at this meeting include the following:

Middle School Pupil Progression - Jeff Bergosh (5 to 10 minutes)

Waste, Fraud, Abuse Tip Line - Jeff Bergosh (5 to 10 minutes)

Exit Interview Policy - Jeff Bergosh (5 to 10 minutes)

Employee Suspension with Pay - Patty Hightower (5 to 10 minutes)

Dual Enrollment - Patty Hightower (5 to 10 minutes)

End of Course Semester Exam Process for Geometry - Bill Slayton (5 to 10 minutes)

February and March Calendar/Events - Bill Slayton (5 to 10 minutes)

Items the Superintendent has placed on the agenda for the discussion Workshop include:

Budget Priorities - 10 to 15 minutes

Health Insurance Update - 30 to 40 minutes

As is always the case for all of our meetings-- the public is encouraged to attend and afforded the opportunity to speak to the full Board.

Escambia County School District Receives Accreditation from AdvancED

Today marks the end of a long four day period in the Escambia County School District.  At an exit interview held this afternoon at the Hall Center, a team of 9 Education Specialists from AdvancED, an accreditation company that serves school districts around the country and also all DoD schools worldwide, informed the district that we are to be accredited for a five year period.

Behind the scenes and prior to today, this team from AdvancED had conducted interviews with the following district personnel:

5 Board Members

104 Administrative Employees

117 teachers

19 Support Employees

117 Parents and community stakeholders.

Additionally, this team toured ten district schools and visited 67 classrooms.  The AdvancED team conducted an intensive review of the districts policies and procedures, then conducted random tests to determine if the district was doing what it says it is doing. 

Following a brief overview PowerPoint,  the assembled members of the district leadership team were given the news that the Escambia County Schools would be recommended for accreditation.  Along with this news, we were commended for four distinct areas:

1.  dramatic rise in school level grades over the last ten-year period
2.  multiple high quality program offerings
3.  highly effective superintendent
4.  effective, systematic and systemic strategic planning process

One required area of additional oncentration and focus was given:

1  Identify, adopt, and implement alternative, innovative, non-traditional and where possible, research validated methods to increase participation of parents of under represented community groups in the school system.

Is This Due Process----or a Fleecing of the Taxpayer?

Recently,  school board members received a list of 9 employees who have been  "placed on suspension with pay pending an investigation into allegations of misconduct".

This memo was labeled "for informational purposes only", and on the bottom of the memo was listed an appropriate district HR person to contact if Board Members wanted additional information.  So I called and received a brief synopsis of each of the allegations leveled against each of these employees.

I think the district moves cautiously, which is in most cases very wise to do---but my issue here is that we are moving so cautiously that we are costing taxpayers large sums of money unnecessarily. 

The offenses of these nine employees, while all are significant,  run the gamut from bad to really bad to

Escambia County Teacher of the Year Finalists Announced

The 5 Teacher of the Year Finalists for Escambia have been announced, congratulations to them for this achievement!

Fran Cook--Helen Caro Elementary

Marjorie Stradley--West Florida High School

Jeffrey Pribble--Escambia High School

Terri Pernia--N.B. Cook Elementary School

Catherine Rudd--Scenic Heights Elementary

The Escambia County Teacher of the Year will be announced at the Golden Apple Awards Dinner on February 23.

FDOE School District Rankings = Flawed

Data Does Not Tell the Whole Story

Recently, a succinct 1-67 ranking of all school districts in Florida was released to citizens and the press by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE).  These rankings were based upon a series of calculations directly tied to the administration of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) in each of Florida’s 67 Counties.   Some districts, like St. Johns (south of Jacksonville) and Santa Rosa (#1 and #2 respectively) have much to be proud of, as they ranked very highly.  Hats off to them for the great work they are doing.

For districts like Escambia (ranked #44), the data is much less palatable.

Are we to assume that because districts like Santa Rosa and St. Johns are ranked so high—that they are exponentially better at learning delivery than their lower ranked peers like Escambia?  [CAUTION, HUMOR AHEAD]   I actually think that if Escambia swapped teachers with Santa Rosa, and kept everything else equal, Santa Rosa Would be holding the #1 slot!   [INSERT: RIM-SHOT]   Okay, maybe that’s a bit simplistic and over the top, and was of course stated in jest,  but according to the press portrayals of this FDOE  data I have read—one could easily reason that the higher the district ranking the better the School District, period.

And therein lies the problem.  

The release of data like this without thoughtfully conceived disclaimers, explanations, and footnotes can and does lead to incorrect and negative public perceptions.  This is because data alone does not tell the whole story.  And Commissioner Gerard Robinson’s 5 second blurb about poverty being a factor during his 2 minute introduction of the data does not cut-it as a disclaimer.  Nobody (except me) watched that video.

Complex data should be carefully developed and the “press-release” of such data requires thoughtful deployment If accuracy is valued.  Apples should be compared to Apples.

A striking yet very apt analogy is the community crime statistics released yearly by the FBI. 

When statistics about murders, assaults, forcible rapes and other vicious crimes are released annually, these data are put into tables and organized by events per 100,000 citizens of a particular community.  For example, (Utilizing 2010 data) the murder/non-negligent manslaughter rate in New Orleans (pop. 356,000) was roughly 50 times higher than it was in either El Paso, Texas (pop. 624,000) or Lincoln, Nebraska (pop. 260,000).  Does this mean police departments in El Paso and Lincoln are way better than the Cops in New Orleans?  Of course not.  This is why the FBI takes great care in providing a carefully worded disclaimer on its website along with the yearly crime stats. Community issues, poverty, demographics, and a myriad of other social ills affect crime rates—and educational outcomes.  

So I propose that the next time the FDOE wants to release rankings, perhaps they should consider utilizing the following disclaimer (taken directly from the FBI website, School District substituted for Law Enforcement, Educational Failure substituted for crime)

“Individuals using these tabulations are cautioned against drawing conclusions by making direct comparisons between cities. Comparisons lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions adversely affecting communities and their residents. Valid assessments are possible only with careful study and analysis of the range of unique conditions affecting each local School District jurisdiction. It is important to remember that Educational Failure is a social problem and, therefore, a concern of the entire community. The efforts of a School District are limited to factors within its control. The data user is, therefore, cautioned against comparing statistical data of individual agencies.”

John Maxwell Live Part 2--The Five Levels of Leadership, Chris Gardner, and the Dream Test

At the 10AM-Noon Session of todays Leadership training with Dr. John Maxwell at the Pensacola Civic Center, the five levels of leadership were thoroughly covered.

Level one--Position leaders (titled) leaders are followed by people because they have to--this is a good place for leaders to start but a teriible place for leaders to stay.  According to Maxwell, this level describes roughly 70% of leaders.

Level two--Permission leaders are followed because others want to follow these types of leaders.  The three key qualities of Permission leaders are that these types of leaders listen, observe and serve; this level leader focuses on relationships.

Level three--Production leaders are followed because of what these leaders do for organizations.  This level of Leader sets a good example, creates momentum, and attracts higher caliber people to an organization

Level four--People Development leaders attract followers because of what these leaders do for people.  People developers recruit, position and equip the next generation of leaders by utilizing a five step process, they model the behavior, then they model and train, then they allow the trainee to implement the procedure while the leader is present, then level four leaders allow their mentees to go out on their own, and finally, the level four leader encourages his protege to go out and become a people developer in their own right.

Level five--Pinnacle leaders are followed because of who they are and what they accomplish.


After the noon session, lunch was served and at 1:20 Chris Gardner, the real-life inspiration for the hit Will Smith movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" gave an inspiring account of his life and the events leading up to his successful career as a stock broker.

At 3:00 PM, Dr. Maxwell did the final segment of the conference when he delivered a 10 point "dream-test" where he helped the audience to refine and define what an individual's dreams are.  The ten  point self assessmnent was actually a series of ten questions which, if answered truthfully, will help identify where a person's true passions lie.

During the course of the day, Dr. Maxwell strongly encouraged attendees to acquire and read his novels
"The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership"  "Today Counts" and "The 360 degree Leader"

Carlan Consulting, Gulf Power, Pensacola State College, and many other civic organizations and local businesses sponsored this event and were the driving force behind the huge (7,000 + attendees) turn-out.