A Tremendous Win for Students, Parents, and Teachers in Escambia County!

We will now allow our elected School Board to hire the best, most qualified superintendent of schools to run our district starting in 2020.  This is a great win for students, parents, teachers, and the school district.  A HUGE night for Escambia County!

The vote has happened.

The voters of Escambia County have spoken.

They have chosen progress over politics.  They have chosen the future over the past.

They have voted to reject the status quo and the old way of operating our schools.

Beginning in 2020, the Escambia County School District will officially join the rest of the country and the civilized world and we will allow our elected school board to hire the best, most qualified Superintendent of Schools from a nationwide search.

We have moved from the backwards, throwback, and abnormal system of ELECTING our superintendents to the more modern and effective method of APPOINTING our superintendent.

No more good ole boy politics, no more nepotism and cronyism.  Bye Bye to that.....

Finally, we can have this official concentrate on educating our students rather than ginning up support for the next election.

This was the biggest, most important issue on the ballot tonight.  This is a HUGE victory for students, parents, and teachers.  This will come as a shock to many people who have stated, point blank, that "This will NEVER happen in Escambia County!"

Well, it just did.  Thank you to everyone who worked to make this happen.

Thanks to Quint Studer, DC Reeves, Michelle Salzman, Walker Wilson, and the Pensacola Young Professionals for their efforts and resources added to this cause.

I am so glad we got this over the line and I am so hopeful for the future of this district now that we have joined 99.5% of the rest of the world by finally, at long last, fixing our broken, dysfunctional, and backwards governance model.

Big night, big win.

Big future!

Vote Yes to Fix a Broken, Backward System.....Vote YES on Tuesday For Escambia Schools!

The school district's enrollment has been declining over time, while the county's population (and neighboring public school districts' populations) have been increasing.  The governance structure is one MAJOR reason why.  This can be fixed on Tuesday with a YES vote for an appointed superintendent

I make no apologies for the tone of the below post.  I write this only because I fear the future course of this district if we do not fix the  underlying structure of this school system.  The current structure is a backwards, broken model.  I'll explain what I mean below, but first, I must say something important:

There is no magic bullet to fix our public school system locally.

Elected or Appointed--whoever the Superintendent is starting in 2020 will not possess a magic wand to fix the system.

But the current system is BROKEN.

How do I know?  Well, let's see: I have three kids that went through the system, I went through this same system, I've traveled and lived all over the country and the world in places that have GREAT public school systems, I have many friends and family members that have gone through this system and/or have had kids in this system or have worked in this system---and I spent 10 years of my life as a School Board Member in this system where all I tried to do was MAKE THE SYSTEM BETTER!

It is challenging on many fronts.  I''ll save space here but would point you to this post that describes the real problems in detail.

So knowing that we have unique challenges locally and that there is no panacea--we next go to the governance structure.

Is it really best to give all the power to one person?  I say NO.  That's why most districts do not give ALL POWER to the superintendent as we do here in Escambia.  What we do here is abnormal.

Sure, those who benefit from the current structure and those that do not understand the inner-workings of this district will say things like:

"The school board has to vote to terminate or hire employees---and they make policy and control the budget"  And sure, as a practical matter that is true--but it is much more complex than that.

Under our current, broken system:  The  board can only vote against a superintendent's employment recommendation for very specific causes as delineated in statute.  Translation--it does not happen.

The board can only create policy "upon the recommendation of the superintendent" which under the current system means simply "if the superintendent wants it and agrees with it"

And with respect to employment decisions:

Whoever the superintendent picks--is the person that fills the position.  Check the record if you don't believe me.

When it comes to termination recommendations--yes, the board has the final say.  But I will say that the superintendent's staff and all employees of the district (over 6,000 full, part-time, and contract employees) are 100% loyal to the superintendent only--as he and he alone approves their year-over-year contract renewals (except for tenured instructional personnel--who are becoming more and more rare since SB 736 was passed in 2011)--and so once a termination decision comes down from the superintendent's office, there is a huge force of loyalists that will lobby for the recommendation.  They don't have any loyalty, and show no deference, whatsoever, to school board members.  Why?  Because under this current structure the board has ZERO power to do anything unless and until the elected superintendent says "yes."  Zero power.

So a lot of employees are terrified to buck the system.

And heaven forbid a board member vote against a superintendent's employee recommendation.  Instant "pariah" status--there it is, you got it.

Look no further than the Coach Benny Washington Vote for proof...

We have MAJOR problems in our district that require a specialist that is fearless to confront.

Here is what we don't need, any more, in Escambia County schools......

--We don't need a system where employees are told NOT to share important information with school board members who are statutorily obligated to "supervise and control" public education.  We don't need any more Newpoint fiascos....

--We don't need a system where the superintendent forces school administrators to sweep SERIOUS