Fixing Schools that Serve Communities with High Levels of Social Dysfunction

Pinellas County is attempting to "fix" 5 schools that have struggled chronically---and they are about to spend a lot of money to implement the reforms necessary to do it.  Significant pay increases (up to an additional $25K over base salary for teachers), longer school days, tests with real-time feedback, and additional staff are some of the components of this plan.

This is an interesting story that addresses a problem that many districts (including Escambia County) face in some isolated school locations:  Community dysfunction, generational poverty, and apathetic or absent parents leading to schools that are perennially under-performing---despite massive subsidies and despite Herculean efforts and the most well intended initiatives implemented by community non-profits, charitable organizations, volunteers, churches, and school districts themselves.

This will be an interesting strategy to watch.

It will be interesting to see whether or not this strategy is the right strategy that will work .  There are NO magic bullets. Short of creating government subsidized, exorbitantly priced boarding schools that serve some communities from birth to Kindergarten---in an effort to save these children from the dysfunctional households and the dysfunctional environments from where some of these unfortunate students come----the solution must entail massive infusions of incentive pay and massive infusions of additional staffing combined with strong site leadership.

Piecemealing it equals only a half-measure can-kick that I do not see working,

for what it's worth---I've tried in vain for years to implement a system here in Escambia County that provides a means for teachers that commit to and stay is schools with the highest levels of community dysfunction to earn pay increases that are significant, recurring and cumulative for the duration of the time such teachers stay in such schools. I know this would drive performance to help these schools, but if one doesn't do something, one can't see the results and reap the benefits.   I've been unable, thus far, to get my counterparts to see the value in doing this to keep such schools from churning out teachers left and right and remaining under-performing sites.  It may take a Pinellas-style action plan COMBINED WITH Boarding schools to break the cycle of social dysfunction in some locations....

I wish my counterparts would read the below linked editorial......


......from  the Tampa Bay Timespiece:

"The combination of good, stable school leadership and incentive pay that attracts proven veteran teachers can be far more potent than either alone. A big pay bump might initially attract great teachers, but only a schoolwide environment conducive to learning will keep them. Putting the two together might finally bring more top teachers to the underperforming schools where they are needed most After being left to languish for years, these five schools and their students deserve a better chance at success. These young students don't have time to wait for a bureaucracy to catch up with their need to learn. They require the help of great teachers and great principals — and the full support of the district and the broader community — now. This ambitious proposal reflects the urgency required to meet the challenge."

Read  Ambitious Proposal for Troubled Pinellas Schools 

Tough Decisions Ahead at Some Schools....

Two years ago the board voted to add an additional hour to several struggling elementary schools for the purpose of intensive reading instruction. I voted for this, with a bit of skepticism. Last year, with mixed data and the first year of new FCAT scoring that made progress difficult to measure, I again decided to vote to support the additional hour of reading at several inner-city elementary schools. I did so with "great trepidation"--I was even quoted in the newspaper saying this.

In the last two years at these schools, we have focused resources, outside organizations, volunteers, and specialists and subject area coaches on the task of improving reading scores. We have brought in outside groups to some schools in an effort to improve (Studer Education at Montclair, UWF at Weis) and we have asked our teachers to work longer hours (even though many were not happy with this, and left these schools to work at non-extended day schools). We experienced attrition of staff at all these schools. We instituted a mandatory 1st-grade retention policy for those that did not pass the FCAT in grade one.

We have worked and worked, and teachers have given so much effort in these schools that it is heartbreaking to see the results of the third grade FCAT reading scores that were released today. Today we see that ---through NO FAULT of the staffs, teachers, behavior coaches, volunteers, or any other

The Ugly Truth about Low Performing Schools....

Here is the ugly truth about low performing schools in parts of Escambia County….

We have a community problem and this is dragging down the performance of our local public schools.

I will say it again.  We have a community problem that is dragging down the performance of our local public schools.

Everybody knows it, nobody discusses it in depth, and we do not have the economic resources to extinguish this fire completely. We use half-measures and extreme political correctness to dance around touchy subjects.  This approach is getting us nowhere.

Think about this---What if someone made this comment to you straight-faced: “Doctors and Hospitals in Pensacola must be terrible, as we have the highest levels of obesity, smoking, early mortality, and disability claimants of just about any community in Florida. We need to fix these deficient Hospitals in Pensacola because Doctors and Hospitals in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Cambridge, Massachusetts are so much better!  Minneapolis and Cambridge have the healthiest populations in the country, year over year, so this illustrates the fact their Hospitals and Doctors are much more professional and better trained than our Doctors here!  Our doctors need to be more professional like those doctors up north so our community will be healthier!”

What about this one:

“These Cops around here are terrible!  Look at how high the crime rate is here compared to Beverly Hills.  I wish these cops around here had the same skill, training and professionalism as those cops in Beverly Hills, so we could have a peaceful, safe, low-crime community like Beverly Hills!”

Ridiculous, right?

Of course it is.

And it is just as ridiculous to hear rubes and simpletons claim we in Escambia County public education are abysmal failures, because we’re not as high-performing as Santa Rosa County or St. Johns County, or some other high performing district.

Judging all teachers and an entire school system by the outcomes and outputs of small dysfunctional populations they serve is no more ridiculous than the two previous examples about cops and doctors.  We need students and parents to buy-in!  Education requires participation.

Here are the real problems….

We have entire segments of the population that live in absolute, utter dysfunction.  In many areas it becomes multi-generational, the new normal.  We have poverty that is extreme-but that in and of itself is not the driver of the problems.  Poverty exacerbates the dysfunction.  We have people moving every six weeks to out-run landlords, gaming the entitlement system, having children out of wedlock to increase their welfare benefit checks, refusing to work, “shopping” with their EBT cards for “friends” taking $.50 cents on the dollar to buy liquor, cigarettes, or drugs,  Selling drugs for money, selling themselves for money, and mistreating their own children.  Crime rates soar in these communities, and entire neighborhoods fall into blight.  We have children being raised by relatives because BOTH parents are incarcerated; we had 6,000 child abuse reports last year in Escambia County, placing us in the top 5% of complaints state-wide.  We have children being raised in homes where violence is commonplace, caregivers are having intercourse in front of children, doing drugs in

I’m Willing to Give the Task Force Idea(s) a Chance……

…….But I love how there are already people in the peanut gallery pre-judging what the School Board will or won’t do with the “closing the achievement gap” task force’s recommendations.

 

Some think a 20 minute discussion is insufficient.  I disagree.  I think 20 minutes is more than enough time to hear the recommendations and consider the ideas--as many of these very same issues already consume hours upon hours of meeting time in our district on a yearly basis.  Having more meetings about meetings about ideas will not solve one damn thing; most importantly-- more meetings will not solve the severe problems in some dysfunctional areas of our community that perpetuate the atmosphere that fosters the achievement gap’s existence.  

Capiche?

To solve these MASSIVE social problems will require a sea-change in the entitlement system from the Federal Government downward, to break the cycle of dependence on government largess that from 1965 onward has dis-incentivized family, work, religion, and personal responsibility-destroying the family unit nationwide in the process in some communities.  Until that reform occurs, most of what we can do locally in

Chris, You Don't Get It

In response to the viewpoint from Christopher J. Lewis in today's PNJ....

Chris,

So your magic bullet to make it all better in Escambia County Schools is to make school board districts “at large”?  Really? Didn’t you think “at-large” council seats were the solution for the Pensacola City Council?  What happened there, Chris?  Never mind.

Let’s see what your idea would do to our schools.  First, in violation of a standing court ruling from the civil rights era, it would potentially eliminate the minority representation for district three.  Poof, gone, and we’d be in violation.  Guess you did not think of that unintended consequence, right Chris?

Secondly, in case you didn’t know this, we do represent the community county-wide, we are simply elected by geographical districts, in order to minimize the influence of the politically savvy and wealthy concentrated in some areas of town.  You see Chris, geographical representation is a balance to outside influence.  What does this mean?  Let me dot-connect for you.   It means I can walk neighborhoods and visit Thousands of households going door to door in my campaigns to target my message inexpensively in my district (which I have done on multiple occasions)—neutralizing, to a large degree, any outside money, influence, and power.  So your proposal actually takes power away from voters and candidates at the grass-roots-which seems counter to what you appear to believe in based upon your writings.  Paradoxical.

But, back to the response to Peacock’s article—I stand by every word of it, because it is accurate.  Chris, I understand from scanning your lengthy and rambling screeds that you see the world through rose-colored glasses instead of dealing with reality.  Folks like you that are naïve and glib on many

Meeting With the Superintendent....Another NEW School Coming to Beulah?

I had an excellent meeting with Superintendent of Schools Dr. Tim Smith Yesterday.  New Schools, School Discipline, Concurrency, possibly a Boarding School--the conversation was wide ranging...

Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit down and speak with the Escambia County School District's new Superintendent of Schools for about an hour at my office.

The meeting was facilitated and organized by District 1 School Board member Kevin Adams.

It was good to meet Dr. Smith and hear some of his ideas for the future of the district.  And discussions soon turned to the topic of the need for another school out in the fast-growing Beulah community of District 1.  The school district has shown interest in the OLF-8 property for a school site--however the ask of a minimum of 25 acres seems high.

Kevin Adams stated he is interested in constructing a K-8 facility on OLF-8.  (Ironic, I also thought a K-8 was the right move for Beulah and on OLF-8 back in 2013--but I was over-ruled and the middle school in Beulah was built instead, after which the students from the closed Woodham Middle School were "zoned" into the new Beulah Middle School--which I did not support doing.....oh well, win some and lose some--it happened and I lost that one 8 years ago....)

According to Superintendent of Operations Shawn Dennis, whom we briefly  conferenced into yesterday's discussion--a minimum of 25 acres would be needed for such a facility.  The Superintendent asked Mr. Dennis to look into vertical designs for such schools--in an attempt to lower the required number of acres.  Dennis indicated he would do so.

In the background of this meeting, I see a growing chorus of online posters who want "Beulah High School."  Would the district build a new K-8 and then "repurpose" the huge Beulah Middle School as a High School?  Who knows?

But does the student population (which has been declining steadily for over a decade for various reasons) even justify construction of another, a brand new, high school--if all of the existing ones have excess capacity (with the exception of Tate, WFHS, and B.T. Washington High?)

I mean--what is the % Capacity for PHS, Escambia, and Pine Forest?

I want to assist with the school district in every way I can from my current position as a commissioner.  I attended and graduated from these public schools, as did all of my children.  I am a MASSIVE public school supporter.  So this was my pledge to Superintendent Smith at yesterday's meeting--to be a big

Who is to Blame?

Today's viewpoint in the PNJ got me to thinking, here is my retort:

John Peacock-your article is naïve and badly flawed.  You list symptoms of problems for which you fail to identify the real ailment—the real culprit. You compound the problem in your piece when you lace in some facts and improperly assign blame creating what amounts to disinformation.  First and foremost, our K-12 system is imperfect, I’ll readily admit this; however, our local public education system provides the foundation for an excellent education for those who are serious about learning.  But we’re dealing with a social collapse in the “families” in some areas of our community-a collapse of epic proportions, 50 slow years in the making, that nobody is willing to discuss.  That’s the real 800 pound Gorilla, and you know it, John. This social dysfunction incubator in some areas of our community bleeds into our schools in some areas, setting kids up for failure and inhibiting the success of many other students despite superhuman effort from many local school employees-- and that is a fact.  If we give homework and parents of some kids do not help their kids, make them do the work, do not read to their kids, and do not care properly for their kids—do you really blame teachers for this John?  Please get back to reality, and call it like it is instead of insinuating that we’re not doing our jobs.  We deal with massive social apathy and dysfunction.

Be that as it may, we’ve still got a job to do and we’re doing it.  We still manage to turn out the Panhandle’s cream of the crop students, with our class of 2014 earning $27 Million in Scholarships to some of the nation’s top schools.  Our top seniors this year—products of what you mistakenly call an inadequate system-- are exceptional! Why do people always measure from the bottom up?  I look at our cream of the crop and it stacks up better than any other district in this area-just look at what county is churning out the most National Merit Scholarship Awards? Look at our PHS IB program, consistently ranking in the top 100 nationwide.  We have great successes locally John.  But, like you, I want every child to have a legitimate chance of success.  The difference between you and I, though, is I’m going to keep it real and put blame where it is deserved and not scapegoat hardworking teachers, students, administrators, volunteers, and mentors-thereby trashing an entire organization and demoralizing the good people that are working there.

Here’s the thing, John.  Forbes recently profiled the most and least healthy cities in America.   Cities where people have the healthiest lifestyles, the longest lives, and fewest health problems.  Minneapolis MN and Washington DC top the healthy list.  Does this mean their hospitals and doctors are better than their peers in Memphis and Birmingham-cities on the bottom of the list?  Of course not.  Pensacola, as a community, is near the bottom of the list of healthy counties in Florida—but does anybody in their right mind blame our area doctors?  Of course not.  It’s poverty, social dysfunction, and a lack of personal responsibility among many who are unhealthy locally-It’s not Baptist Hospital’s fault.

And let’s talk about crime.  We know locally we have a high crime rate compared to a Gulf Breeze or a Walton County.  Do we blame the local Sheriff for this and say his police are “not as good” as their counterparts in Gulf Breeze and Walton County-because their crime rates are lower than ours?  Of course not!  It is poverty, social dysfunction, and a lack of personal responsibility among individuals, who commit crime, that leads to the high crime rate. 

So, getting back to the schools, I know it is important for us to keep working hard to do the best we can for all students.  I have brought ideas that can help to the board, on multiple occasions, and there is more we can do if we have the guts to not be politically correct and call it like it is. We have to have the fortitude to act boldly-and as a board I do not feel we always have-- and I’ll own that.  But here is what we must do to right the ship going forward:

1. 1       We need to stop the PC application of discipline.  One standard, let the chips fall where they may but strict, fairly applied school-wide discipline is an absolute must.  No more 39^th or 50^th try for “some” students who hate school and destroy the atmosphere for teachers and other students that are serious about learning.  These bad apples must be removed for the betterment of all.  No more out-of-school suspension for others who make (1) one bad decision.

2. 2      We need to stop the PC practice of social promotion which occurs rampantly in our district between the 8^th and 9^th grades destroying our 4 year, on-time graduation rate while simultaneously demoralizing students who are being promoted. Many new 9^th graders are academically unprepared for the rigor of High School and this MUST be addressed.

3.   3   We need to establish one or more boarding schools for those students most at-risk, as have districts in Miami, DC, and Ohio.  For many of these kids who live in absolute dysfunction locally, this is the only way out and anything short of this or some other radical home-life modification is only a half measure that will not succeed long-term for them.  For those who want to wear red shirts and yell and scream on the steps of the capitol in Tallahassee for more “programs, money and resources”—here is what we need the money for!

4. 4      We need to pay teachers a realistic, recurring, and cumulative yearly stipend for assignments at our 12 schools with the highest levels of social dysfunction.  Otherwise, we will continue to see churn as teachers burn out, quit and/or transfer out leaving inconsistency in these classrooms and instability in the instruction of students who need the MOST stability.  People who reject this idea, but that in practice do this themselves by offering 3 steps to school principals to take on tough assignments, are acting hypocritically.  Nobody is in it for the money, but if you want solid performers long term, you must recognize what they deal with and provide some additional compensation.

5. 5      Most importantly-we must recognize that there are no “quick fixes” or “new methods” that will solve this. Just look at what happened at one of our crisis schools when we brought high priced consultants in to fix the issue-it did not work.  I don’t blame them; but I had my doubts, which I expressed at a workshop last year, that what they were doing would work.  It didn’t and I do not think it was due to a lack of effort by this company or the two ladies at that site. This issue is social, not scholastic, and it has been percolating for 50 years as the entitlement state has disincentivzed work, family, religion, and personal responsibility-- while society’s morals have simultaneously loosened to the point that we glorify celebrity and hedonistic, nonsensical behavior more that academic success.  This environment is destroying some schools.  The fix will take time, decades perhaps.

Meanwhile, while we continue to work as hard as we can to make the system as best it can be for all students, we must have the guts to identify the real problems, instead of playing a PC game and blaming everything on a lack of resources.  To achieve success we must slay the status quo.  If not, our successes will be few and far between.  One principal recently told me boldly in front of a group of administrators, that “We have the resources we need, but we’re dealing with a crisis and the work is hard.”  This guy called it like it is, and that was refreshing.  It is a crisis.  Do we have the guts to address the real problems, though?

Is This the Best Way to Spend $375,000??

All dollars, regardless of what funding source they are from, are precious resources to be utilized wisely and I am extremely concerned about a recently approved contract that I think is exorbitantly priced.

This contract will provide three part-time personnel who will perform various subject area coaching and other administrative support at Warrington Middle School for the upcoming school year.  Initially, this $600K contract came to the board for approval at the June Board meeting.  I expressed my concerns at that time, and when I eventually received the contract the next day and read it, my concerns grew even larger.

I spoke via the telephone with Steve Marcanio, director of Curriculum, and with Marcia Nowlin, Title 1 director, on the 17^th of June.  I told them both at that time on that call that there was no way I could support the expenditure.  I also had a lengthy discussion with the superintendent and I told him the same thing.  I said I would discuss it at the upcoming workshop with an open mind-- but that I would more than likely be unable to support the contract due to price.

Because of Sunshine Law, I could not discuss the item with the other members of the board who may have held similar concerns—because the initial agreement (which was for $600K for 4 personnel) was unceremoniously deleted from the agenda on the 19^{th of} June.  I was told it was not due to any concerns I had raised about the contract;   nevertheless I was glad to see that item gone.  I would not have voted to approve it.

Fast forward to July, and I missed the first regular meeting of my career on the school board to take a once in a lifetime Mediterranean cruise.  I attempted to log-on and call in, however I was unable to connect from the ship in Europe.   Missing that meeting broke a streak of 92 previous regular meetings I had made without missing any.  But along with missing the meeting, I missed an important vote….

Upon my arrival back in the States, I soon learned that a revised version of the original agreement was put back on the agenda (not linked to the online agenda for review by the board and the public until July 21^st, one day before the meeting) and approved by the three board members that were in attendance at the July 22^nd board meeting.

While I’m quite pleased that the cost of the contract had been trimmed from $600K to $375K, I’m still concerned about this price-tag; additionally, the number of days that this company will be at Warrington MS has been slashed proportionately in response to the reduced contract cost, and the personnel that will be present under the approved plan amount now to just 3 persons under the revised agreement.

I have heard nothing but wonderful things about this vendorand his team, and I want to make it clear that I harbor no Ill-will toward them and I honestly hope they succeed in their efforts at Warrington Middle.  My

Achieve Escambia Visits the BCC

Achieve Escambia is a local group working for positive changes in our community to foster greater achievement from “Cradle to Career” for Escambia County youth.  I listened with great interest as Jennifer McFerrin gave the BCC a presentation/update about this group at this past Thursday’s Committee of the whole.  When it was appropriate, I asked questions and chimed in with my view as a 10-year member of the local school board.  

I was cut-off at one point by my colleague Grover Robinson, and another counterpart disagreed with much of what I said.  But the fact of the matter is that much of what we are doing is not working and I strongly believe that we need to take a different approach. Once again we are loaded down with 5 “F” Elementary schools and a raft of “D” schools throughout our local public school district.  The point I desperately tried to make was that we must stop dumping money into the same programs over and over that do not work.  

We must stop demoralizing and beating up the teachers that are working themselves into early graves giving all they have in order to help students that have abysmal home-lives.  We must, in my opinion, take a different approach.  

Focus on Families.  Remove discipline nightmare students.  Apply for a school of hope grant for a public charter boarding school to help the students in our community that live in extreme social dysfunction. Eliminate social promotion. Focus on rigorous academic programs for reading in grades 1-3.  These are the priorities.  Because if we can get to the students who want to learn—we can make a difference.  But first we must have some difficult conversations…..

Social Dysfunction and Poor Choices Destroy Communities and Socially–Dysfunctional Communities Create Low-Performing Public School Districts

Whether we’re talking about facilitating neighborhood trash clean-ups, enabling neighborhood property improvements via low cost loans and grants, setting up summer work programs for community youth, building sidewalks and parks, or giving all students county library cards--a local government can do things to help make communities better.  Our County spends millions of dollars every year providing services that enhance our community.  But this, in and of itself, does not make a great community.

Our local public school district provides all students access to educational 

Why Not Pensacola? Big Ideas To Engage Communities and Change Direction

Friday morning at the School Board Workshop, I brought forward two big ideas, one for engaging the community and one for changing the direction of some students' lives. Watch the recording of the video to see the reactions to these ideas. I was surprised that my idea for an intramural basketball league did not receive more support. I simply believe we need to scale up what Oakcrest Elementary school locally is already doing quite successfully. Having an afterschool basketball league at some of the most poverty stricken elementary schools in our district would not cost much, and my idea is to do what many districts all around the country are already doing. And I brought examples from other districts. The response I received from some board members was that they would not want us to compete too heavily with existing church leagues, and that these church leagues already provide what is necessary with respect to basketball. My retort to that is simply this: My kids played basketball in the upward program at Olive and Hillcrest-however this participation required driving to practice, paying fees, and driving to games every Saturday. And I was happy to do all of this but many of the families in these inner-city schools won't/can't make that kind of commitment, therefore their children won't participate. People that are out of touch don't get this, though. Too bad we can't be open minded and at least try this.... The second big idea I brought (for the second time now, first time was last year) was to establish a boarding school to serve the children that are most at-risk in our community due to generational poverty and dysfunctional home-lives. This proposal I brought received a ho-hum reception, with a full measure of reasons why it would be tough to do it here in Pensacola. The point I tried to reiterate over an over was this same idea is being done in other places, why not Pensacola? They are opening a SEED public charter boarding school in Miami this year--why not Pensacola? There is one in Baltimore, one in DC-Why not Pensacola? They are doing this in other places, why not Pensacola Someone has to take bold stances and lead on these issues and it is sad when people simply brush aside ideas that can make a difference in the lives of children, saying this is too expensive, or we can't do this, or some church is doing this already, so that box is checked. Someone has to take ownership and lead, but no one who has the authority or capacity to do so, sadly, appears willing to step up and fill this leadership vacuum. Status Quo rules the day and we wonder why things don't change.