Resolutions For Board Consideration

I'm bringing three discussion items and three resolutions for the special School Board meeting to be held this Tuesday, 30 Sept. at 4:00 PM at the Hall Center.  The resolutions can be found here.

The Board has requested this meeting to address lingering concerns, in multiple areas, arising from this month's regular meeting-a meeting none of us will soon forget due to the way in which it devolved so spectacularly.

So at this Tuesday's meeting, which is unusual in some respects and unprecedented in others, we will be considering a vote on one resolution that "directs" our employee, the Board's General Counsel, to administer an investigation of numerous irregularities concerning athletic eligibility at several schools, allegations that have surfaced in the wake of the firing of Willie Spears.

Additionally, the board will be considering a vote on two resolutions that "request" the Superintendent, who is not our employee, he is elected, to bring recommended policy and/or procedure for enhancing physical security at future Board meetings and establishing a policy for a board vote that addresses the numerous athletic eligibility issues we are currently confronting and will be investigating.  Obviously, the intent is to address the issue now with good policy so as not to have these things continue.

While I characterize this meeting as unusual and I refer to some aspects of it as "unprecedented", and this may sound strange, I call this meeting this with good reason.  In past instances where the board and superintendent were at loggerheads over an issue, we have been congenial and tried to "work it out."  In one instance, the Board's audit committee and the Board requested one particular issue be

Implications Arising from Mr. "61"

A disruptive student can be devastating to a classroom.  A disruptive, violent and disobedient student can kill the learning environment of the classroom. You don’t have to be a genius or hold a Doctorate Degree to figure this out.  What does a disruptive student do to a classroom?  This sort of a student behavior manifests itself into a situation where other students, there simply to learn and do what is expected of them, become stressed to the point that it affects their learning.  And teachers get worn down.  Often, in this district, teachers are told they must attempt to curb the bad behavior of a student 6 or 7 times through re-direction or other classroom management technique before sending a student to the office.  How much class time does that waste? How much learning time does that rob?  What sort of a toll does it take on a teacher, who is simply trying to do his/her best to teach, when after attempting to re-direct the bad behavior 6 or 7 times and having to eventually send the student to the dean’s office—the behavior continues?  And administrators have the student returned to the same class the very next day for a replay?  I know this is devastating to morale.  That’s why we have such tremendous churn in some schools.  And it’s why we have some teachers, desperate to re-locate out of these schools and precluded from doing so, try desperately to be moved down to the kindergarten or first grade level.  In some cases, some of these disruptive students get violent; they are intimidating to some teachers.  There are some 5^th graders who are 14, 15, even 16.  Frustration builds and the environment gets toxic.  And the employee churn begins, many teachers quit, principals get switched around, and the underlying environment stays the same.  The lucky teachers, some might say, are the

The Story of Mr. Sixty-One (61)

It's not a story about his age....

It's not about the number of home-runs a MLB slugger hit in a season...

It's not about a low score for a round of golf...

Nope, none of the above.

Mr. 61 is actually a student in the Escambia County School System who has racked up an incredible, mind-numbing and outrageous 61 referrals in his school career thus far, and "61" is only a sophomore this year.  And he has not been expelled.  Nope, he is currently at a

District alternative program, however as I understand the situation, he will be eligible to return to his regular high school at some point this school year.

What sorts of infractions has "61" committed?

What Does a Detailed Analysis of The Discipline Statistics Reveal?

In analyzing the data on last year’s expulsions and changes of placement, some interesting numbers and percentages stand out to me. I’m by no means a statistician, and I didn’t even sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I do see some interesting patterns in the data analyzed.

First, the numbers-Here are the total numbers of students that were either expelled or given a disciplinary reassignment (change of placement), in the 2013-2014School Year broken down by race and gender, from highest numbers to lowest numbers.

Black Males (B/M)                           56

Black Females (B/F)                         41

White Males (W/M)                          30

White Females (W/F)                        16

Mixed Race Male (M/M)*                 5

Hispanic Male (H/M)                         4

Mixed Race Female (M/F)                 3

Hispanic Female (H/F)                       1

Indian Male (I/M)*                             1

Indian Female (I/F)*                           1

Asian Female (A/F)                            1

Asian Male (A/M)                              0      (not one Asian Male was expelled or reassigned in 2013-2014)

(Note, these acronyms are what was provided by the office of the Court Liaison in the report, I did not create these)

Now, at the point these students were in a position to be given a significant punishment, either a disciplinary change of placement or the more punitive expulsion, the average number of referrals data for each group before the most severe punishment was handed down, looks like this.  Essentially, this could be thought of as the “number of chances, or warnings” these students received, by race and gender, before their eventual removal from the school—ranked from highest number of referrals to lowest prior to removal.

B/F                        18

M/M                     17

I/M                        17 (only one individual)

B/M                       16

H/F                        15  (only one individual)

A/F                        13 (only one individual)

M/F                       11 (only 3 in the sample)

W/M                     11

W/F                       9

H/M                       4

I/F                          0  (One individual with 0 previous referrals,  “one and done”)

A/M                       0   (not one Asian Male was expelled or reassigned in 2013-2014)

Once either Change of Placement or the more punitive expulsion was decided upon, the statistics point out who received high percentages of expulsions, versus the less punitive change of placement

H/M                       25% Expelled                     75% COP

W/M                     20% Expelled                     80% COP

M/M                     20% Expelled                     80% COP

B/F                         17% Expelled                     83% COP

B/M                       13% Expelled                     87% COP

W/F                       13% Expelled                     87% COP

M/F                       0% Expelled                        100% COP

I/F                          0% Expelled                        100% COP

I/M                        0% Expelled                        100% COP

A/F                         0% Expelled                        100% COP

H/F                         0% Expelled                        100% COP

A/M                       N/A                                        N/A

So what does this data show?  Black Females, Mixed Race Males, Indian Males, and Black Males have the highest numbers of referrals when calculated at the time of removal from school (most chances, or warnings), whereas Indian Females, Hispanic Males, and White Females have the lowest numbers of referrals when calculated at the time of removal from school.

Additionally, when looking at what group gets the largest percentage of expulsions as a percentage of their group's individual percentage breakdown, Hispanic Males and White Males have the highest rate of expulsions compared to change of placements, whereas Black Males, White Females, and Black Females have the lowest percentage of Expulsions compared to Changes of Placement.

While some social justice organizations chastise our district for treating some minorities in what they claim to be a disparately more punitive manner---this data as broken down and analyzed clearly refutes this and actually points to the opposite condition as the reality of the situation...

In-Depth Breakdown of Last Year's Expulsions and Change of Placement Data

.....To include race, age, gender, infraction, previous numbers of referrals, and disposition (expulsion or the kinder, gentler, "change of placement").

The following pictures give an incredible amount of insight into the who, why, what, and where of discipline in our schools over last year.  Initially, the usual, detailed compilation of data to include the infractions, was not provided to the board.  This was a departure from previous years.  I asked to get this data at a workshop recently, and was initially told "staff did not have time to compile it"  I asked if they could do it because I wanted to see it.  This afternoon, the entire spreadsheet was provided.

 I'm presenting this data with the student number redacted, but with all of the other pertinent , but not individually identifiable, student  information  left in.  I especially like the breakdown that shows the number of previous referrals.  One student, who we still did not expel but instead gave a "change of placement" had an incredible 61 previous referrals.  Sixty-One!!  I've never seen that big a number, so I will be asking specific questions about this student.  Here are the seven pages

(Click "read more" below to see the next 6 pages)

Violence Contributes to Hindered Academic Progress

We are constantly reminded of the correlation between poverty and low academic achievement-but what role does a community's violence play in a student's academic success?

We are constantly reminded, in the news and in what we hear, see, and experience in some areas of Escambia county, that this area has pockets of neighborhoods that are violent.  Murders happen, robberies, home invasions, and violent crime per 100,000 residents in Escambia County is higher than many big cities in our nation.  Last week a convenience store clerk was murdered in cold-blood in the middle of the day.  Another video that was played over and over recently showed a large man reach over a counter and violently sucker-punch a petite, pregnant clerk--so a cell phone and a minimal amount of cash could be stolen.  Crime is bad in some areas in particular.

So what impact is all this violence locally having on our schools?

In a series of scholarly articles found on the National Institutes of Health website, the case is being made that academic and behavioral issues in some students in some schools are a result of the violence in these communities, and the cumulative effect this has on developing children is dramatic.
Several studies, including one in particular that looked at students in Chicago and the proximity of their residences in relation to locations of violent crime, indicate that increased violence can negatively impact test scores.  In the Chicago study, those students who lived closer to where violent crimes had occurred showed diminished performance on English Language Arts assessments. (Interestingly, there was no statistically significant difference in Math scores).

From the article

"Community violence exposure has been associated with attentional impairment, declines in cognitive performance (Saltzman 1996; Singer et al. 1995) and declines in school achievement (Bell and Jenkins1991). These academic difficulties have been suggested to result from lowered concentration levels due to distracting and intrusive thoughts concerning violent events that may accumulate over time and with repeated exposure (Bell 1997; Horn and Trickett 1998; Taylor et al. 1997)"

Special Meeting Called for Tuesday, 30 Sept. at 4:00 PM

UPDATE 9-28-2014--Resolutions for this meeting can be found here

UPDATE 9-28-2014--Revised meeting agenda can be found here



The Chairman of the Board, Linda Moultrie, has requested that Superintendent Malcolm Thomas call a special meeting of the School Board of Escambia County to discuss Physical Security, Athletic Policy on Transfers, and a potential Board Investigation into allegations of other FHSAA rule violations over the last several years (and currently occurring, if applicable)

Tentative agenda:



                                                          THE SCHOOL BOARD OF

ESCAMBIA COUNTY, FLORIDA

J.E. HALL CENTER

ROOM 160

30 EAST TEXAR DRIVE

PENSACOLA, FLORIDA 32503 

TENTATIVE AGENDA

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2014 4:00 p.m.

1. CALL TO ORDER/ADOPTION OF AGENDA

2. PHYSICAL SECURITY AT SCHOOL BOARD PROPERTIES

3. ELIGIBILITY CONCERNS RE STUDENT ATHLETES  (INVESTIGATION) 

4. PROPOSED POLICY FOR TRANSFER OF STUDENT ATHLETES

5. PUBLIC FORUM

6. ADJOURNMENT