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?

Former District Offices on Garden Street to Sell for $3.25M

The former downtown headquarters building for the Escambia County School District at 215 Garden Street has a purchase offer for $3.25 Million coming to the Board.

Once the board takes action on this offer, which I believe is a sure thing, the buyer will deposit $50K as a earnest money, and will have 150 days to investigate the property--which is being sold "as-is."  The broker of this transaction is Beck Property, who will be paid a 3.5% commission-just over $113K- on the sale per the contract.

With the Brownsville sale coming to the board this Monday, the Pickens property demolition plan moving forward, and  now the Garden Street property about to be put under contract-the district is doing a very good job of disposing of its excess property in a fiscally responsible manner in my opinion.

Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Hotline Report For May 2014

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

Congratulations are in Order!

Congratulations are in order for Bellview and Longleaf Elementary Schools! Bellview scored in the top ten out of all district schools in 3rd Grade FCAT Reading and Math, and Bellview also scored in the top five for 4th grade FCAT writing! Given the fact that this is a title one school with a very small PTA, limited parental involvement, and numerous challenging characteristics, I think these achievements are excellent; principal Hollie Wilkins, her staff, students, and parents should all be extremely proud! Right down the road at Longleaf Elementary, that school scored #1 in the district in FCAT writing for 4th grade--an incredible achievement! Longleaf also scored the highest year-over-year improvement in 4th grade FCAT writing-improving 20 points over last year! Longleaf, like Bellview, is a title one school with numerous challenges;

What Will the Board Do With the R & R Handbook?

A Wonderful Display of Local Governance in Action!

At times it wasn't pretty-but it certainly was interesting.....This morning's regular workshop of the Escambia County School Board was consumed by discussion of the Rights and Responsibilities Handbook for 2014-2015.  I took particular interest in going through it completely because so many of our school board rules point parents and students right back to the R&R handbook.

Today's meeting also brought multiple speakers who addressed the board regarding the R&R handbook, the majority of whom want the school district to include language throughout the handbook adding "gender identity or expression" to the list of those categories of persons that are not to be discriminated against in our schools.

Leading up to today's meeting, board members were given documents from the Escambia Youth Justice Coalition, and the Gay Straight Alliance of Pensacola, where they have given suggested language for several sections of the handbook

Patty Hightower agreed to make a motion at the table to add portions of the suggested language to the R&R book, and Linda Moultrie indicated she would support inclusion of this language into the R&R book as well.

Bill Slayton opposed the addition, stating that the current language should be sufficient, and this sentiment was echoed by Jerry Boone.

Superintendent Thomas did not say specifically whether or not he would add the language that had been suggested by the speakers in attendance as a recommendation to the board, and at one point indicated he felt the current language was sufficient as well.

For my part, I believe I have found support for the idea of strengthening the language with respect to allowing parents to be notified before police question students at school, as the EYJC have recommended stronger language that bolsters parental rights-an area that I have championed for several years.

 The other big issues I have with the R&R book are

1. the way it is inconsistent in the way it describes the one year mandatory out of school suspension for bringing weapons or drugs to school or for making a bomb threat.  I believe language will be made uniform when the board next tackles chapter 7.

2.  the way expulsions and placement changes are described together and appear to have the effect of allowing students to be expelled in de facto fashion for long periods by calling these non-expulsion expulsions "change of placement".

Not sure how all of these issues will resolve themselves, but I do believe Tuesday's meeting will be interesting.

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NEA and FEA Lose Big Court Battle, Districts Win!

Rejected!
In a huge ruling out of the United States District Court in Gainesville today, the powerful statewide teacher's union, FEA, and their home office national union, NEA, were defeated; The issue was the use of student test scores in teacher evaluations.

Any and all rational humans know that basing a teacher's entire evaluation on student test scores is stupid and an inaccurate measurement of teacher effectiveness.  However, having year over year student learning gains factored into and made a part of the evaluation makes sense--- and it is the law under Florida's student success act.

The unions tried to sue our district (and several others) over this, however a coalition of school board attorneys successfully argued that following state mandates does not make us guilty of violating teachers' rights.

from the Judge's ruling:

"This case, however, is not about the fairness of the evaluation system. The standard of review is not whether the evaluation policies are good or bad, wise or unwise; but whether the evaluation policies are rational within the meaning of the law. The legal standard for invalidating legislative acts on substantive due process and equal protection grounds looks only to whether there is a conceivable rational basis to support them. For reasons that have been explained, the State Defendants could
rationally conclude that the evaluation policies further the state’s legitimate interest in increasing student learning growth. The same can be said of the District Defendants. Although they have not contested Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and have not moved for summary judgment in their own right, they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law for the same reasons that summary judgment is granted for the State Defendants.

For these reasons,

IT IS ORDERED: 

1.                 The State Defendants’ motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 84, is GRANTED.

2.                 Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, ECF No. 86, is DENIED.

3.                 The Clerk shall enter judgment in favor of all Defendants against Plaintiffs on Counts One, Two, Six, and Seven, which have been dismissed, see ECF No. 111; and on Counts Three, Four, Five, Eight, Nine, and Ten, on which summary judgment has been granted. 

4.                 This Court declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining state law claim in Count Eleven.

         SO ORDERED on May 6, 2014. "