Interesting Tid-Bits from Last Thursday's Workshop: GK Passage Problems and Yes--Incentive Pay Will Help Keep Teachers in Challenging Schools

One of the most interesting parts of the conversation at this month’s regular workshop was the discussion concerning Warrington Middle School.

I’ve mentored a student once weekly at Warrington, so I have developed a feel for the way things are going at that school this year.  It is challenging, but this school has changed DRAMATICALLY since the 2008-2009 school year when I mentored a different student at Warrington.

So after we discussed the merits of continuing a third year of the One Year Turnaround with Turnaround Solutions, at a cost of nearly $400K, the discussion took two interesting turns…

First, discussion of the silent yet real problem that exists at Warrington and several other schools in our district:  Getting teachers that want to teach at such locations to pass the General Knowledge (GK) exam so such teachers can be certified.  After numerous tries, if a teacher cannot pass this test, they cannot teach, they cannot be hired.  And district-wide there are several dozen teachers that are struggling to pass this exam---several at Warrington.  You can read about the GK exam here, and see sample test questions….

The other great and interesting conversation that happened concerned teacher pay.  The Principal of Warrington, when I asked about teacher retention there, expressed her frustrations.  “If we could just pay them more, we could keep more of them” she explained.

Of course I jumped in and attempted to engage a conversation about my STRONG SUPPORT for paying teachers in challenging assignments a higher wage---yet I was shut down from talking about this by the Chair---which was unfortunate.  I was simply glad to hear someone that gets it, Mrs. Lipnick, verbalize what I and many others in this district know:  Until we pay these teachers more

Utter Rubbish, Garbage!

Like the heaping mound of trash being dumped in the above picture, the baseless
allegations and accusations of Karen Broughton and Ellison Bennett--- leveled at
school district personnel in the media today ---are nothing but a fetid, rancid pile of disgusting rubbish

What a load of garbage!   Everyone conveniently forgets about the victim in the unfortunate WFHS bus case from October of 2015; 

I care about all the students in our schools, and I care about this victim! Now we see a concerted effort afoot aimed at blaming the victim and the schools and the schools' leadership for problems none of us created, but we dealt with through appropriate processes and procedures.  Now these individuals, Karen Broughton and Ellison Bennett want to make this whole incident about race.  What garbage.

Listen to what the victim’s father, himself, had to say about the way the school board handled this unfortunate incident with his son. http://goo.gl/1D4T8i  

The victim in this case was African American, the alleged perpetrators were African American, the Bus Driver, the Dean, the School Resource Officer, and the Principal are all African-American------so how in the world this got twisted into a racial issue is perplexing and astonishing.

As to what I say to the baseless, inaccurate allegations and accusations hurled at me and the school district by Ellison Bennett and Karen Broughton in the PNJ story that will be out in print tomorrow---- Utter and complete rubbish.  Totally untrue, totally without merit.  Total Garbage.  Their allegations amount to nothing more than a steaming pile of rancid, disgusting, putrid garbage!  

HB 7029 Becomes Law

It's kind of like this  "One small step for man (and this one individual conservative school board member), one giant leap for mankind (and conservative school board members throughout Florida!)


That is how huge this is to me......

NSBA 2016 Boston

The 76th Annual  NSBA Conference was held this year in Boston, MA.  This conference had some very interesting break-out sessions that focused on just about every area of school-related governance one could imagine.  The highlight for me this year was a presentation by the Chairman of the Governmental Acoounting Standards Board (GASB) concerning changes on the horizon pertaining to how pension and other post-employment benefits are to be reflected in the financial statements of governmental entities going forward.  These costs represent significant liabilities for small governments and school boards nation-wide, and with the new accounting protocols dictating the way such liabilities are indicated in financial statements will be something to watch closely in the years ahead.

Dan Rather gives a humble, self deprecating speech to NSBA in Boston
Massachusetts, 4-9-2016 

Two of the featured session speakers, Dan Rather and Robin Roberts, gave speeches to the assembled thousands that were well received by the crowd.  Dan Rather described his thoughts on education and he hammered the point home that he believed that early childhood education was critical.  He said it was his belief that the schools should be engaged with parents from birth through pre-kindergarten.  In terms of funding this ambitious initiative, Rather stated "I do not have any ideas on how to fund this, though." Rather described his time in the United States Marine Corps as "short and not distinguished."  He was plugging his new book Rather Outspoken: My Life in the News  available now at a bookstore near you.

Robin Roberts' message was one of optimism and hopefulness.  She described her childhood as a
daughter of a military man, and she discussed her dreams of being a professional tennis player.  She ended up being a basketball standout that attended college in Louisiana on a full-ride scholarship.  Interestingly, one of her first broadcasting jobs, in addition to doing the sports reports on a small station, was as a Country/Western Music DJ!  Interesting speech about her fight with cancer and how she beat that deadly disease.

Along with the featured speakers, I was fortunate to be able to meet many other school board members from around the country, and I enjoyed and learned much from attending break-outs on:

--School Law and the latest hot-button topics
--winning bond elections
--calculating the value of a school district's economic impact on a community
--an excellent and informative presentation of all of the fun and useful tools Google offers

It was a great couple of days in Boston that will help me be a better school board member for the remainder of my tenure on the board!

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 

Hypocrisy

Hatred for Fiscal Conservatives…..that's what the PNJ Letter to the Editor Hit Piece today is all about......

Ron Melton’s letter to the editor is nothing but a venomous, dishonest ad hominem personal attack.

It’s NOT about hypocrisy.  Melton attempts to demonize me because I’m fiscally conservative and I challenge the status quo.

Here’s the background behind this person's rant:

I’ve tried for years to withhold my portion (1/5) of exorbitantly priced taxpayer funded FSBA “dues”.  FSBA spends too much money on things that are of minimal value, and I am tired of paying their ridiculously high-priced association fees.  So I've been trying for quite awhile to at least have my portion pulled out to save taxpayer dollaars.

Last year I lost, 4-1.

$21,766 was remitted to FSBA from Escambia’s taxpayers for FSBA.  Thank you very much and your're welcome!

Many fiscally conservative school board members like me dislike FSBA’s high prices and remain outraged that FSBA joined liberal unions and interest groups---using taxpayer money---suing the state over school choice scholarships that benefit primarily poor, minority Floridians around the state!

So we played by the rules and built a coalition of School Board Members, Conservatives, Legislators, and others and we went to work to fix this problem.

I've worked diligently over the last 16 months  to change state law so individually elected, conservative board members could “opt-out” of paying FSBA’s “dues”.

Lawmakers just passed HB7029----containing this “opt-out” language. 

So this year I didn’t send my entire portion to FSBA --or any other group— as melton alleges.  I actually directed a sizable portion right back into ECSD’s coffers—saving taxpayer dollars!

And yes, the Florida Coalition of School Board Members, a 501c3 organization I proudly co-founded, exists.  We’re a frugal, tech-savvy resource for Florida’s conservative board members.

FSBA’s taxpayer subsidized monopoly is over.

These facts, and nothing else,  inspired Mr. Melton’s ugly, false, and juvenile diatribe directed against me.

HB 7029: Inside the Most Talked About Education Legislation in Florida for 2016

legislation that is built on multiple pieces of other related bills at the end of session is called  a "Train"

Everyone connected to education has something to say about HB 7029, the massive, omnibus education legislation that passed the House and Senate on the last day of this year's legislative session.  There are a lot of member priorities tucked into the law, as many bills that may not have passed on their own were added to the bill late in the game. That's how the sausage comes out of the hopper, that is how many bills end up becoming laws.

Of course I am very pleased with the membership association language that was included--this was absolutely necessary and long overdue.  Conservative school board members should not be forced to join high-priced,  taxpayer-funded membership associations that spend this money unwisely on needless litigation against the Governor and the Legislature.  We should have always enjoyed, as individually elected constitutional offices, choice in advocacy.   And now we do!

But many other aspects of the bill are equally appealing to reform-minded officials like me, such as the expansion of school choice opportunities that empowers students and families, school board member campus visits and inspections of schools language, classroom teacher transfer language that empowers parents, immediate athletic eligibility for students of military families that transfer into a Florida public schools, construction spending caps that force economy and efficiency for capital spending projects, and much, much more.

Of course, there are liberals and other guardians of the status-quo that think Governor Scott should veto HB 7029.  They don't like the way it was passed.  Thankfully,  most observers do not believe this bill will be vetoed.

Ironic how liberals that benefit tremendously from massive, pork-laden omnibus spending packages rammed through Congress in DC decry the method in which HB 7029 was passed through the Florida Legislature.  Yes, these liberals and other status quo guardians have NO PROBLEM with Harry Reid and his minions utilizing dirty tricks and opaque Senate rules to ram-rod  OBAMACARE through the Congress in secrecy with no open testimony or public scrutiny and without A SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTE.  Yes, DC politics, when liberals drive the train and benefit from the process, is completely acceptable.  Yet a large bill that PASSED in Florida with large margins by Republicans and many Democratic supporters---HB 7029-- is somehow "unacceptable."

As Spock from Star Trek might comment on this rank hypocrisy  "Fascinating."

But I digress...

Our district's legislative affairs representative, Mixon and Associates, put together a very nice recap of all the items contained in HB 7029, which I will post below.  Long read, but lots of good information.

HB 7029: School Choice
Please note that the summary below is not in the order in which these elements are contained in the bill, rather they are grouped together by topic in order to aid in the dissemination of information to the staff responsible for implementation. Additionally, unless otherwise noted in this summary, the elements of the bill will take effect on July 1, 2016.
Membership Associations – bill lines 348-368
 Mandates that dues paid to a membership association which are paid with public funds must be assessed for each elected or appointed public officer and may be paid to a membership association.
 Requires that if a public officer elects not to join the membership association, the dues assessed to that public officer may not be paid to the membership association.
School Board Member Duties – bill lines 369-378
 Authorizes school board members to visit schools.
Educational Choice – bill lines 418-612, 1770-1806
 Authorizes parents to seek any public educational choice options for their children throughout the state.
 States that in addition to other choice programs, options for students also includes CAPE digital tools, CAPE industry certifications and collegiate high school programs.