Hi. Some of you in facebook land have expressed displeasure at remarks I made at the School Board meeting. Below is the full text of what I intended to say, though I did not finish due to time constraints. Read it. If you can find anything that is factually wrong or logically inconsistent then bring it to my attention and I will reconsider my point of view. If upon reading you find that you agree with me, that having an appointed, education professional with a proven track recond of success would make our schools better, then I ask you to join me. Lets work together to pursuade Clay County to vote YES for better schools. You can contact me directly or contact citizens over children committee to volunteer your time or contribute funds for this vital effort. I’ll be speaking tonight on the minimum requirements in selecting an appointed superintendent of schools. Right now, I believe that the Clay School District is in a critical period and we need to reverse our direction. Not long ago people said that Clay had good schools that were getting better. While we still have good schools, the feeling today is that things are not quit right with the school district, that things are starting to unravel. I believe this weakening of the school system comes from the top it’s cause is nothing except the loss of experience in district leadership. For the past few years we have seen experienced, qualified, people who worked hard, on the school board and in the superintendents seat, replaced by people with little or no practical experience in education, government, or anything that remotely relates to leading the schools. That is what is called brain drain, the levels of knowledge, experience, and ability in school leadership are decreasing every time one of these seats are changed. It seems inevitable that if we continue on this path that our schools are headed for a fall. The best thing we can do at this present time is to follow the example of St. Johns county and have the school board, that is elected by the people, select a qualified and experienced superintendent to run the schools. The lesson to be learned from St. Johns is not that they are the best because they have an appointed superintendent, but rather their schools got better after appointed. Everyone in Clay wants better schools, we can do better. intro While the question of appointment is entirely up to the voters of clay county, it is in the best interest of the district that make policy to expedite this likely transition. The next school board could choose to amend what you have laid out, but by making policy now you give them a starting point to work from. That is important and prudent. Consider this: Depending upon the outcome of elections, the next board could have a majority that has neither served on a school board, nor any other type of board or government body, nor has any education background. The first task of that new board will be to find and appoint a superintendent of schools, something we have never done in Clay County. That is a lot to lay on anyone their first day on the job. While I believe the work of appointment would eventually get done, it is in the best interests of everyone that the process of appointment get underway quickly and be carried out in an organized manner. This board can facilitate that effort by passing policy to prepare for this transition. School Board members: you could say, “Let’s wait and see what the voters say. Why debate policy now? There is no way the people will give up voting for the superintendent?” Well, if that is what you think then you are wrong. This item is likely to pass. Consider this: In 2012 about half the people who voted in the general election did not vote in the primary, they weren’t all that concerned about picking choice A or choice B for superintendent. In addition, in that 2012 general election about 15,000 people casting ballots skipped over the Superintend race and just left the space blank. I believe that if the superintendent position simply disappeared from the ballot that most people wouldn’t even notice. While many voters don’t care very much about superintendent elections, they have proven that a strong majority care very much about the quality of education in Clay County. In 2010, at the height of the great recession, this board asked the voters for an emergency tax assessment and it was approved with 65% of the vote. Many people at that time were in a bad financial situation, yet they voted for money out of their pockets to ensure the quality of the schools. Clay voters will approve this item as long as the people know the truth that the schools will improve with a professional manager in charge. Those who support an appointed superintendent don’t have to do anything more than get the truth to the people. Minimum qualifications If I remember correctly, the Clay school district has about a $300 million dollar annual budget, and around 3,000 employees serving the education needs of 30,000 students. Because of it’s size the district is somewhat like a corporation. In the corporate world a board of directors is elected to represent the stockholders. That board in turn does their due diligence to select the best person they can find to manage the company so that everyone can make a profit. To put anyone else in that position other than the most qualified person with the best record of success would be fiscally irresponsible and would mean fewer profits to the stockholders. In the education world our profit is shown in the students, the stockholders are the children, the school employees, and the taxpayers. To appoint an unqualified person as superintendent of schools would be as irresponsible as putting an unqualified person in charge of a corporation. This board currently has two career educators who have been teachers and school principals. I would very much like for you to set the minimum qualifications for an appointed superintendent rather than that vital task be left to the next board, some of which haven’t seen a school since they left school. I think that will ultimately yield a better result. I think that everyone will agree that the top manager in any organization should be more knoweledgeable and experienced than the people they manage. We used to have that we elected because we elected professional education administrators as Superintendents. That is no longer the case. Setting good, minimum requirements for superintendent will help ensure the future success of our schools. Citizen advisory committee It has been suggested that a citizen advisory committee be formed to help with the selection process, much as the Town of Orange Park recently utilized a citizen committee to assist in selecting a town manager. As a side note, town managers and county managers are almost always hired rather than elected because, like the superintendent of schools, they are knowledge based positions. Over the years, every once in a while someone suggests that the county manager should be elected because it is such an important position. That idea has always been shot down very quickly because someone could get elected who wasn’t qualified and therefore wouldn’t do a good job with the taxpayers money, and because such a situation could lead to power struggles between the county manager and the county board. That is much the same situation we now have between the elected superindent and the school board, and it is not good for the schools. Back to the citizens committee. How should the committee members be selected? I suggest you use a similar method to what the county uses for the charter review commission. Announce the committee openings and have people apply for them. Out of the applicants, have each of 5 board members choose 3 appointees and then the board as a whole votes yes or no on each appointee so to have 15. You also may want to consider appointing some alternates because some will go away and never be seen again once they realize how boring the committee process can be. Don’t try to make the requirements for committee membership too elaborate, just stick with voters who live in the county or you will run to problems. Leave it open as to how to determine if a seat is deemed vacant and how to fill vacancies. Give yourself room to remove people from the committee if they prove to be disruptive. That committees purpose is to assist this board in selecting a superintendent, you need to let them do their work but the board also has a responsibility to ensure the work is getting done. While it is preferred that the citizen advisory work independently so as to offer an alternative viewpoint of the board, you also want the board to be effective. Depending upon the makeup of that board and who they elect as chair it could get chaotic and unproductive. In the interest of maintaining order you could consider appointing one of the board members as a non-voting ex-officio chair, that was something the county did on some task force committees they had a few years ago. Towards the end of the appointment process you will be down to just a few applicants and you start really looking at other factors than minimum requirements. In my personal opinion it would be of great benefit to Clay County if our next superintendent had experience and record of success in vocational education. I believe that expanding and improving our vocational education options is what could set Clay apart and above other school districts. What I think you should be very careful of are applicants who had previously been elected superintendents. While it would seem unlikely that an appointed superintendent would engage in political gamesmanship, it is something to watch out for because Clay has had enough. While I will not accuse anyone of misconduct, for these past two years there has been an incredibly intense appearance of impropriety centered around the office of superintendent. We have seen county commissioners abuse their power to keep this item from the voters and it required a judge to order them to do their statutory duty. One of those county commissions is a district employee recently promoted from assistant principal to division director. Due to this highly politicized state of affairs one could speculate that her vote and her promotion were related. We have seen a person hired as public relations director, with no good reason for him to be in that position, who’s main duty seemed to be making power points with spelling errors to promote the school system. Based upon his success with promoting education through spelling errors, I am told he was promoted to director of planning and intergovernmental relations. One could speculate that promotion maybe wasn’t based on merit. We have even seen what seems to be a completely fabricated rumor that the district is in danger of losing it’s certification. One could speculate that people who should be promoting the schools are instead degrading it’s reputation as a scare tactic to achieve a political outcome. Instead of all that alleged political tom-foolery, let’s just hire someone who just wants to do a good job for the schools. In closing, I urge this board to take action to ensure a smooth and timely transition from elected to appointed superintendent. This transition is the best possible action for a bright future for Clay schools, but it has to be approved by the voters. For those who want to support this item, all that is necessary to win is for the voters to know the truth. Now, if things are as bad as I have heard, then, if every school employee gave up 5 or 10 bucks to support this effort, you could have someone else sitting in that seat as soon as November 5th, if that is what you want. Thank you.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 21:47:46 +0000
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