Thursday Meeting Reminder

I want to remind everyone of the meeting with Mr. Brady Johnson that is scheduled for this Thursday at 7:00 PM in the media center at Statesville High School.

I sent an e-mail to Mr. Johnson stating that many teachers are still fearful of speaking out and asking him to notify all I-SS employees of the meeting and to reassure them that they can speak freely and without the fear of any repercussion. Mr. Johnson replied saying "I certainly will. I have always said there are basically 2 ways to motivate people...one is fear and the other is to show them that you respect them. This is true for students as well. I have never used fear as a management tool and never will."

Therefore, this will be a time when everyone, including teachers, can come together for the benefit of the students. As Mr. Rogers, School Board member, said in a response to a previous post, "We just have to look at each other eye ball to eye ball and deal with all the issues with the realization that WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER."

Also remember that everyone is asked to bring some school supplies to donate for use in the classrooms.

I-SS Administrators Get Raises - Teachers Get More Headaches

The following is Janey Munday's letter to the editor that was published in today's Record and Landmark under the heading above. She also sent the letter to each of the members of the School Board.

As a concerned taxpayer of Iredell County, I am writing to you with concern about the raises that certain administrative personnel received. During this difficult economic time when everyone is being asked to do more for less, I feel that it is a slap in the face of our dedicated teachers when raises are given at the central office. Teachers in grades 4-12 are being told that their class size will increase and that TA's will not be available to help. Not only will these teachers have more students to teach, but will have an increase in paperwork, phone calls to parents, and discipline issues to deal with. Unfortunately, they are not being given a raise of any sort to compensate for the extra work that will now be put on them.

Central office staff who are asked to do more should be held to the same standards as the teachers. If they don't feel that they can do their job without more money, then I am sure that there are plenty of people in the unemployment line who would be more than happy to give their jobs a try. With or without these people, school will go on and learning will take place. The same cannot be said about teachers.

Sincerely,

Janey Munday

Destruction of School Equipment

A former I-SS teacher with direct knowledge of these incidents has given me the following information. The teacher has asked me not to use his or her name.

Back in 2005-2006, the administrator in charge threw thousands of dollars worth of materials away at South Iredell High School. The administrator supposedly justified these actions by saying, if it’s not being used or can’t be used immediately, then it is to be thrown away. In all, some $4000.00 worth of display cases, aquariums and other equipment were thrown in the dumpster.

Then this summer, the same administrator took two science-equipped classrooms and turned both rooms into one suite of rooms for Health Occupations. In the process he had the built-in teacher science demonstration table/desk at the front of each room cut up and thrown away. Today’s value on these items is about $4000.00 each. So, now $8,000 dollars worth of top quality furniture has been destroyed. These items, if you were to purchase them today, are not anywhere near the quality of the ones that were destroyed, so the value may actually be even greater.

This teacher went on to say, “I don’t understand why such waste is allowed to happen in such a financially tight economy. So, if I know about $12,000 in materials being destroyed and thrown away, it makes me wonder how much is being thrown away that I don’t know about. This just bothers me greatly and it seems that I have no power to stop it. Believe me I have tried to make a difference and it seems to go in one ear and right out the other, and nothing changes.”

I also have to wonder why this equipment was not moved to another classroom at South Iredell High School, offered to another school, or sold as surplus equipment. I-SS has a procedure for the disposition of surplus equipment. Was Kenny Miller, I-SS Executive Director of Facilities and Planning, asked to examine these items before they were thrown in the dumpster? Or is this just another example of I-SS not making the best use of our tax dollars?

Brennan Consulting Saga, Continued

In a previous post I reported about a consulting contract between I-SS and Maryann Brennan of Brennan Worldwide. The contract stated that I-SS was to pay Brennan Worldwide a minimum of $36,000 to assist with the 2008 Baldrige Application Project. I also reported that on the Brennan Worldwide web site, under the section titled What our clients are saying about us, Dr. Holliday is quoted as saying “Thanks to Maryann Brennan’s support and insightful feedback, I-SS scored at the top 6% of all Baldrige applications in 2007 and was the only education organization to receive a site visit." This lead me to believe that not only was Brennan Worldwide hired to help with the 2008 Baldrige Award application, they were also hired to help with the 2007 application.

I have recently requested and received additional information regarding the contract or contracts with Brennan Worldwide. Part of this request was to inspect all contracts between I-SS and Brennan Worldwide, to inspect any invoices submitted by Brennan Worldwide, and to inspect copies of the corresponding payments.

It turns out that things were very much different from what they seemed. In an e-mail to me, dated August 17^th, Dawn Creason, I-SS Public Relations Director, stated that I-SS and Maryann Brennan/Brennan Worldwide had only one agreement and that it was the one I already had a copy of. Ms. Creason said that there were two payments to Maryann Brennan and that I-SS was preparing copies of those documents for me.

I replied to Ms. Creason stating that the copy of the contract that I had clearly stated that Brennan Worldwide was to provide consulting services to support the 2008 Baldrige Application and did not mention supporting the 2007 application. Ms. Creason then responded to me stating that Ms. Brennan only helped with the 2007 application and that she did not help with the 2008 application.

In a later e-mail, Ms. Creason further described what had happened. Ms. Creason stated that Dr. Holliday and Maryann Brennan developed an agreement to support the 2008 application based on their belief that the 2007 application would not develop into a site visit by the BNQP (Baldrige National Quality Program) examiners. Instead, I-SS actually did score high enough to receive a site visit in 2007, so the plan changed from what was written in the contract. Ms. Creason continued by saying that in the end, however, the cost and number of days of consulting remained the same, so she assumes that is why a new contract was never written. In addition, Ms. Creason stated that the duties performed by Maryann Brennan were actually the same, they were just fast-tracked to the fall of 2007 and that in 2008, I-SS did not use a paid consultant for the BNQP application.

I do not know exactly what the new plan was since the contract was not rewritten and there seems to be no formal agreement to the change. However, attached to the invoice provided by Maryann Brennan there was a page titled: Summary of Statement of Work delivered per contract and as needed. This statement detailed three phases of the services provided. The first phase was the planning phase in which Brennan Worldwide developed a site visit strategy plan that included, among other things, the expert development of all site visit issues and strategies to prepare I-SS to address them. The second phase was the preparation phase that included, among other things, coaching I-SS leaders and interviewees at all levels on how to effectively respond to Examiner interview questions. The third phase was the onsite review phase that included, among other things, consulting to support the Superintendent, the Director of Quality, and the Oz Room Team during the site visit. The document does not describe the Oz room except to mention that it had to do with the daily debriefings. I guess that is where the I-SS team went to meet the Baldrige Wizard.

If you compare the Statement of Work Delivered to the actual consulting contract you will find they are not actually the same as Ms. Creason said. In reality, other than the fact they both deal with Baldrige Award application processes they are very much different. After comparing the documents it appears that Maryann Brennan never fulfilled the obligations of the consulting contract and that she was paid for work done for which there was no contract. That being said, she was paid for the same number of days and at the same rate of pay as specified in the contract. That was 36 days at $2,000.00 per day plus $2,032.16 for travel and expenses yielding a total of $38,032.16.

This consulting contract between Brennan Worldwide and I-SS states that it is effective as of August 1, 2007 but Kay Fulp, I-SS Financial Officer, did not sign it until October 11, 2007. In addition, the Brennan Worldwide invoice states the contract is dated October 11, 2007. Yet the invoice also states that the services began on September 24, 2007. This is backed up by the Statement of Work Delivered as well as by the list of expenses.

I wonder who authorized the work to begin before the contract was in place. And, did Kay Fulp know she was signing a bogus contract? Why was the contract put in place knowing that the services stated in the contract were not the services that were now going to be provided? I-SS Policy Code 8300 states that the school district will comply with generally accepted accounting principles for governmental agencies. I am no accountant but I seriously doubt that these actions comply with any generally accepted accounting principles.

Earlier I mentioned that there were two payments to Maryann Brennan/Brenan Worldwide. The other payment was for $6,400.00 and was dated May 2, 2007. As I mentioned before, Ms. Creason told me that there was only one contract with Maryann Brennan/Brennan Worldwide. However, there was a copy of an additional contract included with the copy of the invoice. This contract is dated March 19, 2007 and is signed by Maryann Brennan and her witness but is not signed by anyone from I-SS. This contract that states that Maryann Brennan will receive $6,400.00 ($1,600.00/day for 4 days) to review the ISS BNQP application. These services and this payment occurred prior to the above services and the corresponding payment of $38,032.16.

In conclusion, I-SS paid Maryann Brennan/Brennan Worldwide a total of $44,432.16 to provide consulting services related to the 2007 Baldrige Award application and the related site visit. This of course does not include an untold number of I-SS man-hours dedicated to the 2007 and 2008 Baldrige Award applications as well as an unknown amount of other expenses related to these applications. And how exactly did this benefit the students? As has been stated before, these were funds and man-hours that could have been better used to benefit the students. I-SS Policy Code 8300 also states that the board and all employees of the school district will manage and use available funds efficiently and effectively to meet the goals of the local board and State. What I-SS goals were related to these applications for the Baldrige Award?

I-SS Welcome Back Video

Do you want to see the I-SS video welcoming everyone back to school? It is available on the I-SS web site. Click on the following link to view the video.

NEW VIDEO: Welcome Back to School

Note: The video has been removed from this post. I have been asked not to use items from the I-SS web site but rather to place links to the site.

I also hope that all students, teachers, teacher assistants and other I-SS employees have a good school year.

Administrative Raises

In previous posts I told of the announced shift in personnel at the I-SS Central Office. The shifts were triggered as Mr. Johnson assumed the role of Interim Superintendent. Mr. Johnson had informed me that administrators moving into new positions would receive raises corresponding to their new responsibilities. Mr. Johnson has now provided the amounts of those raises. The change in position and salary for each administrator is given below.

Brady Johnson was Deputy Superintendent of Operations and is now Interim Superintendent. His previous salary was $129,900.00 and is now $175,100.00, which is a 34.8% raise.

Ron Hargrave was Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education/Student Services and is now Interim Associate Superintendent of Operations. His previous salary was $118,000.00 and is now $125,000.00, which is a 5.9% raise.

Dale Ellis was Associate Superintendent of Human Resources and is now Interim Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education/Student Services. His previous salary was $110,970.00 and is now $117,000.00, which is a 5.4% raise.

Dr. Melanie Taylor was Chief Academic Officer and is now Interim Associate Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction. Her previous salary was $120,000.00 and is now $125,000.00, which is a 4.2% raise.

Bill Long was Director of Recruitment & Retention and is now Interim Associate Superintendent of Human Resources. His previous salary was $81,900.00 and is now $92,000.00, which is a 12.3% raise.

Mr. Johnson stated that all of these salaries are subject to the 2% reduction/furlough and that each of these individuals will revert back to his or her previous position/salary after the new superintendent is hired.

In my opinion, under normal economic conditions these raises would not be out of line. But, with the drastic cuts in the overall school budget, these raises do seem to be unwarranted. It was recently reported in the Statesville Record & Landmark that there would be a 5.8% reduction in More at Four Funding; the elimination of funding for literacy coaches, staff development, and improving student accountability; a 13.1% cut in funding for teacher mentoring; and an estimated $420,000 cut in transportation spending. Many students who previously were able to ride a school bus are now required to walk to school. Yet these administrators were given raises. As I mentioned before, the justification given is that these individuals will be taking on new responsibilities.

The Record & Landmark also reported that the cap on class size for 4^th through 12^th grades will increase to 31 students. Each of the teachers in these grades will have to take on new responsibilities for each additional student. Are these teachers going to be given raises because they have to take on these new responsibilities? No! Are other school employees going to be given raises because they have to take on new responsibilities due to cuts in the budget? No! This was emphasized in the Record & Landmark article. It was reported that there would be no salary increases. I guess no one bothered to inform Ms. Broadnax, R & L reporter, of the raises for the administrators mentioned above. Why is it that the School Board sees no disparity in giving raises to administrators who take on additional duties but continues to ask other employees to do more and more for the same pay?

Click on the link below to view the online version of the article in the Record and Landmark that was referenced in this post.

Budget for I-SS coming into focus

Public Meeting With Mr. Johnson

The Concerned Citizens Group is sponsoring a meeting with Mr. Brady Johnson, I-SS Interim Superintendent. The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 3^rd at 7:00 p.m. The meeting will be held in the media center at Statesville High School. You may park in front of the building or on side of the building facing the football stadium. Please enter through the doors on the front of the building.

This meeting is open to anyone who is interested in the operation of the Iredell-Statesville Schools. At the beginning of the meeting Mr. Johnson will inform everyone how the start of the school year is progressing as well as relate his goals and impressions as interim superintendent. That will be followed by a question and answer period. So, if you have questions about continuous testing, the implementation of the Baldrige plan, the school budget, disciplinary policies, or other school issues that need to be addressed, you will now have a chance to ask Mr. Johnson to respond to your question. Again, everyone is invited to attend the meeting and participate in the process of improving our school system. This meeting is for students, parents, grandparents, teachers, teacher assistants, and other I-SS employees. Let’s all come together for the sake of the students.

Everyone attending the meeting is asked to bring some school supplies to donate to be used in the classrooms. Of course, teachers attending the meeting should not feel obligated to bring school supplies since most teachers already provide supplies for their own classrooms. Teachers attending the meeting will get first pick of the donated school supplies.

TAs Rehired

It is being reported on the I-SS web site that 59 teacher assistants are being called back to work. The report states that there were 65 TAs laid off but that 6 of them no longer met the employment criteria set forth by the Board of Education. It was also stated that the teacher assistants who are re-hired will likely be re-hired in different positions than the ones they left. Click on the link below to read the full report.

School District Calls Back Teacher Assistants

It is certainly good news that the teacher assistants are being rehired. However, it is unfortunate that they had to wait so long to find out that they would have jobs this year. Other school systems were much quicker at announcing the rehire of their TA's once the State budget was finalized.

Update On The Shifts In Personnel

In my last post, I stated that at the last Board meeting Mr. Johnson announced several shifts in personnel to cover positions as he assumed the role of interim superintendent. I also reported that he mentioned that with these changes and the retirement of Steve Hill, I-SS would be saving about a hundred thousand dollars and redirecting about seventy-five thousand dollars. I e-mailed Mr. Johnson and asked him about these amounts and if any of the Central Office employees would be receiving raises due the shifts in personnel, and if so, how much of a raise each person would receive. In addition, I asked how the raises would relate to the 2% furlough initiated last month. The following is from the response that I received from Mr. Johnson.

The money saved will be used to offset some of the other cuts. I'm not sure where yet, but we will hold onto those funds for a few weeks. I'll will probably use them as part of our central off discretionary reduction to the state which is about $184,000. I have a couple other jobs that we plan to fill with part time people or just not fill this year. (CTE Director and the Director of Recruitment). One of my goals is to rehire the TAs that have been laid off.

The redirection is coming from the FLC Grant, I will not fill the job of the current FLC director who is moving to another county due to her husband taking a new job with a community college. What I plan to do is shift those responsibilities to the Associate Superintendent of Learning. The money saved from her salary will then be put back in the Title II funds which is currently where part of the salary comes from. All the people that were moved into interim positions have been given a salary increase to reflect their new responsibilities during this interim period. When the new superintendent is hired everyone returns to their old job and their old salary. The 2% still comes off the new salary as well for all the people who serve in interim positions.

Brady Johnson

Mr. Johnson did not tell me how much of a salary increase each employee received. I sent a reply to Mr. Johnson and asked him for that information. I will write another post when I get the amount of the raises.

Shifts in Personnel

At the School Board meeting this evening, Mr. Johnson stated that as he moved into the interim superintendent position it was required to make some shifts in personnel to be sure that all positions were covered. Mr. Johnson announced the following changes.

• Ron Hargrave becomes Interim Associate Superintendent of Operations.
• Dale Ellis becomes Inerim Associate Superintendent of Secondary Education.
• Bill Long becomes Interim Executive Director of Human Resources. (Mr. Long's previous position of Director of Recruitment and Retention would not be filled at this time.)
• Dr. Melanie Taylor becomes Interim Associate Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction and she will be running the Learning Division.
• Brenda Clark will be moving to the Race Street office to work with Mr. Johnson and Mr. Hargrave on several projects.
• Mr. Johnson also said that Melissa Bartlett would be leaving in September as her husband has accepted a new position and she would be moving with him to their new home.

Mr. Johnson went on to say that with these changes and the retirement of Steve Hill, I-SS would save about one hundred thousand dollars and redirect about seventy-five thousand dollars. What Mr. Johnson did not say is how this seventy-five thousand dollars was to be redirected. Perhaps some of these individuals received raises as they moved into their new positions. If so, it would probably more than offset the 2% furloughs that were put in place last month. Mr. Johnson did say that when the new superintendent is named, these people would go back to their old positions.

Transylvania County Schools Superintendent Search

The Transylvania County Schools recently completed the process of selecting a new superintendent. As part of that process, their School Board conducted an online community survey. The survey asked individuals to rank the importance of a list of 20 characteristics desirable in their new superintendent. Leigh Kelley, Times-News Staff Writer, wrote an article about the results of the survey. The online version of the article is available at the link below.

Superintendent Search

The following comments are taken from the article.

When it comes to choosing the next superintendent of Transylvania County Schools, experience in the top role is less important than service as a successful classroom teacher or principal, according to the results of an online community survey.

Among the survey findings:

• It was deemed “very important” for a new superintendent to have strong people skills. This was rated No. 1 one out of 20 characteristics considered desirable.
• The ability to get parents, students, staff and the community to work together was the next highest rated characteristic respondents said they wanted in a superintendent.
• Understanding current school programs, communicating well with all groups in the community and being accessible and responding to concerns in a timely fashion rounded out the top five.
• Being an effective classroom teacher and/or principal ranked eighth out of 20 categories.
• Experience as a superintendent ranked 14th.

There was also a way for people to leave comments. I hope that the I-SS Board will do a similar survey. And, as others have mentioned about school surveys this should be completed using an independent online survey source and not through the I-SS web site. The School Board should get the results without having anyway of knowing who left a particular comment or ranking.

Unfortunately, the article did not give the full results of the survey. I agree with the top ranked items in the Transylvania survey. What other characteristics would you like to see in the new I-SS superintendent?

School Board Meeting

The regular Board of Education meeting will be held on Monday, August 10^th, at 6:00 p.m. in the Iredell County Government Center on Center Street. Click on the link below to access the agenda for the meeting.

Board Agenda & Minutes

Although there have been a number of positive steps taken since Dr. Holliday resigned, we must continue to be vigilant. We must make sure that the focus of the school system remains on the students and that the teachers are given the tools and the proper support needed to ensure the success of all students. Also, the Board will soon begin the process of selecting a new superintendent. The citizens of Iredell County need to send a clear message to the entire Board that it is essential that all stakeholders be allowed to fully participate in the selection of the new superintendent. Therefore, I am asking everyone to attend the Board meeting on Monday. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. It does not matter if you agree with me or not, now is the time to come together for the sake of our children and grandchildren.

State ABCs Results Released

According to results released today by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Iredell-Statesville Schools' performance composite increased by nearly 9 percent this year as compared to 2007-08. Eighty percent of the district's schools made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as defined by No Child Left Behind. In addition, I-SS has four Honor Schools of Excellence. District Interim Superintendent Brady Johnson is pleased with the results.

"This is certainly great news for our schools," he said. "Our employees are dedicated to helping our young people be successful, and their efforts are definitely paying off."

Click on the link below to see the full article.

State ABCs Results Released

In addition to the four Honor Schools of Excellence, there are eight Schools of Distinction, and thirteen Schools of Progress.

Congratulations to all the I-SS employees who worked hard to make these achievements and all the other achievements of the school system possible.

And, for those who have made comments about checking the test scores of my wife’s students, let me say this, she teaches at Lakeshore Middle School, which is one of the four Honor Schools of Excellence.

Thank You Mr. Johnson

In my previous post I wrote about my conversation with Mr. Johnson. I thanked Mr. Johnson for meeting with me but I forgot to include a word of thanks in my post. As I mentioned in my previous post, Mr. Johnson invited me to meet with him. He did so soon after being named interim superintendent. He had asked me to wait until he officially took over the reins of the school system before I posted anything about the scheduled meeting. Mr. Johnson did not have to contact me and ask me to meet with him. He did not have to meet with me on his first official day as interim superintendent. I am sure he already had a full schedule. Mr. Johnson did not have to apologize to me for the actions of Dr. Holliday. But he did. That shows that Mr. Johnson is not only a true professional but also a true gentleman. I wish Mr. Johnson the best as he endeavors to guide the school system. Thank you, Mr. Johnson for meeting with me but especially for agreeing to take on the responsibilities of interim superintendent.

Meeting with Mr. Brady Johnson

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had the opportunity to meet with Brady Johnson. We met for about 2 hours on Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Johnson had contacted me a number of days ago and asked me to meet with him on his first official day as interim superintendent. I must say that it felt good to go from being shunned at the Central Office to being invited back. One of the first things Mr. Johnson did during the meeting was to give me a heartfelt apology for the incident when Dr. Holliday told me to leave the Central Office. Mr. Johnson said that, although he was not at the Central Office that day, the office staff told him that I had been cooperative and polite. He said that things could have been handled in a much better way. Mr. Johnson said that in the future I will have the full cooperation of the I-SS staff and that there will be a greater focus on customer service. He also told me that I no longer have to go through the attorney in Raleigh if I want to request access to school records. He said that, other than confidential information, all records will be available for inspection and that anyone wanting access to school records should make that request to Dawn Creason, I-SS Director of Public Relations.

I asked Mr. Johnson if there would be significant changes under his leadership. He made the analogy that the school system is like a sailing ship with the captain stepping away from the helm and he has been asked to take the helm for a while. Mr. Johnson said that he is not going to change the course of the ship but he is going to trim the sails a bit to make sure things go properly. For example, he said that he sees the principals as the CEOs of the schools and that he is not going to micromanage them but he does want to give them the tools they need to do their jobs. He said that he had met with the principals, assistant principals, the Instructional Facilitators and some of the Central Office staff in the morning and that one of things he talked about was the situation with the Ifs. Mr. Johnson said that at some schools the Ifs are doing a great job but at other schools they are not. He said that the situation needed to be fixed. He also said that the principals were meeting Wednesday afternoon and that they were given a list of initiatives that were currently being used in the school system and they were to take each one and tag it as something to keep, fix, or abandon. Classroom walk-throughs and Baldrige wallpapering were on the list.

Speaking of the Baldrige initiative, I did ask him if that was going to continue. Mr. Johnson said that it would continue but not in such a heavy handed way. He said that since I-SS did win the Baldrige Award they could now take different approach. Mr. Johnson said he wanted to reduce the stress levels and that he wanted I-SS employees enjoy showing up for work each morning. He also said that he agrees with the philosophy that you should work smarter and not harder. He said that much would depend on the results of the afternoon principal’s meeting. Mr. Johnson also spoke more of the role of the Ifs. He said that the IF should be a master teacher and not a dictator. He said that IFs should be working with teachers rather than talking down to them. In addition, Mr. Johnson also said that the IFs should be reporting to the principals and that the principals will be evaluating the Ifs instead of the Ifs evaluating the principals. He reiterated that he wants the principals to be in charge.

Mr. Johnson did emphasize that all of this was to ensure student achievement. He said that he wants every classroom to be high functioning. One, where any parent would want his or her child. We talked a little bit about the ranking of the school system and he said that everyone is comparing schools these days and that the ranking based on various tests will continue. I then asked Mr. Johnson about Dr. Holliday’s formula and he said that Dr. Holliday may have devised his own formula but again said that some ranking will continue. (Mr. Johnson later sent me an e-mail saying that he spoke to Pam Schiffman and explained to her that I was interested in the I-SS process for ranking in the top ten. He went on to say that Ms. Schiffman designed this process and that she is more than willing to sit down with us and explain the formulas.) As part of all of this, I asked Mr. Johnson about all of the testing and especially about the testing during the first week of school. He said that he felt that it was important in order to determine the abilities and knowledge of each student since the teacher is expected to tailor the lessons to each student.

We talked about the search for the new superintendent and Mr. Johnson said that it could possibly take as little as three months and that it did need to be completed within a year. He said that he plans to retire June 30^th and that he is not interested in the superintendent’s position. He said that it was his understanding that the Board would consider candidates both from within the system and from outside the system and that there would input from teachers, other employees, and citizens. Mr. John Rogers, who joined the meeting about an hour after it started, confirmed this.

I asked Mr. Johnson about employee morale and he said that he knew that it was not what it should be. He said that he wanted students and teachers to go home knowing it was a good day. Mr. Johnson also said that he wanted to restore the trust factor and that he wanted all employees to be treated professionally. He said that he wanted teachers and all employees to know that they could speak out without fear of retribution. He did say that he does believe in the chain of command and that parents should talk with their child’s teacher before going to the principal and that teachers should go to their principal before going to him, but that in the end the buck stops with him.

Mr. Johnson did ask me to let all of the readers of this blog that he is very willing to meet with anyone who has a concern about the school system. He said he may not have the answer to each question and that if needed he would work hard to find someone who does have the answer. I asked Mr. Johnson if he would be willing to meet with the citizen’s group and he not only said yes, he said we could meet at a school facility. As I mentioned before, Mr. Rogers was also at the meeting and he said that he felt that the Board would also be willing to meet with the citizen’s group. In addition, Mr. Rogers said that the Board has to do a better job of answering citizen’s questions.

Here are a few odds and ends. Mr. Johnson also told me the following. As a winner of the Baldrige Award, I-SS does have some obligations to fulfill such as going to receive the award and making some presentations at conferences, but the expenses for those will be paid with money the system received because they won the award. I-SS should not have to order any more materials or services from Jim Shipley and Associates. Mrs. Holliday is continuing to work for the system in the same capacity but that when the house is sold and all matters here are finalized she will be moving to Kentucky.

In conclusion, this was a very good meeting. I do think that Mr. Johnson intends to make sure that the true focus is on the students and that he is very willing to listen to all sides and factions. And I did get the impression that, although there might not be as many changes within the school system as some were hoping, there will be a number of positive changes.

Now let me add this. It is very late as I write this and I majored in Physics not English so please excuse my writing style and any grammatical mistakes.

NC Budget Goes to Governor

The following is from the Record and Landmark web site.

The North Carolina General Assembly has approved a $19 billion state budget for the spending year that started a month ago. The Senate and House voted Wednesday to give the budget final legislative approval.

Gov. Beverly Perdue said she would reluctantly sign into law the package that includes higher taxes and reduced services.

The budget leaves up to local school districts — now just weeks away from a new school year — to decide how to handle their share of $225 million in cuts.

The following is from the NCAE Daily Political Briefing.

In the final budget, the General Assembly fully funds class size in grades K-12 and restores teacher assistant funding. However, local school districts can make some discretionary cuts within rules to be established by the State Board of Education in two weeks.

I met with Mr. Brady Johnson today and he said that he has seen some of the budget information. Obviously, he has not had an opportunity to see how it would impact I-SS. I will have more about my meeting with Mr. Johnson in a subsequent post.

Mr. Rogers' E-mail Address Update

After the Committee of the Whole meeting, Board member Mr. John Rogers, Jr. stopped me for a moment and asked me to update his e-mail address on this blog. He said he does not regularly use the e-mail address that was formally listed on the I-SS web site and on this blog. Mr. Rogers’ told me his new e-mail address is johnrgrsjb@aol.com and asks everyone to use this address to contact him about any concerns. He also asked me to let everyone know that he does read this blog.

Mr. Rogers, thank you serving on the School Board and for taking the time to consider to the concerns of the citizens of Iredell County.

Report on the Committee of the Whole Meeting

I attended the Committee of the Whole meeting this evening. Even though Dr. Holliday had previously stated that he would be at the meeting he was not. I guess he left the building right after the reception in his honor. Mr. Johnson was there to take over the duties of the superintendent. The meeting started with a presentation from a couple of students who participated in the AIG Summer Camp. They showed a video they made while at the camp. This was followed with a presentation by the principals of each of the middle schools. They each spoke of some of the student successes that occurred during the last year. There were a number of positive achievements at each school.

There was some talk about this year’s budget but without a finalized budget from the State there was still a lot to be resolved. Please see my previous post about the NC budget.

The rest of the meeting dealt with a number of routine matters such as updates on current and upcoming building projects. Dale Ellis gave his personnel report. He mentioned there were some transfers and retirements but mostly referred to the information that was given to the Board members and did not mention specifics. Mr. Johnson talked about a proposed change to the school policy relating to the destruction of EC records stating that it would make it clearer how such records were to be handled. He also spoke of a proposed change to the school’s attendance policy that would allow parents to submit a child’s absence excuse on line using the school’s web site. It all ended with the Board going into a closed session.

NC Budget

The following is taken from today's NCAE Daily Political Briefing.

Despite media reports that a budget deal is done, class size is still being negotiated in the 11th hour by Governor Bev Perdue, Speaker Joe Hackney & Senate Pro Tem Marc Basnight.

On Friday night, the budget deal was done. According to the media, the House and Senate budget writers in Room 612 struck a deal where class size would not be harmed in grades K-12 and teacher assistant positions would be restored. Then came the "but."

Under the agreement, local school districts would be given a "discretionary" cut and returning part of their allocations back to the state. In order to find the money, school systems would be allowed to increase class size in grades 7-12. Governor Perdue was not pleased with this and dispatched her team to open negotiations on this issue. The General Assembly needs the governor's signature on the budget in order to become law.

Governor Perdue's position on protecting classroom learning from cuts is opposed by the NC School Boards Association and the NC Association of School Administrators. In an email message sent to its members today, NCSBA wrote that the "governor is asking the General Assembly to go in the wrong direction."

"Grades 7-12 are critical years for students, just as the early grades are," said NCAE President Sheri Strickland. "Children are at risk of dropping out, they're faced with incredible pressures, and they're going through life changes. They need more teachers in their lives, not less."

Strickland called on members to voice their concerns to the General Assembly directly today. A budget is reportedly being printed this afternoon for distribution to members this evening at 7 p.m.

"NCAE members need to call their representatives and senators today," said Strickland. "If you're in the game, stay in the game until the whistle blows, and if you're not, we need you now. The next two days are critical for student learning and your jobs."

The telephone number for the General Assembly is (919) 733-4111. Tell them to protect class size in all grades, restore teacher assistant positions and protect K-12 public education. The operator will forward you to your Senator and Representative.

I would also like to add that, at tonight's Committee of the Whole meeting Mr. Johnson also asked people to contact their legislators and ask them to finalize the budget so that the school system can also finalize its budget.

Here is a list of the e-mail addresses for the Iredell County Representatives to the General Assembly.

Rep. Julia C. Howard Email: Julia.Howard@ncleg.net

Rep. Darrell G. McCormick Email: Darrell.McCormick@ncleg.net

Rep. Grey Mills Email: Grey.Mills@ncleg.net

Rep. Mitchell S. Setzer Email: Mitchell.Setzer@ncleg.net

Senator Austin M. Allran Email: Austin.Allran@ncleg.net

Senator James Forrester Email: James.Forrester@ncleg.net

Senator Fletcher L. Hartsell, Jr. Email: Fletcher.Hartsell@ncleg.net