Janey Munday's Letter To The Editor

A group of concerned citizens has formed. We developed goals and a purpose for the group. The purpose of our meetings is to address the concerns of Iredell's citizens regarding the education of their children and grandchildren. Students, parents, teachers, teacher assistants, and others all have beneficial views and opinions that can be combined to successfully improve our educational program. Our goal is to bring positive change to the Iredell-Statesville Schools through the most constructive measures possible. Anyone with an interest in the education of our children is welcome to participate.

We represent the teachers who are stressed to the max. Who go to work everyday feeling oppressed and beat down. Who feel that no one out there understands how they feel or even cares. Teachers who work in an atmosphere of repression and intimidation. Teachers who have had their creativity and motivation for teaching replaced by testing and data collecting.

We represent the students who enter these schools everyday to feel the tension that fills the buildings. The students who are told that field trips and fun days are gone or very limited because their test scores are not good enough so they need to replace fun with more testing and data discussions.

We represent the parents who feel frustrated at how things are going at their child's school but don't know what to do. One voice is not heard, many voices speaking together are. Join us in lifting our voices up for the children of Iredell County.

The above letter was written by Janey Munday and was printed in Sunday's edition of the Record and Landmark.

I-SS Should Cut Administrative Budget

I am writing this letter in response to the article by the Iredell-Statesville Schools stating that they are ready to present a leaner budget. In the article, Melissa Wike( I-SS Chief Financial Officer) states "We've looked at every possible option of where reductions can be made." How many of the reductions came from the central office staff is the questions citizens of Iredell County should be asking the school board. The budget for personnel at the central office rose over one million dollars this school year. The increase was due to the 7 new administrative positions at a total of $779,207 and the raises totaling $259,745 that 17 employees received. If the governor can take away .05% of all state employees salaries then our local board should be able to require the school system to cut administrative staff first. Every citizen should contact the board and let them know how they feel about cuts coming from classrooms in the form of larger classes because of not hiring teachers, doing away with some teacher assistants, and lower the amount of money that schools receive for supplies. The addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of the board members can be found on the I-SS webpage. Please support education in Iredell County by asking that those who directly impact the learning of our children be the last to feel the effects of this budget crunch.

This post was written by Janey Munday

Baldrige Award: Did We Win It Or Was It Purchased?

This letter is in response to Saturday’s update from Dr. Holliday. Are questions from stakeholders now considered criticism or are they indeed a necessary part of the process and welcomed as a quality component of Performance Excellence? How much money has Iredell Statesville Schools spent on Baldrige materials, training, personnel, and paper for the purpose of data collection since Dr. Holliday’s arrival? Does anyone outside the school system realize that the Chief Quality Officer and Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources are listed as Baldrige examiners? What training is necessary for the title of Examiner or Judge with the Baldrige Organization, when did it occur, and what was the expense to Iredell Statesville Schools? Isn’t it interesting that the current Associate Superintendent of Learning, Executive Director Leadership Academy, and the Executive Director of Elementary Education (as his title is listed on the ISS website organizational chart) or the Executive Director of Professional Development (as his title is listed on the agenda for The Quest for Excellence Baldrige conference) were all associated with Baldrige or Jim Shipley Associates prior to their employment with Iredell Statesville Schools? When were these positions created? The combined salaries for these three positions for Iredell Statesville Schools in 2008 were over $300,000. One must remember salary information often does not include funds for housing, car allowances, professional development, etc. All of which causes me to wonder did we win the Baldrige Award or purchase it with good Iredell taxpayer money? Who are the fifty spectators accompanying Dr. Holliday toWashington to accept his award? How many administrators will be attending? What is the cost of this trip and all the other conferences our administration has attended just this school year to Iredell Statesville Schools and subsequently, taxpayers?

Lest my feedback be interpreted as all deltas (ISS employees, you know what I mean), I applaud the many positives associated with Iredell-Statesville Schools, beginning with the students, all of them with their unique needs and learning styles that have created the demand for teachers, staff, and the buildings themselves. There are many dedicated, kind, and caring educators in this system. Their missions to their students are not posted on the walls of classrooms but are found in their hearts. They are the ones who understand that students have lessons to provide as well. The churches and community partners who support the schools with volunteers and provide cards, meals and inspiration for staff are truly a blessing. Additionally, the improvements in facilities should be noted and celebrated.

And finally, if this letter assigns me the label of critic by the administration of Iredell Statesville Schools, I will consider myself to be in the good company of other IredellCounty citizens who understand education doesn’t exist without questions, answers, and accountability.

This post written by Renee Dulin

McKinsey Education Report

I would like to comment on Dr. Holliday’s article titled “I-SS Redoubles its Efforts” that was printed on Feb. 18^th in the Statesville Record and Landmark. In the article Dr. Holliday talks extensively about the McKinsey Education Report. I have had a chance to study that report, and although I agree with some of Dr. Holliday’s statements, I feel that he missed the true focus of the report. Dr. Holliday refers to the recent achievements that have been made in the Iredell - Statesville schools but does not give proper credit to the teachers in the system. The main emphasis of the McKinsey report is that “The quality of an education system rests on the quality of its teachers.” Therefore those achievements are due to the quality and dedication of all of the I-SS teachers and their efforts to make sure that students have many opportunities to excel. In his article, Dr. Holliday does talk about recent efforts of I-SS to enhance its recruitment efforts in order to hire the best candidates. However he then goes on to dismiss the efforts of most of the teachers by saying that over 80% have been with the system for more than three years and thus must be retrained. Does their education and experience mean nothing to Dr. Holliday? The McKinsey Report does stress the need for professional development, but true professional development enhances the abilities that the teachers already possess rather than replacing those abilities. What Dr. Holliday is really saying is that he wants all teachers to march in step with his version of the Baldrige system. The Baldrige system does have some good points such as continuous improvement, but to say it is the only method that works is against all sound educational pedagogy. The McKinsey Report states that students have different strengths and weaknesses and teachers must be encouraged to select the appropriate instructional methods to help them learn. Teachers also need to have exposure to variety of learning opportunities. Dr Holliday states that teachers are not sent to conferences unless they are presenting. Is Dr. Holliday afraid those teachers might learn something other than his precious Baldrige dogma? Dr. Holliday recently criticized a group of science teachers who, at their own expense, went to a one-day science conference. He said that you couldn’t learn anything at a one-day conference. If Dr. Holliday had bothered to ask any of those teachers he would have found out just how much they learned at that conference. I-SS has put instructional facilitators in place at each school but their main job is to force feed the Baldrige method and its myriad of acronyms to each of the teachers. Did you know that OFI means Opportunity For Improvement? Just imagine how much more improvement there could be if the instructional facilitators were truly allowed to facilitate instruction. All the time and money that I-SS spends on the implementation of the Baldrige method would be much better spent on sending teachers to conferences and enabling them to share ideas with their students and colleagues.

This post written by Paul Klaene

Dr. Holliday's Compensation

Much has been written recently about the Iredell Statesville School System and Dr. Holliday, its Superintendent. Some time back I requested a copy of Dr. Holliday’s contract. In Dr. Holliday’s contract it states that in addition to his published base compensation of $170462.28, Dr. Holliday is to receive several bonuses each year.

In addition to his base compensation Dr. Holliday also receives a bonus equal to his Social Security payments, a bonus equal to his retirement contribution, a bonus of up to $5,000.00 to match his cafeteria benefit payments, and a bonus of an annual paid up annuity equal to 10% of his base pay.

Recently, I requested the actual amounts for these bonuses over the last year. The school system provided me with the information for several recent months and stated that I could use those numbers to estimate the amount for the year. Based on my estimates Dr. Holliday was reimbursed $19,577.00 for his retirement and social security payments, the system also paid $2,393.00 for Dr. Holliday’s life, dental, and vision insurance. Most I-SS employees have to pay for these items out of their own pockets. The system also gave Dr. Holliday a paid up annuity worth $17,046.00. This brings Dr. Holliday’s total yearly compensation up to $209,478.00. That means that Dr. Holliday is paid $44,000.00 more each year than the next highest paid public employee in Iredell County.

I guess the school board is trying to emulate those AIG officials who used taxpayers’ monies to pay bonuses to executives even if they didn’t deserve them. How many other I-SS central office administrators are receiving such extravagant and unjustifiable bonuses?

Dr. Holliday also receives reimbursement for professional and civic memberships, travel expenses, and staff development expenses. I have also requested those amounts but I was told that I would have to pay the school system $200.00 to ‘compile’ the information for me. It seems like the school system is trying to hide something.

To paraphrase what Brenda Johnson said in her letter to the editor of the Record and Landmark, the school board could hire someone more capable of doing the Superintendent’s job for much less money than what they are paying Dr. Holliday. I am sure that there are many qualified individuals who would lead by example and integrity instead of ruling by fear and intimidation.

This post written by Paul Klaene