Put the IFs Back in the Classroom

Shown below is the Letter to the Editor that I submitted to the Record & Landmark regarding the IFs. It was printed in today's edition of the paper. I am including it here for those of you who do not subscribe to the paper. If you compare the letter below to the one printed in the paper you will see they only made a few minor changes. The paper did add the headline included below in green.

Iredell-Statesville Schools cannot afford to keep non-teaching teachers in the district's payroll

To the Editor:

A recent Record and Landmark article detailed the cuts in the proposed 2010 – 11 state budget as regards to education and the response of the Iredell-Statesville School administration to those cuts. As part of his response Superintendent Brady Johnson is quoted as saying that about 50 I-SS employees will retire at the end of the current school year and that the district will fill the 25 most critical vacancies and absorb the rest through attrition. This is supposed to save the district one million dollars.

The May I-SS Personnel Report recently approved by the School Board states that the two current Instructional Facilitator (IF) coaches are being promoted from interim status to permanent status. This indicates that I-SS is going to continue with the IF program. This is a program that has questionable value. The recent teacher survey indicated that many teachers do not find the IF program beneficial.

There are about 35 Instructional Facilitators currently employed by the district. These IFs should be moved back into the classroom to replace teachers who are retiring or resigning. This could save the school system another million dollars in salaries and benefits. If these IFs are truly exemplary teachers let their classrooms serve as models for other teachers. This would be a much better utilization for these individuals. As it is now, the IFs spend much of their time in meetings. They should be in classrooms instructing the students. I-SS can no longer afford to pay 35 teachers not to teach.

School Board Election

Tuesday, May 4th

Remember that this is the general election for the School Board and not a primary election.

If you live in District 1, or 7, please remember to vote. There is no contest in Districts 3 and 5 and the other districts are not up for election this year.

School Board Candidate Forum

According to the Statesville Record and Landmark there will be a forum for School Board Candidates on Tuesday, April 13^th, from 7:45 to 9:00 p.m., at Little Joe’s Chapel in Barium Springs. The local Chambers of Commerce and various media outlets are sponsoring the forum. It will follow the forum for the Iredell County Sheriff candidates.

Please note that the initial information printed in the April 4^th edition of Record and Landmark, as well as posted on their web site, includes some incorrect information. Contrary to the information provided by the Record and Landmark, there is no primary for the School Board elections and there is no School Board election in November. The May 4^th election is the general election for the School Board. In both District 1 and District 7, the candidate with the most votes wins the election. As I reported earlier, no one filed to run against John Rogers (District 3) or Bill Brater (District 5) so they will continue to serve on the School Board.

According to the Record and Landmark, if you have a question that you would like to be asked of one or more of the candidates at the forum, you may e-mail your question to dibach@statesville.com with a subject line of ‘Candidate Question.’ It is also reported that due to limited time, not all questions will be asked.

School Board Elections

The filing period for the School Board elections ends Friday, Feb. 26^th, at noon. Four Iredell-Statesville Board of Education seats are up for election. Those are the seats representing districts 1, 3, 5 and 7. School Board elections are nonpartisan and are to be held at the time of the May primary election. The term of office is for four years.

The information below depicts the schools included in each district as well as the current School Board member representing each district.

District 1- Dr. Ken Wilson

Union Grove, Harmony, North Middle, North High, Central, East Middle (district also overlaps with West Middle and West High)

District 3- John Rogers

N.B. Mills, Northview, Pressly, Statesville High, East Elementary (district also overlaps with West High, North High, West Middle, Statesville Middle, Monticello, Ebenezer, and Third Creek)

District 5- Bill Brater

Celeste Henkel, South High, Troutman Elementary, Troutman Middle, Lakeshore Elementary, Lakeshore Middle, Lake Norman High, Shepherd (district also overlaps with West High, West Middle, and Sharon)

District 7- Karen Watson

Mt. Mourne, Brawley, Lake Norman Elementary, Woodland Heights (district also overlaps with Lakeshore Middle, Lakeshore Elementary, and Lake Norman High School)

According to the Iredell County Board of Elections, Dr. Ken Wilson, Mr. John Rogers, and Mr. Bill Brater have each filed for reelection. Mr. Robert Bobinski has filed to run in the election for the seat representing District 7. As of Feb. 19^th at 2:22 PM, Ms. Watson has not filed for reelection.

In my opinion, unless there is some significant change within the School Board there will not be any significant change in the administration of the School System. NOW is the time for some individuals to step up and speak out for the students. If you live in one of the school districts up for election, please either consider running for the School Board or encourage someone who will make a good candidate to do so.

According to Iredell-Statesville School Board Policy Code 2110, no School Board member shall serve more than two consecutive terms. According to the I-SS web site Dr. Wilson is in his second term and Mr. Brater is in his first term. I could not find information regarding the number of terms for Mr. Rogers and Ms. Watson.

Area Advisory Summary Report

I received a hard copy of Paul Hultberg’s summary report of the Area Advisory Meetings in the mail Friday. In addition there was a short note from Mr. Johnson stating that the notes would be posted on the I-SS web site. However, they have not yet been posted, so I am going to include a copy at the end of this post.

I hope that the School Board takes a good look at this summary report as well as the notes from the individual Area Advisory meetings. Mr. Johnson has already stated that he will use the common themes from each of the reports to direct his work. The Board needs to assist Mr. Johnson in this endeavor.

The summary report includes four observations as well as a listing of what seems to be the highest-ranking suggestions from the various meetings. The first of the four observations deals with Baldrige/Continuous improvement. It states that there were diverse opinions on this issue. This is verified in the listing of the various suggestions with many participants indicating that the Baldrige model should be eliminated and others saying it should be continued. It will be interesting to see the results of the Teacher’s survey in this area.

The second observation is titled: Light turnout for parents. However if you look at the total number of participants, you can see that there was a light turnout across the spectrum of all stakeholders. The School Board and administration must do a much better job of connecting with parents and other citizens. Citizens needed to be invited and encouraged to participate in all school activities and they need to know that their suggestions will be taken seriously.

The third observation deals with Technology and states that the participants indicated that technology issues were presented as an important means of accomplishing goals. I know that I-SS has increased the use of computers, smart boards, and other technologies but there is a lack of significant technologies in many of the schools. I-SS seems more interested in having Baldrige ‘wallpaper’ on classroom walls than they are of having technology in the hands of students. Perhaps I-SS should look at what Mooresville Graded School District is doing right in this area such as providing students with laptop computers and integrating the use of these computers in the classroom. Check out the information and video at the link below.

Mooresville Schools: Digital Conversion

The fourth observation is simply the sentence: These sessions document a desire for a more collaborative as opposed to authoritative approach to leadership. There has certainly been a change in this direction with the change in superintendents, but there is still a lot a baggage left over from the past administration that needs to thrown out the window. The emphasis must be on what is best for the students and not on winning some award.

The last two pages of the report list the characteristics and strengths desired in the new superintendent. I do think that Mr. Johnson possesses many of these characteristics and that he is capable of leading the school system. That does not mean we can let our guard down. There is still a lot of work to be done to change the course of the system away from the mistakes of the previous administration.


Update (Monday, Nov. 23): The summary report is now available via the I-SS web site. Click on the link below to access the report.

Advisory Reports

Advisory Summary Report Pages 1 and 2. Click on an image to enlarge it.

      

Advisory Summary Report Pages 3 and 4. Click on an image to enlarge it.

      

Creativity vs. Standardization

There is an interesting article available on CNN.com titled How Schools Stifle Creativity by Sir Ken Robinson Ph.D. It also includes a video of a talk Sir Robinson gave at the 2006 TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference. Sir Robinson speaks of how educational institutions often stifle the creativity of students. The following are some statements that Sir Robinson makes in the article.

“What is the argument? In a nutshell, it's that we're all born with immense natural talents but our institutions, especially education, tend to stifle many of them and as a result we are fomenting a human and an economic disaster.”

“In education, this vast waste of talent involves a combination of factors. They include a narrow emphasis on certain sorts of academic work; the exile of arts, humanities and physical education programs from schools; arid approaches to teaching math and sciences; an obsessive culture of standardized testing and tight financial pressures to teach to the tests.”

“It happens in part because the dominant systems of education are rooted in the values and demands of industrialism: they are linear, mechanistic and focused on conformity and standardization. Nowadays, they're buttressed by major commercial interests in mass testing and by the indiscriminate use of prescription drugs that keep students' minds from wandering to things they naturally find more interesting.”

“There's a wealth of talent that lies in all of us. All of us, including those who work in schools, must nurture creativity systematically and not kill it unwittingly.”

I-SS must follow State and Federal regulations, but in the last several years the administration has put in place a ‘one size fits all’ application of the Baldrige plan. This has forced teachers to comply with an I-SS mandated standardized mechanism of PAs, PDSAs, formative assessments, PLCs, IF lead meetings, plus/deltas, and the like. Teachers are left with little time or energy to truly promote student creativity.

At Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, two teachers gave enthusiastic presentations of how they use Predictive Assessments in their classrooms. I am glad that these teachers have been able to integrate this mechanism in their classrooms and use it to enable their students to succeed. The problem is that the Board members and the administrators see these presentations and think that since this instructional method is working in these classrooms, then it should work in all classrooms. Educational studies have shown that teachers need the freedom to use whatever instructional methods best suit the strengths and talents of their students. These two teachers were invited to speak at the Committee of the Whole meeting. There are many I-SS teachers who successfully use other instructional approaches to inspire their students to learn. Why doesn’t the administration invite them to speak at School Board meetings?

Click on the link below to access Sir Robinson’s article and video.

How schools stifle creativity

NIH Advisory Meeting

The next advisory meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 13^th, at North Iredell High School. The meeting will start at 7:00 p.m. Again, the main purpose of the meeting is to allow students, parents, teachers, and others an opportunity to participate in the selection process for the new superintendent. You may not think that the School Board is truly going to listen the public’s input, but if we don’t speak out that just gives the Board members an excuse to do whatever they want.

If the same process is used at this meeting as was used at the SHS meeting, the participants will first be asked to list the priorities that they wish the new superintendent to address. That is what should be the main concerns for the school system. After that, the participants will be asked to list the character traits, experience, or strengths that the new superintendent should possess.

I have another meeting Tuesday night so I will not be able to attend this advisory meeting. I hope several readers of this blog will attend the meeting and then leave some comments so we can get a report of the main emphasis of this meeting.

I-SS Committee of the Whole Meeting

The next Committee of the Whole Meeting is scheduled for this Tuesday, Sept. 8th, at 5:00 p.m. in the ADR Education Center. At this meeting the School Board will start the search for the new superintendent by having a representative of the NC School Boards Association give a presentation regarding the obligations of the Board as they carry out the process of selecting a new superintendent. I think it would be very beneficial for anyone interested in the selection process to attend this meeting. Remember that the new superintendent will be directing I-SS and many of us don't want I-SS to repeat the mistakes that have occurred under the direction of the previous superintendent. I think that most I-SS stakeholders would agree that the new superintendent must set a new course for the school system. One that, as was mentioned at the meeting with Mr. Johnson, will bring back the humanistic character of education to our schools.

There are a number of other items on the agenda as well. Some of these other items are the School Improvement Plans, Recommended Changes to the I-SS Strategic Plan, and the BOE Improvement Plan. Remember that most of the work of the School Board is done at the Committee of the Whole meeting. To access the full agenda for the meeting click on the link below.

Agenda

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.

Committee of the Whole Meeting

The starting time for the Monday's Committee of the Whole Meeting has been changed. The meeting is now scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will be held in the ADR Education Center. As I mentioned in a previous post, I encourage all concerned citizens to attend this meeting. Don't worry about wearing red, white, and blue, but please take the time to show the School Board that we want all I-SS teachers to be free to use any educational method that enables students to excel.

Dr. Holliday's Other Blog

Many people are familiar with Dr. Holliday’s blog that is available on the I-SS web site but while searching on the Internet I happened to find another blog written by Dr. Holliday. This blog is hosted on the American Society for Quality (ASQ). I want to thank the person who referenced the ASQ web site in a comment to my blog post Baldrige Award, Bought and Paid For. That person was relating a comment about Baldrige that was part of one of the discussion boards on the ASQ site. That led me to Dr. Holliday’s blog, which is on a different part of the ASQ web site. Here is a link to Dr. Holliday’s ASQ blog.

Leadership in Continuous Improvement

Dr. Holliday’s first post on his ASQ blog is dated September 17, 2008. In that post Dr. Holliday makes the following statement.

First of all, let me be clear. Iredell-Statesville Schools is a Baldrige district. We have been recognized at the state level with awards and at the national level through Baldrige National site visits. Recently we were notified that we would receive a site visit toward the end of October. I will blog about our experience with state and national site visits.

In a post dated, February 4, 2009, Dr. Holliday makes the following statement.

I am always amazed at educators. We are always looking for the silver bullet. What I know to be reality is that there are no silver bullets. If you want to improve education, you must improve the teaching and learning process that creates the results for student achievement. I watch as many school systems are always launching a new initiative. I see some new curriculum. A new on-line assessment system. A one-to-one lap project. A new software program. Incentive pay programs. The list is mindless and very expensive. But most of all, in the end, how does anyone really know whether something worked or it did not work.

These seem like two very contradictory statements. First, Dr. Holliday emphasizes his Baldrige initiative as if it was the silver bullet and then he turns around and says there are no silver bullets in education. If there are no silver bullets in education, why did Dr. Holliday force I-SS to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement the Baldrige plan? Why did Dr. Holliday force all I-SS employees to march in goose-step to his dictates? Why was it always his way or the highway? Or perhaps, do you think that Dr. Holliday is starting to see the errors of his way? I don’t think so. Dr. Holliday’s ego seems to be too big for him to ever admit he was wrong.

We will all have to remain vigilant as I-SS goes forward without Dr. Holliday. We have to make sure that the Baldrige bullet is safely discarded before it does any more harm. I-SS has to find a new focus and that focus must be on the students. As I have mentioned before, I do think we will see some changes once Brady Johnson officially takes on the role of interim superintendent. However, as has been mentioned in some of the comments to other posts on this blog, Brenda Clark seems to be intent on keeping things as they are now and Mrs. Holliday may continue in her administrative position. As I, and others, have mentioned before, we cannot let our guard down. The contact information for each School Board member is in a previous post on this blog. Call, write, or e-mail the Board members and let them know that we want a school system that values all of its employees and one that enables each student to excel.

Chance Meeting With I-SS Board Member

As I was walking in Wal-Mart today, Mr. John Rogers, Jr. stopped me and we talked for a while. I have to admit that I did not recognize him at first. I thanked him for taking a part in selecting Brady Johnson for the interim superintendent position. Mr. Rogers said that we should start seeing some changes once Brady officially takes on the duties of the interim superintendent. Mr. Rogers also said that if any one has any suggestions for the School Board to please pass those suggestions on to them. I asked Mr. Rogers if the public was going to have some input into the selection of the new superintendent. He said that there would be a public forum and that it would probably be held in Mac Gray Auditorium at Statesville High School. So it does look like there will be some positive changes made. I know that there are many people looking forward to August 5th.

Meeting Report

Tuesday night's meeting was great. As with the first meeting, there was a limited turnout. It has been brought to our attention that people are not aware of the group. However, there were mostly new faces with new information and new energy. It has become obvious that there are many people who are not only unhappy with issues in ISS, but who are also willing to use their time and resources to bring change for the benefit of our children and teachers.

The cumulative amount of documented information of issues that have become available as a result of concerned citizen input has been amazing.

Public support of our teachers has been identified as one of the top concerns of citizens. The teachers are the ones who spend time with our children. They know best what our children need. They have been educated as teachers and know how to do their job. Unfortunately they are being bogged down with testing, assessments and data gathering. And it appears that, regardless of Holliday’s “open door policy” their opinion is not wanted unless it supports the administrations agenda. The teachers are afraid to speak out and we are in the process of finding the best way to eliminate that problem. We want to hear from our teachers.

ISS officials continue to work numbers to support their own agenda. They are supported as well by outside factors for reasons unbeknownst to me.

Last night a fellow gave the dates and particulars about a poll that ran in the Record and Landmark. The information they were gathering was public opinion towards the Baldrige program. The results from these polls usually appear in the Record and Landmark, however the results from this particular poll never did. He gave a call to the Record and Landmark and was given the results over the telephone. If I remember correctly, there were less than 50 people in support of Baldrige and over 700 against.

In my opinion, the R&L no longer reports the news, but rather supports their position through one-sided commentaries. This information given by the gentleman last night about the poll supports my opinion and also my opinion that the R&L places Holliday on a pedestal.

Another concern that has been repeatedly expressed by citizens is that the ISS Board of Education seems to give Holliday whatever he wants in recent years. It has been brought up that next year will give us the opportunity to replace some of the people on the board. Also, a new law comes into effect December 1, 2009. SECTION 1. G.S. 14-230 makes it a misdemeanor for a school board member to willfully omit, neglect or refuse to discharge any of the duties of his office. Violation will result in indictment and removal from office. This will make it tough for many of our representatives on the school board since they consistently ignore school board policy.

The end of a dictatorship in our school system appears to be in sight. There is still much dedication and hard work that must be done. Parents who have tried to address issues within the school system know that being stone-walled is a commonplace school system tactic. The efforts of a concerned citizens group certainly will not be met with open arms either.

The date of the next meeting will be posted on the ISS Report as soon as we determine the location. The date is tentatively set for Tuesday July 7, from 7 pm. To 9 pm.

This post was written by Larry Coover.