Meeting with Brady Johnson and Pam Schiffman

This past Thursday I went to the Central Office to inspect some school records that were ready for me to view. Mr. Johnson walked out into the hall to greet me and took me back to Dawn Creason’s office to get the documents that were ready to inspect and to show me the ones they were still compiling. One set of documents that were finally compiled was the database indexes that I had requested months ago.

Brady invited me into his office and said that he wanted Pam Schiffman to describe what was included in the indexes. Pam said that as far as they knew, I-SS was the first school system to complete the indexes as required by NC law. Brady said it was an obscure part of the Public Records law and that most institutions probably don’t know about it. As a side note, I did not have any problems noticing it when I read the NC Public Records Law that is available one of the State’s web sites.

The indexes show the files and fields included in the School’s database and state whether or not the information is available to the public. As you might suspect some of the databases have information about students and some have information about employees. Some of the databases that the system uses are owned and maintained by the State. Pam told me that if I wanted to see the indexes for those databases, I would have to request that information from the NC Department of Instruction.

Some time ago, Brady had informed me that he would be willing to have Pam explain the formula that I-SS had developed to rank the NC school systems. Since Pam was already meeting with us I asked if she could ahead and explain the formula, which she did. She showed me the categories that she uses to produce the ranking and how she puts them together to determine the final ranking. I must say that I now feel more confident about the process even though I-SS determines what goes into the formula and the weighting for each category. Pam said that she is currently in the process of compiling a ranking based on the latest test scores and that she will share the ranking with me when it is completed. I will post that information when I receive it and will explain more about the formula at that time.

While I was in Brady’s office he showed me a number of binders of documents that Dr. Holliday had left behind. Brady said that any time I wanted to look through them, I could make an appointment to do so. He said that he wants to assure everyone that he believes in complete transparency and that all school documents are available for inspection. Of course that would not apply to confidential information. Brady also asked me what I-SS could do to improve the transparency of the system and I said that one way would be to place more information on the I-SS web site. As an example, I recommended that all documents that are presented to the School Board before and at their meetings should be made available on the web site.

As we were talking, Brady mentioned that he did plan to let teachers take the survey that was presented to the principals just before school started. This is the survey that lists various school procedures and allows the person taking the survey to indicate whether that procedure was working and should be retained as is, or useful but in need of improvement (tweaking), or not useful and should be abandoned. Brady said that the survey would be administered sometime around the beginning of November. He also told me that Larry Rogers, SHS Principal, had taken it upon himself to administer the survey to his faculty. Brady shared the results of two items on that survey. One was the item relating to the IFs. Of the SHS faculty, 11% said to keep it as is, 39% said to abandon it, and the greatest percent said to keep it but to tweak it. The other item was the one relating to PDSAs. I do not remember the breakdown for that one but the largest percentage of the SHS teachers said to abandon it.

At the community meeting, Brady had said that he planned to meet with the IFs and talk to them about what he thought their role should be. This past Thursday, Brady told me that he will be having that meeting with the IFs on this coming Thursday. He said that one of the things he was going to tell them was that with the budget the way it is, come this spring principals may have to decide just how important is it to have an IF and whether that money is needed to retain a teacher or some other staff person.

Brady also said that he wanted to again reassure everyone that he is willing to meet with anybody and to listen to his or her concerns. He said that he has heard that some individuals are still afraid to come forward and speak to him. Brady said that he does not want it to be that way. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I went to the Central Office expecting to just inspect some school records. But, I spent most of my time in Brady’s office talking to him and to Pam Schiffman. I think that this is indeed a true example of how willing Brady is to meet with individuals.

Letters To and From Mr. Ramee

As I mentioned in a previous post, I-SS administration has told me that if in the future, I would like additional information or have further questions, I am to contact Mr. Neal Ramee of Tharrington Smith, LLP, Attorneys at Law, whose office is in Raleigh. I mailed a letter to Neal Ramee yesterday morning. In my letter I outlined some of my previous requests for I-SS records, and I included a couple of new requests. As it turns out, I received a letter from Mr. Ramee yesterday afternoon. Obviously, someone at I-SS had contacted Mr. Ramee to ask about some of my requests for public records. In his letter to me, Mr. Ramee stated that the invoices from Shipley & Associates to I-SS between January 2002 and September 2007 have been compiled and are ready for me to inspect. I am to contact him to make an appointment to review them. In my letter to Mr. Ramee I stated that I had asked to see the invoices and the corresponding requisitions. So, I am going to wait until he gets my letter before I ask for an appointment. Mr. Ramee also stated that the school system is working diligently to compile the remaining consulting contracts that I had ask to inspect. Lastly, Mr. Ramee advised me that a comprehensive database index is in development. Apparently he told the school system they had to comply with my requests to see school records. This could have been much simpler for all, and cheaper for the school system, if they had just followed the public record laws and I-SS policy to begin with.

Viewing Documents

The I-SS administration is up to its same old tricks. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Janey Munday and I had made an appointment with Mrs. Wike, I-SS Financial Officer, to view a number of the School’s financial documents. Janey and I went to the Central Office yesterday (Thursday) to see the documents. The first item we saw was a note that was presumably from Mrs. Wike. The note was to inform us that not all of the requested documents would be available for viewing. The 2007-08 audit report and the invoices from Jim Shipley and Associates were provided. However, only some of the consulting contracts were made available. In the note it was relayed that the staff pulled all the contracts they could during the time they had to work on this task.

The database indexes that I have been requesting were unavailable. We were informed in the note that the index is currently incomplete and that after consulting with 25 other school districts and municipalities the Central Office could find no other entity that has the index completed and available. In addition it was stated that the district is currently working with legal council and NC Dept. of Cultural Resources, Archives and Records division to complete the work necessary to fulfill the legal requirements of the database index. I asked for a copy of the database indexes two months ago. State law and I-SS policy both state that the indexes are to be available to anyone requesting public records. Why is the administration just now starting to work on getting this information together?

In viewing the audit report I could find nothing out of the ordinary. Of course, I am not a CPA. I was hoping to find some indication as to how much I-SS spends on central office administrative costs but it seemed like that information was comingled with all the other budgetary data. I did request that they provide copies of some of the pages so I could look over the information again. The consulting contracts that were available were mostly architectural contracts. The few other contracts seemed relatively minor.

The most interesting information was what Janey found contained in the invoices from Jim Shipley and Associates (JSA). JSA is a big supplier of Baldrige information, supplies, and services. In the last two years I-SS has spent some $20,000.00 with JSA. Some of it was for supplies, but I-SS also arranged for JSA to have Brenda Clark provide consulting services for 2 days at $1000.00 per day and to have Marty Moore provide consulting service for several days at $1800.00 per day. I-SS also paid for their travel expenses. Since that time Brenda Clark and Marty Moore have been hired as I-SS Central Office administrators. Dr. Holliday does like to hire his Baldrige cronies even if he has to create a new administrative position to do so.

Janey and I plan to go back to the Central Office next Thursday to view the documents that were not available yesterday as well as some additional invoices from JSA. I wonder what excuses the administration will have at that time.

This post was written by Paul Klaene.

Computer Database Indexes

As I have mentioned in a previous entry, I have been trying for some time to have I-SS provide me with copies of all computer database indexes. Both I-SS policy and NC State law state that these indexes should be made available to anyone asking for public records. The following is the relevant section of the NC State law.

The index shall be a public record and shall include, at a minimum, the following information with respect to each database listed therein: a list of the data fields; a description of the format or record layout; information as to the frequency with which the database is updated; a list of any data fields to which public access is restricted; a description of each form in which the database can be copied or reproduced using the agency's computer facilities; and a schedule of fees for the production of copies in each available form.

Today, Wednesday, I received a letter from Dawn Creason, I-SS Public Information Officer, stating that I could stop by the Central Office and pick up a copy of all I-SS database indexes. Of course I went right over to the office to pick up the copies. What I received was not the indexes but rather a list of 12 database names and a brief description of each database. I then called Dawn and stated that what I received was not acceptable. She said that she would look into the matter and get back to me. I have not yet heard back from her. I also sent an e-mail to Dawn, Dr. Holliday, the Board members, and the school attorney in which I outlined the situation and included the State law section I have inserted above. Once again, the I-SS administration continues stonewalling my requests for public records.

This post was written by Paul Klaene.