Kentucky's Loss, Iredell's Gain

The Kentucky Department of Education is reporting that Dr. Holliday has been selected as the next Kentucky Education Commissioner. The following is taken from the press release.

Terry Holliday, superintendent of the Iredell-Statesville school district in Statesville, North Carolina, has been selected as Kentucky’s fifth commissioner of education. His salary will be $225,000 annually, and his first day in office will be August 5. The contract is for four years.

The Kentucky Board of Education announced the selection today at a special-called meeting in Frankfort. Chairman Joe Brothers said that Holliday exemplifies the qualities the board sought for the next commissioner. “Terry Holliday has a proven record of accomplishments, and chief among those is his work to raise student achievement levels,” Brothers said. “He is a strong leader who understands the importance of collaboration and communication among partners, including parents, educators, community leaders, businesspeople and elected officials.

For more of the Kentucky press release click on the link below

Holliday selected as Kentucky Education Commissioner

To access the related article in the Record and Landmark, click on the link below.

Holliday selected for Kentucky post

The following is taken from The I-SS News release found on their web site.

Kentucky Board of Education members this morning voted to hire Iredell-Statesville Schools Superintendent Dr. Terry Holliday as the state’s next commissioner of education. Holliday was one of four finalists for the position.

“My family and I are certainly excited about this new challenge,” said Holliday. “But leaving Iredell-Statesville Schools will definitely be a bittersweet experience. During the last seven years, I have come to love not only our schools, but our community and its people.”

Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education Chairman Dr. David Cash says Holliday’s selection as the Kentucky commissioner comes as no surprise.

According to Cash, the board of education will begin work immediately to name an interim superintendent. “We certainly want to build upon the solid foundation we currently have in place,” said Cash. “Right now, we want to maintain stability and work to identify the best individual who can help our district continue on its path of success.”

Cash said the board will be discussing the interim job with a handful of internal candidates. “We’re very fortunate. Our school district has developed a pool of highly-motivated, talented leaders who we are confident will continue to ensure our young people succeed,” he said.

The board will begin meeting with potential candidates for the interim position during a special called meeting on Monday afternoon. Cash said it was possible that the board would make an announcement about an interim replacement for Holliday at the conclusion of the meeting. Once an interim replacement is in place, the board will begin advertising for a permanent replacement.

For more of the I-SS press release click on the link below

Superintendent Becomes Kentucky's New Education Commissioner

Now is the time to take action. Contact the School Board members and let them know that they have to concentrate on what is best for the students. Students, parents, teachers, teacher assistants, and the citizens of Iredell County should all be allowed to participate in the selection of the interim superintendent as well as the permanent superintendent. Apparently, the School Board is planning on meeting in a closed session on Monday with no input from the public.

The contact information for the Board Members is listed below.

Mr. Bill Brater (District 5) 529 Catspaw Lane Statesville, NC 28677 704-528-3531 billbrater@bellsouth.net Dr. David Cash (District 2) 149 Foxglove Drive Statesville, NC 28625 704-873-3269 davidcash@iss.k12.nc.us Mr. Charles Kelly (District 6) 132 Blueberry Hill Drive Statesville, NC 28625 704-873-7578 cskllll@bellsouth.net Mr. John B. Rogers, Jr. (District 3) 851 Wesley Drive Statesville, NC 28677 704-873-7777 johnrgrsjb@aol.com Mrs. Karen Watson (District 7) PO Box 4533 Mooresville, NC 28117 704-660-8018 ktwatson@iss.k12.nc.us Mr. Keith Williams (District 4) 1724 Jones Street Statesville, NC 28625 704-878-6559 keith.williams@iredellmemorial.org Dr. Kenneth Wilson (District 1) 293 Rash Road Olin, NC 28660 704-876-4515 kenwilolin@yahoo.com

More Baldrige Expenditures

This past Wednesday (7/15/09) I had another appointment to view school records. Of course I had to arrange the appointment with the I-SS attorney in Raleigh. It is a hassle to schedule appointments this way, but at least I am getting a better response to my requests to inspect school records. There was no observer in the room with me this time. Again, I spent much of the time reviewing invoices from Jim Shipley and Associates (JSA). I inspected some other documents as well and I will write about those in a later post.

Last time I looked at the JSA invoices dated from August 2003 to June 2005. In that two-year period, I-SS paid JSA $90,739.97 for Baldrige materials and training. This time I inspected the JSA invoices dated from July 2005 to May 2007. In this two-year period, I-SS paid JSA $114,008.40 for Baldrige materials and training.

Included this time were payments to have Brenda Clark provide training and consulting for a total of 14 days at $2,050.00 per day and payments to have Marty Moore provide training and consulting for a total of 22 days at $1,800.00 per day. There was even a payment to have Jim Shipley provide training and consulting for 2 days at $2,050.00 per day. Of course these individuals had to travel to Iredell County in order to provide this training. Thus, in addition to these daily rates, I-SS paid the travel expenses for Ms. Clark to make 7 round trips, for Ms. Clark to make 9 round trips, and for Mr. Shipley to make 1 round trip.

As in the previous two years, a number of I-SS administrators also traveled to Florida for Baldrige training. There was a registration payment of $1625.00 to JSA in May 2006 for five administrators to attend a two-day training session. And, there was a registration payment of $600.00 to JSA in April 2007 for three administrators to attend a different two-day training session. Since the travel expenses were not paid to JSA there was no invoice indicating the cost to send these administrators to Florida for the training.

I-SS is in the process of firing 65 teacher assistants. I think that these expenditures show that most, if not all, of these positions could have been saved if the school system was not spending an extraordinary amount of money to force students to endure the consequences of continuing the I-SS implementation of the Baldrige plan. As I mentioned before, there are thousands of school systems in this country achieving significant successes without using the Baldrige method.

July I-SS Board Meeting

I attended the I-SS board meeting on Monday evening. The Board Highlights available on the I-SS web site give a good summary of the meeting. You can click on the link below to access the Highlights.

July Board of Education Highlights Now Available

However, I would like to make a couple of comments. The first has to do with the 2% furlough for Board Members, Central Office administrators, and principals. Since this a furlough, and not just a reduction in pay, will the administrators and principals will be given a 2% percent reduction in their workloads? There was no mention of how that is to be accomplished. Also, it was mentioned that this would save the school system about $120,000.00 this year. If you do the math, that means that I-SS is paying it Central Office administrators and principals a total of approximately $6,000,000.00 a year. Six million dollars seems like a lot of money to me.

Next, has to do with the millions of dollars I-SS is planning on spending on construction and buying property. Although some have said that we should be able to use some of that money to pay the TAs who are losing their jobs, I think that Dr. Miller made it very clear that State and Federal regulations dictate how the money should be spent. Therefore, I think that is good for I-SS to request this money while it is available. However, I also think that I-SS needs to disclose the full details of each of these projects. For example, it was not made clear how the system will proceed with the Murdock Road property. Dr. Miller stated that the facility would house a career and technical education center, including the district’s growing auto tech program, currently housed at Statesville High School. But, there seems to be no specific plan of how to proceed once the property is purchased. It was mentioned at the Committee of the Whole meeting last week that the county has ask I-SS not to do anything with the property for six months in case there is business that would like to relocate and use the property. Another example is the Unity School property. I-SS has developed and cancelled a number of different plans for this property. Now the system has a new plan and has allocated up to $500,000.00 to start work on the renovations. Here again it was not clear how things would proceed. I have seen the Unity property and I wonder just how far that money will go. Dr. Miller stated that the proposal would be an excellent way to preserve the community’s history and partner with the community. It is about time for the system to carry through with that commitment.

Finally, the Board has moved the public comment segment to near the end of the meeting. I guess they hope most people will not stick around that long. There were several people who spoke about the Unity School project. In addition Janey Munday and I also spoke. Janey said that while I-SS often talks about transparency, when she and other citizens requested schools records, those records were at first reluctantly provided and then the school system started referring anyone requesting records to the attorney in Raleigh. Janey went on to say that it is costing the system a great deal of money to respond to the requests for records. Janey continued by saying that I-SS needs to be more diligent with its money and that if I-SS is truly a transparent school system then the doors should always open to the citizens of Iredell County to check records and to see that monies are spent wisely.

When I have spoken to the Board in the past, the written minutes have not always included everything I said. So this time I had prepared copies of my remarks to give to each of the Board members, the Board secretary and Dr. Holliday. The Board members are seated in a large arc at the front of the room. To the left of the Board members is the Board Secretary and then Dr. Holliday. There is a railing that separates them from the audience. When it was my turn to speak I walked from the right side of the room, where I was seated, to the left side of the room in order to hand the copies to Dr. Holliday since he was the closest to the railing. I assumed that he would simply take them and then pass them on to the Board secretary. Instead he just ignored me and would not take the copies from me as I tried to hand them to him. The secretary had to stand up, walk around behind Dr. Holliday, and then take the copies from me. Now, I am not a man of small stature, and as I said, I walked from the other side of the room, so I know Dr. Holliday saw me. I guess that is just another indication of his lack of character.

My comments to the Board are included below.

My name is Paul Klaene. Thank you for allowing me to speak this evening.

I am asking the Board to include the following comments in the minutes of this meeting for the record.

Federal law, NC state law, and I-SS policy allow the public to inspect, and receive copies of, school records. Following these laws and policies, I have asked to inspect certain school records. I have also asked to receive copies of some of these records. As I mentioned at the last Board meeting, I went to the Central Office on June 8th, as directed by School staff, to pick up some copies of school records. And, before I had a chance to pick up those copies, Dr. Holliday directed me to leave the Central Office. I was not being rude or disruptive in any way. I was at the office for a legal and rightful purpose.

Then, at the last Board meeting, Dr. Holliday chose to publicly chastise me for requesting to inspect school records. Dr. Holliday stated that I-SS had to pay $5,000.00 to retain a lawyer in order to respond to my requests. If the school administration had simply followed the law, and school policy, in responding to my requests, there would have been no need to retain an attorney.

It was totally inappropriate and unprofessional for Dr. Holliday to take these actions against me. I am asking both the Board and Dr. Holliday to publicly apologize to me for his actions.

This was a long post. Thank you for taking the time to read it.

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.

Board Meeting

This is a reminder that the next School Board meeting is this Monday, July 13th, at 6:00 p.m., in the meeting room on the second floor of the Iredell County Government Center on Center Street. Everyone is urged to attend and please remember that we said that since our mission is to work for the freedom for our teachers and children we would wear red, white, and blue since these are the colors of our flag. You can wear an armband, a shirt, a scarf, or whatever. Just show some red, white and blue.

Share The Good News

Many of us have been trying to point out some of the things that Dr. Holliday and his buddies are doing that are detrimental to the Iredell-Statesville School System. We know, as others have stated, that there are a lot of good things going on in the schools. I am asking everyone to take a moment and share some good news about the schools and about the students. Perhaps your child had an excellent teacher last year, maybe you know of a student who took some time to help another student, or possibly there was a school custodian who took on extra tasks that he or she was not required to do. I am sure that there are many good stories that could be shared with everyone. Please leave a comment that tells of your good school experiences.

Guilt By Association?

It was suggested in one of the comments to a previous post that by referring to the Central Office Administrators I am unfairly grouping some good administrators in with Dr. Holliday and his Baldrige buddies. I have to admit that is probably a valid statement. Regrettably, I don't have a decoder to tell the good from the bad. And I am not saying that everything that Dr. Holliday and his buddies have done is bad. For example, I do think that Dr. Holliday is working hard to keep all I-SS teachers employed. Unfortunately there are about 70 teacher assistants who are about to lose their jobs.

When I first started this blog I was just using the term administrators. My wife suggested that I say Central Office Administrators instead so that everyone would know that I was not including principals and assistant principals. We both knew that there were many good principals and assistant principals in the school system and that I was talking about what was being done by employees who were classified as Central Office Administrators. Sadly, ever since I started questioning the actions of I-SS officials and asking for access to school records, the interactions I have had with Central Office Administrator have been far less than helpful, cordial.

Now that Dr. Holliday has directed me not to contact any Central Office Administrator, my only observation of these administrators is at the I-SS Committee of the Whole meetings and the regular School Board meetings. Since the School Board and Dr. Holliday control these meetings, what one observes at these meetings is only that which Dr. Holliday wants everyone to observe.

Tuesday's Meeting

We had our group meeting Tuesday. It was a good meeting but only 5 people were there. We talked about ways of getting the word out to people. Janey is going to write a letter to the editor telling about our goals and inviting people to participate. We also talked about the need to get more parents involved and making sure that they know what is going on in the schools. In discussing ways to do that, we talked about distributing flyers and having meetings in various communities around the county. This has been mentioned before as a way of making it less stressful for teachers to participate. Please let us know if you could host a meeting in your community. It does not have to be at your house. Perhaps there is a community room in your part of the county or maybe we could use a room at your church. If this effort is going to work we need to have more people taking an active role in the group.

No Decision Today

The Courier-Journal in Louisville Ky. and The Daily Independent in Ashland Ky. are both reporting that the Kentucky Board of Education did not make a selection for the new education commissioner today. According to the reports, the Board chairman, Joe Brothers, said that they still have four candidates after the day long meeting that began around 7 a.m. and didn't end until after 4 p.m. Brothers said the board will continue to do background checks on the applicants and review information and data it has requested from the four finalists. But he said he’s confident the board will choose the next commissioner at its next meeting, scheduled for Friday, July 17 at the board’s offices in Frankfort.

Both papers quote Dr. Holliday talking about the Kentucky Education Commissioner position. The Daily Independent reports: “This is my pinnacle job, this is the job I’ve always gone after, leading at the state level,” Holliday said. Holliday, who is 58, said if he’s hired he expects to remain in the job for at least nine years. The Courier-Journal reports: "This is the job I always wanted," said Holliday.

Isn't that just about what he has been telling everyone in Iredell County about the I-SS superintendent's position? And all this time he has been looking for his pinnacle job. Well I hope he gets that job. It won't take long for the citizens of Kentucky to realize where they want to stick that pinnacle.

Holliday Praised in R & L Editorial

Post updated on July 9th.

The Statesville Record & Landmark has an editorial in today's paper in which they talk about Dr. Holliday's bid to be Kentucky's next education commissioner. Here is a link to the on-line version of the editorial.

Kentucy bound?

The editorial states that Dr. Holliday's selection as one of the finalists for the Kentucky position is an honor for I-SS and that it comes on the heels of Holliday's selection as NC Superintendent of the year and the selection of I-SS for a 2008 Baldrige National Quality Award.

The editorial does not mention the selection process for the Superintendent's award. There was no statewide vote taken and the I-SS teachers/teacher assistants were not asked for their opinions. Dr. Holliday simply submitted his own application for the award and had his buddies in the Central Office write letters of recommendation. Then the NC superintendents association looked at the applications submitted and decided whose turn it was to receive the award this year.

Speaking of the Baldrige award, the editorial does not mention the amount of money that the Baldrige effort has cost the school system. In the time that Dr. Holliday has been superintendent, I-SS has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in salaries for Central Office administrators whose primary job is to push the Baldrige model, thousands of dollars a year for Baldrige materials, thousands of dollars for Baldrige Consultants, thousands of dollars for Baldrige training, and thousands of dollars for travel to Baldridge seminars. This is all money that could have been used to provide the resources needed in the classrooms and to keep the 70 Teacher Assistants from being fired this summer because there is no money left in the school budget to pay them.

The editorial also mentions the improvements in SAT scores and graduation rates but does not mention that those improvements are due to the dedication of the teachers and teacher assistants and that those improvements were attained in spite of the Baldrige model and not because of it. The editorial does not mention the amount of stress that all the assessments and data collection has put on the teachers and students. The editorial does not mention the number of excellent teachers who have left I-SS and have gone to other school systems where the value of the teachers is appreciated and where teachers are freely allowed to use their skills for the benefit of the students.

I say that Dr. Holliday's application for the Kentucky position is just another example of his self promotion and that I am proud to be one of Dr. Holliday's vocal detractors.

I wanted to add that saying that the Baldrige award is an national award gives it way more credit than it deserves. It is true that the Baldrige is a national award in that any school system in the country can apply for the award. But in reality only 11 school systems applied for the award. That means that I-SS was selected the best of those 11 applicants. There are thousands of school systems in the US. If the Baldrige model is such a great educational method, as Dr. Holliday advocates, then why are there so few school systems using it? There are thousands of school systems achieving great successes without the burden and cost of adopting the Baldrige model. I am sure that, with the right leadership, I-SS could do the same.

In a previous post I mentioned two videos of Dr. Holliday presenting at the 2009 Quest for Excellence conference. It was suggested in one of the comments that I include the videos in this blog so you don't have to go to another blog to see them. So, I have included them here for your amusement. Just don't wake the babies with your laughter.

In the first video, Dr. Holliday's responses are located at about 2:33, 8:11, 12:19, 15:17 and 23:37 into the video.

Our Job Is Not Over

Just because Dr. Holliday is one of the finalists for a position in Kentucky does not mean we can let our guard down. He might not get the position and if he does, we will have to make sure that the School Board sets up a very public process for finding a new superintendent. One that truly involves all the citizens of Iredell County. Then we will have to start working on changing the membership of the Board. The current Board has allowed Dr. Holliday to rule without any checks or balances.

In a previous post, I suggested that we find some way of identifying the members of our group. In one of the comments someone suggested that we wear red, white, and blue since these are the colors of our flag, and since our mission is to work for freedom for our teachers and children. That sounds like a good idea to me. So, if there are no objections, lets wear the colors. You can wear an armband, a shirt, a scarf, or whatever. Just show some red, white and blue.

Happy 4th of July!

Holliday, Going, Going, Almost Gone?

According to an article in today's Record & Landmark, Dr. Holliday is one of four finalists being considered by the Kentucky Board of Education to be the state's next commissioner of education. Click on the link below to read the on-line version of the article as well as some excellent comments.

I-SS superintendent in running for Kentucky job

Thanks to the person who mentioned the article in a comment to a previous post on this blog. We can only hope that Dr. Holliday gets the position. I just feel sorry for the citizens of Kentucky, especially since I am a native of Kentucky and have many relatives who live there. If you want additional information about the candidates for the Kentucky position you can check out the Kentucky School News and Commentary blog at the link below.

http://theprincipal.blogspot.com/

The blog also has links to two YouTube videos of Dr. Holliday speaking at the 2009 Quest for Excellence conference. In one of the videos Dr. Holliday mentions that one of the pivotal moments for the change in the I-SS leadership team occurred when he hired Brenda Clark. Dr. Holliday then goes on to say that he was able to save a couple hundred thousand dollars by changing her from a highly paid consultant to a poorly paid school district official. Of course, Dr. Holliday doesn't mention that Ms. Clark has a four-year contract starting at $129,900.00 per year. I guess that if your making over $200,000.00, then $129,900.00 may not seem like much. Try comparing that to what teachers and teacher assistants get paid. No wonder Dr. Holliday treats teachers and teacher assistants as if they are a dime a dozen.

Finally, how many times has Dr. Holliday mentioned that he really liked I-SS and that he has had offers for other positions but that he turned them down because he wanted to stay at I-SS until he retired in 2011. Now we learn that he has been actively seeking at least one other position. Don't get me wrong, I am glad that Dr. Holliday is wanting to move on. I hope he does, and that it happens very quickly. But, I think that it verifies what many have been saying for some time now. You can not trust what he says because he will tell you one thing and turn around and tell someone else something completely different. We need a superintendent who can be trusted to truly look after the needs of the students rather than bolstering his or her own ego.

Want to Help?

A number of people have asked how they could help bring some sensibility and fiscal responsibility back to the administration of the Iredell-Statesville Schools. I will list some here, if you can think of others please leave a comment and share your ideas.

• Spread the word. Tell your friends, relatives, and neighbors about our efforts.
• Tell every teacher and teacher assistant you know that we support their efforts and will do everything possible to improve the quality of the schools.
• Attend the Concerned Citizen's School Advisory Committee meeting on Tuesday, July 7th, from 7:00 p.m. until 8:45 p.m. in Meeting Room A at the Iredell County Library.
• Attend the I-SS Board Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday, July 6th, at 5:00 p.m. at the ADR Education Center on Garfield Street. This is the meeting where most of the actual business of the Board is conducted. Also, this meeting is held in a former classroom, therefore our group would be very noticeable. The public is not allowed to speak at this meeting but our presence will speak for us.
• Attend the regular Board Meeting on Monday, July 13th, at 6:00 p.m. in the meeting room on the second floor of the Iredell County Government Center. And please consider speaking during the public comment segment of the meeting. If you are going to speak make sure that you sign-up before the meeting on the sign-up sheet that is outside the meeting room. You only get three minutes to speak so take some time before the meeting to think of what you want to say. The Board policy is that they do not respond to any comments during the meeting, and I have learned that they do not like to respond at all, but perhaps if we get enough people to comment the Board will feel required to respond.
• Write a letter to the editor of the Statesville Record and Landmark.
• Contact the investigative news team at one of the local TV stations.
• If you have children who attend I-SS, talk to them about their experiences in and out of the classroom. When school starts back up, talk to their teacher and find out what extra work the teachers are being required to do and how that is effecting their classroom teaching.
• Do everything possible to make sure that the I-SS administration is made to act with accountability and complete transparency.
• If you know of something that I-SS is not doing correctly, then consider filing a formal complaint. You can do that on-line using the I-SS web site using the link below, or you can pick up a complaint form at Tuesday's meeting.

Online Complaint Management System

Again, these are just few suggestions and, of course, it needs to be a group effort if we are going to make a difference. So, do consider being an active participant. One last thought, I think we need to have some way of identifying the members of the group when we attend school meetings. Perhaps we could wear an arm band of a particular color. Any suggestions?

Second Appointment to View I-SS Records

After communicating with Mr. Neal Ramee, the I-SS attorney whose office is in Raleigh, I was granted an appointment to view some more I-SS records. The appointment was this past Wednesday (7/1/09). The records were in the conference room and I-SS had an observer in the room with me. Actually there were several observers as each one would stay for about a half an hour and then be relieved by the next person. I guess they wanted me to feel like I was in after-school detention. In reality, it did not bother me and I could see some reasoning for it since I did have access to some original school documents.

I just hope that Dr. Holliday doesn’t chastise me at the next School Board, as he did at the last Board meeting. As I mentioned in a previous post, Dr. Holliday accused me of forcing I-SS to spend $5,000.00 in attorney fees and staff time to respond to my requests for public records. Of course he failed to mention that federal law, state law, and even school policy gives me the right to ask for access to school records. This time he will probably state how much it cost to have school staff observe me while I examined the records.

Again, not all the records I requested were made available. They are still collecting some of the records. Also, I did not have time to look at all the records provided so I have already asked Mr. Ramee for another appointment.

The first documents I looked at were the I-SS Organizational charts. I had asked to see the I-SS Administrative Organizational Charts from 2001 to the present. Mr. Ramee had told me that they would be available but the charts for several school years were missing. There was one from May 2001 but the next one was dated March 2005. I don’t know if the ones from 2002, 2003, and 2004 no longer exist or if someone just did not want me to see them. I was hoping to see how quickly the number of Central Office Administrators increased over the years that Dr. Holliday was superintendent. I have asked Mr. Ramee to have I-SS produce all the charts that I requested.

I spent most of my time looking at the invoices from Jim Shipley and Associates (JSA) dated from August 2003 up to June 2005. In that two-year period, I-SS paid JSA $90,739.97 for Baldrige materials and training. Included in that amount was payment to JSA to have Brenda Clark provide training and consulting for a total of 10 days at $1,800.00 per day and a total of 10 more days at $2,050.00 per day. Also included was payment to JSA to have Marty Moore provide training and consulting for a total of 9 days at $1,800.00 per day. This also meant that I-SS had to pay all the travel expenses for Ms. Clark to make 7 trips to Iredell County and for Ms. Clark to make 2 trips to Iredell County. (Of course, I-SS is now paying Ms. Clark $129,900.00 a year and Ms. Moore $105,000.00 a year as employees.) There was also a registration payment of $495.00 to JSA in April 2004 for five I-SS administrators (Holliday, Lane, Hill, Dorton, and Allred) to attend a Baldrige seminar that was held in Florida. Since the travel expenses were not paid to JSA there was no invoice for the cost to send 5 administrators to Florida for the seminar. Even at 2004 prices it was probably no small amount.

While other school systems are spending their funds to make sure students have the supplies and technology needed for learning in the twenty-first century, I-SS spends hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even more, to adapt a twentieth century business model to education.