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.

Dr. Holliday's True Legacy

There have been a number of comments about the contracts for some of the I-SS administrators in the Central Office. Although I do not have copies of the contracts for all of the administrators, I did ask for copies for some of them. The information below is from the copies of the contracts that I do have.

Individual	Starting Date	Ending Date	Starting Annual Salary
Brenda Clark	July 1, 2008	June 30, 2012	$124,500.00
Melanie Taylor	July 1, 2008	June 30, 2012	$120,000.00
Mathew Fail	July 1, 2008	June 30, 2012	$87,214.32
Dale Ellis	July 1, 2008	June 30, 2012	$110,970.00
Ron Hargrave	July 1, 2008	June 30, 2012	$118,000.08
Brady Johnson	July 1, 2008	June 30, 2012	$124,500.00
Pamela Schiffman	July 1, 2008	June 30, 2012	$121,758.72
Marty Moore	July 1, 2008	June 30, 2010	$105,000.00
Jed Stus	July 1, 2008	June 30, 2010	$92,000.04
Alicia Tate	Jan. 5, 2009	June 30, 2011	$101,000.04
Denise Holliday	July 1, 2007	June 30, 2009	$60,000.00

Melanie Taylor and Dale Ellis both had previous four-year contracts that were from 2007 to 2011 but were changed at the beginning of last school year to the current ones that go until June of 2012. Of course both these individuals received nice raises in salary to go along with these new contracts. There may have been others who had their contracts extended but I don’t have that information. Now, each of the Central Office administrators will receive a 2% furlough this year, but many of them will still be earning well over a hundred thousand dollars. Also, I wonder how many Central Office employees will have their contracts extended before Dr. Holliday leaves for Kentucky.

Mark Your Calendar

My wife, who is an I-SS teacher, received the following e-mail from Dawn Creason today.

Subject: Reception Honoring Dr. Terry Holliday

The board of education and the administration of Iredell-Statesville Schools will be hosting a drop-in reception honoring Dr. Terry Holliday on Monday, August 3 from 4:00 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. in ADR's staff development room #2. Please join us as we thank Dr. Holliday for his service to I-SS and wish him well as he begins this next chapter of his career. Kindly click either 'accept' or 'decline' above so that we might have an accurate head count.

Dawn Creason is the I-SS Director of Public Relations. I assume that all I-SS employees have been invited to the reception. My wife respectfully declined the invitation. I checked the I-SS web site and saw no mention of the reception so it looks like the general public is not invited.

One interesting note is that the I-SS Committee of the Whole meeting is scheduled to start at 5:00 p.m. on the same evening and Dr. Holliday has said that he will be at that meeting. I wonder what they plan to do about the half-hour overlap. The Committee of the Whole meeting is also in the ADR Education Center.

I do encourage all concerned citizens to attend the Committee of the Whole Meeting. This will probably be the last chance to see Dr. Holliday carry out the duties of superintendent. Then we can all go out and celebrate. But, seriously, I do think that we need a good turn out at this meeting and at the regular Board meeting. Remember that much of the real work of the Board is done at the Committee of the Whole meeting. If we want the Board members to consider our suggestions we have to show them that we are sincere in our convictions.

I-SS Bloat Mimics UNC-CH Bloat

A teacher sent me a link to an article on The News & Observer web site. The article is titled Report finds bloat at UNC: Layers of leaders stifle efficiency. Here is a link to the article.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/higher_education/story/1616489.html

The following are some excerpts from the article.

UNC-Chapel Hill has too many supervisors, bloated administrative costs and a bureaucracy that hamstrings everything from assigning courses to classrooms to purchasing supplies, a consultant has concluded.

Bain & Company, an efficiency expert hired to examine the university's financial processes, will present a 107-page report Thursday suggesting an institution with too many layers.

The report found that the campus, with an annual operating budget of about $2 billion, spends more on administrative costs than it does on academics…

It examines administrative structures and spending practices across the university and proposes dozens of areas where money could be saved.

UNC-CH is 10 layers deep in some areas, meaning that a worker has nine people above him on the organizational ladder. And more than half of campus supervisors oversee three or fewer workers. UNC-CH should eliminate some supervisors and give more control to those who continue in those roles, the report said. Fewer management layers would lead to fewer meetings and less duplication, and could save up to $12 million annually…

The teacher who sent me the link to the article said that the situation at UNC seems very similar to the top-heavy nature of I-SS and I agree. How many excessive meetings were held by Dr. Holliday and his Baldrige cronies and just how much administrative duplication is there at the Central Office? The bloat at the Central Office has been mentioned numerous times in this blog. The citizens of Iredell County might not be able to anything about the bloat at UNC-CH but we can do something about the bloat at I-SS. We might not be able to save millions but we could save thousands of dollars.

Perhaps all this time Dr. Holliday thought of himself as a university chancellor and not as a superintendent. For all his talk about quality, Dr. Holliday certainly never seemed to show any true evidence of being a quality superintendent.

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.

Brady Johnson Named Interim Superintendent

The following is taken from the I-SS web site.

The Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education tonight at a specially called meeting named Brady Johnson the interim superintendent of the school district beginning August 5. Johnson‘s selection comes following Friday’s announcement that current superintendent Dr. Terry Holliday will be leaving the district to become the commissioner of public education for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

“On behalf of the entire board of education, I can say that we are confident that we made the right decision for Iredell-Statesville Schools,” said board chairman Dr. David Cash. “The board’s priority was selecting someone that would continue to move our school district forward as we begin the important job of choosing a permanent replacement for Dr. Holliday. Brady is certainly well-suited to ensure that our schools continue to build on their current levels of success.”

The board of education will begin advertising for Holliday’s position immediately, although no specific deadline has been set for announcing a replacement.

Click on the link below to read the full article.

Johnson Unanimously Selected to Serve as Interim Superintendent

Please Respect The Right Of Others To Disagree

I started this blog because I, and others, felt that certain issues about I-SS needed to be discussed and that there was information that needed to be shared. Even as Dr. Holliday leaves for Kentucky, I believe that the process needs to continue and I plan on being a part of that process. I am glad that this blog has given people on both sides of these issues a chance to speak out. I thank each of you for your comments. I take the time to read and consider all the comments, even the ones from individuals who do not agree with me. It is only with true discourse that we will find a resolution to these issues. I am asking everyone to please respect the right of each person to state his or her opinion. Do continue to leave your comments, but please do so without criticizing those persons with whom you disagree. I will do the same.

Baldrige Award, Bought and Paid For

As I mentioned in a previous post I was at the Central Office last Wednesday (7/15/09) to inspect I-SS records. In addition to the invoices from JSA, I have also asked to inspect any consulting contracts entered into by the system between 2002 and the present. Most of those were basic contracts such as for architectural designs and the like.

However, there was one very interesting contract. There was a contract with Brennan Worldwide in Winston-Salem, NC. In that contract, I-SS agreed to pay Brennan Worldwide a minimum of $36,000.00 to assist with the 2008 Baldrige Application Project. Kay Fulp, I-SS Chief Financial Officer, signed the contract on Oct. 11, 2007. The objective of the contract was stated as follows: provide consulting, facilitation and writing expertise to support the I-SS in development of a 2008 Baldrige application that optimizes the evidence and effectively moves the district toward their goal to achieve a site visit and a value added feedback report.

Note that I said a minimum of $36,000.00 was to be paid to Brennan Worldwide. The contract stated that the fee of $36,000.00 would be for 18 days of consulting services and that any additional days required would be at the rate of $2,000.00 per day. There were no invoices with the contract so there was no way of knowing how many, if any, additional days were required. I plan on asking for those invoices.

Wait, there’s more. On the Brennan Worldwide web site, under the section titled What our clients are saying about us, Dr. Holliday is quoted as saying "The Baldrige application can be a very daunting task. Our organization utilized the Fast Track approach to develop our application. 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." Therefore, not only was Brennan Worldwide hired to help with the 2008 Baldrige Award application, they were also hired to help with the 2007 application. For some reason I-SS did not make that contract available for inspection. I wonder how much was paid that year? I will ask for that information as well.

I-SS has hired all these Baldrige ‘experts’ to work in the Central Office and still they have to hire an outside consultant to prepare the application for this glorious Baldrige Award. Remember I-SS was judged to be the best of the eleven schools that applied for the reward.

Bluegrass Policy Blog

The following remarks about Dr. Holliday are part of a post on the Bluegrass Policy Blog.

Holliday brings some impressive accomplishments to the job, including heading what I am told is the first school system to ever win a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. These awards recognize companies, organizations, businesses and other entities that have shown long-term improvement in quality and productivity.
To earn that award – and many other accolades – Holliday closed achievement gaps and spurred marked improvement in graduation rates (something badly needed in Kentucky!) and other student achievement measures.
I talked about Holliday with a newspaper staffer who serves the Iredell-Statesville school district area in North Carolina about a week ago. About the only complaints against Holliday seem to be from some teachers who claim Holliday made them work harder. This newspaper man will be sorry to see him leave.

Unfortunately the name of the newspaper was not given, but I think I know which one it was. Here is a link to the entire post.

Holliday selected as new Kentucky Commissioner of Education

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Open-Door Policy

Mr. Klaene's post about the "open door policy" echoes one of the main concerns of the general public. The concern is that our school system has a heavy handed administration. The same has been expressed by many teachers when speaking with those that they trust.

I respect Dr. Holliday's opinion, only when combined with the uncensored input of teachers, parents and students. However, in my opinion, the teacher's input is the most valuable tool of all. Our current educational system seems to be focused on numbers founded by statistics and reports. Some of these reports are possibly falsified to support the results that the administration needs to condone its actions. There are numerous individuals currently looking through material in an effort to prove or disprove the allegations and concerns that have surfaced about ISS operations. I don't understand the referral to a high priced attorney (in Raleigh) to obtain documentation unless that documentation would provide information to support allegations of misconduct.

I understand that being constantly questioned about one's credibility is tiring. However, that is part of the job description of a public official. I'm sure it's not easy being School Superintendant, but that is why it pays $170,000 a year plus other benefits. Being open and forthcoming with answers would speed up the process and go a long way in easing the minds of those with concerns. Referring questions to an attorney only feeds the suspicion that things are not as they should be. It also adds an increased financial burden to current budget deficit.

I encourage all those with information to please come forward and I would hope that the ISS administration would assist in resolving the issues that concern the citizens of Iredell County.

This post was written by Larry Coover.

Dr. Holliday's Profile

Do you need a good laugh? Yesterday, I was looking at the profile of Dr. Holliday that is posted on the I-SS web site and I came across something very interesting. Of course it had the usual information such as Dr. Holliday's educational background and a list of all the dubious awards that he has received. Then, the profile ends with the following sentence.

Dr. Holliday believes in 'open-door' leadership, involving all public school stakeholders- parents, teachers, students, and the community- in creating the best possible schools for the children of Iredell County.

Now, as many of you know, my own experience of Dr. Holliday's 'open-door' leadership is that of Dr. Holliday directing me to leave the I-SS Central Office and not to have any contact with the School administration. It seems like the only time that Dr. Holliday wants to have contact with public school stakeholders (parents, teachers, students, and the community) is when they totally agree with him.