I-SS Vehicles Driven Home

There have been several comments on this blog about I-SS employees being allowed to drive school vehicles back and forth to their homes. I recently requested and received a list of I-SS employees who have been provided vehicles as outlined in the school policy code 7612 Employer Provided Vehicles. The list also included vehicles that were not assigned to a particular individual.

The I-SS vehicle policy reads as follows.

The Iredell-Statesville Board of Education will provide transportation for employees in the normal performance of their duties as determined by the Superintendent or designee. Such transportation shall be provided by assigning vehicles on a permanent or daily basis.

The permanent assignment of vehicles will be limited to those persons whose normal duties as determined by the Superintendent, or his designee, to require the use of a vehicle at other than the normal business hours of the central office or required frequently for emergency situations. The permanent assignment of vehicles requires the employee to commute in the vehicle for valid business reasons. This policy prohibits personal use other than commuting except De Minimis Nontaxable Personal Use as defined by the IRS.

The vehicle list I received included 133 school maintained vehicles. Of those 133 vehicles, 102 are assigned to specific school employees. The list also indicates if an employee is allowed to drive his/her assigned car home. Of the 102 I-SS employees who are assigned a school vehicle, 87 of them are allowed to drive their assigned vehicle home. Of course this means that the school is not only providing a car to be driven home but is also paying for the gas and the maintenance of these cars. As has been pointed out in one of the comments to an earlier post on this blog, a number of these individuals do not live in Iredell County.

I understand that a certain number of school employees will need access to a school vehicle at odd hours of the day. For example, a maintenance employee may have to go to a school building after hours if there is a plumbing or heating/AC problem. But, will that require 35 different maintenance employees? That is the number of maintenance employees allowed to drive school vehicles home. And, how many Drivers ED instructors have to come back to school to give emergency driving lessons to students? There are 15 Drivers ED instructors who are allowed to drive school vehicles home.

I don’t have any information on the number of miles driven by I-SS employees as they go back and forth between school and home each day. But, if most of the 87 employees allowed to do so actually use the vehicles this way each day, that will add up to a lot of miles each year. And it is not just the miles to drive home and back. Is I-SS using these 133 vehicles wisely and is anyone actually accounting for the use of each of these vehicles?

I-SS Vehicle List:

Click on an image to enlarge it.

I-SS Welcome Back Video

Do you want to see the I-SS video welcoming everyone back to school? It is available on the I-SS web site. Click on the following link to view the video.

NEW VIDEO: Welcome Back to School

Note: The video has been removed from this post. I have been asked not to use items from the I-SS web site but rather to place links to the site.

I also hope that all students, teachers, teacher assistants and other I-SS employees have a good school year.

Administrative Raises

In previous posts I told of the announced shift in personnel at the I-SS Central Office. The shifts were triggered as Mr. Johnson assumed the role of Interim Superintendent. Mr. Johnson had informed me that administrators moving into new positions would receive raises corresponding to their new responsibilities. Mr. Johnson has now provided the amounts of those raises. The change in position and salary for each administrator is given below.

Brady Johnson was Deputy Superintendent of Operations and is now Interim Superintendent. His previous salary was $129,900.00 and is now $175,100.00, which is a 34.8% raise.

Ron Hargrave was Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education/Student Services and is now Interim Associate Superintendent of Operations. His previous salary was $118,000.00 and is now $125,000.00, which is a 5.9% raise.

Dale Ellis was Associate Superintendent of Human Resources and is now Interim Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education/Student Services. His previous salary was $110,970.00 and is now $117,000.00, which is a 5.4% raise.

Dr. Melanie Taylor was Chief Academic Officer and is now Interim Associate Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction. Her previous salary was $120,000.00 and is now $125,000.00, which is a 4.2% raise.

Bill Long was Director of Recruitment & Retention and is now Interim Associate Superintendent of Human Resources. His previous salary was $81,900.00 and is now $92,000.00, which is a 12.3% raise.

Mr. Johnson stated that all of these salaries are subject to the 2% reduction/furlough and that each of these individuals will revert back to his or her previous position/salary after the new superintendent is hired.

In my opinion, under normal economic conditions these raises would not be out of line. But, with the drastic cuts in the overall school budget, these raises do seem to be unwarranted. It was recently reported in the Statesville Record & Landmark that there would be a 5.8% reduction in More at Four Funding; the elimination of funding for literacy coaches, staff development, and improving student accountability; a 13.1% cut in funding for teacher mentoring; and an estimated $420,000 cut in transportation spending. Many students who previously were able to ride a school bus are now required to walk to school. Yet these administrators were given raises. As I mentioned before, the justification given is that these individuals will be taking on new responsibilities.

The Record & Landmark also reported that the cap on class size for 4^th through 12^th grades will increase to 31 students. Each of the teachers in these grades will have to take on new responsibilities for each additional student. Are these teachers going to be given raises because they have to take on these new responsibilities? No! Are other school employees going to be given raises because they have to take on new responsibilities due to cuts in the budget? No! This was emphasized in the Record & Landmark article. It was reported that there would be no salary increases. I guess no one bothered to inform Ms. Broadnax, R & L reporter, of the raises for the administrators mentioned above. Why is it that the School Board sees no disparity in giving raises to administrators who take on additional duties but continues to ask other employees to do more and more for the same pay?

Click on the link below to view the online version of the article in the Record and Landmark that was referenced in this post.

Budget for I-SS coming into focus

Meeting with Mr. Brady Johnson

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had the opportunity to meet with Brady Johnson. We met for about 2 hours on Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Johnson had contacted me a number of days ago and asked me to meet with him on his first official day as interim superintendent. I must say that it felt good to go from being shunned at the Central Office to being invited back. One of the first things Mr. Johnson did during the meeting was to give me a heartfelt apology for the incident when Dr. Holliday told me to leave the Central Office. Mr. Johnson said that, although he was not at the Central Office that day, the office staff told him that I had been cooperative and polite. He said that things could have been handled in a much better way. Mr. Johnson said that in the future I will have the full cooperation of the I-SS staff and that there will be a greater focus on customer service. He also told me that I no longer have to go through the attorney in Raleigh if I want to request access to school records. He said that, other than confidential information, all records will be available for inspection and that anyone wanting access to school records should make that request to Dawn Creason, I-SS Director of Public Relations.

I asked Mr. Johnson if there would be significant changes under his leadership. He made the analogy that the school system is like a sailing ship with the captain stepping away from the helm and he has been asked to take the helm for a while. Mr. Johnson said that he is not going to change the course of the ship but he is going to trim the sails a bit to make sure things go properly. For example, he said that he sees the principals as the CEOs of the schools and that he is not going to micromanage them but he does want to give them the tools they need to do their jobs. He said that he had met with the principals, assistant principals, the Instructional Facilitators and some of the Central Office staff in the morning and that one of things he talked about was the situation with the Ifs. Mr. Johnson said that at some schools the Ifs are doing a great job but at other schools they are not. He said that the situation needed to be fixed. He also said that the principals were meeting Wednesday afternoon and that they were given a list of initiatives that were currently being used in the school system and they were to take each one and tag it as something to keep, fix, or abandon. Classroom walk-throughs and Baldrige wallpapering were on the list.

Speaking of the Baldrige initiative, I did ask him if that was going to continue. Mr. Johnson said that it would continue but not in such a heavy handed way. He said that since I-SS did win the Baldrige Award they could now take different approach. Mr. Johnson said he wanted to reduce the stress levels and that he wanted I-SS employees enjoy showing up for work each morning. He also said that he agrees with the philosophy that you should work smarter and not harder. He said that much would depend on the results of the afternoon principal’s meeting. Mr. Johnson also spoke more of the role of the Ifs. He said that the IF should be a master teacher and not a dictator. He said that IFs should be working with teachers rather than talking down to them. In addition, Mr. Johnson also said that the IFs should be reporting to the principals and that the principals will be evaluating the Ifs instead of the Ifs evaluating the principals. He reiterated that he wants the principals to be in charge.

Mr. Johnson did emphasize that all of this was to ensure student achievement. He said that he wants every classroom to be high functioning. One, where any parent would want his or her child. We talked a little bit about the ranking of the school system and he said that everyone is comparing schools these days and that the ranking based on various tests will continue. I then asked Mr. Johnson about Dr. Holliday’s formula and he said that Dr. Holliday may have devised his own formula but again said that some ranking will continue. (Mr. Johnson later sent me an e-mail saying that he spoke to Pam Schiffman and explained to her that I was interested in the I-SS process for ranking in the top ten. He went on to say that Ms. Schiffman designed this process and that she is more than willing to sit down with us and explain the formulas.) As part of all of this, I asked Mr. Johnson about all of the testing and especially about the testing during the first week of school. He said that he felt that it was important in order to determine the abilities and knowledge of each student since the teacher is expected to tailor the lessons to each student.

We talked about the search for the new superintendent and Mr. Johnson said that it could possibly take as little as three months and that it did need to be completed within a year. He said that he plans to retire June 30^th and that he is not interested in the superintendent’s position. He said that it was his understanding that the Board would consider candidates both from within the system and from outside the system and that there would input from teachers, other employees, and citizens. Mr. John Rogers, who joined the meeting about an hour after it started, confirmed this.

I asked Mr. Johnson about employee morale and he said that he knew that it was not what it should be. He said that he wanted students and teachers to go home knowing it was a good day. Mr. Johnson also said that he wanted to restore the trust factor and that he wanted all employees to be treated professionally. He said that he wanted teachers and all employees to know that they could speak out without fear of retribution. He did say that he does believe in the chain of command and that parents should talk with their child’s teacher before going to the principal and that teachers should go to their principal before going to him, but that in the end the buck stops with him.

Mr. Johnson did ask me to let all of the readers of this blog that he is very willing to meet with anyone who has a concern about the school system. He said he may not have the answer to each question and that if needed he would work hard to find someone who does have the answer. I asked Mr. Johnson if he would be willing to meet with the citizen’s group and he not only said yes, he said we could meet at a school facility. As I mentioned before, Mr. Rogers was also at the meeting and he said that he felt that the Board would also be willing to meet with the citizen’s group. In addition, Mr. Rogers said that the Board has to do a better job of answering citizen’s questions.

Here are a few odds and ends. Mr. Johnson also told me the following. As a winner of the Baldrige Award, I-SS does have some obligations to fulfill such as going to receive the award and making some presentations at conferences, but the expenses for those will be paid with money the system received because they won the award. I-SS should not have to order any more materials or services from Jim Shipley and Associates. Mrs. Holliday is continuing to work for the system in the same capacity but that when the house is sold and all matters here are finalized she will be moving to Kentucky.

In conclusion, this was a very good meeting. I do think that Mr. Johnson intends to make sure that the true focus is on the students and that he is very willing to listen to all sides and factions. And I did get the impression that, although there might not be as many changes within the school system as some were hoping, there will be a number of positive changes.

Now let me add this. It is very late as I write this and I majored in Physics not English so please excuse my writing style and any grammatical mistakes.

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.

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.

My e-mail to the Board Members

I-SS Board Members

I know that the task ahead of you to find an interim superintendent and a permanent superintendent will not be an easy one. I am asking that you approach this as you have with other tasks, and that is with the best interest of the students in mind. In addition, I am asking you to make this process as open as possible. Students, parents, I-SS employees, 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.

All I-SS students and employees have to be given the opportunities and the support needed to achieve true success. This can only be done in an atmosphere of encouragement, transparency and accountability. We must find a superintendent who not only brings a different approach to education but who is also open to the suggestions of others.

The Baldrige approach has brought some success to the school system but it also had a number of disadvantages. First, it forced teachers to instruct all students with the same methodology. Students are not cogs on an assembly line. Teachers have to be free to find an approach that works for the students in their classes. Second, there was no openness to other ideas. Teachers were discouraged from trying different approaches. Teachers were discouraged from going to conferences and meetings in their subject areas. This led to frustration for the teachers and for the students. Lastly, there were thousands of I-SS dollars spent to implement and maintain the Baldrige plan. This money was taken from other programs and initiatives that could have benefitted the students. Thousands of other schools have achieved great successes without using the Baldrige plan and I-SS can do so as well.

Paul E. Klaene