I-SS Innovation Showcase

Updated Jan. 19, 2010.

I-SS is hosting the First Annual Iredell Statesville Innovation Showcase at the Statesville Civic Center on Tuesday, January 26, 2010 from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. According to the announcement there will be a focus on strategies and simple processes that positively impact student success. There will be booths by teachers and administrators with breakout sessions throughout the day. The event is free and open to the public.

Mathew Fail announced at the Committee of the Whole meeting that there would be some 68 presentations with about 150 presenters. He also said that they were expecting participants from a number of other school districts. Click on the link below to access the announcement.

Innovation Showcase

This is a workday for I-SS. Are teachers being informed of this event? Have they been told that they could spend part or all of the workday attending the Innovation Showcase? No? Why not? Because I-SS does not believe that one-day conferences, workshops, or meetings are beneficial to teachers.

The following statement is taken directly from the I-SS web site. It is located in the Professional Development section under the Continuous Improvement tab.

We believe that professional learning improves the knowledge and skills of our faculty and staff, and can lead to changes in classroom practice and increased student learning. Professional development that is not on-going or collaborative (aka One-Shot Workshop) rarely translates into classroom application or student impact. Research shows that the most effective professional development combines meaningful job-embedded practice with support from instructors through on-going feedback and coaching.

I-SS says that one day workshops do not translate into classroom application or student impact. Yet, at the same time I-SS is spending taxpayer’s money to organize and present such a workshop. Where is the reasoning in that?

I have received the following information from Jessica Mellen, I-SS Graduate Fellow.

The event will be held at the Statesville Civic Center on January 26, from 8:45-4:10 (and closed from 12-12:50 so that presenters may have a brief lunch break). This event is similar in style to a science fair, in that the majority of presentations are on display boards (some complemented with technology) in a large exhibit hall. There will also be concurrent seminar-style presentations which will delve deeper into some widely applicable strategies. Each of the seminar-style presentations will be held 4 times throughout the day--twice in the morning, and twice in the afternoon.

The presenters are all I-SS staff who have volunteered to be a part of this event. The requirement for entry was simply that presentations should demonstrate strategies that are having a positive impact on student learning! At this point there are over 70 presentations scheduled (including the seminar-style sessions), and 150 presenters and volunteers from the I-SS staff.

The goal of this event is to both share knowledge across the district, and to celebrate successes that students, teachers and staff are having in their classrooms and buildings. The project team has been working closely with principals to make sure that all I-SS staff has the opportunity to attend the event, as they are the intended target audience.

There will be a Welcome Table, from which any further questions can be answered and information will be provided on the day of the event.

I do think that this type of event can be valuable to teachers. It is always good to see various instructional methods that are beneficial to students. I only wish that I-SS administrators would acknowledge the fact that I-SS teachers could learn from similar events that are sponsored by other school systems and by professional organizations.

I also received the following Showcase information and schedules from Ms. Mellen.

The following schedules are color coded to match a shift schedule for the schools. In efforts to make this event as accessible as possible for all I-SS staff to attend, schools have been approved and encouraged to bring their staffs to the event on school buses.

All visitors are welcome to attend whenever best suits their schedules: please do not feel obligated to follow the shift schedule. You are welcome to arrive and depart (if you plan to do so) at any point during the day that the Showcase is open. Visitors are also welcome to participate in the raffle, which will be drawn at the end of each of the four shifts noted in the schedule. We will also be soliciting feedback about the event via comment cards throughout the day.

Click on each schedule to enlarge it.

Renewed Vision Meeting

Materials related to last night’s meeting are now available on the I-SS web site. You can find information for each of the system’s key processes as well as issue bins for each. The reports of the principal and teacher surveys as well as the reports of the various advisory meetings are also available. The video of the meeting is not yet available. I want to thank Mr. Johnson for making sure this information was available in a timely manner. You can access the information by clicking on the link below.

Renewed Vision Information

There was a lot of information shared at the meeting but it seemed to be mostly this is what we are doing and don’t you think it’s wonderful. There was some talk of a few changes being made but the bulk of the information was simply a reiteration of the processes that have been in place for some time. Yes, it was mentioned that there would be more flexibility in some of the processes, and yes it was mentioned that changes were made based on input from teachers and others. However those changes were minor changes compared to the feedback given in the principal and teacher surveys as well as in the reports of the various advisory meetings.

There were several initiatives that the principals and teachers said needed major tweaking that did not seem to receive any tweaking. Or, if they were tweaked, they were minor tweaks. Was this a true response to the feedback received from the various groups? I don’t think so. Was it an effort to encourage everyone to be content with the way things are? I think so.

What do you think? Remember, all comments are welcome. Some comments about the meeting have already been given after the previous post.

Meeting with Brady Johnson and Pam Schiffman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I-SS Committee of the Whole Meeting

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

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

Agenda

Report of the Meeting with Mr. Johnson

The meeting with Mr. Brady Johnson went very well. It was well attended both by teachers and citizens. Mr. John Rogers, School Board Member, and Mr. Larry Rogers, SHS Principal, were also in attendance.

The meeting started with Mr. Johnson telling everyone a little bit about his background in education as a teacher and as an administrator. He then went on to tell about the start of school and his goals as interim superintendent. As part of that he related some of the achievements of the school system such as the ABC scores, the schools that met AYP, and SAT scores. Mr. Johnson also told how the I-SS scores related to other schools in the state. Overall, I-SS is doing well. For example, with respect to the SAT scores, I-SS ranks 12^th in the state.

Mr. Johnson also talked of the principal’s focus group that was held last spring and that the three main issues brought forth from that session were inconsistent communications within the school system, the IFs were not evaluated by the principals, and that the Central Office did not value the input of the principals. To address those and other issues, Mr. Johnson said he asked the principals to meet and evaluate a number of school processes. He said that one of the processes that principals recommended fixing was the role of the IFs. Mr. Johnson then related some of the changes he put in place to do that such as having the IFs report to the principals and that the IFs will now be away from their schools only a half-day a week for ‘training’ instead of one full day a week.

Of course, Mr. Johnson also spoke of the Baldrige plan and that he saw the Baldrige system as one that aligns everyone in an organization so that everyone is working together toward a common goal. He also added that in the past the application of the Baldrige plan has been somewhat heavy handed at that there were plans in place to take some of the pressure off teachers. Speaking of teachers, Mr. Johnson said that he sees teachers as partners and that every other employee at a school should be working to support the teachers.

In addition, Mr. Johnson described the tentative plans for the search for the new superintendent. He said the process would start Tuesday at the I-SS Committee of the Whole Meeting when a representative of the NC School Boards Association will inform the I-SS Board of their obligations regarding the search procedure. Mr. Johnson added that there would be advisory meetings held at each High School during which the public will have input as to what qualities to look for in the new superintendent. There will also be student advisory meetings and staff advisory meetings. Mr. Johnson also said that there would probably be some type of electronic survey. He said that he expected that applications would have to be in by December or January and that interviews would probably start in February with the final selection to be in March or April.

Following this was the question and answer period. There were a number of good questions and, although I am sure that not everyone was completely satisfied with all the answers, I do think it would be fair to say that Mr. Johnson took the time to sincerely answer each question. Someone asked why the principals were surveyed but the teachers were not. Mr. Johnson stated that he expected the principals to know their teachers and thus to speak for them. There were questions and comments about Baldrige and the role of the IFs. Mr. Johnson again said that changes were being made and that he met with the principals and the IFs together and that he would be meeting with just the IFs to clarify his perspective of their role in the schools. I asked how he was making it known that he saw teachers as partners and that other school employees were working for the teachers. Mr. Johnson said that he had visited some 14 schools and that he was trying to get to the others soon and that he was trying to meet with many individuals at each school. He said that he would like to meet with everyone at their staff meetings but that staff meetings were on Tuesdays and that it would take over 30 weeks to get to every school. Someone then suggested that if he did go to staff meetings that he should take time to meet with just the teachers so that they could speak freely.

There were questions and comments about the EC program and IEPs. As well there were some questions and comments about the continued fear of teachers to speak out. There were also some questions of Mr. John Rogers who at one point commented that in the past the Board would instruct Dr. Holliday to do certain things and that he would often turn around and do something else. That, of course, led to some other questions and comments.

In conclusion everyone seemed to be very appreciative of Mr. Johnson for taking the time to meet with the group and several individuals spoke highly of their interactions with Mr. Johnson in the past. I know that this is not a complete description of the meeting. I did not take copious notes but I did try to cover a lot of what was said. Perhaps others who were at the meeting could leave a comment and fill in the gaps in my narrative or correct me if I did not relate things correctly. I know that Janey Munday gave her impression of the meeting in a comment to a previous post.

Mr. Johnson's Message

The principal at Lakeshore Middle School forwarded the following e-mail to his staff today.

In case you have not had the opportunity to review the cabinet notes I distributed yesterday, I want to ensure that you are aware of the upcoming meeting of the Concerned Citizens Group. I have been invited to speak to this group on Thursday, September 3, at 7:00 p.m. in the media center at Statesville High School.

It has come to my attention that some staff members report that they would like to attend, but are afraid that the district would look unfavorably on this. I have been told that some staff feel as though the administration is against them.

While I do not want to give the impression that I am recruiting members for this, or any other community group, I likewise do not want anyone to get the impression that I am against them or that I would retaliate against citizens for expressing their viewpoints.

Please let your staff know that in our school system, all staff members are free to exercise their right of affiliation and openly express their freedom of speech without fear of reprisal.

Thanks,

Brady Johnson

Interim Superintendent

Iredell-Statesville Schools

I hope that the principals at other I-SS schools are also forwarding the e-mail to their staff as well.

Thursday Meeting Reminder

I want to remind everyone of the meeting with Mr. Brady Johnson that is scheduled for this Thursday at 7:00 PM in the media center at Statesville High School.

I sent an e-mail to Mr. Johnson stating that many teachers are still fearful of speaking out and asking him to notify all I-SS employees of the meeting and to reassure them that they can speak freely and without the fear of any repercussion. Mr. Johnson replied saying "I certainly will. I have always said there are basically 2 ways to motivate people...one is fear and the other is to show them that you respect them. This is true for students as well. I have never used fear as a management tool and never will."

Therefore, this will be a time when everyone, including teachers, can come together for the benefit of the students. As Mr. Rogers, School Board member, said in a response to a previous post, "We just have to look at each other eye ball to eye ball and deal with all the issues with the realization that WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER."

Also remember that everyone is asked to bring some school supplies to donate for use in the classrooms.

Public Meeting With Mr. Johnson

The Concerned Citizens Group is sponsoring a meeting with Mr. Brady Johnson, I-SS Interim Superintendent. The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 3^rd at 7:00 p.m. The meeting will be held in the media center at Statesville High School. You may park in front of the building or on side of the building facing the football stadium. Please enter through the doors on the front of the building.

This meeting is open to anyone who is interested in the operation of the Iredell-Statesville Schools. At the beginning of the meeting Mr. Johnson will inform everyone how the start of the school year is progressing as well as relate his goals and impressions as interim superintendent. That will be followed by a question and answer period. So, if you have questions about continuous testing, the implementation of the Baldrige plan, the school budget, disciplinary policies, or other school issues that need to be addressed, you will now have a chance to ask Mr. Johnson to respond to your question. Again, everyone is invited to attend the meeting and participate in the process of improving our school system. This meeting is for students, parents, grandparents, teachers, teacher assistants, and other I-SS employees. Let’s all come together for the sake of the students.

Everyone attending the meeting is asked to bring some school supplies to donate to be used in the classrooms. Of course, teachers attending the meeting should not feel obligated to bring school supplies since most teachers already provide supplies for their own classrooms. Teachers attending the meeting will get first pick of the donated school supplies.

School Board Meeting

The regular Board of Education meeting will be held on Monday, August 10^th, at 6:00 p.m. in the Iredell County Government Center on Center Street. Click on the link below to access the agenda for the meeting.

Board Agenda & Minutes

Although there have been a number of positive steps taken since Dr. Holliday resigned, we must continue to be vigilant. We must make sure that the focus of the school system remains on the students and that the teachers are given the tools and the proper support needed to ensure the success of all students. Also, the Board will soon begin the process of selecting a new superintendent. The citizens of Iredell County need to send a clear message to the entire Board that it is essential that all stakeholders be allowed to fully participate in the selection of the new superintendent. Therefore, I am asking everyone to attend the Board meeting on Monday. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. It does not matter if you agree with me or not, now is the time to come together for the sake of our children and grandchildren.

Thank You Mr. Johnson

In my previous post I wrote about my conversation with Mr. Johnson. I thanked Mr. Johnson for meeting with me but I forgot to include a word of thanks in my post. As I mentioned in my previous post, Mr. Johnson invited me to meet with him. He did so soon after being named interim superintendent. He had asked me to wait until he officially took over the reins of the school system before I posted anything about the scheduled meeting. Mr. Johnson did not have to contact me and ask me to meet with him. He did not have to meet with me on his first official day as interim superintendent. I am sure he already had a full schedule. Mr. Johnson did not have to apologize to me for the actions of Dr. Holliday. But he did. That shows that Mr. Johnson is not only a true professional but also a true gentleman. I wish Mr. Johnson the best as he endeavors to guide the school system. Thank you, Mr. Johnson for meeting with me but especially for agreeing to take on the responsibilities of interim superintendent.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

Meeting Report

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This post was written by Larry Coover.

Thursday Meeting

We had a good meeting Thursday evening with everyone sharing his or her ideas. Of course one of the topics of discussion was the adaptation of the Baldrige method within the school system. Some of the other topics discussed were the lack of administrative support for the teachers, the quality of education received by the students, school expenditures, central office administration, school policies being disregarded by the School Board and the administration, and the apparent administrative disregard of the concerns of parents and grandparents.

Unfortunately only about a dozen people attended the meeting in addition to the four who organized the meeting. Therefore, one of the immediate goals that we talked about was to increase the membership of the group. Of course, if we don't have a strong group we will not be able to get much accomplished. Hopefully, if you were not able to be at this meeting you will be able to attend Tuesday's meeting. The other initial goals that we developed are to support the teachers, to continue to investigate I-SS finances, to continue to examine school policies, and to consider initiating proposals for new I-SS as allowed for under current school policy.

Again, everyone is encouraged to attend Tuesday's meeting at 7:45 p.m. in Meeting Room A at the Iredell County Library.

Citizen's School Advisory Committee

Meeting Reminder and Update

Primary Meeting:

Thursday, June 18th Meeting

7:00 p.m - 8:45 p.m.

Iredell County Library

Meeting Room B

Please tell your family and friends.

I have also reserved Meeting Room A from 7:45 p.m. - 8:45 p.m. in case of a large turnout. Meeting Rooms A and B can be used together to make one large room. Unfortunately Room A was not available at 7:00 p.m., but please be there at 7:00 p.m. Hopefully, everyone will be able to get into Room B, but it would be nice to have an overflow crowd.

Secondary Meeting:

Tuesday, June 23rd Meeting

7:45 p.m. - 8:45 p.m.

Iredell County Library

Meeting Room A

This meeting is primarily for those who cannot attend the Thursday meeting. It might also be used for additional discussions and for people to turn in forms that will be passed out on Thursday.