Update On The Shifts In Personnel

In my last post, I stated that at the last Board meeting Mr. Johnson announced several shifts in personnel to cover positions as he assumed the role of interim superintendent. I also reported that he mentioned that with these changes and the retirement of Steve Hill, I-SS would be saving about a hundred thousand dollars and redirecting about seventy-five thousand dollars. I e-mailed Mr. Johnson and asked him about these amounts and if any of the Central Office employees would be receiving raises due the shifts in personnel, and if so, how much of a raise each person would receive. In addition, I asked how the raises would relate to the 2% furlough initiated last month. The following is from the response that I received from Mr. Johnson.

The money saved will be used to offset some of the other cuts. I'm not sure where yet, but we will hold onto those funds for a few weeks. I'll will probably use them as part of our central off discretionary reduction to the state which is about $184,000. I have a couple other jobs that we plan to fill with part time people or just not fill this year. (CTE Director and the Director of Recruitment). One of my goals is to rehire the TAs that have been laid off.

The redirection is coming from the FLC Grant, I will not fill the job of the current FLC director who is moving to another county due to her husband taking a new job with a community college. What I plan to do is shift those responsibilities to the Associate Superintendent of Learning. The money saved from her salary will then be put back in the Title II funds which is currently where part of the salary comes from. All the people that were moved into interim positions have been given a salary increase to reflect their new responsibilities during this interim period. When the new superintendent is hired everyone returns to their old job and their old salary. The 2% still comes off the new salary as well for all the people who serve in interim positions.

Brady Johnson

Mr. Johnson did not tell me how much of a salary increase each employee received. I sent a reply to Mr. Johnson and asked him for that information. I will write another post when I get the amount of the raises.

Shifts in Personnel

At the School Board meeting this evening, Mr. Johnson stated that as he moved into the interim superintendent position it was required to make some shifts in personnel to be sure that all positions were covered. Mr. Johnson announced the following changes.

• Ron Hargrave becomes Interim Associate Superintendent of Operations.
• Dale Ellis becomes Inerim Associate Superintendent of Secondary Education.
• Bill Long becomes Interim Executive Director of Human Resources. (Mr. Long's previous position of Director of Recruitment and Retention would not be filled at this time.)
• Dr. Melanie Taylor becomes Interim Associate Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction and she will be running the Learning Division.
• Brenda Clark will be moving to the Race Street office to work with Mr. Johnson and Mr. Hargrave on several projects.
• Mr. Johnson also said that Melissa Bartlett would be leaving in September as her husband has accepted a new position and she would be moving with him to their new home.

Mr. Johnson went on to say that with these changes and the retirement of Steve Hill, I-SS would save about one hundred thousand dollars and redirect about seventy-five thousand dollars. What Mr. Johnson did not say is how this seventy-five thousand dollars was to be redirected. Perhaps some of these individuals received raises as they moved into their new positions. If so, it would probably more than offset the 2% furloughs that were put in place last month. Mr. Johnson did say that when the new superintendent is named, these people would go back to their old positions.

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.