I haven't commented much on Lake County School District management issues recently, figuring nothing would change until Supt. Anna Cowin leaves office in November.
However, I went to the Lake County School District Board meeting Tuesday night and it was a "hoot". I even stayed until it ended about midnight, because I have left early before and missed some squabble that was then reported in the papers. But, at 11pm, Supt. Anna Cowin rattled her keys, packed her laptop, and left without any reason, which frosted the Board. Several things happened before and after she left:
- The Board spent 60+ minutes on Cowin's reassignment of some 40 school administrators, including many Assistant Principles, while parents and teachers filled the public comments barrage with comments about problems caused by all the re-assignments. However, it was clear to me in the first 10 minutes that all the talk was a waste because the Board Attorney said Cowin had the legal right to do what she did, and it would be very hard for the Board to modify her actions. They are going to follow up on the issue today, Thursday, in a special workshop. One Board member, Jimmy Conner, probably had the right philosophy, which is that they would have to grin and bear it, and wait until Cowin leaves in November, to reverse the reassignments.
- During the meeting, while audience members were giving their three minute public comments about her staffing assignments, Cowin setup her laptop to obstruct them seeing her, and another respected observer said she was laughing at some of the public comments.
- The auditor presented the second TAP report, which is the basis for the article below, where the auditor, Steve Wolkimir, figures that $485,000 is due back to the District, but I will have to read the report to understand the details.
- At one point, after Cowin left, there was some discussion of offering a buyout provision to Cowin, but apparently that can't be done for elected officials. Only the governor can remove her from office.
- The external auditor, RSM McGladrey, presented the first of five school construction close out audits after Cowin left, and indicated that the contractor (I assume) needs to repay the District several hundred thousand dollars. I don't have that report yet, but will comment on it later. From what I have been told, this was clearly the fault of the one contractor, and not necessarily due to any District weaknesses. (Note: Word is that other contractors have been pretty good.)
Boy, will everyone be happy when Cowin leaves office in November. The next night, the local Republican Executive Committee had their meeting, and all official members are supposed to attend, or have an excuse. Cowin called in sick.
(Note: Below the first article, I have added an email sent out by Board member Cindy Barrow, that also discusses some of the issues).
vj
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from THIS source at OrlandoSentinel.com
$485,000 gone; Lake County School Board blames Cowin
Tanya Caldwell | Sentinel Staff Writer
June 24, 2008
TAVARES - A newly released report by the Lake County School Board's auditor faults Superintendent Anna Cowin for using about $485,000 in district dollars to advance a now-defunct teaching program.
Cowin and a nondistrict employee tapped by the superintendent to oversee the program from Tallahassee are "financially culpable" for what went wrong with the Teacher Advancement Program, School Board auditor Steve Wolkomir said.
District officials are now seeking to get the money back from the group that oversees TAP.
TAP aimed to improve and retain teachers through training and bonuses. The program was to be funded in part by a federal grant. But Cowin used about $485,000 of district money to advance the program this year beyond the one school initially covered by the federal grant, Gray Middle in Groveland.
Had Cowin waited until next year to add to TAP -- which was supposed to be the plan -- the federal grant would have helped pay the cost.
School Board members accused Cowin of expanding the program behind their backs and voted to end the program in March, saying it was mishandled and too expensive.
They also called on Wolkomir -- who reports to the School Board but not Cowin -- to look into the program. Wolkomir released his findings at a special board meeting last week.
School Board member Cindy Barrow, who raised initial questions about the program, was incensed.
"When I read it [the auditor's report], it made my blood boil," Barrow said. "I did not sleep after I read it."
Cowin -- who was not at the meeting and did not immediately return requests for comment -- previously has denied any wrongdoing.
Tanya Caldwell can be reached at [email protected] or 352-742-5928.
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Memo from Lake County School District Board member Cindy Barrow who spends a lot of time on these issues. She probably spends more time on District issues than the Superintendant:
vj
This message was distributed Tuesday, June 24, 2008 from Cindy Barrow, Lake County School Board Member, District 3. This is NOT an official message from the Lake County School Board. This message contains my thoughts and opinions.
Dear Citizens:
Yesterday was an extremely long day for School Board Members, Administrators, and members of the public who followed our meetings. The School Board workshop meeting began with a review of our Consolidated Federal Grants application (in simple terms most of the grants flow from the Federal Government to the state government for the NO Child Left Behind Act). The board began this review last week. We have learned that the Title Services Department has doubled it's staffing levels since 2006! Our school board has not seen a staffing plan or voted on a staffing plan since 2006 (prior to me taking office in Nov. 2006). The board has asked over and over that the administration bring a staffing plan to the board for vote. This has NOT happened. If I were a citizen reading this letter, I would be asking how could the board not receive a staffing plan every year??? I can only speculate on the motivation but will tell you that board members can not remain informed about positions that come before us in a "piecemeal" fashion. My personal stance has been NOT been to approve increases in salaries or new positions brought to the board on a case by case basis. The board can NOT make good decisions when we do not have the whole picture presented to us.
Never the less, we are charged with moving forward. During the workshop board members asked about all of the vehicles assigned to Title Services Department (2 vans, 1 bus, and 1 sedan). We asked about the number of consultants hired by the department and the complaints made by our Principals that the Title Programs are severing fewer students while the administration within the department is growing.
I developed an emergency item to have our internal auditor perform a limited scope review of the Title Services Programs. This request will be heard on Thursday morning, June 26 at our Special School Board Meeting. Yesterday, the board instructed the Title Services Director to bring the staffing levels back to the 2006 level and to serve more children. The board emphatically stated the dollars in the grant need to go directly to the children within the rules of the federal mandates of No Child Left Behind.
At our Regular School Board Meeting, we were greeted at the doors by a rally held and sponsored by our teachers. VOICE members joined the rally to protest the School Based Administrative appointments made by the Superintendent (specifically, Assistant Principal appointments and in some cases no appointment made at all). Parents, School Advisory Committee Members, teachers, and citizens in general addressed the disruptive and capricious moves proposed by the Superintendent. During public input, the Superintendent pulled out her computer, set it up so that the screen blocked her view of the podium and would not give the courtesy of any eye contact with the public. After taking over an hour of public input, the board began a very confusing debate over how to handle several different appointments.
The School Board Attorney briefed the board on what constitutes our legal authority to object to the Superintendent's proposed appointments. In brief, the person being appointed must have either committed a crime, be shown to be incapable of performing the duties assigned, or be shown to have moral problems such as public drunkenness, lewd behavior, etcetera. Although I made the argument that the moves were disruptive to the stability of the school's planning environment, the safety of the school, the students, the parent, and the community, the legal definition of "Good Cause" still stands. The argument that the board could not have made a thoughtful decision or performed due diligence in making a decision on the appointments last night because of the manner in which the appointments were presented to the board included the following points: 1. Appointments were sent electronically to board members at 6:00 pm on Friday night, June 20 after the close of business 2. An appointment was left out and the list was inaccurate per the Superintendent on Monday (yesterday, June 23) 3. An addendum was distributed by the Superintendent just before the board meeting with requests for positions over and above the board approved allocation formula. 4. The manner in which the material was presented did not give the board members information about promotions, demotions, or fiscal hardships caused as a result of increased travel time to new schools.
The board did act on upon Principal appointments last night and the entire list was approved. East Ridge High School was left without an identified Principal and with two Assistant Principal changes being proposed. I made a motion to fill the Principal appointment with the current Principal, Mrs. Aurelia Cole. The board asked that this decision be delayed until Thursday's meeting so that our attorney could ensure that any decision we made would not negatively affect Mrs. Cole's retirement as she will enter the "drop-program" and must be out of her job for 30 days before she can come back (this is over the summer). This item was tabled until June 26.
The board did act on NOT appointing an Assistant Principal to Eustis High School for "good cause" as this person had been removed from Beverly Shores Elementary School last school year. It was reported that he could not control the school's environment, causing children to be placed in danger, teachers to be hurt by students, and the need for the School Advisory Committee to take their case to a school board meeting last spring. The SAC Committee pleaded with the board and the Superintendent to remove the Principal at that time. Our Assistant Superintendent of School Safety and Administration was assigned to the school and order was immediately restored. Unfortunately, this school lost 22 teachers during the year that the Principal was assigned to the school.
Regarding the Assistant Principal I and Assistant Principal II positions, the board tabled these decisions until Thursday morning at 9:00 am. Several arguments were made by the board concerning the disruption to the schools and the defiance of all logic and common sense in regard to several of the changes proposed. The board is now put into the position of having to try and decide what we know is poor choices by the Superintendent and disruptive to the entire school environment versus our legal bar for objection which is the "good cause" reason described above.
*****REGARDING THE TAP PROGRAM**********
Our School Board Auditor presented his second in-depth review of the TAP program to the school board last week in a workshop setting. The board heard evidences of e-mail exchanges between Superintendent Cowin and the NIET representative for the district, Ms. Ruth Hardy leading to the presentation by the auditor that the program was escalated into schools where there was no coverage by the NIET grant and where board members never approved the three new schools or had knowledge that additional positions were put into those schools. In addition, for a full school year (06-07) bonuses for teachers at Gray Middle School where the TAP program was initially put into place, were NOT covered by the NIET grant which board members were also not aware and in which the general fund paid for the bonuses outside of the board's direction or awareness. NIET stands for the National Institute of Excellence in Education and it's parent company is the Milken Family Foundation. The FISCAL IMPACT TO THE DISTRICT FOR THE CIRCUMSTANCES OUTLINED WAS APPROXIMATELY $613,000.00! The Superintendent is identified in the grant as the person responsible for the TAP program in Lake County Schools. In addition to the negative fiscal impact to our general fund, NIET states in their grant that they would be using scientific methods to assess the implementation and outcome of the TAP program in our Lake County Schools. The auditor could find NO evidence that any scientific methods were utilized to assess school data what so ever by NIET. The Superintendent has misrepresented the increase in the school grade at Gray Middle School from a C to A, as being directly attributable to the implementation of the TAP program!
For those of you who live in Lake County, you have heard the claim that TAP improved the FCAT scores of Gray Middle Schoool multiple times and have witnessed press releases by this Superintendent claiming that the TAP program had produced FCAT score increases at this school. In fact the year that FCAT scores increased at Gray Middle School, different students had been redistricted to Gray Middle School and no analysis was performed to control for this factor. We have SUPER teachers at Gray Middle School and this statement is in no way meant to disparage their great efforts on behalf of improving student achievement.
The board discussed the need for accountability for the loss of money and for numerous positions being implemented without board approval. In addition, none of the bonuses paid to teachers were negotiated with the LCEA and are absolutely subject to collective bargaining. This puts our board at risk for being sued by the union; however, as we have outstanding persons in those positions who know that this board did NOT willingly go behind their backs to hide teacher bonuses; LCEA has NOT threatened to sue the school board as the TAP program was recently discontinued by the school board.
The School Board Attorney briefed the board, stating that one of our options with regard to demonstrating malfeasance or misfeasance charges against the Superintendent is to ask for a special hearing by the Florida State Senate. The board agreed last night to allow the Superintendent to respond in writing to the TAP audits by July 28. At the July 28, 2008, School Board Meeting, the board will most likely decide how to proceed with demonstrating malfeasance or misfeasance on the part of the Superintendent.
Sincerely,
Cindy Barrow, Lake County School Board Member, District 3
