Tavares, FL - Lake County - Thursday, Feb. 6, 2014
Today, the Lake County School District Supt. Dr. Susan Moxley held a press conference on the ongoing Class Size Falsification Fiasco for the press, answered their questions, and then the press interviewed Stuart Klatte, head of the teacher's union regarding the issue.
You can watch our video of today's press conference in two parts, or you can scroll down to background info and links to articles providing background. I won't try to recap all the background - read one of the press reports linked below. Following that is our recommendations on the issue.
Part 1 - Today's press conference with Dr. Susan Moxley
Part 2 - The press interviews Stuart Klatte, head of the teacher's union.
Overview of the Press Conference
- The reporters really seemed frustrated at the lack of action by the Superintendent.
- After many earlier questions, Moxley announced today she will hire an independent investigator to review all the falsification incidents and provide an independent report.
- It became clear that the Superintendent preferred to downplay the actual number of class overages by stating "only 47 FTE or .1 percent of the total FTE was involved "(Full Time equivalent - i.e. one FTE = one full time student in attendance for six periods). However, reporter Erica Rodriguez asked how many actual INCIDENTS of classes exceeding student counts (watch part 1 for explanations) had occured. That is because EACH class with more than allowed students is 1/6 of an FTE for each excess student, thus if one class was actually over state limits by one student, that is 1/6 of an FTE. Thus if you multiply the stated number of 47 by 6, you actually get 282 times (my calculation) of student counts exceeding state allowed limits due to class size limit regulations.
An Overview of the Falsification Fiasco
About two weeks ago, the Lake County School District Superintendent Dr. Susan Moxley read a statement at a Board retreat about an investigation that found 6 or more School Principals (or staff) falsified class size data required on Florida State forms.
The issue was not on the agenda, and FiscalRangers.com sent out a copy of the statement to various parties and press, since NO press were at the retreat meeting except FiscalRangers. You can download the original statement from Jan. 21 here:
Download 2014-01-21 Moxley statement on Class Size manipulation
The press picked up the issue and we were interviewed by Channel 9 TV HERE.
More came out in press reports
- Orlando Sentinel reporter Erica Rodriguez provided added details to original reports and her article is at the bottom of this page.
- Orlando Sentinel columnist Lauren Ritchie wrote a good article HERE with new info on the falsified reports. And, she had another column yesterday on the issue of fireing responsible officials HERE.
- Today, Daily Commercial reporter Livy Stanford wrote an update on the issue HERE. Her story contained statements from three of the five Board members calling for strong actions for those that falsified the data. Then, after today's press conference, Stanford published this update.
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Our Opinion and Recommendations
- It is good that the Superintendent, after two weeks of questions, decided to announce an independent investigation.
- Three of the five board members have issued statements ( Bill Mathias, Tod Howard, Debbie Stivendere) calling for punishment (See linked Daily Commercial article above) for the transgressors, but the other two Board members, Kyleen Fischer & Rosanne Brandeburg, have not made statements. Board member Kyleen Fischer has been on the Board the longest and has not announced a position on this issue (that we have seen). Her daughter, Leah Fischer, is a Principal at an elementary school and Kyleen is running for re-election which is now contested by newly announced candidate Nancy Muenzmay. We expect folks to ask her and Board member Rosanne Brandeburg how they didn't know the falsification was going on, and what is their position on it.
- The head of the Lake County Teacher's Union (LCEA) indicated at the press conference that other teachers had contacted him about mis-reporting at OTHER schools, so the investigation may find more school Principals and staff involved. Columnist Lauren Ritchie raises the issue how all the separated schools seemed to use the same method to falsify records. Was there central direction on how to falsify the reports? Supt. Moxley frustrated reporters at the press conference by saying things like Obama would about Benghazi - "I had not been told about that...) etc.
- No one will say what the possible fines for the falsification of the reports will be. Dr. Moxley will say it could be discounted to 50 or 25% of the maximum fines, but never tells what the maximum fines could be. One source told me the maximum fines could be $250,000, so 25% would be around $62,000. This problem of class size limits is so convoluted, that some school districts just pay the fines, rather than create costly new classes when only a few students will be in them. (i.e. if a class is limited to 25 students, and they have 28 needing the class, they either have to create a second class for the 3 extra students, or pay fines. And some Florida school districts pay the fines, claiming it is cheaper.)
Recommendation:
- Allowing falsification of documents is not ethical, and the transgressors need to be punished once the independent investigation is complete. If falsifications are allowed in one type of document, what else is being falsified?
- I agree with Board member Tod Howard - punishment should be significant. Perhaps not firing, but his recommendations of 20 days suspension without pay seems a good minimum punishment level.
Vance Jochim
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Here is a copy of Erica Rodriguez's Early Jan. 25, 2014 Article on the Issue - The Sentinel now restricts many articles to paid customers, so I am including it here for those who are not subscribers:
Numerous class-size violations uncovered in Lake County schools
By Erica Rodriguez | Staff Writer
About 70 Lake County high-school students were assigned to a “leadership skills” class that existed on paper only, making it appear the school was obeying Florida’s class-size law, according to a complaint by a whistle-blower and an investigation by the school district’s attorney. The probe began after a Lake Minneola High reading teacher complained to the state Department of Education that her school was skirting the class-size law, which carries fines for violations. An assistant principal told more than two dozen teachers in October that students over the 25-student cap would be placed into the “leadership skills” class during the week when class-size numbers were recorded, according to a re- port by school district attorney Steve Johnson. Students never left their assigned core classrooms. In her complaint, reading teacher Simone Maduro-Ferguson wrote that she could not go along with assistant principal Devon Cole’s request. “I told him that because of my faith I could not do something that I knew as wrong,” she wrote in the complaint, which was forwarded to the school district and sparked a broad look into class-size reporting that is still ongoing. The results of that broader probe show that Lake Minneola High and five other schools fell short of the state’s class-size requirements. On Friday, the district admitted to violating the law and named the schools that fell short. In addition to Lake Minneola High, violations occurred at Grassy Lake Elementary in Minneola, Sawgrass Bay Elementary in Clermont, Mount Dora High School, Sorrento Elementary School and Tavares Elementary. The district did not release the number of classes affected or how many students were taught in overcrowded classrooms. District spokesman Chris Patton said the violations stemmed from schools misreporting where students were located and at times how many teachers were in a classroom. School employees across the six schools are now being investigated for their role in the violation, he said. District officials would not say if the violations were willful attempts to skew class-size numbers or if they were simply mistakes. Neither Cole nor Maduro-Ferguson could be reached for comment Friday despite repeated attempts. But in Maduro-Ferguson’s case, Johnson concluded that another teacher eventually was hired to handle the extra reading students at Lake Minneola High School. The class-size law was approved by voters in 2002 to keep core academic classes from becoming too large and provide more personal attention for students. The law caps core classes at 25 students in high school, 22 in grades 4-8 and 18 in pre-K to third grade. Districts that break the law face losing state money. But it’s unclear how much money the cash-strapped Lake district — which last year struggled to fill a $16.3 million budget shortfall — stands to lose because of the violation. Superintendent Susan Moxley spoke publicly for the first time earlier this week at a School Board workshop about Johnson’s investigation, which found that “scheduling decisions resulted in incorrect class-size reporting.” During the workshop, Moxley said the decisions were made to “minimize classroom disruptions” and “do what was academically sound for students.” Moxley did not respond to email questions Friday about the Lake Minneola High incident. Moxley and School Board members have faced difficult choices because of lean finances. The district cut bus rides for students who live closer than two miles to campus, and the district has cut teaching and guidance-counselor positions this school year to balance the budget. Paying a fine for class-size violations would have to come “at the expense of other items,” School Board member Bill Mathias said.
Some districts have opted to intentionally exceed class-size caps to avoid the expense of hiring extra teachers. Fines depend largely on how far districts exceed the state class-size caps. During the 2012-13 school year, for instance, Volusia schools lost $697,854. This school year Orange, Seminole and Osceola schools reported following the law. Department of Education officials said they are still verifying some of the Lake district’s student records. Florida Education Association spokesman Mark Pudlow said its “hugely difficult” for schools to meet the rule without extra funding from the state. Pudlow said he’d not heard of an issue such as the one at Lake Minneola. “I’ve not heard of that before,” he said. “That’s pretty much over the top.” Lake officials this week drew up a plan to meet the class-size law that includes combining grades, hiring more teachers and funneling more students into virtual classes. The plan will be discussed at Monday’s School Board meeting. ericarodriguez@tribune.com
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