At the Bottom of the Ballot...

On November 4, 2014 – somewhere way down on the ballot; perhaps between retention of Supreme Court Justices and the race for Mosquito Control Board; you will find the candidates for School Board. Depending on your District, you will find one or two contests. For those living in District 2; which includes Sun City Center , Riverview, Ruskin, Apollo Beach , a chunk of Brandon , Gibsonton and South Tampa ; a very important race is taking place.

Important race you say? School Board? I never get that far down the ballot. Read on – you may decide it is worthwhile this year.

But really. School Board races are important. The Board oversees – no, wait. The Board should oversee a budget of almost three billion (with a B) dollars. The Board should determine whether money is spend to inflate an already bloated administration, or whether to apply funding where students can benefit – say the classroom. The Board should control our test-crazed Superintendent’s desire to test students 365 days a year. The test avalanche will supposedly tell us how our student-achievement ranks with the rest of the world (in test-taking prowess). It also helps us evaluate how well our teachers do empowering (edu-speak buzz-word) students to perform well on high-stakes tests - without benefit of time for any actual teaching.

Your Board should also control whether the Superintendent fires principals who have affairs with subordinates; fires department heads who totally fail their mission (transportation, ESE, Urban Teachers Academy ); or whether these incompetents are merely laterally transferred out of the public eye.

Your Board should also determine whether a Superintendent who covers-up the death of a child is able to keep her job.

To its disgrace, the Board is not performing its duty in a single one of these instances. Nor does it want to. Your Superintendent of Schools, one MaryEllen Elia, has managed to stack the Board with pliant sheep; even interfering with elections when necessary. Former Tribune columnist Steve Otto had it right with his reference to “Fortress Elia”.

The Board races on November 4 will essentially be a vote of confidence or no-confidence on this Superintendent. She knows this and has placed hand-picked lackeys, each with obscenely massive financial backing, in each of the races. Luckily, she failed when Paula Meckley was washed out in the District 6 primary, but two races remain.

District 2 pits day-school owner and children’s advocate Sally Harris against homemaker Michelle Shimberg. Former teacher Michael Weston, defeated in the primary, has enthusiastically endorsed his former opponent, Ms. Harris.

Sally Harris has owned and operated the Circle C Ranch Academy for 33 years. She opened Tampa ’s first preschool dedicated exclusively to the care of children with disabilities. She speaks nationally on topics ranging from early childhood development to the care of children with specific disabilities.

After college, Harris worked as an Occupational Therapist and Career Counselor in the Hillsborough County Schools. Harris is the mother of five grown children, two of whom she adopted. She has also taken into her home over the years, 30 foster children; many with learning or other disabilities.

Harris wishes to halt the implementation of Common-Core. She believes the curricula spawned from these standards will rob teachers of the opportunity to teach with creativity and flexibility. Children with special needs, Harris states, will quickly be left behind as there is no flexibility of pacing nor differentiation of testing. Harris emphatically states that the massive testing schedules being constructed to accommodate the data collection requirement of Common-Core, will be detrimental to, and at the expense of teaching and learning.

Harris is not a fan of MaryEllen Elia, asserting the disasters in the ESE and transportation departments, along with the unethical lack of transparency in District decisions, are grounds for dismissal.

Michelle Popp Shimberg’s resume shows no remunerative employment over her 52 years. She married into the Shimberg family, made wealthy through the development dealings of family patriarch James Shimberg Sr. She has served on the Boards of various local philanthropic organizations; several in common with Superintendent Elia. She was the PTA President at Plant High School , which her children attended prior to moving on to Ivy League Universities. Her resume shows she was President of her college sorority, Delta Delta Delta, although in pubic appearances she refers only to “a women’s group”.

Shimberg has served for many years on the Superintendent’s Citizen’s Advisory Council; where it is presumed she associated closely with the Superintendent. There are no public records available with minutes of these meetings. Shimberg supports the controversial Bill Gates sponsored teacher evaluation program imposed on the District’s teachers. While admitting that morale has suffered, she offers no promise of reform. The failed Gates initiative has been one of the hallmarks of Elia’s reign.

Shimberg supports implementation of the Common-Core and believes that standardized testing is absolutely necessary in order to provide for accountability. She has not objected to the Superintendent’s imposition of extra testing on our students – exams administered as field-tests for various corporations currently marketing Common-Core exams. The District maintains that these tests will better prepare our students and make them better test-takers. Shimberg states that Elia has done a good job. It is widely understood that Shimberg is Elia’s hand-picked replacement for outgoing member Candy Olson; driven out of office by her insensitive remarks about children with disabilities and her oft-stated disdain for teachers.

No matter how you vote, please get to the bottom of the ballot! Vote-by-mail is a great way to make these decisions in the comfort of your home. Visit www.VoteHillsborough.org for more information.