Comments for the April 1, Public Input Meeting

I am speaking to the BOE this evening and will be reading from this. It is unlikely I will get through the whole thing in 3 minutes so I thought I would post it here.

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Good evening BOE members and Superintendent Thurmond. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you.

I want to speak to you this evening about why there is a lack of trust in the school district and why you need to change the culture of the administration.

It is sad that a year after you came together as a group promising to address issues of transparency, honesty, and trust that outside of this building, so very little change is evident.

In all fairness, the issues lie with the superintendent and the district employees, but you are responsible for holding the superintendent accountable. So, the buck stops with the BOE.

I will touch on 3 trouble areas and give one suggestion to rebuild trust in the community.

Communications

The Flexibility Advisory Committee web page was not on the district’s website until after 3 of the 5 Community Engagement Sessions were completed. At this time there is no plan to post answers to any of the questions that were raised during those meetings.

PDS TV24 no longer replays BOE meetings. Video archiving of BOE meetings is no longer done and recent meetings are not available for viewing on the district web site.

Where is the strategic communications plan promised in Superintendent Thurmond’s 90-Day plan?  -The plan which is no longer posted on the website.

Transparency

The former head of the human resources division is currently an elementary school principal. He was moved to the schoolhouse in Fiscal Year 2013, yet the current FY 2014 budget shows his salary at nearly $50,000 more than the maximum for an elementary school principal. When asked, the former head of HR told me he didn’t know how school budgets were put together.  He suggested I call the finance department. I called Dr. Bell in the finance department who looked at the budgeted number and suggested I call HR because salaries come from HR. I called HR and Dr. Ward-Smith suggested I call finance because finance puts the budget together.

Speaking of HR, at the Oct. 7, 2013 BOE meeting Drs. Howe and Ward-Smith requested an amendment to the contracts for international teachers in order to increase the total number above 30. What they didn’t mention to the BOE was that more than 30 international teachers had already been hired.

Dickerson Communications has been paid $58,000 this fiscal year for “professional public affairs and media-related services.” What has this money gotten the district beyond what the communications department does?*

According to this month’s Vendor Spends Report, McKenna Long & Aldridge has only billed for 4 months which leads to the conclusion that there is an additional $200,000 in legal fees outstanding.

The total legal fees reported in this month’s Financial Report are $3,466,153. The total for legal fees in this month’s Vendor Spends Report is $ 3,541,725.44. The difference is more than $75,000. 

Responsiveness

The SPLOST IV Citizens Oversight Committee made 22 recommendations to the district administration before July 1st of last year which were not completed as of December 31st.

On Feb. 28, I emailed six questions to Dr. Crawford, Dr. Howe, & Superintendent Thurmond. I have not gotten a response from anyone. Last Thursday I sent questions to Dr. Howe, Mr. Hudson, & Mr. Wilkins and have not gotten a response from them. Let me repeat what I asked last May, what can stakeholders do to get responses from central office employees?

I have sent over 30 emails to Superintendent Thurmond in the last 14 months that have gone unanswered.

Recommendation

I propose the district begin utilizing the last section of Balanced Score Card, Engaging Stakeholders. This contains 16 metrics which would provide a way to track how well the district is doing in rebuilding trust with stakeholders. Tracking these metrics will allow the superintendent to assign accountability to specific administrators and measure their performance.

*Dickerson Communications represents 48% of the YTD vendor spending of the communications department.

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This blog represents only my opinions and does not speak for any other person or group.