Pinellas union files grievance against district over pay

From a PCTA press release: Today, the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association (PCTA) has filed a grievance with the Pinellas County School Board (PCSB) for unilaterally reducing teacher pay by an amount of $290 annually. PCTA will follow this grievance by filing an unfair labor practice charge against the PCSB in the coming week. The immediate impact of the PCSB decision was felt by 11.5 and 12 month contract instructional personnel. This action, however, will impact all 8,400 Pinellas County School Board instructional personnel when school open in August.

Pinellas school employees like return to neighborhood schools

Asked to grade “student assignment,” 82 percent of them gave A, B or C grades, according to the district’s new climate survey.

Last year’s survey asked them to grade the choice plan, and 58 percent gave A’s, B’s or C’s. In 2007, 47 percent did. The School Board approved the close-to-home assignment plan in December 2007.

Could it be that concentrating struggling students in fewer schools makes life easier for more employees (and life tougher for the rest)?

Ron Matus, state education reporter

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Employees give superintendent Julie Janssen high marks

Fifty-two percent of Pinellas school district employees say superintendent Julie Janssen is providing quality leadership, according to just-posted results from the district’s annual climate survey.

A total of 7,211 school-based employees responded; 74 percent of them were classroom teachers. Fifteen percent strongly agreed and 36 percent agreed that Janssen, hired in September, is providing quality leadership. That compares to 9 percent who disagreed, 5 percent who strongly disagreed and 34 percent who said they were neutral.

Last year, 26 percent gave former superintendent Clayton Wilcox a favorable rating.

Ron Matus, state education reporter

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Pinellas union officials cry foul

The Pinellas teachers union has accused district officials of unfair labor practices hours after receiving a notice of the district’s intent to adjust teachers’ paychecks to reflect a decline in property values.

Three Pinellas students compete in national banking contest

Three students from the Finance Academy at Northeast High School have returned to St. Petersburg after competing in the final round of the 2009 Junior Achievement Banks in Action North American competition in New York City.

Pinellas' open enrollment period proves popular

Just one week into the Pinellas school district’s open enrollment period, more than 2,000 families have requested a school different from the neighborhood school to which they’ve been assigned.

Specifics on which students are requesting transfers and where they want to go isn't available yet. But it would appear that parents taking advantage of this option are dissatisfied with their new assignment to the school closest to their home as opposed to wanting to keep their child at a school he or she already was attending.

Gibbs High School avoids accountability hammer

Gibbs High in St. Petersburg won’t have to make plans for an overhaul after all.

Despite its F grade, it falls into the “Correct II” category under the state’s complicated new accountability system and not in “Intervene,” according to information released by the state Department of Education this morning. Thirty-six other Pinellas schools are in Correct II. (You can find them here.)

Those schools will still get increased intervention and oversight from state and district officials, and will still have to make changes. But only schools in Intervene face the prospect of restructuring (at least that’s the threat the state has put on paper) if they don’t make substantial progress in two years.

How Gibbs managed to avoid the most severe category remains unclear. But it may have squeaked past because even though it hasn’t improved in reading and math in the past five years, it hasn’t gotten worse, either.

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Pinellas County teachers may face pay cut due to decreasing tax roll

The economic downturn may begin competing with Pinellas County taxpayers’ best intentions to give teachers a raise – but not if union officials have anything to say about it.

At issue is the salary supplement instructional personnel have received since voters approved a special half-mill property tax in 2004. In 2005-06, each employee received $2,625 of his or her salary from the referendum.

The amount increased to $3,284 in 2006-07, and $3,529 the year after that. Despite a tax roll decrease of 2.11 percent in 2008-09, the district held the supplement steady at $3,529 thanks to money left over from the previous year.

But now the Pinellas property appraiser is projecting a 10.68 percent reduction in the 2009-10 tax roll. The school district has eliminated some positions because of enrollment, thus reducing the number of people paid from referendum dollars.

Still, district officials say the tax won't generate enough money to pay teachers the same amount next year.

Six Tampa area schools in elite group earning A's for 11 straight years

For 11 years now, the state of Florida has graded its schools according to their students' achievement and gains on the FCAT. More than 1,100 have made A's for three consecutive years.

Look back all the way to the beginning, though, and that list of all-A schools drops to just 33. That's no small feat when you know that some schools have dropped a grade because of the results of a single student.

Six Tampa area schools sit on that list of the most consistently high-rated schools. They are:

Hillsborough: Alafia Elementary and Claywell Elementary
Pasco: Lake Myrtle Elementary
Pinellas: Garrison-Jones Elementary, Highland Lakes Elementary and McMullen-Booth Elementary

Sarasota's Pine View School for the Gifted logged in the top score in points (740) among the 33 all-A schools. It had (not surprisingly) 100 percent of its students meeting high standards in math, 99 percent of its students meeting high standards in reading and writing, and 96 percent of students meeting high standards in science.

Locally, the top performer among the all-A crowd was Highland Lakes, tallying up 647 points (good for 13th on the list).

Love or hate the FCAT and school grades, at least take the time to give these top schools their due.

Pinellas School Board member Mary Brown weighs in on F at Gibbs High

How are Pinellas school officials reacting to the fact that the district has its first F high school?

Very slowly. So far, no administrators have returned calls for comment about Gibbs High School’s slip from a D to an F. But School Board member Mary Brown offered this:

“We’re moving a new administrator in there, and I’m hoping that he will pull a team together that will start making changes. Because this is now an F high school, I’m sure that we’re going to be looking at what’s needed and giving the administrative support that he needs to get the job done.”

Brown was referring to newly appointed principal Kevin Gordon, who has replaced former principal Antelia Campbell.

When asked if she thinks Gordon, who has never been a high school principal, can make a turn-around at the south Pinellas school that has earned D’s for four of the past five years, Brown responded:

“He’s been an assistant principal. I feel that he has the capability to do the job. I think people have to be supportive. They have to give him a chance to pull his team together.”

Donna Winchester, Pinellas education reporter

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Pinellas School Board gives early approval to property tax rate increase

Pinellas School Board members on Tuesday unanimously gave initial approval to a property tax rate increase to help offset a projected $19 million budget shortfall.

But not without first offering a few choice words to state legislators.

Board member Carol Cook was most outspoken, charging that politicians in Tallahassee have abdicated their responsibility to quality education in Florida.

"I’m supposed to take it on faith that the legislators will turn around (next year) and do the right thing," Cook said. "They have not done that so far. I cannot have faith when time after time it’s been proven to me that I can’t trust that they will do the right thing for our children."
 
At least one board member applauded Cook’s comments.

Board chairwoman Peggy O’Shea followed Cook, stating that the Legislature had put local school boards in a terrible position.

Without the additional $14 million budget infusion the district will receive with the tax increase, school employees likely will face six to 10 days without pay, O'Shea said. But the additional tax assessment could be a problem for many of them, especially for those who rent their homes, she said.

“This cuts both ways,” O’Shea said. “This will get passed off to them in the form of a rent increase, and they will pay a huge burden.”

The seven-member board must approve the measure again during budget hearings on July 28 and Sept. 15. But it’s not likely that the board can vote no at either of those meetings after the yes vote today, Cook said.

“Each time we vote on it, we’re more and more committed,” she said. “This time we’re saying, ‘Go forward and add this into the budget.’ In July, we’ll be saying, ‘This is the highest amount we can levy.’ But by that time, we’ve already hired people.

"In September, when we take the final vote, school already will have started. To say in September, ‘We’re not going to do this,’ that just won’t work."

- Donna Winchester, Times staff writer

Former Pinellas middle school principal hires high-profile lawyer

Former John Hopkins Middle School principal Maureen Thornton has hired high-profile attorney John Trevena to assist in her fight to win backpay from the Pinellas school district.

At Thornton’s request, an administrative hearing at district headquarters has been scheduled for Sept. 1-2. Thornton asked for the hearing after superintendent Julie Janssen recommended in April that Thornton be suspended without pay for 45 days.

After Thornton requested the hearing, Janssen changed her recommendation to suspension without pay for the duration of the contract, which ends June 30.

District staff attorney Laurie Dart said at the time that since the hearing likely couldn’t be scheduled until after Thornton’s contract expired, the most the former principal would be able to request would be back pay for the time she was suspended – about $13,000.

Janssen already had decided not to renew Thornton’s contract before her original recommendation to suspend Thornton came to the board.

As Gradebook readers may remember, Thornton was removed from her job in December. A subsequent investigation led district officials to conclude that she had used her position for personal gain and had engaged in unauthorized use of school property.

Donna Winchester, Pinellas education reporter

Pinellas superintendent recommends property tax increase to support schools

While school districts across the state are debating the pros and cons of increasing their local tax rates to cover critical operating needs, Pinellas superintendent Julie Janssen has recommended that the School Board approve a measure that would allow the district to do just that.

If approved Tuesday by supermajority – five of seven board members – homeowners will pay an extra $25 for every $100,000 of a property’s assessed taxable value. The additional revenue, an estimated $14 million, would go into the district’s operating budget to offset a projected budget shortfall.

Union officials are hoping the board approves Janssen’s recommendation.

“Teachers are looking at furloughs if the board doesn’t vote for this,” said union president Kim Black. “It will mean six days for teachers and support staff, eight days for assistant principals and 10 days for principals.”

Brevard County already has signed off on the extra tax for schools, an option the Legislature approved at the end of the spring session. Several other districts, including Broward, Charlotte and St. Lucie, are considering it.

Donna Winchester, Pinellas education reporter

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Hillsborough graduating a lot more than Pinellas

Besides highlighting Florida’s sad graduation rate, again, the latest “Diplomas Count” report also revived an enduring local mystery: Why, despite more challenging demographics, do Hillsborough schools seem to outperform Pinellas schools?

According to Education Week’s calculations, Hillsborough graduated 62.6 percent of its students in 2006, putting it No. 19 among the 50 biggest districts nationwide and No. 2 among the 10 biggest in Florida. Hillsborough, which has a greater percentage of poor and minority students than Pinellas, even made the newspaper’s “overachievers” list – a list of 33 school districts around the country that are performing far better than their demographics would lead many to expect. (See Page 10 of the overachievers list.)

Pinellas, on the other hand, graduated 50.3 percent in 2006, according to Education Week, good enough for No. 36 among the big boys nationally and next to last (ahead of Duval) among the Big 10 in Florida.

The most recent state data shows Pinellas narrowing the graduation gap with Hillsborough, but still 5.6 percentage points behind.

Ron Matus, state education reporter

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Southside band director hired at John Hopkins Middle

Chris Touchton, the beloved band director at the now-closed Southside Fundamental Middle School, has a new job: band director at John Hopkins Middle, the fine arts and communications magnet just a few miles away.

“I look forward to this new challenge and the opportunities it will provide,” he wrote in an e-mail to Southside parents this morning. Touchton was featured in a front-page St. Petersburg Times story two weeks ago.

"He's a pied piper, not only for students but parents," Jeanne Reynolds, the district's performing arts supervisor, told the Gradebook this afternoon. Placing him at a fine arts magnet was "the best fit."

John Hopkins' former band director, David Braman, took over the program last September, Reynolds said. He'll be teaching in Pinellas this fall, but it's not clear yet where he'll land.

Ron Matus, State Education Reporter

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New principals at John Hopkins Middle, Largo Middle and other Pinellas schools

Faculty, staff members and parents at John Hopkins Middle School have been wondering who their new administrative leader would be since December, when former principal Maureen Thornton was removed and Bob Poth was named acting principal.

The wait is over with the appointment of 18-year Pinellas veteran Claud Effiom, who served as acting principal at Kennedy Middle School for the past academic year. Effiom, 54, was a teacher at Azalea and Osceola middle schools before coming to Kennedy as assistant principal. He was an assistant principal at Safety Harbor Middle School before returning to Kennedy in August.

That’s not the only new leadership news coming out of Pinellas. Antelia Campbell, former principal at Gibbs High, has been named the new principal at Largo Middle School. Campbell, 37, was principal at Gibbs for three years. Since coming to the district 11 years ago, she has been assistant principal at Oak Grove Middle School and Largo and Tarpon Springs high schools.

Additionally, the School Board approved these principal appointments at its last meeting:

Diane Cato, former assistant principal at Lake St. George Elementary, is the school’s new principal. Cato’s salary will increase from $67,198 to $90,241.

Gail Cox, former assistant principal at Paul B. Stephens Exceptional Student Education Center, is the school’s new principal. Her salary will increase from $56,279 to $74,047.

Kimberly Hill, former assistant principal at Leila Davis Elementary, is the school’s new principal. Her salary will increase from $49,952 to $68,562.

Three other principal assignments will be effective July 1:

Susan Garcia-Nikolova, assistant principal at Shore Acres Elementary, will become principal at Lakeview Fundamental. Her salary will increase from $58,314 to $75,514.

David Rosenberger, former principal at Coachman Fundamental, will be the new principal at Coachman/Kennedy Fundamental Middle. His $84,602 salary will remain the same.

Katherine B. Wickett, principal at McMullen-Booth Elementary, will move to Cross Bayou Elementary, where she served as assistant principal. Her $84,171 salary will remain the same.

Donna Winchester, Pinellas Education Reporter

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Tampa area school districts begin four-day weeks

If you need information about your local Tampa area school this summer, you'll have extra hours Monday through Thursday to get it. But forget about Fridays. The districts are closing down all but a few services as part of their efforts to save money.

Pinellas schools will operate from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. four days a week through mid August. Only the voluntary pre-K and juvenile justice programs will remain open on Fridays, with a skeleton technology crew available to help in emergencies. "All employees are expected to adhere to the schedule," spokeswoman Andrea Zahn told the Gradebook, noting all security and utility systems will be set on weekend mode for Fridays.

Hillsborough schools will run from 7 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

Hernando schools will be open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. except for the week of July 4, when employees' regularly scheduled holiday will shift the district back to an 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. day.

Pasco schools will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:37 p.m. (and not a minute longer). Last year, the district saved thousands of dollars just by running a four-day schedule for a month. It hopes to do better this year. "This is a money-saving opportunity," assistant superintendent Ray Gadd told the Gradebook. "We don't want people in the buildings" on Fridays.

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Another school garden sprouts in Tampa Bay

Maybe this is a way to boost anemic FCAT science scores.

The Sustainability Club at St. Petersburg College is teaming up with educators at High Point Elementary in Clearwater next week to prep ground for a garden that will teach kids about nutrition and give them hands-on botany and biology lessons to boot.

High Point is just the freshest bud in a growing school garden movement, which includes a handful of schools around Tampa Bay. If the garden at Lakewood Elementary in St. Petersburg is any indication, High Point can expect engaged kids - and happily packed PTA meetings.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Pinellas district officials knew of early release day since March, memo indicates

Pinellas school district officials have known since at least March that schools will close one hour early every Wednesday next year, but parents didn’t find out until a few weeks ago and were told their questions and concerns were too late to make any changes because of contract negotiations.

Parents have been pummeling the Pinellas County School Board with angry e-mails and phone calls this week, dismayed to find out that schools will close one hour early on Wednesdays beginning in August to give teachers more planning time. It’s a change that will require some families to rearrange work schedules or child care, and both teachers and parents are raising concerns about the effect the weekly disruption will have on art, music, gifted classes and class time.

The news first broke May 8 that the teachers union and the school district had come to an agreement on next year’s contract. One of the provisions: an early release every Wednesday to allow teachers some planning time.

The final vote came on May 27. In the weeks between the first announcement and the final vote, concerns started bubbling up slowly from parents. But only in the final days before the May 27 vote, when parents began circulating e-mails among themselves, did it sink in that the issue was no longer a matter of debate; it was a reality.

But the school district had known about it for months.

FCAT success in Pinellas elementary and middle schools

While most of Thursday’s FCAT news focused on lackluster 10th-grade reading scores, there was good news for a number of Pinellas elementary and middle schools.

At Tyrone Middle, a school that has struggled over the years to boost reading scores, sixth-graders posted a 10 percentage point gain. This year, half of the students are performing at grade level or above compared with 40 percent last year.

Tyrone principal Stephanie Adkinson attributed her school’s improvement in part to a summer reading camp she has invited all incoming sixth-graders to attend for the past two summers.

“I think it helps our scores, especially at that level,” Adkinson said. “Those students have a little edge.”

Early release day, new start times for Pinellas students

While most of the discussion at last night’s Pinellas School Board meeting concerned the impact of an “early release day” on Wednesdays to give teachers dedicated planning time, the board also approved new start times for middle and elementary schools.

(Contrary to what we reported in today’s paper, there will be no change to high school start times; that information appeared on an early version of the agenda that changed just as board members were taking their seats at the table. No one thought to inform us of the change.)

All middle schools, with the exception of the fundamentals, will open at 9:30 a.m. That’s 8 minutes earlier than this year’s start time.

All elementary schools except for the fundamentals and two others – Cross Bayou and Walsingham – will open at 8:35 a.m., a shift of 5 to 15 minutes for most of them. But for 10 schools, the start time will be pushed back an hour and 10 minutes.

Those schools, which currently open at 7:45, are: Azalea, Belleair, Fuguitt, High Point, McMullen-Booth, Pinellas Park, Ridgecrest, Shore Acres, Skycrest and Starkey.

A weekend interview with Marshall Ogletree, the new executive director of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association

Marshall Ogletree went to school in Pinellas County and after college came back to teach here. Then he got into the business of advocating on behalf of teachers, working in Orange and Seminole counties before heading to the state teachers union. Now he's back as executive director of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association. He spoke with Times education reporter Donna Winchester about why he thinks teachers unions are important and the priorities that will guide him in his new job.

How did you get involved in teacher advocacy?

I’ve always had a strong political bent. I was a math major who took political science classes as opposed to science courses. When I got involved in the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association as a faculty rep and later as vice president, it was from a political point of view. PCTA then and now is one of the more active organizations in Florida from that perspective. When I was vice president, someone said, ‘Why don’t you look for a job in this business?’

Isn’t this a really difficult time to be taking on the job of executive director of a teachers union?

I know it’s going to be tough. This is a very difficult time for unions and school districts because of the lack of funding and the lack of support the Legislature has given us. I don’t care how they color it, this last legislative session was just a Band-Aid of major proportions. They’re going to have to face up to the fact that there are holes to fill because they’re building on the stimulus money and on taxes that are a declining source of revenue, like the cigarette tax. We have big holes to fill, not just in education, but in all parts of the budget.

The discussions we’ll be having this summer about salary and benefits will be constrained by that. We’ll try to do the best we can to make sure the district stands by its employees. We’ll fight for their needs. But it’s going to be difficult. I want our members to understand this is a time like no other. I’ve been doing this a long time, and there has been no time since I’ve been doing this work that we’ve had the problems and the financial situation we have today.

You were close friends with former PCTA executive director Jade Moore, who died in December. What did you learn from him?

Unions more important than ever, new Pinellas teachers association boss says

Times are tense for Florida school teachers. They face the threat of layoffs. Their work conditions are up for grabs. Raises? How about the possibility of pay cuts instead?

Into the fray in Pinellas comes newly appointed Classroom Teachers Association executive director Marshall Ogletree, no newbie when it comes to organized labor. His message to the rank and file: Keep the faith.

"I think in tough economic times, unions are more important than they’ve ever been," Ogletree tells the Gradebook:

"Throughout the state, and Pinellas is no exception, the immediate reaction of school boards is to say, ‘We have to cut pay. We have to cut hours or days.’ That is the immediate reaction. Without a union to say, ‘Hey, stop, wait a minute, let’s look at this,’ they can do whatever they want to do.

The union’s role is to solve problems, to work on the contractual rights that folks have – their salaries and working conditions. Without a union, would there be a 40-hour work week? Would there be child labor laws? A 30-year-old teacher might take for granted duty free lunches and planning periods. But the fact is, we worked long and hard to get those provisions in our contract. Teachers have walked picket lines to get those things into contracts. It’s important for folks to know there’s a rich heritage here at PCTA. Times are tough, but look at what PCTA has done and will continue to do in the future."

To learn more of Ogletree's views, visit the Gradebook at noon Saturday for a full interview.

- Donna Winchester, Pinellas education reporter

Former John Hopkins Middle principal named principal at Gibbs High

Teachers and staff at Gibbs High School met their new principal this afternoon: Kevin Gordon, current prinicpal at High Point Elementary in Clearwater.

Gordon, 45, has worked for the Pinellas school district for 21 years. He served as assistant principal at Clearwater High from 1996 to 2001, then was principal at John Hopkins from 2001 to 2005 before going to High Point, where his annual salary was $80,821.

Barbara Thornton, associate superintendent of high school programs, said Gordon did well in his interview for the Gibbs job. The fact that he’s never been a high school principal isn’t a concern, Thornton said, because of his assistant principal experience at Clearwater High.

“He knows the high school environment very well,” Thornton said. “I think it’s always an advantage when someone has K-12 experience so they have a good view of a student’s entire experience.”

Gordon had another point in his favor. He’s a Gibbs graduate.

“I think he has a real interest in that school and wants to see it succeed,” Thornton said.

Donna Winchester, Pinellas education reporter
 

Pinellas teachers union names new executive director

After a lengthy nationwide search, the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association has selected a heavy-hitter from the Florida Education Association as its new executive director.

Marshall Ogletree, a lobbyist for the FEA who has worked in Florida education for 29 years, will replace former executive director Jade Moore, who died in December after serving the union for 34 years.

A former Pinellas classroom teacher and longtime union supporter, Ogletree said he’s excited to be “coming home.”

“I’m looking forward to building a collaborative relationship with the superintendent and School Board members, but at the same time advocating for teachers and support staff because these are tough times,” Ogletree said.

Union president Kim Black said Ogletree has the skill set that union members said they wanted to see in their next director.

“We are very fortunate to have him as we face the challenges ahead,” Black said.

Ogletree starts work on June 15.

Donna Winchester, Pinellas education reporter

Pinellas bus drivers will be honored for good driving records

Usually, the public only hears about school bus drivers when they’ve been in an accident. So here’s some good news.

On Tuesday, the Pinellas School Board will recognize 16 drivers who have had perfect driving records for 10 years or more.

Here are their name and their years of service:

Annie Hobson, 34 years
Rosa Smith, 25 years
Mattie Paschal, 21 years
Addie Lynn, 19 years
Dorothy Sutton, 17 years
Wanda Prosser, 15 years
Tyrone White, 15 years
Deborah Kerns, 14 years
Joann Pierce, 13 years
Sheila Cash, 13 years
Suzanne Hovatter, 12 years
Christine Wilson, 12 years
Louis Wade, 11 years
Peter Kotz, 11 years
Gennitta Critton, 10 years
Bernice Williams, 10 years

Donna  Winchester, Pinellas education reporter

Pinellas teachers union achieves contract settlement

The Pinellas County teachers union reached a contract agreement with the school district late Thursday after 18 months of negotiations. The proposed settlement includes working conditions and rights but does not include language about salary and insurance.

“It was important to end the school year knowing what our working conditions will be even if we don’t know our salary,” said union president Kim Black. “But with the district proposing six days of furloughs, there was no way we could in good conscience recommend anything to the membership that includes pay cuts.”

Black said she feels confident that Pinellas will be one of the few school districts in Florida to avoid layoffs. But in an effort to prevent them, faculty reps made the “uncomfortable” decision of agreeing that secondary teachers would teach six of seven periods, Black said.

“They understand the district is in the midst of a financial crisis,” she said. “We couldn’t say no to $9 million in savings.”

Pinellas sets interviews for John Hopkins, Gibbs High princpal jobs

It turns out that quite a few Pinellas administrators want to be principal at either John Hopkins Middle School or Gibbs High School. Now that the candidates have been vetted and interviews have been set, the Gradebook finally is able to let readers know who they are.

Those who will be interviewed May 13 for the John Hopkins job are:

Janice Barge-Clarke, assistant principal, Largo Middle
Kathy Bentley, assistant principal, Pinellas Park Middle
Harriet Davis-Waller, assistant principal, Lakewood High
Claudius Effiom, acting principal, Kennedy Middle
Darren Hammond, assistant principal, Meadowlawn Middle
James Joyer, assistant principal, Boca Ciega High
Robin Mobley, assistant principal, Tyrone Middle
Joanne Rainey, assistant principal, Tyrone Middle
Portia Slaughter, assistant principal, Boca Ciega High
Raquel Wigginton, assistant principal, Fitzgerald Middle

Those who will be interviewed May 14 for the Gibbs High job are:

Stephanie Adkinson, principal, Tyrone Middle
Barry Brown, assistant principal, St. Pete High
Harriet Davis-Waller, assistant principal, Lakewood High
Kevin Gordon, principal, High Point Elementary
Darren Hammond, assistant principal, Meadowlawn Middle
Clinton Herbic, assistant principal, Gibbs High
James Joyer, assistant principal, Boca Ciega High
Robin Mobley, assistant principal, Tyrone Middle

Barbara Thornton, associate superintendent for high school programs, said the district hopes to make its decisions within a week of the interviews. The selections will be subject to School Board approval.

Donna Winchester, Pinellas education reporter

Pinellas begins fixing its finances

A recent auditor general's report found problems in the way the Pinellas school district controls more than $402 million in investments. It found 25 shortcomings in all.

This morning, district officials talked about how they plan to resolve each situation. The list of solutions took up eight full pages.

One key move is to have the district’s manager of cash and investments begin training with backup personnel in various investment transaction activities. If funding permits, the district will work toward having at least one backup employee attend annual training.

Read on for other planned actions.

Principals to get lots more power in Pinellas

After nearly a year of discussion and training, the Pinellas School District is ready to implement a plan that will give principals more say in how their schools are run.

Superintendent Julie Janssen told School Board members at a workshop this morning that a group of more than 25 elementary, middle and high school principals are “chomping at the bit” to move to a system of  “decentralized decisionmaking,” formerly known as site-based management, as early as this fall.

“This is possibly the biggest change the school district has seen in decades,” said board chairwoman Peggy O’Shea. “Decisions have always been driven from the top down. This is a chance to have the input come up from the schools.”

Site-based management, a huge issue in both the superintendent search last summer and in School Board elections last fall, puts key decisions in the hands of principals, teachers and parents rather than the central office. The plan under discussion at that time, championed by the Pinellas Education Foundation, resembled a system in place in the Okaloosa School District.

Pinellas school district honors 2009 PRIDE award winners

The Pinellas County school district has recognized more than 400 fifth- and eighth-graders who excel in math, science, social studies, writing and world languages with PRIDE awards.

PRIDE, which stands for Program to Recognize Initiative and Distinction in Education, was a Florida initiative that the district decided to continue after the state dropped its funding. Ditek Inc. of Largo has provided money for the awards for many years.

Fifth-graders must maintain an A average in their subject throughout the year to win a PRIDE award. They also must earn the highest score in their class on a county-developed test and demonstrate a positive attitude.

Eighth-graders must maintain a 3.5 average in their subject throughout middle school, show interest in it through participation in clubs, and exhibit good citizenship.

Here is the list of this year’s PRIDE Award Recipients.

Donna Winchester, Pinellas education reporter

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Pinellas has no plans to increase Title 1 schools

After reading that Brevard County is considering placing almost half its schools under the Title 1 umbrella in order to spread its federal stimulus dollars as far as possible, the Gradebook asked Pinellas officials if they were considering a similar plan.

Deputy superintendent Harry Brown said the district has been looking at ways to categorize school staffs to make the best use of the stimulus dollars earmarked for Title 1 schools, or those serving low-income students. But there are no plans to increase the number of Title 1 schools, Brown said.

In fact, he said, the district has been talking about reducing the number of Title 1 schools to give more money to the neediest students.

Seminole High School marching band invited to 2010 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Somehow, Seminole High School marching band director Dan Wood managed to keep it a secret for an entire week that the Warhawk Marching Band is one of 10 high school bands in the country invited to perform in the 2010 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Wood found out about the invitation last Tuesday but kept it to himself until tonight, when incoming and returning band students and their parents met for the first time in the school auditorium.

The 2010 trip will be the first time a Pinellas County high school band has participated in the Macy’s parade.

“I’ve been applying for a lot of years,” Wood said Tuesday afternoon before the announcement. “I’ve been humbled by the rejection letters.”

Pinellas County career technical education students shine in state contest

Pinellas County students have returned home from the 42nd annual Florida SkillsUSA competition in Manatee County with 15 medals: four gold, seven silver and four bronze.

Students from the Clearwater and St. Petersburg campuses of the Pinellas Technical Education Centers received 75 medals at the competition, which involved high school and post-secondary career technical students from throughout the state in more than 100 technical skills and leadership competitions.

The four gold medal winners – Kelly Francis, Seminole vocational Education Center; John Strong, East Lake High; Tony Taylor, Pinellas Park High; and Samantha Robertson, Pinellas Park High – will compete at the national level in June in Kansas City.

SkillsUSA is a national nonprofit organization serving teachers, and high school and college students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations, including health occupations. Its mission is to provide quality education experiences for students in leadership, teamwork, citizenship and character development.

Donna Winchester, Pinellas Education Reporter

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Tweet. Tweet. Pinellas schools enter the age of Twitter

Want to know the latest about the Pinellas district -- directly from the district?

You can join the 282 (and growing) followers of the district's Twitter feed.

"Yes. We're tweeting," district spokeswoman and Twitterer Andrea Zahn told the Gradebook. "It's another way that we can communicate good things that are happening in the school district to the community, to parents and even to employees."

Pinellas was the second Florida school district to join the latest online trend of sending 140-character updates out into the world. Broward schools got there first, and Lee schools have since followed. Hillsborough is looking into the idea, while Pasco has no such plans on tap.

Zahn said she aims to tweet at least one item daily, whether it's a reminder of a board meeting, celebration of a school event or perhaps an alert of an issue needing immediate attention.

"It's something we do in addition to everything else we do" for communication, she said. "We expect additional people to come online as the word spreads. We're in the middle of marketing now."

Pinellas County School Board limits Plato Academy extension to three years

In a rare move, the Pinellas County School Board declined a request from Plato Academy charter school to extend its charter another five years. The board agreed instead to give the Greek immersion school in Clearwater a three-year renewal.

Questions arose at Tuesday’s School Board meeting regarding Plato’s fifth-grade FCAT scores, and the fact that the school did not appear to have a school improvement plan in place to correct the deficit.

“These are taxpayer dollars going to a public school,” said board member Janet Clark. “I would think with a charter school with a small number of students, we should be seeing more achievement here.”

Board member Carol Cook suggested that the board grant a 3-year renewal instead. The board approved that extension 7-0.

Plato, which opened in Pinellas in 2004, originally had asked for a 15-year renewal. District officials took that request off the table several weeks ago.

Donna Winchester, Pinellas education reporter

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Pinellas superintendent weighs in on rehires after retirement

For nearly an hour Tuesday night, East Lake High School students and their parents pleaded with the Pinellas School Board to return their principal, Clayton Snare, to the school for at least one more year.

Like six or seven other Pinellas principals, Snare has been in the state’s Deferred Option Retirement Program, or DROP, and was scheduled to retire at the end of this school year.

Superintendent Julie Janssen thanked the speakers for taking the time to appear before the board, then explained that no employee, including an administrator, will be considered for rehire until all principals, instructional personnel and support staff who have been displaced by school closings have been placed at other schools.

If openings remain once employees who have contracts have been placed, those interested in being rehired after retirement can apply, Janssen said.

Pinellas schools superintendent recommends discipline for five bus drivers

The Pinellas School Board is likely to approve recommendations at its regularly scheduled meeting tonight aimed at disciplining a spate of bus driver misbehavior.

Superintendent Julie Janssen has recommended that Laquishaa Roundtree, who was cited for speeding in a school zone while she was driving a school bus, receive a three-day suspension. Janssen is recommending a five-day suspension for Glenn Eddins for conspiring with special education associates on his bus to prolong his drive back to the bus compound so that the associates and he could earn extra time.

The superintendent also is recommending a five-day suspension for Marcos Santiago, who violated School Board policy when he used his bus for personal errands, used his cell phone while driving the bus, and purposefully delayed his route to earn overtime.

And finally, Janssen is recommending that two drivers be fired. Robert Gibson Jr. failed to return to work after his leave of absence expired Oct. 31. Richard Woods permitted a student to ride his bus without proper authorization and left her at a stop that required her to cross six lanes of traffic to get to her home.

Donna Winchester, Pinellas Education Reporter

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John Hopkins principal requests administrative hearing

Maureen Thornton, the former John Hopkins Middle School principal who was removed from her job in December, has sidestepped a recommendation that she be suspended without pay for 45 days by requesting an administrative hearing.

Superintendent Julie Janssen will recommend instead that Thornton be suspended without pay for the duration of her contract, which ends June 30. School Board staff attorney Laurie Dart said it’s unlikely that a hearing could be scheduled before then, which means the most Thornton could request from the district would be back pay for the time she was suspended – about $13,000.

Janssen already has determined that Thornton’s contract will not be renewed.

Donna Winchester, Pinellas Education Reporter

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Community group wants better response to violence in Pinellas schools

School disciplinetops the agenda for a faith-based group that’s expected to bring 2,500 people to a meeting in Largo on Monday night. The Faith and Action for Strength Together group, better known as FAST, wants the Pinellas County School District to implement different discipline programs into schools with heavy violence and suspension rates. 

In a news release, it specifically names Largo and Gibbs high schools. 

“We have all these kids fighting for one reason or another, mostly for plain stupid reasons,” Marissa Knighton, 17, a senior at Largo High who’ll be speaking on behalf of FAST, told the Gradebook. 

The organization wants the district to push schools to adopt one of two different discipline programs that it says have been successful elsewhere: one called CHAMPS/Foundations, the other called Positive Behavioral Systems. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks, 12685 Ulmerton Road. 

Ron Matus, state education reporter

Pinellas aims to save millions by cutting one unit per school

In their ongoing search for budgetary savings, Pinellas school district officials have identified more than $8 million in additional cuts they hope to realize through staffing reductions at elementary, middle and high schools.

Superintendent Julie Janssen told board members at a workshop this morning that the reductions would not come at the expense of jobs.

Instead, Janssen said, the savings are based on what district officials hope will be the Legislature’s willingness to allow districts to use schoolwide figures rather than classroom numbers to meet the requirements of the class-size amendment for the 2009-10 academic year.

“What we’re doing is looking at unit allocation,” Janssen said. “If we’re making class size by half a child, we’re adding an extra child so we don’t need to add another class and another teacher.”

A weekend interview with Stuart Harris, a retired businessman who is launching “Pinellas Circle of Change” to support area youth

Harris, who was active in a similar group in Roanoke, Va., spoke with reporter Donna Winchester about his desire to mobilize the community to help kids succeed.

Tell me a little about yourself. What is your background?

My background is business. I started as an internal auditor and ended up running an international catalog company with 10,000 employees that was based in England. I created an organization called Valley Character in Roanoke doing the same thing I’m trying to do now.

Why are you trying to start a community-wide group for children in Pinellas?
 
One of my core beliefs is that schools can try as hard as they like, but if parents and the community aren’t involved, it’s really tough. I’m very much of the belief that it takes a village to raise a child. You know the old story. Children don’t come with a guide book. Valley Character got lots and lots of people involved: people from the business community, people from the faith-based community, people from law enforcement. Once they had something they could sink their teeth into, the organization grew. A lot of interesting projects developed. We had hundreds of people volunteering to do things with kids both in and out of school.

Aren’t groups already working to do what you’re talking about? PACT, for example?

Lawsuit filed over 2005 Pinellas school handcuff incident

Nearly four years after the incident made international news, the mother of a former St. Petersburg kindergartener who was videotaped throwing a violent temper tantrum in class and then being handcuffed by police has filed suit against the School Board and hired high-powered attorney Willie Gary.

The girl, now 8, was "severely traumatized" by the incident and will need long-term therapy, says the 17-page lawsuit filed March 12 in Pinellas Circuit Court by the girl's mother, Inga Akins, 27. The Times is not naming the girl because of her age.

The suit accuses the Pinellas County School Board and Fairmount Park Elementary of negligence, malicious prosecution and a civil rights violation. It seeks more than $15,000 in damages.

"As a result of this incident, (the girl) is petrified about attending school, is afraid of law enforcement officers, has been severely traumatized and suffers from fear and anxiety," the suit says. The girl "has a permanent impairment related to the situation with the police and will require continuing long-term therapy and neurodiagnostic testing."

Pinellas teachers, employees reject huge pay cut -- for now

To make ends meet, the Pinellas school district last week asked its teachers and other workers to take a 6.5 percent pay cut.

Not surprisingly, the employee unions didn't think twice. They rejected the proposal out of hand. Too early to act, they declare.

Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association president Kim Black had this to say in a Monday memo to members:

"As we have consistently said, pay cuts should only be considered as a last resort. Of all possible measures to reduce the budget, pay cuts would be the most hurtful to all our members, and the harm would last longer than the effects of any other type of cuts. Employees would lose money not only when the cuts are made, but also every year thereafter throughout their entire careers and, in the form of reduced pensions, for the rest of their lives."

To which one heavily degreed teacher, who generously sent the memo to the Gradebook and doesn't want to see her pay sink back below $40,000, says: "Thank God for our union!"

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Fewer bus routes, fewer bus drivers for Pinellas schools

District financial officers are still calculating transportation savings as Pinellas moves toward a system of neighborhood schools, but told School Board members on Tuesday they think the amount could be as high as $11 million.

Changes in the student assignment plan that resulted in the elimination of between 180 and 200 bus runs will reap the largest savings, pegged at about $8 million. That number includes a reduction in personnel, fuel costs and bus repairs, as well as the need to buy new buses.

Now it looks like the district will save an additional $3 million because fewer people will be needed to schedule and maintain the buses. Combining the number of bus runs for children attending gifted programs and "carefully pruning" the number of runs each day has added to the savings, financial officer Doug Forth told the board.

Pinellas schools chief grapples with budget pain

Here's a clip from Political Connection on Bay News 9, featuring Pinellas superintendent Julie Janssen, talking about the budget woes facing the district.

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Pinellas board keeps looking for ways to cut

When the Pinellas School Board meets at 2:30 today to talk about the budget, it probably won’t provide any more answers to school employees than the board has been able to offer so far, chairwoman Peggy O’Shea told the Gradebook.

“Neither the House nor the Senate has sent out their budgets,” said O’Shea, who recently returned from the Tallahassee. “We were hoping there would be more news from the legislators by now, which we don’t seem to have.”

At the board’s request, superintendent Julie Janssen sent an update to school staffers Monday regarding what the district has discussed up until now as a means of offsetting what could be more than a $100 million budget shortfall. Those measures include:

• Reductions in transportation costs,
• Freezing or eliminating hiring in some categories, and
• Moving to a seven-period day in middle and high schools.

FAQ on Pinellas school choice

While most of what you’ve been hearing lately about the Pinellas school district has concerned money woes and budget shortfalls, officials in the student assignment office have been moving forward in assigning children to schools for the 2008-09 academic year. Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions parents have about the process.

Q. Can I still apply for a magnet, fundamental or career academy program?
A. The application period for magnets, fundamentals and career academies has ended, as has the acceptance period. Families on a waiting list for one of the programs could still get a call letting them know their child has been accepted.

Q. So what’s happening now?
A. The district is in the first of two open enrollment periods. This first open enrollment period, which runs through Friday , is only for parents of students in grades K-4 whose children are in their non-zoned, or “choice” school and wish to stay there.

Q. What do parents need to do to stay at their non-zoned school rather than move to their neighborhood school?
A. They must log on to the student reservation system through the district’s Web site, www.pcsb.org, using their home computer or the community computer at any school. They’ll need the password the district already has mailed to them and their child’s ID number and date of birth.

Don't blame out-of-school suspension numbers on ESE kids in Pinellas

A quick note to those who referenced special education students in their comments to our Wednesday post about the reasons for out-of-school suspensions in Pinellas schools.

(One post in particular charged that ESE students are "holding our schools hostage" and that schools "cannot fix a broken system that is being forced to include students who literally destroy the fabric of schoolwide discipline and undermine instruction and campus culture."

The numbers we cited were for general education students only. 

The number of ESE kids who received out-of-school suspensions during the first semester of this academic year at elementary, middle and high schools: 246, down from 373 in the first semester of 2007-08. The number of individual ESE kids suspended this year: 150, compared to 219 last year.

Donna Winchester, Pinellas education reporter

Plenty of reasons for out-of-school suspensions in Pinellas schools

Last weekend, the St. Petersburg Times reported on discipline issues in Pinellas schools. As our investigation continues, we thought our Gradebook readers might be interested in some statistics about out-of-school suspensions at the district’s elementary, middle and high schools.

Keep in mind that the information we’re reporting here is for the total number of out-of-school suspensions, which is different from the number of individual students who received one or more suspensions.