April Came And Went - How Is Alafia Elementary?

Within the hundreds of public comments associated with the Alafia Elementary debacle, I am 99% certain that one public commenter predicted that by April, the parents at Alafia would be chewing up the new principal just like they did the previous one. The implication seemed to be that parents are unreasonable in their expectations of their local education agency. The implication seemed to be that parents are simply a pain in the ass, by definition. The implication seemed to be that the public does not understand that the professionals within HCPS are infallible. If my recollection is correct, the HCPS Superintendent, in December, brought public attention to her premise that there was a lot of misinformation, anger and ugliness coming from the complainers. What the public never got a clear picture of is what went wrong over the many months prior.

In performing an autopsy of the Alafia Debacle, there are a few observations to be made. First, the timeline of the problems at Alafia seemed to have started at least a year or two before the complaints were aired at the Board meeting for all of the world to see. Second, the names of the key administrative players involved over this long period of time were well connected within HASA, at least as far back as December 2003.


As Goader has conceptualized in Acknowledging Problems Exist : Goader Online, the apparent emphasis from the administration during the Alafia debacle was not how to solve the problem, rather it was on how to silence the uproar. The focus was on killing the messengers, so to speak, instead of dealing with the message.

In November of 2004, the HASA’s "top three priorities for the year" were:

(1) the 1.6% multiplier be increased to 2.0%, (2) DROP more equitable
for administrators, and (3) increase the supplement for retiree’s health plan.

I am sure somewhere within the focus of HASA, there is some concern for what goes on in a classroom. However, the focus in December of 2008 was how to stop parents from speaking to the board about their concerns about their principal. The fact that there seemed to be several disgruntled employees involved that had also been complaining for a long time did not help the attempt to isolate and discount those "insubordinate" parents.

Joe South may have captured what goes on within the different factions that make up the bureaucracy of the Hillsborough County Public School system when South sang this phrase: "and they while away their hours, in their ivory towers". The implication of that prose is the occurrence of social isolation. To maintain that isolation, the gates must be kept, and they must be kept closed. The fact that the tower was built on the backs of the public and the butts in the classroom seats has long been forgotten.