I Wished I Could Say It Like This

Long time readers know that I, and others, are a creation of the dysfunctional part of the Exceptional Student Education system of Hillsborough County Public Schools.


The conceptualized comment you find on the below link was exactly why the Whiteheads requested, within the remedies of their federal court case in which retaliation against the parents (not the student, their son) was proved, that a Superintendent's Advisory Board on Special Education be formed to address systemic issues. A good question to ask is "how many recommendations to the superintendent" have ever been submitted by that council.



Hopefully the right people will pay attention to this below issue before it costs the District a lot of money to say they didn't know anything about it.



Professional Standards is Broken : Goader Online

What To Do When You Created A Problem And Are Afraid To Let Go

The ongoing situation with Goader must provide the local government agency, otherwise known as the Hillsborough County Public Schools, with several perplexing issues. Balancing apparent long held practices of keeping problems in-house and away from public scrutiny against an aggressive and apparent unilateral decision to create a legal charge could be one of those quagmires. According to the information that I have, the fact that the sheriff's department and the state's attorney did not find cause to collaborate an in-house charge apparently did not sit well with the first named government agency.

And then there is the problem of "who knew, what did they know, when did they know it, and how did they decide to act on what they knew". A classic government albatross.

A little history provides a little perspective to the here and now:

Communication Still Problem For Hillsborough Schools:

"By MARILYN BROWN
The Tampa Tribune
Published: September 21, 2008
Updated: 09/21/2008 12:16 am
TAMPA -

Lack of communication.

It's often the official answer when things go sour in Hillsborough County schools."

"......some school board members don't always get all of the information they want and ask for.

"I've had trouble getting information since I have been a board member," said Griffin, who was elected in 2006. "I ask for things and sometimes it takes weeks to get it. I've asked for reports that I have not received to this day."

"Communication is very selective in this district," said Griffin, who has often been at odds with Elia. "If you're in their favor the communication seems to be a lot more open and a lot quicker."

Complaint Alleges Hillsborough Withheld Services To Students#comments#comments: "By MARILYN BROWN | The Tampa Tribune
Published: October 1, 2008
Updated: 10/01/2008 02:42 pm
TAMPA - A class action complaint was filed in Tallahassee today with the Florida Department of Education by three civil rights groups on behalf of six students with mental and emotional disorders in Hillsborough County."

"Elia said she was surprised when she got notice Monday of the upcoming news conference because she was not aware of the concerns."

The significance of this state complaint is the duration of the alledged compliance issues. So, how does a government agency balance having their finger on the pulse of all that is good and having no information on ongoing issues? How does a government agency control the flow of information? Is there a "street code"? What about "don't ask, don't tell"?


Control of information may be the cornerstone of the establishment. Without that control, the fulcrum on the balance of power and influence is lengthened. How can the establishment let go when control of information is the only weight they have?



Goader has 16 parts that provides information. And then there is Lee's blog which adds to the information. My understanding is that Goader is still biding his time, waiting for an answer. My farm boy logic leads me to believe that he therefore must not be in favor of the establishment.


And for those who enjoy honing their critical reading skills, peruse the comments found here:

It’s Goader—Got It! : Goader Online

Cowards Of The County

First, there seems to be a problem with the posting of a previous post of mine:

PRO on HCPS: Why Not Implement A "No Home Work Plan" For Teachers?


For some reason, I don't see the public comments on the above post when I am on the blog.
In case no one else can read them, here they are:

4 comments:
Anonymous said...
HMMMM

I read on another blog that Jack Davis was going to take of the Executive Director job at the CTA when Yvonne Lyons retires this year.

I think its the same Jack Davis mentioned in the Erwin care.

Think I'll pass on looking for help with the CTA.

April 11, 2009 11:00 PM
PRO On HCPS said...
My take of the CTA is that it provides liability insurance to individual employees.

Otherwise, the CTA deals with "group management", therefore decisions are based on group numbers is how I see it. "Good teachers" are lumped in with "bad teachers" and raises are based on what the budget line item will be for the masses.

Safety in numbers means giving up individual performance is how I read the tea leaves.

What do you think?

As far as Mr. Davis goes, I dealt with him for a few years. Some good, some not so good.

The system is what it is, despite what I have to say.

April 12, 2009 7:43 PM
Anonymous said...
I agree that the CTA has to represent all AND has to protect itself. Personally I feel that they have gone overboard protecting themselves almost to the point of getting in bed with the district.

The Eskay guy is proof that the district has the power to silence opposition. He has turned out to be a coward. I have no respect for him.

Care to comment?

April 12, 2009 9:23 PM
PRO On HCPS said...
It takes a heck of a lot of financial, emotional and intellectual resources to fight back. And time.

There are too many variables that I would need to know.

April 13, 2009 6:13 AM

*************************************************

I have had all day to think about Anon 7:43pm's comment about Eskay being a coward.

Why isolate Eskay as a coward?

I submit that the hundreds or thousands of people that have been involved with the "cancer of the system" yet protect and enable it by their actions and inaction are all cowards.

The commenter makes the statement "The Eskay guy is proof that the district has the power to silence opposition." So why lay this on a person who is already in a compromised position?

What about all of the professional educators from the highest ranks of administration down to the bottom of the chain? What about the vendors and contract workers that can collaborate hundreds of incidents, yet know that to speak up would be to cut off their income? Especially when then school system is the main source of their business.

I have a post on my Motel Special Ed site that is titled "How Do (Can?)They Sleep At Night". For almost 20 years I have tried to figure out how so many people can be involved in a system yet no one connects the dots when proof is offered. Even without the rumor mill, you have the Erwin case, the McClelland Case and the Whitehead trial. Both the Erwin and Whitehead cases proved retaliation by the District. They are landmark cases. The McClelland case substantiated one part of Erwin's claims.

Over the years, I have spoken to many different people that have many different ties to the system as I have described above. I am left with the belief that no one wants to face the truth. They instinctively know that they will be isolated and then punished by the system is my best guess.

I learned about the ethics of the system through the special education realm. That makes me the red headed step child when it comes to appealing for systemic reform. Study my blogs if you don't get it. I spent years learning for myself as best as I could from an outside position. I have to believe that those who work in it everyday compartmentalize their thoughts and emotions in order to "get their job done and not bring attention to myself".


Maintaining power means maintaining money. Read the By-laws and the Mission statements of all of the related groups involved in education. How many of them put the classroom first? All of the ones that come to my mind are about limiting the liability of their respective memberships and furthering their economic status. All on the backs of the students. The same may go for Supervisors at all levels.

Understanding the system requires using the thousands of "isolated incidents" and then looking at the big picture over a period of years.

Homework for the masses: How many administrators have been hired from outside of the system within the last 20 years? I only know of one. Prove me wrong.

$200 Merit Award Increase

Last year the merit pay award was $2,100. This year it is $2,300.

Teacher bonuses announced - St. Petersburg Times

I post this because there is someone named "John" who challenged Goader to "actually find out what happened" (see john, 10:50pm in the link below).

Goader did not have the priveledge of knowing about the significant increase in the merit pay award to the HCPS teachers this year when he posted his thoughts about how hard the negotiations were:

Contract Negotiations: CTA Squeezing Till It Hurt - EsKay

As a member of the public, I would love to know what "actually happens" within our local public education system. How come we don't?

Some commentary about merit pay here:PRO on HCPS: The Science Of Education

DANGER DANGER DANGER - Will Robinson

Danger, Danger Will Robinson

Please prove me wrong on this.

I was perusing the HCPS new website. The very first course of links I chose to follow (how did I know) ended up leaving me stunned.

A Few Recent Dots To Add To The Picture

Steve Otto writes: "It's Time To Apply A Board Of Education To The School Board"

Steve Otto writes: Do We Really Care About Our Schools?

Marilyn Brown writes: "School Chief Improves On Her Evaluation".


Courtney Cairns Pastor writes: District 1 Candidates Clash On School Board Member Roles"

Daniel Ruth writes: "The School Board Is Not An E-Ticket"

As always, read the public comments for added flavor.

Apart From The Obvious, It Is What It Is

While I am patiently waiting for grasshoppers to respond, I will share a bit of the fun I had on The Gradebook today.

My fun started at "Frans van Haaren | July 26, 2008 at 12:39 AM".

Admittingly, as was later pointed out, my dialogue with "publicschoolteacher" was "off topic". But by the time this started, the "serious topic points" had plenty of time to be made.

I posted these comments:
Fran's Backup - Which part is apart? | July 26, 2008 at 09:45 AM
Fran's Backup - Making my point | July 26, 2008 at 11:30 AM
Fran's Backup - Just The Parent | July 26, 2008 at 12:06 PM
One more off topic comment | July 26, 2008 at 02:15 PM

All I know for sure apart from a part that I wrote, if I don't pitch in my part, and no one else pitch's in their part, none of us will have a part to pitch in.

The Law of Large Numbers vs. Isolated Incidents

mClick here: Opinion: Today's Letters: Vouchers can be a tool to aid struggling parents


I assume that since Bill Maxwell is a black man, there is less hue and cry over his opinions.
Click here: Opinion: Vouchers can't help if black parents won't

How did the concept of vouchers ever start?

Was it because parents wanted another alternative because the educational system was not working for them? Was their perception based on personal opinion through personal experience?

Was it because capitalists saw a way to make money? These capitalists proceeded with a propagandized marketing scheme to falsely claim that the public education system was failing so that education money, through the voucher scheme, would end up in their pockets?

What is the truth? Is the public education system doing what it was designed to do? Yes or No?

One thing we do know is that the public education system is a huge bureaucracy. One thing we do know is that the first goal of a bureaucracy is to maintain it's existence. One thing we do know is that bureaucracies deal with large numbers of kids and base decisions on statistics of these large numbers. Bureaucracies could care less about isolated incidents because of the negligible effect it has on what they focus on.

Parents deal with a statistically very small set of kids. They base their decisions on these 'isolated incidents" because that is their job. Their primary responsibility for their children is to "maintain their existence". Parents could care less about the large numbers because they have little meaning for what their child is experiencing right now.

What we are witnessing is the struggle between each of these entities to maintain their existence. They are each fighting for what is most important to them. Since there is a forced relationship between parent and Public School, the business adage that the customer is always right does not play out. Indeed, it has been the mantra of many school personnel that, in regards to who knows best about education be it school or parent, the school personnel are "the experts" and the parent is too ignorant to know what is best for them. This is the same concept that fuels increasing government responsibilities - the ignorant masses do not know what is best for them.

What is not honestly dealt with is that the bureaucracy is fighting for money using education as the article of trade - the parent's are fighting for education using money (vouchers) as the article of trade.