Duval County Promotes Administrators, ability doesn’t seem to be a prerequisite.

In Florida there is a joke about the weather. You don’t like it wait a few minutes and it will change. There is a similar joke in Duval County. If you don’t like your principal, just wait they will promote them out eventually.

What are the requirements for promotion? Well it’s not necessarily improving students or motivating teachers, who you know to often seems to be a prerequisite as well. Look at Iranetta R. Wright at Jackson high school. Four years ago she arrived to a school that was admittedly struggling and promptly took it to the bottom. It was ranked the 404th best high school in Florida.

How did she do this? Well some say it was her autocratic leadership style. A former teacher said, she would talk to the staff in a fashion that if we would talk to the kids that way we would get fired. Her motivation techniques consisted of threats and intimidation. Much of the veteran staff she inherited has moved onto other positions in the district or has left the teaching field all together replaced by “easily moldable” rookies who often don’t know that they shouldn’t be talked down to and forced to work sixty hours a week.

Look at Al Brennan principal of Forrest high school. He has had success at his school, though much of it came at the cost of veteran teachers morale and jobs, over half of the staff has been fired, retired or transferred out since he arrived. One teacher called it a bloodbath. Now he has moved the school from an F to a C, though if you look behind the numbers you get a clearer picture for how this happened.

From 09-10 Forrest’s enrollment dropped by several hundred as the administration weeded out struggling (either with discipline or academics) kids. This happened again last year as several hundred more students left. The school’s enrollment went from nearly 1700 in 09-10 to 1225 this year. Perhaps Mrs. Wright should have followed this philosophy instead of getting rid of teachers.

Both of those schools are struggling schools but what about one of the schools that is supposed to be the best in the nation, Paxon high school? In 2010 Newsweek ranked them 8th, in 2011 170, sources at the school aren’t even sure if they will be an A school next year. The problem might be massive teacher turnover. Since the beginning of this school year 12 teachers have left, 1 transferred to a district position, 1 was fired and ten decided to leave what was formerly one of the most prestigious high schools in the nation. The problem however might be leadership.

Royce Turner formerly of Ribault high school, which had two Fs, and one D under his leadership, is now in charge at Paxon. What he did to merit the move is undetermined by the data, though Ribault has improved dramatically since he left earning a C grade this year and they did it without getting rid of students.

Then perhaps the biggest example of being promoted where performance doesn’t matter might be the districts director of Turn-Around Schools Tony Bellamy. After leading First Coast in the wrong direction. Mr. Bellamy was promoted to a district position where eventually he found himself in charge of the intervene schools. The school board had such faith in the job he had done that last year they voted to give the intervene schools and two million dollars away to the education management organization, Education Directions rather than let him continue to be in charge.

These are examples of leaders who are in very important positions who have mixed results at best, some might suggest the evidence seems to indicate they have risen far above their abilities. Though where does leadership stop? It stops at the top and perhaps of all the leaders we have here in the county the superintendent is struggling the most.

Stay tuned to see what happens next with these administrators, reassighnemnets or promotions.