How things have not changed for the better in Duval County

This was a comment on another post but I think it exemplifies how our county has been hijacked. My biggest frustration is we could be doing so much better. -cpg

Over a quarter century ago, I began teaching in this district. At that time, there were two people that supervised elementary schools, Dr Snyder and Ken Emanuel. One person supervised high schools, Jim Regans. One person supervised elementary staffing, one person supervised secondary staffing, one person supervised HR. One person supervised each subject are discipline taught in schools. These administrators were paid more in line with the salary of a high school principal. No Shultz center or its staff. We met at schools for professional development. No PR staff, The attorney handled it. All offices were out of a the district office or later in the early 90s, some moved to a school. I believe there were only about 5 assistant superintendents. All the remaining staff personnel were certificated personnel were on the salary scale as teachers. Most supervisory staff had over 20 years in the school system and came up through the ranks. Very few were out of county not alone new to the profession. Outside of legal, financial, and facilities all were educators with education credentials to prove it.

Not now.

That is why there are so many failed policies and practices in place now. Now serving themselves and justifing their positions takes precidence of serving the children of the community. They keep the public at bay through grade inflation, grade recovery, non enforcment of the code of student conduct. They place students in classes that they do not need or want, teaching them little, and using this statistical maneuvering to bolster their school grade with classes shallow in content, but high title. This is apparent with classes such as an algebra 2 honors class which has less content and accountability than the standard algebra 1 class of 25 years ago. It is now the business model.

It is being corrupted to the magnituded of the for profit schools and wall street hedge fund bankers. This is what happens when self centered people enter a selfless profession. They manipulate data to give the appearance of success, when in reality students are awarded diplomas not worth the paper it is printed on. They justify their position by implementing programs sold to them and upon the failure of the program, they reduce the accountability of the students to maintain the appearance of success or redefine what success is or even what the academic discipline such as algebra 2 is.