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Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Thank you Carol Daniels for ruining First Coast high school (rough draft)

Carol Daniels despite being there for just one semester absolutely ruined First Cast high school or that's the impression you might have got after tonight's community meeting at First Coast high school.

First Coast had made some real progress under Vincent Hall so much so that two years ago Superintendent Vitti moved him to Raines high school to work his magic. He brought in Carol Daniels to replace him. She however lasted only a semester as Vitti thought what he called the systems that she put in place weren't serving the school. So in January of 2014 he brought in Brennan.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2014-01-13/story/duval-superintendent-makes-principal-changes-mid-year

Things have gone arguably off the cliff under Brennan, who has been there for the last year and a half, Over forty staff members have left, many veterans who helped Dr. Hall make First Coast an A school, though Vitti and Brennan don't think that number is very alarming. The school grade dropped, all the scores dropped in fact, only 29 percent of teachers on the climate survey said it was a good place to teach and learn and literaly hundreds of members of the community complained.  

Despite all of above it was Daniels who was given the lion's share of the blame for the problems that have occurred since Dr. Hall left by Vitti.

Vitti did say at one point if I wouldn't have moved Hall then we wouldn't be having this meeting and the hundreds of community members present agreed with but the vast majority of these members weren't pointing their fingers at Carol Daniels, they were doing so at principal Brennan.

The thing is it wasn't Daniels or Brennan, despite how incredibly bad Brennan has been who should be blamed for the problems at First Coast instead Vitti needs to own them.

6 comments:

  1. So Vitti threw Daniels under the bus to protect Brennan? Because God knows he can't admit he was wrong about Brennan. Daniels was so bad that if made her successor, Brennan, look bad? Does Vitti have a mancrush on Brennan now?

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  2. At this point, who is the right person to turn FCHS around? Who has the right demeanor and the finesse needed to get those kids under control and get the bad eggs out of there? I totally agree that Brennan isn't the answer - but who is??
    If Addison Davis was still a principal he could do it, but he's big and we don't really have anyone like him in our district that I am aware of.

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    1. Please! Addison Davis is a kiss up and could not run a school to save his life.

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  3. Dang....I feel compelled to defend Ms Daniels. First off, Ms Daniels had a reputation for being a hard-ass. Some of the staff cowered in fear, and a few left before she came. After several weeks it became clear, she wasn't that bad. She was a little standoff-ish at first and definitely had a no nonsense attitude, but she cared about her teachers and the well being of the students and the school. I was somewhat swayed by what I had initially heard regarding Ms Daniels, but what I found instead was a genuine warmth. She was 'real'. You knew what she wanted and why.

    Ms Daniel's would have been a fine Principal for First Coast High School, and a far sight better than the psycho Vitti says is one of the best.

    "THAT'S DR VITTI, HAVE SOME RESPECT !" (sorry...you had to be there)

    The reality about Ms Daniels is likely something very different. Someone political as Vitti doesn't just throw anyone under the bus like that in front of God and everybody unless he could care less about their reputation. Ms Daniels was already demoted from her Executive Director job when she was assigned to First Coast, then moved to a smaller school after that. That is less money followed by less money. Pack your bags followed by pack your bags, and all with little or no warning (that I know of, she's not the type to say).

    Vitti (THAT"S DR VITTI) has done everything thing, except wrongful termination, to make Ms Daniels resign. My only question is "who the heck did she offend?" Was it Vitti himself, or was it one of the few existing people from the District who Vitti used as an insider to secure intell he would otherwise not be privy to?

    The bottom line is this...Carol Daniels did not ruin First Coast in her short four months as Principal. The reality is that Brennen in that same amount of time completely destroyed teacher morale and undermined the confidence of the parents and the community. He should have been removed at the end of last year.

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  4. Ms. Daniels is one of the finest principals I have ever had the privilege of working for. Clearly her (likely) refusal to properly kowtow to Vitti pissed him off. She deserves much better than this bullshit.

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  5. Yeah, Daniels clearly pissed somebody off. DCPS is brutal when it comes to retaliation. You can never do your time; they'll harass you for years until you quit. No forgiveness, only unrelenting torture.

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