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Saturday, November 19, 2016

Duval, not how good districts are run

Duval has some issues and I think we would all agree on that. I believe one of the issues that stops us from addressing other issues is how we are run, below I am going to give you five examples of things that have occurred recently, and they don't happen in districts that are run correctly.

Many paras were paid two weeks early after they had already been paid. Was it a bonus many asked only to be told nope, and now you are going to have to budget better because we're going to skip your next check. Did paras get less money than they would have? No, but for many this early check isn't going to be a favor.  

The district is under investigation. Children that attended F or D schools had to be offered slots at higher performing schools. The district decided to instead change some of those schools so families could no longer send their kids to them, into magnets, or k-2 schools. Some people might remember that the day before school began, the district sent out a letter which undoubtedly was going to confuse parents, the districts response was, hey first days are always confusing.

Well now the state is investigating if we actually fulfilled our obligations or not.

http://www.news4jax.com/education/state-investigating-duval-county-students-continuing-to-attend-failing-schools

Then teachers are required to review their accountability lists, to make sure they aren't responsible for kids they never see. The union was on this quick and told its members to make sure they were reviewing their lists. A lot of the schools not so much as they didn't tell their teachers to get this done and ultimately the district had to extend the deadline.

All of above didn't really affect children but the next two did.

Late surpluses, we are well into the second nine weeks and staffs should be set, but some schools are still surplussing teachers, which causes other teachers to pick up their class loads and students to have to switch classes and not always into just a different section but sometimes into an entirely different class too.

Then there are students who are just being told they have to switch classes, we expect a level of confusion the first couple weeks but not well into the second nine weeks when schedules should be set. Maybe the district could chalk this up to individual problems at individual schools but shouldn't the district be making sure those problems aren't happening?

I am reminded of the old saying, the devil is in the details, meaning the details of a matter are its most problematic aspect. Well friends Duval certainly has problems and a big one is not taking care of the details. 

7 comments:

  1. C'mon Chris, Addison had a campaign to run. And now that he's leaving, we'll get a third chief to run the schools under the super super. Given the big shifts that took place when Davis took over from Heid, who knows what will happen. Maybe Vitti is going to promote that TNTP chick he brought in as Assistant Superintendent of Strategic Planning.

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    1. I am thinking Irenetta Wright. Won't she be fun for principals to work for? They would get to hear all about her everytime they meet. Yea!

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    2. She would be awesome! She would talk about why she is good for the job and her experience as a regional director for Mary Kay.

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  2. Saw the story about Atlantic Coast on Action News. They said that all schedule changes were complete now and all teachers were in place, but that's BS. Their still looking for an English teacher so there will be alot more schedule changes still. We're half way through the second quarter now.

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  3. Who is ASSP? Kriznar? She's from TNTP?

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    1. No she has been in Duval prior to Vitti. She was Principal at Kirby Smith at one point.

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  4. We had a dude who looked like he stepped out of a time machine from Dead Poet's Society show up to drop off a resume for an English position. Mid 2nd 9 weeks.

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