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Thursday, February 11, 2021

The year before Pratt-Dannals was fired he got stellar reviews.

I mention this because the school board recently rated superintendent Greene highly effective, a sentiment I don’t think the majority of staff and, at this point, families would agree with. I have a different take than the school board one that comes from being in the classroom and doing the novel thing of actually talking to teachers, and that is she needs to be thanked for her service and shown the door.     

Pratt-Dannals, during the financial crisis, declared a financial emergency, which did a lot of things, including freezing teacher salary. When the board found out the district was sitting on 120 million dollars, he didn’t last long. Unfortunately, they never made teachers whole and reinstated their step, you know, because never miss an opportunity to &#$% teachers when you can. 

Something similar happened this year. It is true the state did the district no favors. Still, instead of letting veteran teachers know they care, the district decided to just go along with their horrible mistreatment, all while having about 15 million extra in reserves and refusing to read the room. The district didn’t need to rush to %@#$ them. They could have let things play out, which despite the pandemic, will be favorable. There has been some talk of circling back around to take care of vets, but the blatant disrespect can never be washed away.     

Then let's just look at February 2021, the last ten days. 

They rolled out a ham-fisted and tone-deaf social media campaign, “Take off the mask,” which, including being incredibly inappropriate, has led to at least one student walkout and, if media reports are correct many threats of violence. 

They are encouraging parents to send their kids into schools to take a practice test, a @#&$ing PRACTICE TEST!?! You know, risk your health, and possibly more so staff can give, and kids can take a practice test that many think have no real value.  

Both of these are just more examples of how the district is pretending the pandemic is not a thing.  

Then for a cherry on top, the district had to send out a clarifying email, telling principals to stop forcing teachers to give up their planning, which for many has been cut this year. Not asking for volunteers but forcing because that wasn’t clear the first time around. As far as I can tell, there has not been an apology or any compensation, just a, we got caught, so we aren’t going to do it anymore.     

Friends, this is just the last TEN DAYS!!!!! 

Her leadership since the pandemic began has been an unmitigated disaster, that is the long and short of it.  

To read the school board's review, and I rate their leadership right up there with Greene’s, click the link. 

 https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/education/2021/02/09/duval-schools-superintendent-diana-greene-rated-highly-effective/4459242001/ 

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