The Echo

Brent Batten: School Board strays from the matrix

By BRENT BATTEN
Naples Daily News
Posted September 10, 2010 at 3:45 p.m., updated September 11, 2010 at 5:35 p.m.

Collier County’s recent history with school superintendents makes one long for a tool, a method, a system to objectively measure performance and offer guidance so that emotion and agendas don’t govern the process.

Oddly enough, one exists, but community leaders who helped craft it wonder if it's being used and if it will survive the turmoil surrounding the impending departure of Superintendent Dennis Thompson.

Earlier this year, a collaborative effort between school board members, the school staff, Thompson and volunteers with Connect Now, a community group focused on improving education, resulted in an extensive matrix of measurable goals for Thompson.

It included five major goals, improving student achievement, developing a long-range strategic plan, enhancing internal and external communication and public engagement, designing and implementing professional development for staff, and managing resources effectively.

Within each goal is a set of objectives. For instance, under the goal of improving student achievement, one objective is “Increase the percentage of students in grades 1-5 proficient in math as measured by the district math assessment test by 5 percent.”

That seems pretty cut and dried. Either the percentage is up 5 percent or it’s not. The school system’s statisticians report that the goal was easily met. Yet one school board member gave the superintendent an unsatisfactory mark, two said the superintendent met expectations, one said he exceeded expectations and one didn’t weigh in at all.

Under one reading comprehension objective, statistics showed Thompson did not meet the goal yet Board Member Steve Donovan gave the superintendent a passing mark. “Even though the goal was not met, there was significant student growth in some fields and fell just short of meeting expectations,” Donovan wrote in comments. So falling just short of the goal equals meeting expectations?

The knocks against Thompson largely centered on a perception of intimidation from the top of the district hierarchy. The evaluation matrix attempted to quantify that through surveys of teachers and administrative staff. To the question, “I am encouraged to collaborate with other teachers and district leaders,” 82 percent of teachers either agreed or strongly agreed. To, “Administrators listen to my concerns,” 73 percent either agreed or strongly agreed. Twelve percent either disagreed or strongly disagreed.

But the “intimidation” argument put forth by leaders of the teachers’ union who said they could not provide specifics for fear of bringing retaliation on their members carried the day.

Board member Roy Terry cited the way Thompson was hired on the heels of the unceremonious ouster of former Superintendent Ray Baker as one reason for not renewing Thompson’s contract.

That and the spectacle of grinning union leaders high-fiving after the vote to let Thompson go run counter to the efforts of so many who tried to bring objectivity to the process, said Alan Horton, chairman of the Connect Now effort. He and others worry that the goal matrix will fall by the wayside and Collier County will stick with its tradition of hiring and firing superintendents on whims and feelings. “Those metrics are needed,” Horton said. “Let’s have that blueprint in place for whoever the superintendent is.”
The school board’s sporadic adherence to the matrix when evaluating Thompson is particularly worrisome since the board was behind its creation. “Either you put a tool in place, or you don’t,” said Chuck Mohlke, a Connect Now participant. “All that work, I hope, doesn’t go for naught.”

Connect Now Vice Chariwoman Kathleen Passidomo was busy preparing to take her seat as a newly elected state representative as the Thompson drama unfolded last month and said she wasn’t paying close attention. But she affirmed that the board was behind the effort to quantify the superintendent’s performance. “They wholeheartedly endorsed the Connect Now process and said they would not put it on a shelf,” she recalled.

Since we’re talking about schools, what letter grade would the board get for its process of evaluating Thompson?

“I wouldn’t give them a C. I might give them a grade lower than that,” Mohlke said.