Fifteen years ago today, on what would have been my dad’s 56th birthday (Happy Birthday, dad, I miss you), under a window-rattling thunder clap, the most beautiful woman in the city said “I do” when asked if she would marry me.

The thunder was a nice touch. Even the gods were celebrating the union of soul-mates. Or maybe they were just warning this amazing woman away from the guy with the Flock of Seagulls haircut. (Jeez, dude it was THE NINETIES already! What were you thinking? At least the tie was real . . .)

Our First Family

Ah Huntsville, know how to welcome a guy to town. Despite the storm that made getting to the Weeden House for the reception a little soggy, the day was the best of my life because she decided to spend the rest of her life with me.

I suppose the blessing we received from Jeebus and the EggBeaters musta worked.

__________

I am a lucky man.

Nearly every day of the past fifteen years I’ve been allowed to laugh, hold, cook, build, cry, and fall in love with all over again with my best friend.

I am a lucky man.

When I’m worried, she brings me comfort.

When I’m melancholy, she brings me laughter.

When I am totally batshit crazy, she grounds me and loves me back to reality.

When I’m off chasing an obsession (I’m looking at you HCS), she gives me boldness and reminds me to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all (Re-WHAT-alous?)

When I’m so focused on the inner monologue (that often has a thousand voices), she sings to me, piercing the cacophony, and draws me back out of myself.

I owe her everything.

I am a loved man, and for that, I am amazed.

I love you, sweetie. Thank you for being my partner in this crazy, wonderful life.

r

The post Maybe I’m Amazed appeared first on Geek Palaver.

If you’ve driven by Mountain Gap School recently, you’ve no doubt noticed the construction vehicles on campus.   In one area of the campus, equipment is reshaping the lot to improve drainage and all asphalt surfaces are receiving a new skin.   A large sign on the front lawn of the school declares that the activity is “Progress through Education” and those of us who have been monitoring the actions of the Huntsville City Schools have to be wondering “What Progress?” and “What exactly are we learning?”

Over the past several weeks, we’ve learned much about the HCS system.   We’ve learned that the administration has been inept when it comes to fiscal responsibility, having established a plan for growth when the grown hasn’t been demonstrated or projected.  We’ve learned that the administration had enough demographic data to justify building new schools, but not enough to know which ones to close, causing them to hire external experts to the tune of $75K to feed data we already had back to us.  We’ve learned that despite having a CFO which reported budget concerns in 2009 and despite warnings from hired consultants starting as far back as 2005, this administration continued on a path of unabated spending.  We’ve learned that throughout all of this, the school board has seemed unable or unwilling to reign in their administration.

So, the “progress” that is apparently being demonstrated is the type that puts us $20MM in debt.   You’d think that after having to deal with such indebtedness to the point where we have to embarrassingly hire outside help to ward off a takeover by the state, our administration would have learned their lessons, right?   Yet, here we are spending $150K for a new parking lot at Mountain Gap School.

This is the same Mt. Gap School currently on the cut list offered up by Dr. Richardson and Dr. Wilson (said outside help) when the demographer’s report was published.

Now before you start to think this is an article meant to bash a new parking lot for an established school, let me assure you that if Mt. Gap School is kept, I fully support the maintenance of the property.   The point of this article is to show that when HCS is concerned, long-range planning means “What am I doing after lunch?”  Before committing $150K for a parking lot, I would kinda like to know that the school is actually going to be there.  But the leadership in Huntsville City Schools seems incapable of putting much thought into their actions.   As reports were being developed over the years that showed budgetary issues, the leadership committed to spend over $750K to develop plans for yet another new school (Dec., 2010).  This came only a few weeks after the first RIF (Oct., 2010) meant to address the budget shortfall.  Even during recent Q/A’s with the public regarding the financial mess we’re in and the plans for closing schools, Dr. Moore still held that building a new school might be necessary  (Q: Has there been any discussion of opening additional schools?  A: Moore stated that we may need a new middle school in the Providence area).  Apparently we still haven’t learned our lesson.

During this time, we’ve demonstrated how inept at finances we are by:

• Paying $600/day for a consultant to do our job
• Paying $75K for a report containing data we already have
• Paying $198K for a superintendent we’ve already fired
• Paying $112K for a CFO, who isn’t our CFO

If the past months have taught us anything, it’s that the Huntsville City Schools have spent less time focusing on education and more time on damage control.  Let’s hope that our new Superintendent has a much clearer long-term vision.  Let’s hope that he has the fortitude to insist that a budget be balanced and that growth is well thought out (some might say “planned”) and controlled.   Otherwise, instead of “Progress through Education”, the sign might read “Regress through Spending”.

The post HCS: Progress through Education?–David S. appeared first on Geek Palaver.

For starters, keep in mind that whatever I post tonight is going to be inadequate; frankly nearly every question asked over the past two weeks has gone unanswered. These are just a few highlights as night turns into day.

1. Why has David Blair only attended one of the School Closing Meetings? (Huntsville High. He was at the board meeting at Columbia, but after the press returned to the closing meeting, I didn’t see Blair again. While we’re at it, why hasn’t Mr. Blair offered any response to those data questions I asked him two and a half weeks ago?) Really though, these are minor questions. I’m sure that Mr. Blair had some very important meetings to attend for the past two and a half weeks. Let’s move on to some real questions.
2. Why didn’t Dr. Steve Salmon manage to attend even one of the five community meetings to address questions that seemingly only he could answer? Again, while we’re at it, what was Dr. James Wilson’s actual involvement in the creation of the report before the community meetings. At the June 2nd meeting, he was presented as Dr. Salmon’s assistant. (Of course this was when were were paying Gude Management Group, LLC. to create the report. Now we’re paying Education Planners, LLC for Dr. Wilson’s services.) Come to find out, when you look at Education Planners website, you see that Dr. Salmon actually works for Dr. Wilson. Why do I feel like I’m watching at three card monte game on a street corner? Why am I convinced that the whole city is being scammed?
3. Why do the demographers consistently refuse to discuss their methodology and the guidelines they received in developing this report? Interestingly, in January of this year, Bonvillian of the Huntsville Times reported that 11 schools in Huntsville are operating below 60 percent capacity benchmark that the state placed on Huntsville City Schools earlier that month. This study by the Times was based on 2008 data, but didn’t cost the system $75,000. Notice some of the quotes form the board members in that article: Blair said, “Butler is one of the obvious schools for discussion.” Birney followed up by saying, “We’ve known about Butler for years. It just doesn’t look like anything we suggest to keep it going is taken seriously.” Morrison offered this comment concerning Butler: “I doubt that we’ll close the building. We may put another school in there with it, but I don’t think we’ll close it.” Birney and Blair both claimed that they were most surprised by Mt. Gap’s numbers. McCaulley, speaking about smaller schools like Monte Sano said, ”We have to factor in the size of the school. It may be that a smaller school is not effective for the whole system.” No, Dr. Richardson, there’s no evidence whatsoever that the board directed the demographer to produce any results in the report. For the record, this article was published on January 16, 2011. On January 19, 2011, Mayor Battle sent a letter to the Board offering to pay Dr. Salmon of Georgia the $75,000 fee.
4. Why was the new Lee High built if demographics “prove” that the old Lee High was operating well below capacity? In fact, if you take the extra 1,000 seats found at the old Lee High out of the equation, then suddenly, HCS is operating only 4,500 seats below capacity in 10 years. If you factor Butler into that equation, suddenly we’re down to just 3,500 seats below capacity in 10 years. Two schools and we’ve found 36% of the capacity problem. (Again, assuming that these “very real, exact data” is actually real or exact.)
5. If the demographer’s report is looking at capacity issues ten years out, why does the report only include data and capacity from Old Lee High and not New Lee High?
6. Why are we spending $40,000,000 to build the New Lee High when we’re $20 million (no, $18.5 million . . . er, $15.5 million . . . whatever, WE’RE IN DEBT) in debt? Well when we decided to build New Lee in 2009 we didn’t know we were in debt. Right? No one could have predicted this or seen this coming. Right?
7. Why does Richardson constantly claim that the Huntsville City School Board must decide which schools to close before we can consider any specific data concerning the impact of the closings on academic achievement, actual cost savings, realignment issues, transportation issues, or really anything other than questionable demographic data?
8. Why, if Richardson is correct that we will be a healthy financially in two years without closing schools, are we even considering closing schools? According to his latest numbers, Richardson believes Huntsville City Schools is $15.5 million in debt. If you talk into consideration other cost saving measures he introduced on Thursday, June 16th, you can knock that number down to an even $14 million. On April 21, 2011, Richardson recommended and the board approved personnel cuts in the amount of $23,089,027. In other words, with those personnel cuts and the other million or so Richardson keeps finding, we’re already looking at nearly a $10 million dollar surplus.
9. Why can’t we know what will happen to New Century once it is moved to Lee High before the board decides to move it to Lee High?
10. Why does Dr. Richardson continue to insult parents by stating that “all parents want high standards until their kid brings home a D?”

As I said, these are just a few of the unanswered questions that remain after the five public hearings. Please feel free to add more in the comments below.

The post Unanswered Questions: Huntsville City Schools Closing appeared first on Geek Palaver.

On the last night of both Dr. Moore’s and Dr. Richardson’s tenure, the school board continued to hear recommendations from Dr. Richardson that they should ignore “any complaints that you hear about my recommendations.” Particularly complaints from parents.

Isn’t this at least part of the reason that we find ourselves in a mess?

As those making recommendations to the board are not required to actually distribute their recommendations to the public before the meeting starts, what follows are simply my quickly taken notes. They are likely incomplete.

Dr. Richardson recommended the follow action items to the board:

• Reduction of Huntsville City Schools vehicles from 109 down to about 56. Madison County will maintain the remaining fleet of vehicles. He has previously stated that this will save approximately $1.2 million dollars.
• Altering the system’s cell phone contracts and better managing who has a cell phone and why. Richardson claims that this will save approximately $32,000.
• Maintain the non-tenured employees who were laid off, but who will be rehired (evidently they already know who these people are), at the same salary level they were employed at before being dismissed. This will cost the system $77,000, but Richardson believes it’s a justifiable and reasonable cost. He added that he had to run the numbers five times before he believed he had accurate numbers. (Why exactly would determining salaries require running numbers five times? Again, we have no reason to trust any of the numbers that come out of the central office. This may be the first and last time that Richardson has recommended something that I agree with. These teachers should be paid at the level they were paid last year. Frankly, if we know by June 16th that we’re going to re-hire them, why were they laid off in the first place? Also, Richardson has shown remarkable persistence in getting precise numbers where $77,000 is concerned. Why hasn’t he shown similar persistence in getting precise numbers for the closings he’s recommended?
• Transportation Efficiencies Recommendations:
  • Increase the runs each bus makes from one to two. As the cost is approximately $50,000 per year for one or two runs, two cut the transportation costs in half.
  • Reduce the number of monitors from 55 down to ten. This will save approximately $45,000 per year. Here he claimed that due to a coding error in how some special needs students were labeled, the system lost $400,000. I suspect that these are funds that could have been reimbursed to the system had the coding error not occurred, but he did not go into sufficient detail
  • He doesn’t recommend any cuts in insurance because, as he says, the moment you cut insurance is the moment you discover you need it. While a witty statement, he provides no evidence supporting this recommendation.
  • He has requested that Elementary school begin at 7:30am instead of 8:00am. Again, while recommending a staggered schedule that would require elementary parents to begin their day a half hour earlier, Richardson insists that the board should ignore any statements from parents of inconvenience.

Dr. Richardson closed out his final board meeting by thanking and praising Dr. Ann Roy Moore’s leadership and willingness to work with him on, among many other things, closing down 21% of our schools.

Really, that moment of zen is about all you need to know about the tenure of Dr. Richardson at Huntsville City Schools.

In addition to these recommendations, the board also voted to extend the contract of Dr. James Wilson of Education Planners, LLC, the “stand-in” demographer for Dr. Steve Salmon of both Eduction Planners and the GUDE Management Group, LLC (to whom we’ve paid $70,000 for their flawed recommendations), at a rate of $500.00 per day.

(For an excellent page by page review of the report, please see “Huntsville City Schools 2011 Debacle, Part 1. What $70,000 + Buys These Days” and “Huntsville City Schools 2011 Debacle, Part 2: What $70,000+ Buys These Days, cont’d.” Havealittletalk rips the report to shreds. Not only should we refuse to follow these recommendations for closing, but we should also demand our money back.)

There was no clear explanation offered as to why since we paid Dr. Salmon and GUDE Management, we should now pay Wilson and Education Planners instead. What, did the $70k not cover someone coming to the meetings to discuss the recommendations?

They, of course, approved the $175,000 contract for Dr. Wardynski. You may view the actual contract here. Excluding the salary, it strikes me as fairly typical

Finally as reported in the Huntsville Times today, the fired principal of Butler High, Jacqueline Wyse, has been moved up to the central office to serve as a “reading specialist.” Ms. Wyse will, for the next two years, receive her principal’s salary while offering “specialized” recommendations concerning reading.

As I predicted, the Board did not allow any time for public comments in the board meeting.

Allow me to offer two pieces of advise to the board should they wish to try and regain the public’s trust:

1. Stop ignoring, interfering with, and silencing public comments. We are your employers. We have the right to be heard by you.
2. From now own, when you receive a specific report at a public meeting, share that report with the public in writing.

This isn’t that difficult, nor does it have to be expensive (although, seriously, you just paid $70,000 for a PowerPoint that copied slides from the Chamber, BRAC, and the City; you have no right to complain about money). You could just post it on the web with the agenda. This would allow the public to actually follow your actions. For example, I attended the meeting and took extensive notes, but I didn’t know Ms. Wyse had a new job until I read it in the Times.

Of course, publishing the recommendations and reports will also allow the public to follow your actions. You, of course, have no problem with this. Right?

With few exceptions, I have found the board to be remarkably accessible. Most of them, most of the time go out of their way to talk to the public. I have personally had many extended conversations with both Mr. Birney (or Topper as he was kind enough to offer) and Dr. Robinson my board representative (Jennie). I have found them both to be ready and willing to email, call, and even meet with an individual parent when the parent needs to discuss something. I’m please to report that they do not seem to be willing to follow Richardson’s recommendations of ignoring the public at least privately.

However Dr. Robinson’s has been the most vocal supporters on cutting public comments out of public meetings, and their refusal to publish the actual reports they are receiving and approving will alway leave the public wondering what they are hiding; thus, leading directly to a loss of faith in their leadership.

Either way, godspeed, Dr. Richardson. I’m sure you’ll be happy to return to a system where consultants aren’t paid $600.00 per day to tell your school board not to listen to your issues with their plans.

The post Richardson’s Final Official Recommendations to the Huntsville City Schools Board appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Updated Below:

Tonight, (June 16th) the Huntsville City Schools Board of Education will convene their bi-weekly meeting beginning at 5:30pm at Columbia High School Auditorium (300 Explorer Blvd.). Please make every effort to attend this meeting and the School Closing meeting that will follow.

Although the board has not yet posted their agenda for the evening, they have announced that it will include a vote on Dr. Wardynski’s contract of $175,000 per year for three years. Additionally, Dr. Richardson has been announcing at the school closing meetings that he will bring at least two items before the board tonight as well: he will recommend the extension of the Demographer’s contract (Dr. Salmon is employed by Gude Management. Gude Management has already received $75,000 for the Demographer’s report.), and Richardson has stated that he has found an addition $1.5 million or so cuts that he is recommending to the board.

As the School Closing Meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:30pm, it would be astonishing if they actually allowed public comments during the board meeting about these items. As the board members have merely been attending the closing meetings (and not participating in them), they should allow public comments on all three. The school closing meeting should have been rescheduled to accommodate the board meeting. As it was not, I can only deduce that the board will be pleased to be able to claim that their meeting can last only an hour. It’s nice to have political cover.

This non-responsiveness to public comments and opinions is becoming a pattern. As public interest increases, their willingness to allow public participation in the process has decreased. But that’s a posting for another day.

Here’s what I believe will happen tonight: The board will quickly hear and approve the exorbitant salary for Dr. Wardynski. They will then hear and approve whatever recommendations Dr. Richardson chooses to bring before them. They will not allow public comment on any of these decisions. The meeting will be promptly adjourned at 6:30pm to allow for the school closing meeting to begin. At that time, the board members will quietly take their seats in the back of the auditorium and allow their consultants to field the questions about the flawed demographer’s report.

It’s nice to have political cover when making unpopular and more importantly unfounded decisions.

Regardless of the sense of inevitability that the board is attempting to infuse into the school closing process, you should still come out and make your voice heard. While Dr. Richardson is suggesting that additional meetings about the closings will should be held in the future, his contract with the board will end at the end of the month of June. In other words, this may be your next to the last chance to speak out on the issue of school closings.

Take advantage of it.

(If you cannot attend, and as it is unlikely that the board meeting will be televised as it is in a new location, I will be live-tweeting both meetings. You may follow me on twitter @russwinn if you are interested.)

Update #1:

ETV will be broadcasting the Board meeting tonight at 5:30pm. They will not be broadcasting the School Closing Meeting that will immediately follow the board meeting. (No, it doesn’t make sense to me either.) If you can’t attend the board meeting, please tune in to Comcast Channel 17 or Knology Channel 71 at 5:30pm.

The post School Board and School Closing Meeting Tonight appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Last night Dr. Richardson and Dr. Wilson, the assistant demographer, conducted the third of five meetings at Johnson High School to discuss the closing of up to nine schools in Huntsville City. The number of community members in attendance was slightly larger than those seen at Huntsville High and Grissom High last week, but the auditorium was still not full.

In addition to empty seats from parents, Dr. Moore, Mr. Blair and Ms. Morrison were also not in attendance.

The meeting began again with an abbreviated demographer’s report presentation by Dr. Wilson and then proceeded to questions from the floor. Despite a marked increase in non-responsive answers from Richardson and Wilson, the concerned citizens present seemed to go out of their way to be polite to the panel.

Here is a summary of the questions that were asked. Please note that these are simply my incomplete notes from the meeting. If others have a clearer memory of questions that I did not record, please share them in the comments section below. Also, I do live-tweet these meetings, so if you wish to see my initial reaction to the questions and answers, please follow russwinn on twitter.

Q&A

• Q: What were the specific guidelines given to the demographer concerning the approach he should take in conducting his study?
• A: Wilson stated, “As I am not the demographer, I cannot answer that question.” Richardson added that the demographer was hired before he was, so he too is unable to answer this question. He went on to claim that he “believed the board would have further opportunities for public input after this process were completed.”
• Additionally, Richardson is planning to recommend on Thursday that the board extend the contract to Dr. Salmon and Dr. Wilson so that they may continue to collect data to share with the board. This statement was greeted with groans from the crowd.

As they seemed unwilling to even attempt to answer this question, I recommend that we ask it again at future meetings.

• Q: What is your current plan for addressing the changes in transportation these recommendations will bring?
• A: Wilson stated, “We currently do not have a plan to address these changes. The decisions concerning the closings will have to be made first.”

As with a specific details concerning the financial basis for closing schools, zoning questions, feeder schools and transportation concerns will not be addressed until after the board makes it’s decision. This is their stock answer to these types of questions.

• Q: As the decline in enrollment at West Mastin Lake and the overcrowding at Providence are both directly related to previous attendance zoning decisions made by the board, why aren’t you simply recommending re-zoning these two schools rather than the closing of West Mastin Lake?
• A: Wilson, “I’m not sure I follow you.” After the question was explained, Wilson responded that changes to the attendance zones are the primary way of addressing overcrowding, but those decisions will not be made until after the board has arrived at it’s decision.

Again, the community has offered a clear recommendation to avoid closing a school. The stock response from Dr. Wilson and Dr. Richardson is that while they agree that re-zoning is a clear solution to the problem, those decisions will have to wait until after the schools are closed.

• Q: What are the reasons that Huntsville City Schools are in a financial mess?
• A: Dr. Richardson offered a three part answer. First he stated that the proration the state has experienced in the past three years is worse than he’s ever seen. (Of course, every other system in the state also faced proration.) Second, Personnel and Transportation costs are too high which has resulted in significant cuts to both. Third, he stated, “And we’ve discovered that there is a problem in the coding of special education students that the state is allowing us to correct. This coding error has resulted in an overestimate of approximately $3 million dollars. So, the deficit that we thought was $18.5 million is actually only $15.5 million.”

Please see my comments on this statement on yesterday’s post, “Lost Faith: We Don’t Even Know How Much We Owe.”

• Q: What factors other than demographics will be considered before the closing decision is made?
• A: Dr. Wilson claims that the demographer’s report “is key” to the decision, but budget is also important.

In case you didn’t catch it, Dr. Wilson’s “answer” was that there are no other factors that will be considered before the board makes it’s decision.

• Q: As The Academy for Science and Foreign Language is currently located in the Davis Hills building, how will ASFL be affected by the closing of Davis Hills Middle School
• A: Dr. Wilson claimed to be aware that this was the case and stated that ASFL would neither be closed nor moved.

In case you are unaware, ASFL and Davis Hills are indeed connected.

He offered no explanation how closing half a school would be accomplished or would actually save money.

• Q: Where are the central office cuts?
• A: Dr. Richardson claimed that certainly central office cuts are the first place you look for cuts as they create the least disruption upon the students. He followed by saying, “We’ve made some minor cuts so far, but I suspect that further cuts will come in the future.”

So cuts to the central office, despite being the first place one looks for cuts, will also have to wait until after schools are closed.

• Q: Why are you closing inner city schools when you’re building new schools in new developments?
• A: Wilson stated that there was “no consideration given in the demographer’s report to developers.” Richardson followed up by stating that you build where the students are.

Does anyone else see those two responses as contradictory?

• Q: I‘ve examined your demographer’s report closely and there are many errors contained in it. Simply put, “the data is flawed.” As such, I suspect that many of the recommendations made here were “predetermined” by the board before the report was made to the board.
• A: Dr. Wilson stated, “Our data is very accurate. It is the interpretation the questioner has placed upon the data that is flawed.” Dr. Richardson went on to claim that the board was not influential in predetermining the report offered by the demographer. The recommendations for closings are based on the data. He further added that they will be adding addition census data to the report once that data is released.

Dr. Richardson claimed in an earlier response that he could not answer what direction the board offered to the demographer as he was not here when the demographer was hired. Yet, here he claims that the board did not influence the demographer in any way. I wonder which answer is the correct one?

• Q: What will be done with the abandoned buildings?
• A: Dr. Richardson claims they will certainly attempt to sell many of the existing buildings, but as some of them are in residential areas that would likely prove difficult. Therefore he has requested a report from the director of facility maintenance on the feasibility of demolishing some of those schools to either allow for the creation of “green space” in a neighborhood or for sale to developers for new developments. This report will be shared soon.

This was brand new information and a different response from the one he offered last week. Last week he claimed that he had already looked into demolishing buildings and had found the costs associated with that to be prohibitive.

• Q: Butler has been in decline since the building and re-zoning for Columbia. There seems to be no interest in the school on the part of the board. Additionally, there is low student and less parent participation in the school.
• A: As this was phrased as a statement, the panel did not respond.

• Q: Is there data tracking the success rates of transfer students after the transfer?
• A: Dr. Richardson said that he would find this data and share it on the website.

• Q: Monte Sano is a success because of parental involvement. How will the closing of schools affect parental involvement? What is the average cost per student there?
• A: Richard stated that that data was on the web, but that the cost per student at Monte Sano was high. (It’s closer to the median which is $9,727) He agreed that parental involvement is crucial to success and stated that the small size of the school was driving the closing recommendation.

Dr. Richardson did not offer a response to the impact that closing neighborhood schools might have upon parental involvement. This is another significant affect of the closings that they have not considered.

• Q: Where are the new attendance zones so that we can compare the changes to the current ones.
• A: Dr. Wilson again claimed that, there are too many options in the report to offer attendance zone recommendations before the board makes it’s decision. Furthermore, he claimed that “It would not be helpful to offer demographics and attendance zone lines at the same time.”

Again, this is their stock response to questions that they don’t want to answer.

Now, for perhaps the second most enjoyable exchange of the evening:

• Q: What are the exact cost savings of the previous closings that have occurred in Huntsville. Why aren’t those numbers being used as a model for our current closing discussions rather than state averages?
• A: Dr. Richardson stated that “no one has asked this question before, so we’ll have to get that information to you later.” He then refused to offer specific data, but claimed that he would “look it up and post it on the web.”

Honestly, his response was that no one had asked for that data before. It’s a good thing we’re recording these meetings for him. I suppose he missed the five or so questions concerning that at Grissom, the multiple questions at Huntsville High, and even Dr. Richardson’s question concerning specific numbers at the board meeting on June 2nd. WOW.

Appropriately, the final question of the evening was much the same.

• Q: Can you tell us how much we’ve saved by closing schools in the past?
• A: Dr. Richardson responded, “I’ll get that for you.”

The meeting adjourned promptly at 8:30pm despite many people still wishing for the opportunity to speak.

The post Q&A: Huntsville City School Closing Meeting #3 Summary appeared first on Geek Palaver.

My friend Russell posted a great article detailing the costs associated with closure of a school.  In the article, he establishes that there is a significant impact to property values in areas served by public schools.  Many are left wondering, when there is such a downside to shuttering school buildings, why Huntsville City Schools would be closing schools.  The simple answer is the $40MM shortfall in the HCS budget but a deeper dive reveals that uncontrolled spending on new schools is the culprit.

Despite statistics readily available indicating that school enrollment has been flat for at least 15 years, the HCS system became intoxicated on the thought of new school buildings.

In the above you can see that student enrollment has been stagnant, at around 23,000 students give or take a thousand.   During that same time, and despite the fact that enrollment numbers actually trended downward, the HCS system went on a building spree, adding capacity for over 5300 more students, putting us nearly 10,000 students over the needed capacity.  Starting in the late 90’s with Hampton Cove, it appeared that any new housing development warranted its own shiny new school.

Even if one were to discount the construction costs of all the new schools (totaling over $114MM) which might be funded with specially allocated money, by using Dr. Richardson’s own numbers the yearly costs of these new schools is $3.4MM.   Warning signs of uncontrolled spending have existed for years, yet our administration and board have done nothing until it was nearly too late.

When looking at the proposed school closures in light of the school building spree of the past 10 years, one can’t help but see that the burden of the uncontrolled spending is being borne on the shoulders of the established communities in Huntsville.   Looking at a map of the HCS system you can see this distinction:

Whereas school construction has boomed around the newest subdivisions on the outskirts of Huntsville (the two green flags in the heart of the city represent existing schools that have been rebuilt: Lee and Blossomwood), all of the schools slated for closure exist around the established communities.   It’s understandable if people in these established communities feel as though they’re getting the short end of the stick.   After all, their property taxes have supported the new schools resulting from urban sprawl, none of which appear on the proposed closure list.   Instead, while the outlying subdivision property values have been enhanced by the building of new schools, the property values of the established communities will suffer as schools are closed.

None of this makes sense at all in light of Dr. Richardson’s statement that the present school crisis will be resolved within two years with his proposed plan.  Perhaps the blustering about unnecessary schools is an attempt to divert our attention from the real issue causing the underutilization.   As pointed out before, the population growth in Huntsville should result in comparable growth in the HCS system.  Yet, HCS enrollment is flat while other educational institutions like private schools and home schools see an increase in enrollments.   Below is a comparison of two large private schools in Huntsville and the HCS system:

Randolph and Westminster Christian Academy have seen growth over this time of 10% and 2.5% respectively, while HCS shows a growth rate of only 0.8%.  Is it possible that parents across Huntsville and those considering a move to Huntsville see the financial mismanagement, the mistreatment of certain classes of children, the inability to remove poor teachers, and the lack of accountability among the leadership as reasons to flee from public education to other alternatives?  Even in Huntsville, I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure this one out.

-David

The post The Great Huntsville City Schools Spending Spree appeared first on Geek Palaver.

I’m not a numbers guy. In fact, as dangerous as this is to mention in an engineering town, I hate math.

Hate it. That’s why most of my postings avoid mathematics. I’m an English guy, a philosophy guy, a religion guy, a liberal arts guy, but I’m not a math guy.

But sometimes, you’ve got to tread into the abyss to fight battles. So, “Once more, unto the breach, dear friends, once more.”

For some inestimable reason, the Board of Education, and particularly the itinerant consultants they’ve hired to provide them political cover, seem unconcerned that there is no educational justification being offered for the closing of our schools. Additionally, they seem unconcerned about any costs whatsoever excluding that those schools will save us $300,000, $500,000, and $700,000 per year if we close them. These are estimates that Richardson has pulled off the state department of education’s website. Probably took his secretary about 10 minutes to google. For this we’re paying him $600.00 per day. To get general, state averages, we’ve paid him $12,445.91. I hope the political cover is worth it.

(Of course that doesn’t come close to the $75,000 we’ve paid Dr. Salmon and Dr. Wilson to produce a PowerPoint from slides developed by BRAC, the Chamber, and the City, who, according to Wilson, were “amazingly helpful in providing us with data” that will help us close these schools.)

They are offering no educational justification for the closings. This alone should be enough for the city and the board to laugh them out of town. Sadly, it isn’t.

In addition to this oversight, these highly respected former superintendents are refusing to offer any specific financial justification for closing schools. Richardson believes that the 300, 500, and 700 numbers are “conservative” enough to convince us that he’s telling the truth. Never mind that we have already seen schools closed in this town and the promised savings have not come close to that amount. Richardson repeatedly claims that specific data cannot be developed until after the Board has made their decisions of which schools to close.

If we weren’t talking about the very future of our communities and our children’s lives, this keystone cop routine on display every Tuesday and Thursday for the next two weeks would be the greatest show on earth.

It would seem that Richardson’s only concern in this process is summed up in the following quote he offered a local news channel on Tuesday, June 7th: “I’ve never closed a school where somebody didn’t think it was a bad idea, but in this case we’re saving about two to three million dollars.”

“Two to Three Million Dollars”

That’s what we’re being promised. No specifics. Just a nice round figure.

Let’s assume for a moment that our past experience with the closing of Stone Middle and Lincoln Elementary are not valid. Let’s assume that Richardson’s estimates are completely trustworthy. Does saving 2-3 million dollars justify closing 21% of the schools in the system (9 of 42)? Richardson certainly seems to think it does, yet, as we’ve already seen, he doesn’t seem to like details. They would, as he said to Dr. Robinson on June 2nd, simply confuse us.

I’m not a numbers guy, but these numbers weren’t that hard to come up with. Since Richardson does consider himself a numbers guy (who hates specific numbers), I offer the following information concerning the impact closing a school has upon a community.

“How Much Is a Neighborhood School Worth?”

In 1999, two researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio published the follow study: “How Much Is a Neighborhood School Worth?” in the Journal of Urban Economics. Bogart and Cromwell make the case that closing a neighborhood school reduces property values by nearly 10%.

Ten percent of your home gone based upon the recommendation of a man who’s own home remains unaffected by his recommendations.

The median home value in the city of Huntsville in 2009 was $155,500. The recommended closings affect nearly every area and region of Huntsville City. Thus, these recommendations will cost nearly 10% of the value of the homes in nearly every region of the city.

According to the City of Huntsville there are approximately 75,000 homes in Huntsville. Assuming that 21% of the homes (15,750) are affected by the school closings, Huntsville City home values will drop by a collective amount of $244,912,500.00. [For the record, I have no problem showing my work: (15,750 x $155,500) x 0.10 = $244,912,500].

As the tax rate on property within the city limits is calculated at a rate of $5.80 per every $100 that means that the city of Huntsville will see a drop in tax revenue of approximately $14,204,925.00. [$244,912,500/$100 x $5.80 = $14,204,925]

Note: It has been pointed out to me in one of the comments below that the rate is actually $5.80 per every $1,000 rather than $100. As I read the Madison Co. Tax Assessor’s site I’ve linked to above, I didn’t think that was correct. However, I was wrong. Thanks to the comments below for helping me see it. So the lost revenue drops from $14,204,925 to $1, 420,493 per year. Which would potential mean that if Richardson’s numbers are correct, then the “savings” are at least cut in half.

I apologize for posting incorrect numbers, and I appreciate having them corrected. See, when you show your work, as the demographer should also do, the truth is revealed. Again, I apologize for my incorrect understanding of the tax rate.

That alone tends to wipe out a savings of two to three million fairly quickly, dontcha think?

And they wonder why we’ve lost faith.

PS. Quick note to Mayor Tommy Battle: You might want to ask Dr. Wilson to stop thanking you and the city for your help in collecting the data to close our schools. It’s not going to help you get re-elected.

The post Calculating the Cost of Closing Schools: Tax Revenue appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Let there be no division among you, but let each one have the same care for one another. –1 Corinthian 12:25

Just as children test and trick their parents when they want something, the school board, along with all of the superintendents (and former “excellent superintendents” who are leaving town before this is over) are seemingly hoping for much the same thing with their closing “plan.”

(I intend no offense to children. You’re a child; that’s your job. Adults leading school systems should know better.)

By pitting us against each other, they’re hoping that we won’t notice the ruin they’re spreading across our city.

So, I’m writing today to call for unity to oppose these misguided intentions. From the north to the south, we are not separated by the distance or history between us. East and west agree that all of our schools are needed to educate our children. On the mountains and in the valleys, we all believe in high standards and lofty goals for our kids regardless of the beliefs of our temporary consultant (who’s making $600 a day to hurl those insults, by the way).

I’m writing to say the following:

Save Butler High School

Save Davis Hills Middle

Save Ed White Middle

Save Westlawn Middle

Save Whitesburg Middle

Save Mountain Gap Middle

Save Monte Sano Elementary

Save Whitesburg Elementary

Save Mountain Gap Elementary

Save West Mastin Lake Elementary

Save Montview Elementary

Since Dr. Richardson admitted last night that the plans he has already implemented will have our system operating in the black in two years, there is no need for these closings. Therefore, there is no need for division among us. If April 27th and a lack of ice and gas couldn’t divide us, overpaid outsiders and former superintendents can’t either.

Let the School Board take note: We will all work together to save our schools.

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Truth is in the details.

– Stephen King, Duma Key

Questions keep me up at night; especially when they involve my kids. Here are some involving Huntsville City Schools, the decisions that are being made about both of my children, and the direction of the HCS Board of Education. As I’ve argued before, questions are important. If you have a child in Huntsville City Schools–even a child who is not affected by the Special Needs changes that the Superintendent is implementing–these questions should be important to you as well, for they deal with issues that affect all of our kids.

• How many of the approximately 420 people who have already been pink-slipped, directly and regularly interacted or provided services to Special Needs students? Dr. Richardson claimed when making his report that he had not considered Special Education at all in the budget cuts he was recommending. This is a misleading statement. Here are some details we do know: Of the 137 cuts made in the first round, 65 were Instructional Assistants who work with Special education students. In his presentation to the board in April, Richardson recommended the firing of 45 Probationary Support Employees. He recommended the firing of 77 NonProbationary Support Employees. He recommended the cancellation of 216 Contracted Support Personnel. These numbers represent primarily Instructional Aides and Custodial Staff. As he is fully aware, the vast majority (perhaps as high as 100%) of the Instructional Aides, and every single one of the adapted PE teachers who will be released were employed to work with Special Needs students. 338 of the cuts are classified as “Support Personnel.” Thus, potentially 80% of the cuts to personnel have direct impact on Special Needs Children. Until we have the exact numbers, this will be my working assumption. If the board thinks my calculation is too high, I will be happy for them to prove me wrong with specific numbers.
  
• Where are the central office cuts? Dr. Moore, Dr. Richardson, and the Board have repeatedly stated that cuts must be made. Dr. Richardson laid our $23 million in cuts to address a $19.5 million deficit, but his plan included not one single cut to the central office. When discussing the cuts that are being made to Special Education, Dr. Moore recently claimed that they had been “overly generous” but offers no evidence supporting this claim as it relates to Special Education. The only area where the claim of “overly generous” applies is to the central office. Yet, the central office is currently facing no cuts. When asked at the end of his presentation about this “oversight,” Dr. Richardson claimed that the central office would face cuts at some point in the future. Here are some details we do know: The Huntsville central office employees 500 people. The Madison County central office employees 11. Madison County has 20% fewer students in it’s system than Huntsville City. Huntsville City has 99.8% more people working in it’s central office.
• Why won’t Ms. Sledge and Dr. Moore put their segregation plan in writing as Ms. Sledge promised she would on April 6th? I’ve written about this here.
• Why hasn’t the Board, as they claimed they would do on March 16th, insisted that Ms. Sledge and Dr. Moore present their plan for Board input and approval before they implement their plan? I’ve written about this here and here.
• Why does the Board need to pay an outsider (Dr. Richardson) to propose a scorched earth approach to the budget crisis they have created? His advice is bad. He isn’t being straightforward in his claims. He’s free to leave as soon as he has collected his check without any accountability for his decisions.
• Why is Dr. Moore still implementing policy without oversight from the Board even though she was fired twelve months ago?
• Why is the Board of Education limiting Public Comment and Participation?
• Why isn’t the Huntsville City Schools’ budget published on the system’s website for public review? Many other Boards publish extensive budget information on their websites. Why doesn’t HCS?
• Why does Huntsville City Schools have more instances of Mediation and Due Process than any other system in the state? From 2004-2008, Huntsville City Schools had 121 incidents of Dispute Resolution. The next largest number was 93 from Birmingham City Schools. BCS has approximately 3,000 more students than HCS.
• Finally, why is the central office and the board of education so adverse to transparency in their budget-making, policy-making and implementation? It is reasonable to assume that when someone refuses to share the motivation behind their decisions as Ms. Sledge and Dr. Moore have done that they have something to hide. It is reasonable to assume that when Dr. Richardson hides the specific details of the cuts he is recommending and that the board has approved (like the impact these cuts will have on special education) that they are aware that the cuts are being inordinately placed upon one specific population of the system who had nothing to do with getting us into this financial predicament.

These, and likely many more, are questions that need to be addressed immediately. We the public, the parents, the people who care the most because we live here (unlike consultants from outside) need to insist that the board, and the superintendent answer. The truth is in the details that we must insist our board and superintendent provide.

Those details will, I believe, set our system and our children free.

The post Questions for HCS Board of Education, Superintendent, and Consultant appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Congratulations are in order to Superintendent Moore. On your way out the door, with the cover of Dr. Richardson and the complicity of the Board of Education, you have successfully implemented your plan to segregate our children without any oversight or accountability.

Dr. Moore is using her power to force segregation upon a segment of the student population without input from the parents, teachers, administrators or even the Board of Education. And while I greatly appreciate that Dr. Robinson and Mr. Blair worked to get even a modicum of accountability from Dr. Moore and Ms. Sledge, they have not done nearly enough to provide the oversight that they are supposed to provide of the superintendent.

This is a colossal breakdown of the system that is designed to serve students not segregate them.

On Thursday, May 5, 2011, while hundreds of people still did not have power in their homes from the worst tornados to hit the state in perhaps it’s history, the Board of Education received an oral report from Ms. Amy Sledge, the Director of Special Education, and Dr. Moore, the Superintendent about the concerns that have dominated my life and the lives of thousands of families in Huntsville for the past six weeks.

The timing was quite fortunate for Dr. Moore. Not only did the recovery efforts keep the majority of the city from paying attention to the school board meeting (students had only just returned to school for the first time in a week hours earlier), but also the first round of interviews for the new superintendent had happen just moments earlier that day distracting the press.

Yet, Dr. Moore’s attempts to segregate our children without oversight were perhaps best aided by the decision of the Board at the previous meeting to only allow public comments if they were included on the agenda.

No public comments were allowed at the conclusion of this meeting.

It is also clear from the final moments of the Board meeting video that I linked to yesterday that Dr. Moore had no intention of discussing her plan until after the plan had been implemented. She stated on Thursday, May 5th:

I think that what would probably help, Amy, is once you get all of the schedules settled, and all of the students moved, then you can present that information to the board with the exact locations of specific programs and how many students now that the IEP has been written. (She stated this in the third clip at about the 9 minute mark.)

The truly disturbing part of this is that both Dr. Robinson and Mr. Blair may be heard in the background stating that waiting until the implementation of the plan was completed would be “very helpful.”

Respectfully, waiting until after “all of the students [are] moved” is anything but “very helpful.” It is, frankly, like waiting until the world has exploded to begin talking about ways to avoid a war.

By waiting until all of the students are moved, Dr. Robinson, Mr. Blair, Mr. Birney, Ms. McCaulley, and Ms. Morrison have abdicated their responsibility to provide oversight to the Superintendent of Huntsville City Schools. (This is the very thing that Mr. Blair stated on March 16 that would never happen when he pointed out, “that no decision could be made without the issue coming before the board.”

Mr. Blair: The board hasn’t heard, review the plan, or approved the plan, but Dr. Moore will not actually present any details of what will happen (let alone, why it is happening), until after all the students have been moved.

In addition, Dr. Moore’s description of the order of events does not tell the complete story. She claims that any decision to move students is being made in the IEP meeting. As you can see from this letter which showed on April 15th that Dr. Moore was issuing directives to the school administration representatives on the IEP team to tell parents that their child will be moved in the coming year.

On April 21, 2011 at about 4:30pm, I spoke with Ms. Sledge via phone and asked her what directives were being sent out to the IEP teams from the central office. I specifically referenced the Matus’ letter and my own experience of being told that “we cannot write aides into IEPs without prior approval from the central office.”

Ms. Sledge denied that this was happening and claimed that she would immediately send out notices to the principals that they do not have to seek prior approval for items written into an IEP. I am still being told that aides cannot be written into IEPs without the approval of the central office.

Parents are still being told that their child will be moved to a new school next year.

Additionally during my conversation with Ms. Sledge she informed me that if parents did not like the segregation plan, that they could request a mediation over the issue.

The central office is daring parents to take legal action against the segregation they are forcing on our kids.

Dr. Moore also repeatedly made the implication in the May 5th meeting that we’re all having to make cuts to address the financial situation the school system, under her direction, has experienced. What she has not said to the board, and what the board seems slow to recognize is that Special Needs have already been the primary group affected by the cuts that have taken place so far. The majority of the layoffs that have already occurred have been from Instructional Aides, the majority of which work with Special Needs students.

In addition during this poorly attended presentation, we now discover that Adaptive PE, which Mr. Blair correctly described as a central part to inclusion for special needs children, is also being cut. Dr. Moore claims that all PE teachers are trained to offer Adaptive PE, but she avoids answer any questions concerning how these already overworked teachers are supposed to teach both their regular students as well as their special needs students.

She claims that to be a “staffing issue,” and that Instructional Aides (whom have already been pink slipped) will be able to assist.

While special needs kids are being asked to bear the heaviest burden of cuts, there still has not been a single cut, nor even a plan to cut, from the bloated central office.

If you agree that one person should not be allowed to implement her own private agenda against the will of the public, and without oversight of the board, please contact the board and insist that they order Dr. Moore to halt the moving of students to new schools until she provides a written and public justification for doing so.

You may contact the board via Ms. Gail Kiker, Administrative Assistant to the Board at (256) 428-6940 or via email at gkiker@hsv.k12.al.us.

You may contact Dr. Moore directly at (256) 428-6810 or via email at armoore@hsv.k12.al.us.

Perhaps if there is a mass outcry, the Board (who aren’t leaving office in July as is the Superintendent) will begin to finally hold Dr. Moore accountable.

There is always hope, but there is little time. The next board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 5:30pm. School will dismiss for the year on Wednesday, May 25, 2011.

The post Hold the Superintendent Accountable appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Wow, what a week. I’m sorry for having taken so long to post again, but I’ve been exhausted.

So on my birthday, at the end of a week without power, without ice, without hot baths, without internet, without “WATCH TV” as the boy shouted just an hour into a week without TV, without hot food, without knowing where I might find a tank full of gas to allow me to drive the family to a place that wasn’t without those things, without sleep cause the total dark and quiet kept the boy awake most of the night, at the end of all of that, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to my city-in-law.

Frankly, I’m amazed by the beauty of this city.

I’ve never been in a blackout that last more than a few hours. I’ve never been afraid about where I might be able to find food for my kids. I’ve never worried about not being able to drive to safety because I didn’t have enough gas and couldn’t buy more.

And yet, this city took care of each other in a way that I had hoped would happen, but have rarely experienced.

I saw strangers help push a car into the gas station. I saw neighbors offering neighbors ice, the single most valuable commodity perhaps next to gas, without expectation. I saw Star Market find a way to sell bread, peanut butter, jelly, chips and diapers to a city desperate for the security of “maybe enough” to make it through an extended power outage.

And so I feel the need to say thank you.

Thank you to our police department for working endless hours to keep us safe.

Thank you to our fire department for standing between us and any accident imaginable.

Thank you to the EMS, Hospitals, Doctors, Nurses, and all those who worked to keep us and our loved ones healthy and alive.

Thank you to all of Huntsville Utilities and their staff who never stopped working to restore power.

Thank you to all the Huntsville City Schools Teachers and Principals who put their own lives at risk to protect our children as they were dismissed during the height of the storms.

Thank you to Exxon on the corner of Whitesburg and Lilly Flag for finding a way to sell gas in a dark city.

Thank you to Wavaho in Laceys Spring for doing the same thing.

Thank you to O’Reilly’s Auto Parts on South Parkway for helping a guy replace a dead car battery right at closing time.

Thank you to Domino’s Pizza for selling hot pizzas at a cheap price during the blackout.

Thank you the lady in Publix who saw me tying to hold 15 items in my arms and found a basket for me.

Thank you to Publix for having the boy’s chicken once the power came back on.

Thank you to Laurel’s parents for looking out for us.

Thank you to my mom and sister for giving us a break from the cold showers for a couple of nights.

Thank you to Laurel for holding my hand when I was worried.

Thank you to the girl for reading Harry Potter to me by candle light.

Thank you to the boy for saying, “I love you” for the first time after the power came back on.

Thank you to the dark for letting the stars shine as they never have before.

Thank you Huntsville. I told my daughter once that no matter what people try to tell you, love will change the world. Thank you for showing her this to be true. And my, my, my, it’s truly is a beautiful world.

Thank you.

Listened to: Beautiful World from the album “Man at Work” by Colin Hay

The post Thank You Huntsville appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Well I had planned an extensive posting on the seven school board candidates for tonight, but the Huntsville Utilities, the TVA, and oh, I don’t know, God maybe, decided that the night would be better spent reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by candlelight to the girl.

Suffice it to say that there are a couple of great looking candidates to me. Beth Wright, Superintendent of Florence County School District 3 in Lake City, SC. looks to be the strongest candidate to me. She has managed her system’s finances quite well, and she has a strong background working with special education.

Also, Dr. Daniel Brigman, superintendent of Macon County Schools has guided his system through a similar financial crunch. He’s also managed to do it with at least an acknowledgment that transparency is a crucial part of leadership.

They are both FAR more qualified than the candidate being pushed by our mayor and seemingly the Huntsville Times is pushing: Frank Libutti. How a person with no educational experience is considered one of the seven candidates is beyond even my powers of comprehension. Frankly, the board should not even consider a candidate who refuses to place their own children into the school system they want to lead. We’ve had enough of that with the current superintendent!

Well, here’s hoping the power is restored soon so the milk does sour and so someone might actually read this. I suspect the interviews scheduled for tomorrow will have to be postponed.

I also hope everyone is safe, and that all those children who have difficulty with changes to their routine will have a quiet night. I’ve had quite enough of tornados for a while.

There go the sirens again.

Stay safe tonight.

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