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© St. Petersburg Times, published January 16, 2002
Don Goodall, 83, has two grandsons, but neither of them attends Dunedin High School.
Neal Popham, 69, has seven grandchildren, but they don't go to Dunedin High, either.
So why have both men spent untold hours at Dunedin High in recent years?
Because they got a glimpse of some disturbing shortcomings of America's public schools. So they signed right up to help.
And discovered a consuming, though sometimes frustrating, passion.
Goodall's glimpse came by way of a young relative who graduated from a Miami area high school 10 years ago, registered at the local junior college, and was told he would have to take remedial courses in some subjects to be ready for the junior college curriculum. Goodall wondered: Why did he get a high school diploma if he had not mastered the material?
Goodall, retired and living the good life in Dunedin after a career as a newspaper reporter and government relations executive, decided he needed to get a look inside today's high schools. He visited classrooms as an observer and was troubled by some of what he saw: students sleeping in classes or speaking disrespectfully to teachers; teachers who had too many students, too much paperwork and too few resources.
He spoke to then-School Board member Susan Latvala, who encouraged him to join the School Advisory Council at Dunedin High School. State law mandates a SAC at every public school. Composed of faculty, parent and community representatives, SACs are supposed to assist in operating their schools. Some SACs just pay lip service to whatever the principal wants. Goodall joined the Dunedin SAC and set about making sure it would break new ground.
Four years ago Goodall prevailed on his friend and fellow retiree Neal Popham to join him on the Dunedin High SAC. Popham had not been in a school since his own children grew up. He had no reason to expect he ever would be.
But Goodall knew about Popham's varied background -- a Navy pilot and engineer who retired at 53 and then went to work as vice president of operations for Jack Eckerd's prison industries program, PRIDE Enterprises Inc. Goodall figured Popham had plenty to offer and that he also would turn out to be gung-ho about supporting and fixing public schools.
Today, Popham is chairman of the Dunedin High SAC, having followed Goodall in that role. Goodall, finally conceding to age and the demands of other volunteer duties, resigned from the SAC in December, but has not put aside his passion about schools and their needs.
"These people -- God bless 'em -- they have great problems in schools," Goodall said in a recent interview. "The parents don't care. Kids are raised in a society that doesn't provide much discipline. Somehow or other, we have to start holding parents responsible for their kids. Everybody agrees the parent is the key."
Popham also believes that lack of parental involvement and parents' refusal to take responsibility for their children's education is "probably the No. 1 reason" for troubled schools. He recalls when the parents of 15 Dunedin High students identified as at risk of failing were invited by the school to a meeting. The purpose was to help those parents help their children. Only one parent came. Another time, the school held three parent workshops on how parents can help their children succeed in school. Some 140 parents were invited. Only about a dozen came.
But both Goodall and Popham freely admit there are other problems besides parents.
"Children are coming into high school unprepared, which means middle school is not doing its job," Goodall said. Popham noted with dismay that Dunedin High has three freshman remedial reading classes. Kids usually are taught to read in elementary school.
Popham has visited the schools his grandchildren attend in other states and has learned that in every case, the school day is longer there than it is here. He believes a short day handicaps Pinellas kids.
Goodall, who was so concerned about education that he also got involved at the state level, sees the problems as even more basic. Students are still being taught much as they were when he was in school. The curriculum is fragmented, students are expected to passively absorb the information delivered to them by teachers, and despite the explosion of new disciplines that could be taught, the public school curriculum is frustratingly traditional.
"We need to change the whole system to make it 21st century," Goodall said. "The system is not working. Kids today are smarter, more inquisitive. We have to challenge them more, teach them why things are relevant. They have to understand why."
Goodall and Popham believe they and other SAC members have made important contributions at Dunedin High in partnership with the school staff. The SAC studies the school program and student performance, searching for ways to help. For example, when the SAC learned that more than 50 percent of Dunedin High freshmen failed at least one class in the first grading period, the group came up with funding for a Freshman Experience class to help students make a better transition to high school. Positions on the SAC are now so sought-after that people are turned away.
During these years when they have given so much to Dunedin High, Popham and Goodall could have been playing more golf at Dunedin Country Club, where they both are members. They could have been traveling, fishing or just taking it easy. They could have made the same choice that so many other still-healthy retirees in Pinellas make: to say, "I've already raised my kids. Let somebody else do it." They might even have complained, as some other retirees in Florida do, about having to pay school taxes here.
Instead, they made a difference in the lives of children who are tomorrow's parents, tomorrow's leaders.
"I think we have an obligation," Popham said. "And somebody paid the taxes when my kids were in school."
"I'm here to make sure the kids get an education," Goodall said. "I've got a sense within myself that I did my darndest."