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Schools

Board hones new way to grade school chief

Members have agreed to adopt Charlotte County's evaluation system but have plans to tweak it and add measurable goals.

By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN
Published September 7, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - School Board members have decided to borrow Charlotte County's method of evaluating superintendents so they can improve their oversight of local schools.

Board members agreed during a workshop Tuesday afternoon that they needed to abandon the evaluation system they had been using for years because they found it bothersome and ineffectual.

"(Let's) dump it," said board member Sandra Nicholson.

That system graded Hernando school superintendent Wendy Tellone on such criteria as whether she "accepts constructive criticism of her work" and "is readily available for problem solving."

But it did not consider whether her plans improve student test scores that state and national officials use to determine success, or include much else to evaluate her performance. Such omissions surprised Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association, at another workshop in June.

Still, while board members agreed on adopting Charlotte County's evaluation system, they do have plans to tweak it, as well as establish measurable goals that Tellone should meet. Those goals could include improving the county's dropout rate and making sure that there are no "D" or "F" schools in the county.

The board will meet again on Oct. 18 to spell out the specific goals they will ask Tellone to meet. In the meantime, board members will draft their suggestions for the performance objectives.

The Charlotte County evaluation rates whether the superintendent is "outstanding," "effective" or "needs attention" on a 1-9 scale, with 9 as the highest score. It considers factors such as her budget management skills and ability to reach out to parents and others in the community.

But the process of agreeing on a set of performance goals could be contentious. Nicholson suggested on Tuesday that she wanted to hold Tellone accountable for improving the district's FCAT scores and meeting standards of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. But School Board Vice Chairman Jim Malcolm said it would be dangerous to hold Tellone responsible for student performance on standardized tests.

"I have a big problem with the A+

plan and with No Child Left Behind," Malcolm said. "Those are snapshots of (how well students do on a test on) a given day."

Nicholson responded that the district had to carry out those laws, whether it liked them or not. And she argued that trying to reach certain benchmarks would help board members better manage the district.

"I think it's important to have goals," she said.

Abhi Raghunathan can be reached at araghunathan@sptimes.com or 352-848-1431.

[Last modified September 7, 2005, 01:01:15]