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Committees get lesson in red tape
By JOHN PETRIMOULX
© St. Petersburg Times,
When the idea first came up, former Broward Elementary principal Beverly DeMott remembers, it seemed simple. At special events, during or after lunch and on half-days, the school wanted to have a bake sale. Kids could have a treat and the school could raise extra funds. But like many other ideas hatched by school improvement teams, it turned out that this simple idea required a waiver of a rule. In this case, it was state rule 6A-7.042 (2) (c) (d) FAC, which prohibited the sale of food items by anyone other than the food service except after school. While the waiver was eventually approved, the experience became a familiar one to parents and teachers serving on the committees that are now known as School Advisory Councils. The school wanted to use an accelerated curriculum. That was against district rules. The SAC needed to seek a waiver. The school wanted to use materials not on the district approved list. That required a waiver -- actually two -- one to buy the materials and another for the process used to decide which materials to buy. De Mott says at one point the SAC had to seek as many as 23 waivers to implement its school improvement plan. Such is life in Florida's public schools. If the state doesn't make the rule, the district does. Anything left is fair game for the local school and the SAC, which has the job of helping develop the school improvement plan, akin to a strategic plan for a business. Serving on a SAC can be chastening experience for parents and teachers interested in gaining substantially more control over a school's priorities and procedures. The amount of control maintained by state and district bureaucracies can lead to a fight-or-flight response. Some parents quickly leave SAC's out of frustration when meetings drag on with no actions taken. Other parents see the SAC as a vehicle to build support for initiatives they hope will lead to real change. Members of Chamberlain High School's SAC played a key role in winning district support to create an Advanced Placement Scholars Program and designate the school a Florida Model Technology High School. SACs and improvement plans originated in 1991 as part of the statewide Blueprint 2000. This sweeping legislation sought to return the responsibility for education to those closest to the students -- the school, parents and teachers. The law also created the Florida Commission on Educational Reform and Accountability, an advisory body to the State Board of Education. The commission's work led to the so-called Sunshine State Standards, which define what students are expected to know, and the FCAT program to test that knowledge. The standards, measures and evaluation envisioned in 1991 are now in place. Presumably, the parents and schools now know what works and what doesn't. "The work can now begin to produce public school graduates who are highly valued by colleges and in the workplace," says one Department of Education brochure. That work clearly remains the responsibility of the local school. But whether the local school has the proper authority to match its responsibility is debatable. To begin with, school goals are predetermined by the state. In fact, the Commission on Reform and Accountability went so far as to define eight goals, such as readiness for work or college and student performance; each with standards, outcomes and accountability indicators. And the Hillsborough school district has its own priorities. A focus on reading, combined with one other district priority, must be included in every school plan. The district shapes the plan in other ways as well. According to Sam Rosales, supervisor of accountability for the Hillsborough school district, the district is adopting a "whole school effectiveness model" that measures qualities such as principals' leadership, and these measurements also must be rolled into school improvement plans. It's true each SAC has the freedom and $10 per student to figure out how best to reach the school's goals. But between state goals, FCAT requirements, district priorities and effectiveness guidelines, the SAC's reach can be limited. "In the beginning we had a lot of leeway (in writing plans)," said Diane Mincey, a Lake Magdalene-area parent, who has been a member of SACs at five schools since 1993. "We were encouraged to write waivers -- the School Board was more receptive." Mincey says that after the district began to control the process by giving the schools goals and narrowing the focus to academic concerns, the original idea of forming a group to plan what is necessary to improve the school went out the window. So did some of the ownership and enthusiasm. For many schools, state FCAT requirements dominate school improvement plans these days. For example, Chamberlain's SAC last year devoted one third of its budget to test preparation. In the final analysis, for parents, SAC membership may be more about understanding the challenges local schools are facing than creating a master plan for the school. Despite the frustrations, Mincey continues to believe serving on a SAC is worthwhile. "It's a wonderful opportunity to be involved," she said. "I would encourage parents to get involved, to get to know the teachers and what the school is trying to do."
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