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Superintendent maps challenges
© St. Petersburg Times, John Sanders says his successor as Hernando County school superintendent must find ways to make technology more prevalent in the classroom, improve teacher pay without increasing class sizes and build new schools at both ends of the county. The next superintendent, he said, must be willing to get involved in the community, endure occasional 15-hour days and get used to taking a briefcase full of paperwork home at night. Mostly, though, Sanders said the new superintendent will find a school district performing well in the classroom. And, unlike the dark days of December when he looked befuddled about the budget, Sanders is convinced his successor will find a district on solid financial ground. At the request of the Hernando Times, Sanders, who recently was hired to take the reins of the Lee County school system, agreed to give an assessment of the school district as his six-year tenure as Hernando superintendent ends. In a sense, it could be a road map that marks the challenges his successor will face. TechnologyTo hear Sanders tell it, access to technology is spotty at best in Hernando schools. Some schools have developed strong programs that provide relevant technology instruction simply because the principal or a computer teacher has a passion to do so. Others are further behind. "We're being dragged kicking and screaming," Sanders said. "We have not done a good job of training our staff on technology." The main excuse for that, Sanders said, is that it is difficult for the school staff to find time to get the training. Of course, the other obstacle is money. In a tight budget year when spending was closely monitored, the district still spent more than $2-million on technology. Costs will always be a challenge, Sanders said. And the schools can never get ahead because of the ever-changing technology. But Sanders said prices of many types of computers are falling. And he said it is possible that hand-held computers such as Palm organizers -- not the laptops the district toyed with a year ago -- may be the classroom technology of the future. Whatever the hardware, Sanders said Hernando's schools must use technology to offer students access to more learning resources. "We have to help all the children use technology as best we can . . . and teach them how to make it an effective tool in your life." Teacher payHernando County may never lead the state when it comes to what it pays teachers. But Sanders said the district must remain competitive enough that its other pluses -- relatively small class sizes and quality of life -- can carry the day. "As long as we are in the ballgame, I think we can use the other attributes to our advantage," Sanders said. Still, Sanders knows too well that money talks. He is leaving a $97,000 salary for a job in Lee County where he will earn $150,000 a year plus perks. Sanders said he is "a pretty good example" of what happens when salaries aren't competitive. Hernando's teachers could make a pretty good case as well. Their union just issued an analysis that shows that Hernando County's teacher pay scale ranked between 34th and 54th in the state last year, depending on a teacher's experience. Hernando is Florida's 29th-largest school district. Sanders said the district office is a lean operation with little room for cost-cutting. That leaves only increased class sizes as a tool to boost pay for the teachers who remain. Sanders has tried to make small classes, particularly in kindergarten and first grade, one of his areas of emphasis. The new superintendent will have to decide if that's as important as raising a teacher's take-home pay, he said. New schoolsThe county's next new school, Nature Coast Technical High School, is already under construction. As he leaves, Sanders said the project "couldn't be in better hands" than those of Graydon Howe, the district's facilities director. But even before the high school opens in 2003, Sanders said, the School Board and its new superintendent must get busy planning a new elementary school for the county's west side. He said it will be needed within four years. Not far behind, Sanders said, is the need for a school on the east side of the county that probably can be tailored to serve kids from kindergarten through eighth grade. Children in areas such as Ridge Manor and Nobleton currently attend middle school at Parrott, north of Brooksville, and have the longest bus rides in the county. A school placed in the Ridge Manor area could shorten their rides. So far, finding affordable property for either project has not been easy, Sanders said. Finding the land and a way to pay for the new schools will be important tasks for the new superintendent, he said. The budgetThe area that caused Sanders the most grief in the past year -- the budget -- is one that Sanders doesn't consider a trouble spot for his successor. He said the problems are fixed. Yet, in an ironic coincidence, the final verdict on the past year of financial turmoil will not be issued until Sept. 4 -- the same day Sanders starts his new job in Lee County. About the time Sanders ends his first day in Fort Myers, Hernando's School Board will review the district's annual financial report and will be asked to approve a budget for the 2001-02 school year. The report should end the debates that have raged about the budget in the past year. Not everyone is convinced Sanders' rosy budget pronouncements are realistic. Board member Gail Coleman said Sanders has downplayed the seriousness of the "crisis" to minimize negative publicity. The board agreed in December to cut $2.4-million from its budget as a way to bring the budget into line. The move was made after then-finance director Sara Perez said the district was on pace to spend more money that it would take in; in a worst case, $5.9-million more. Beyond that, there is the $3-million debt that has piled up from the self-insured health plan that Sanders proposed to the board in 1999. Sanders thinks the health-care wounds will heal now that the district has decided to go back to a private insurance company. "It's really easy on your way out to minimize the problems that have occurred," Coleman said. "But in reality the folks that are left behind are going to have to deal with the problems that are there." Finance director Carol MacLeod, who will deliver the financial report to the board, said she will be assessing the books until the day the report is due. For now, all she will say is the district is paying its bills, that its reserve fund will grow and that the health insurance debt will be paid off over a multiyear period. Sanders said he plans to hold no public forum with the School Board about the budget matters of the past year, even though board members Coleman and Jim Malcolm have said it would be useful. Instead, Sanders maintains that he has said all there is to say. Specifically: There were discrepancies last year between the district's paper budget and its computer budget. Those errors, which he said were related to data entry, have been corrected. Perez, the finance director who first sounded the alarm before resigning to attend to family matters in California, did not take into account some artful assumptions about the budget made by her predecessor, Vince Benedict. Sanders thinks Benedict's assessment was true. In retrospect, the December budget reductions that Perez called for might not have been needed to balance the operating budget. But, Sanders said, the savings they produced put the district in a better position to deal with the health insurance problems. In the end, Sanders believes any lingering doubts about the budget -- in the minds of the School Board or the public -- will disappear on Sept. 4. "I think when people see the final analysis," he said, "those questions will be answered." - Staff writer Robert King covers education in Hernando County and can be reached at 754-6127. Send e-mail to rking@sptimes.com.
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