... Melanie Massey-Foltz, Florida's 2008 school social worker of the year. Massey-Foltz has worked in Pasco County schools for more than 30 years, and she spoke about her job and the changes she has seen in it over the decades...
... Beverly Slough, president of the Florida School Boards Association and a member of the St. Johns County School Board. Slough was the named complainant in the lawsuit to keep Amendments 7 and 9 off the November ballot (Fla. Dept....
... Colleen Wood, co-founder of 50th No More, a parent activist group calling for changes in Florida's funding of public education. Wood, a St. Johns County PTO leader (shown on the left with co-founder Brette Reiman), talked with reporter Jeff...
... Roy Romer, former Colorado governor and LA schools superintendent. Romer lately has been working with Ed in '08 to make education issues a priority in the presidential campaign. He spoke with reporter Ron Matus while attending an education conference...
... Kurt Geisinger, executive director of the Buros Center for Testing at the University of Nebraska. Geisinger has been working with the Florida Department of Education to monitor and improve the FCAT exam, following scoring problems with the 2006 third-grade...
... Polly Jackson, a reading specialist at Pasco County's Lacoochee Elementary, a Title I school. Jackson is retiring this month after 39 years in education, most of them at Lacoochee. She spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about the changes she's...
... Jon Scieszka, an award winning children's author (The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales, The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!) who has been appointed first National Ambassador of Young People's Literature by the Library of...
... Riverview High School graduating senior Antonio Dowels. Dowels, 18, was a top-rated athlete who dreamed of attending the University of Florida to play football and study to become a pediatrician. A car crash dashed his football dreams, but not...
... interim Pinellas superintendent Julie Janssen. A 28-year veteran of the district, Janssen, 59, has worked as a math teacher, school principal and deputy superintendent leading. Now she'll take the reins of control, at least temporarily, as Clayton Wilcox leaves...
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... Heather Fiorentino, Pasco County schools superintendent. Fiorentino, also a former state lawmaker, talked with reporter Jeff Solochek about the fallout from the recently ended Florida legislative session. Are there any things that come out of Tallahassee that you think...
... Cindy Gustafson, president of Partners Allied for Gifted Education and Support in Hernando County. Gustafson talked with reporter Jeff Solochek about Hernando's move to centralize gifted education into a single K-8 school. When the idea came up to create...
... Tyler Radford, who until recently was a Land O'Lakes High School senior. Radford, 18, dropped out in the third quarter and got his GED instead. Now, as most of his friends and classmates head toward graduation, he just hangs...
... State Board of Education member Phoebe Raulerson. Raulerson, a former superintendent of Okeechobee schools, frequently has pushed for more hands-on training for high school students, voicing the concern that existing school curriculum does not work for every student. She...
... Karen Dowd, executive director for the Florida Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Dance and Sport. Dowd, who also serves on the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness, spoke with reporter Donna Winchester about proposals to increase the amount of...
... Mary Jo McGrath, a California lawyer whose company trains schools and businesses on matters including sexual harassment and misconduct. She is considered one of the nation's leading experts on teacher sexual misconduct. McGrath spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek after...
... Benjamin Ajak, co-author of "They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky," an award-winning 2005 book about boys caught up in civil war in Sudan. Ajak was 5 years old when government troops destroyed his village. For years, he...
... Debbie Johnston, a Cape Coral teacher and mother who has tried for three years to convince Florida lawmakers to pass the "The Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up for All Students Act" (SB 790) in honor of her son, who committed...
... Shan Goff, executive director of the Florida Department of Education Office of Early Learning, and Dr. Tara Huls, program specialist. They spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about changing education standards for Florida's Voluntary Prekindergarten program. (No, they're not nearly...
Florida Education Association president Andy Ford. Ford talked with reporter Jeff Solochek about his group's opposition to the Jan. 29 constitutional amendment referendum on property taxes, including his thoughts on whether this fight might end up in court.
Why are you so opposed?
Florida is at a point where in nearly every national comparison we're at the bottom when it comes to funding education. And this will put another reduction into the education budget. Therefore, it's not a good idea for Florida.
I remember at one point you were talking with the governor trying to negotiate some sort of compromise. What ever happened?
We've met with the governor and we've had a very good conversation. I said unless there is a guaranteed funding stream to offset the cuts that the property tax (measure) would cause, there was no way we could support the property tax cuts.
And apparently the "hold harmless" idea has gone away, then?
Right. Hold harmless was just a discussion during the
... Florida interim education commissioner Jeanine Blomberg, who announced her retirement from the Department of Education on Friday. She spoke via e-mail with reporter Jeff Solochek about her accomplishments and her plans for the future.
You've been with the department a long time. Tell us what you feel were your top accomplishments.
First and foremost, during the past 31 years, I have been a part of a local and state team effort to advance quality education for our most precious resource-our children. We have, through our state and local collaborations, improved Florida's education system and thereby greatly improved the futures of millions of children. There is still much work to be done.
Second, I have had the opportunity to serve as a mentor for a number of department and local school district personnel. These individuals will carry on a tradition of professional excellence that will continue to advance education in Florida.
Third, I am a data person and absolutely be
... state Rep. Anitere Flores. A Miami Republican, Flores chairs the House K-12 Education Committee. She talked via e-mail with reporter Jeff Solochek about education reform, the FCAT and the 2008 education agenda.
In committee (the first week of November), you spoke about the need for school districts to stop teaching to the test, and instead to teach the curriculum. You pointed to news out of Broward County that the district there would be ending its "FCAT frenzy." Elaborate for me your views on the need to refocus.
Students, teachers, parents, and lawmakers alike are frustrated by the constant focus on the FCAT. The focus in our schools must be on student learning. I have complete confidence in our teachers' ability to teach. They have the curriculum - let them teach it and our students will perform.
Broward superintendent Jim Notter told me that he believes the state, and not local educators, are responsible for the stress on the FCAT and teaching to th
... Karen Miller, director of PDC Affordable Housing. Miller, who has a doctorate in housing, has been a Faculty member of major universities including Miami of Ohio, Western Carolina University, Clemson University and the University of Florida. One of her current projects is to develop a grant that would bring "workforce housing" to the Pasco County school district. She talked with reporter Jeff Solochek about the initiative.
Why has it become such a situation where we need affordable housing for teachers and other education professionals.
If you look at the cost of housing in the Tampa Bay area from 2000 to 2006, the cost of a house doubled. Now, did a teacher's salary double?
I don't think so.
I don't know what the exact statistics are, but we know it didn't double and it certainly didn't go up 25 percent. ... So that's what happened to housing. Now we're looking at housing that's decreasing in value. It's only gone down 9 percent. So a teacher could afford a house in 2
... Broward County superintendent Jim Notter. Notter recently sent out a letter to thousands of students telling them about how the district is scaling back its "FCAT frenzy." He talked with reporter Jeff Solochek about the district's new stance on the high-stakes test.
Tell me a little bit about why you decided to send out this letter about scaling back the emphasis on the FCAT.
Sure. Over the past few months our board has had some rich debate and dialog in terms of the negative impact that FCAT is truly imparting on all of our students. It's sometimes known as the FCAT frenzy. They wanted to take an aggressive action. And we had some rich debate in ... a couple of workshops. In the sense of what is truly going on and what can we do as public educators to refocus on the education of the whole child vs. strictly this frenzy of test prep, very prescriptive writing exercises. We need to get back to truly educating the whole child and worry about the quality education of that whole c
... U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam. The Polk County Republican spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about his bill to create a registry of educators who are convicted of committing an act of sexual misconduct against a student. The issue gained national attention lately after the Associated Press ran a three-part series last month.
What brought this issue to your attention first?There had been a series of reports based out of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that had documented the problems going on in Florida school districts. Some of those problems included an incident in Polk County. And it became very clear that the existing laws were inadequate to prevent the widespread practice of school administrators transferring problem teachers to avoid publicity, which allowed that problem teacher to continue to have contact with children. I felt it was important that if you have a potential sexual predator involved with children that there should be an obligation to report that, to database that informatio
... Joe Wolf, president of Florida Citizens for Science. Wolf, who lives in Polk County, is a retired researcher who served 14 years on a school board in Ohio before moving to Florida. He spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about the state's newly proposed science education standards.
Your group is called Florida Citizens for Science. What does it mean to be "for science"?
It means that we believe that science is very very important for our state, and it's very important for our kids to learn good science, what science is, and to learn various major concepts within science. We're a group of citizens. We pulled ourselves together from all around the state. And that's what we want to do because we feel in a lot of cases it's under challenge.
So we've kind of gotten together. You ask the question, Why focus on the standards? Because these new standards are what is going to be taught in Florida classrooms in public schools for the next 10-15 years.
So tell me, are these proposed s
... Florida School Boards Association executive director Wayne Blanton. The FSBA has been knee-deep in some of the biggest education controversies of the past week - charter school exclusive authority and property tax reform. Blanton spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about the two topics.
The board now has allowed three districts to have exclusivity, and the rest it has denied. Where does that put the school districts in terms of fighting the issue? Or is the fight not going to happen?
The fight is going to happen. I think it's just a matter of some districts making up their mind about how we want to pursue this. As you remember, we had pending litigation that we withdrew about six months ago based on the judge having some conversation with us that at that time there was no damages, there was nothing you could go to court and prove other than just test the constitutional language. I've had enough phone calls to know that there's going to be some type of action involving local sch
... state Rep. John Legg. The New Port Richey Republican serves on the House Schools and Learning Council, and runs a charter school in Pasco County. He spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about a growing controversy over whether the State Board of Education should grant school districts exclusive authority to issue charter school contracts. (It's item 4 on the board agenda.)
What is the issue at hand?
You've kind of got to go back a little bit on the issue. What are charter schools? Basically, charter schools are a unique way to provide education for students. But the way they are set up is through a contract. Since it's a contract, basically the school district acts as a contract manager. And I think sometimes the school districts forget that process that they are not in the job of running the school ... they are in the job of basically being the contract manager, which is definitely a new role for them.
What we've seen is, since there is some ambiguity in the state constituti
... Lynne Webb, president of the United School Employees of Pasco. The union recently rejected participation in the state's teacher performance pay plan, becoming the 30th district to do so. Webb spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about performance pay, and why teachers seem so opposed to it.
Why do you think teachers are so opposed to performance pay?
Well, I don't think that teachers are opposed to performance pay, and would not want anyone to misconstrue or interpret this vote as a vote against performance pay. I believe this vote was against the MAP (Merit Award Program) iteration of performance pay.So what is wrong with MAP?
Well, I think that there were a number of things that teachers had concerns about. First of all, I think part of it has to with timing. It came of the heels of a failed E-Comp plan that the DOE tried to foist upon teachers, which then got turned into STAR, which then got modified again into MAP. So I think it's really hard for teachers to separate MAP fr
Senate Pre-K-12 Education Committee chairman Don Gaetz. As the legislature's special session approaches, Gaetz, a former Okaloosa County superintendent, has heard talk from school district leaders about the need to protect their resources. That message also has come through in their comments about the pending Jan. 29 referendum to increase the homestead exemption - something opponents have said could strip billions from education coffers.
He suggests their worries might be misplaced.
Gaetz talked with reporter Jeff Solochek about education funding, both in the short and long term, for nearly an hour. He offered some intriguing ideas, perhaps most interesting of which was the notion of scaling back the full effect of the 2002 class-size reduction amendment to offset the revenue loss that many expect if the super homestead exemption wins approval.
First, though, he focused on the October special session. Lawmakers postponed the session, which was supposed to occur in September, beca
... members of Congress George Miller, D-California, and Kathy Castor, D-Tampa. Miller and Castor recently visited with area school leaders and teachers to talk about proposed changes to the No Child Left Behind Act, which Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, helped write. They talked with reporter Jeff Solochek about the legislation.
I want to make sure people understand the importance of the No Child Left Behind law and what it means to the people here in Florida. Because Florida has a dichotomous system right now, where people have a feeling that it does one thing and then it does another. Why are you here in Florida to talk to these people about this?
GM: One of the reasons is you have had this constant back and forth between the state accountability system and the federal accountability system. And that’s created a whole lot of tension very similar to the situation in California. Congresswoman Castor has talked about this since she first came to
... Eckerd College president Donald Eastman. Dr. Eastman spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about the myriad college rating guides that are coming out these days, and why he thinks some of them aren't necessarily worth much. He also talked about the things he thinks students should really be considering as they look at schools.
I'm really interested in your views about the way that colleges and universities are rated these days. There are a lot of ratings coming out, and you have been favoring some and not favoring others.
Well, I think I would say more that I make distinctions among them. I don't have anything against US News and World Report doing whatever it wants to do. If I were them, I'd probably do the same thing. By all accounts, this is their big issue. They sell a lot of copies and make a lot of money. And they have some things that I think are quite useful. ... There's an article in the US News and World Report college section about so many prospective students apply
... Citrus Park Elementary principal Joan Bookman. A veteran school leader, Bookman offered some advice for parents and youngsters about to begin school on Monday. She spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek.
What do you tell parents and kids to do on the Sunday before they come to school?
Sunday night, have them go to bed early. Make sure they have all their things ready to go and have an outfit picked out if they're not wearing a uniform. Lay it out for them to get dressed. That helps them get there on time. And the one thing that we really like to stress with the kids and their parents is, however they're going to be getting to school during the year, let them do it on the first day. That way they get used to it.
You'll have some kindergartners and some other kids who are new to the school. I'm sure one of the things the parents like to do is give them a hug and walk them to the classroom. What do you say to that kind of ritual?
At our school that's one of the things we encourag
... Melissa Fairbanks, a first-year teacher at Seven Oaks Elementary School in Pasco County. Teachers head back to school on Monday, so it seemed appropriate to talk to one of the newest ones about what the first days of school means to her. Fairbanks, 21, grew up in Perry, Ohio, and graduated this spring from Kent State University. She spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek.
Tell me why you want to be a teacher.
I wanted to be a teacher mainly to give back to my teachers. When I went through school, and when I was younger, my family wasn't all that supportive of me. So it was the teachers that I looked to, to support me. And they were really the ones that made me who I am today. So this is my way of giving back to them. I'm excited.
You said you went to school in Ohio. You've never been to Florida before?
The first time I was in Florida before I came down was when I was 5 years old. Just, when I went into school, when I was a freshman, I always had the notion of moving into North C
... Ron Fairchild, executive director of the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University. Fairchild, a St. Petersburg native and Northeast High graduate, talked with reporter Jeff Solochek about the "summer slide" and what parents and kids can do about it as they enter the final days before school starts again.
JS: What is it about the summer time that tends to see children lose what they have learned?
RF: Well, I think everyone would expect athletes' or musicians' performance suffer if they didn't practice. The same is true for our nation's young people. And so, what research consistently shows us is that our young people are at risk of experiencing setbacks in their academic performance over the summer months if they don't practice those skills regularly.
JS: So let's say, we are going back to school in a couple of weeks and we've done nothing. What should we be doing now?
RF: Teachers typically have to spend four to six weeks in the fall reteaching
... early childhood education advocate David Lawrence. The former Miami Herald publisher helped push Florida's universal prekindergarten constitutional amendment to victory in 2002. Now head of the Early Childhood Initiative Foundation, he tours the country talking about the importance of educating children ages 0-5. (For a more detailed bio, click here.) Lawrence discussed the pros and cons of Florida's Voluntary Pre-K program as it ends its second year with reporter Jeff Solochek.
Lawrence: On the plus side, there are 115,000 or so 4-year-olds who are going to be in the program. ... That’s a very big number. If you consider that 220,000 children are born each year in Florida, you now have more than half of the 4-year-olds. And when there are only three universal programs in the country - Oklahoma in a very small state, 3-million people and a very different kind of model, Georgia which is a close model to Florida. But in the first year of Georgia’s program, which was 1996, in
... state Rep. Joe Pickens, the Palatka Republican who chairs the House Schools and Learning Council. Pickens has been the attorney for the Putnam County School Board, and served on the Putnam County School Readiness Coalition. First elected in 2000, he contemplated applying for the education commissioner job, but decided to keep his leadership position in the House. He spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about school funding issues.
Q: The school districts are concerned that they have to cut what amounts to 4 percent, and one of the things they're doing is meeting with people in Tallahassee to see exactly what that means. What do you see as coming forward? Do school districts really have to bite the bullet, and can they?
A: Well, I think that everyone is going to have to tighten their belts, and not just school districts. The shortfall in revenue, the $1-billion everybody has been hearing about ... is across the board. It's recurring general revenue. So it isn't just education tha
... Kim Black, newly elected president of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association. Black, 44, was born and raised in St. Petersburg. She earned a bachelor's degree in deaf education and elementary education from Flagler College and a master's in counseling from the University of South Florida. She worked for 22 years at Pinellas Park High School, most recently as a guidance counselor. Black spoke with reporter Donna Winchester.
Q: Why did you want to take on the presidency of PCTA?
For the past four years, I was chairwoman of the legislative committee for PCTA. Being on that committee and serving in the position of chair allowed me to move the public education agenda forward. I felt my qualifications would lead me to be the best candidate for president.
Q: What is your role as PCTA president?
My main role is to be a teacher advocate; to protect the rights of union members in the work place, to negotiate their contracts, and to aid in the retention of high quality teachers. I
... Linda Evans, University of South Florida assistant professor of foreign language education and ESOL. Evans, past president of Sunshine State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, quietly led a grassroots effort that prompted Gov. Charlie Crist to veto
SB 2512, which would have reduced ESOL training for reading specialists from 300 hours to 60. She spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about why, in a state heavy with speakers of other languages, such a bill would have hurt education.
JS: The bill came out of what?LE: It came out of Clay County and it came out of the frustration of the reading specialists there, who are required to take course work to gain their reading endorsement and to take course work to gain the ESOL endorsement.JS: And that was too much for them?LE: Yeah, I think so. ... One of the things we've run into in the past is the way the districts set things up vary from district to district in terms of the training requirements. My understanding was tha
... Tom Gonzalez, the Hillsborough School Board attorney. He talks to reporter Letitia Stein about this week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling on free speech in schools. The court limited speech promoting drug use in a decision that supported a high school principal who punished a student for unfurling a banner that read "BONG HiTS 4 JESUS."
LS: What is your take on the significance of the Supreme Court ruling?
TG: It basically confirmed what I think has always been the law. While students certainly have rights of free speech, there is always the ability, or the right, of administrators to control disruption and to control speech on topics that aren't appropriate to the educational context.
LS: What do students need to know? What do teachers need to know?
TG: Students shouldn't be afraid to speak, so long as they don't do things that I think anybody would find disruptive ... I don't think any kid really thinks that you have a right to promote drug usage in a school system.
Teacher
...JADE MOORE, executive director of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association. Reporter Donna Winchester talks with him about the super-homestead exemption, to be decided by voters in a Jan. 29 referendum, and why he thinks there's much to hate about it.DW: In order to cut taxes during the special session, Republican lawmakers wrote into the plan $7-billion in cuts to school budgets over four years. Will this be significant even for large school districts, such as Pinellas?JM: You bet. Unless the Legislature calls itself into a special session, the legislators will not talk about how it's going to plug $7-billion in public school funding for another year. If our goal was to bring some fairness and equity to our tax policy, this sure didn't do it. What the ultimate consequence will be is a drastic cut in funding for all of the state's public schools.
There are a lot of questions, but one thing we know is that the people have never felt overtaxed for their schools. I'm not su
... Derrick Brooks, the Tampa Bay Buccaneer football star. Brooks is heading Gov. Charlie Crist's fitness initiative, a trustee at Florida State University, and a founder of the Brooks-DeBartolo Collegiate High School, which opens in August with nearly 300 students as the first charter high school in Hillsborough. A graduate of Florida public schools, Brooks (shown here with Crist) talked to reporter Letitia Stein about why they matter so much to him.
LS: Why are you so interested in education?
DB: I think education is survival of a society. I know a more educated person in the world is a very powerful human being.
LS: What makes the Brooks-DeBartolo charter school unique?
DB: It allows us to give a curriculum to kids that is a little different than traditional, because we have a small number of kids. Being the first to do it, we have a chance to try some things that may work or may not work, but we're allowed that freedom to change.
LS: How have your own educationa
... MaryEllen Elia, Hillsborough County schools superintendent. Elia has advocated reforms in the FCAT system, and now she serves on the panel advising the Department of Education about the test. She spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about her views on the review of the accountability system.
JS: I'm interested in knowing what your expectations are of the committee.
ME: A number of people are on it. A number of superintendents, people from DOE and, most importantly, people from other groups that have been asked to become part of the review committee for the review of FCAT specifically third grade right away, because of the issues related to the third grade testing this year, but also in the larger scope looking at issues that need to be reviewed relative to the FCAT.
JS: What kind of issues do you see as being most pertinent?
ME: The issues related to the cut-off scores, particularly for high school, and looking at those to make sure that they are in line with the cut-off scores
Bob Schaeffer, the public education director for FairTest. A longtime critic of high-stakes testing, Schaeffer, who lives in Sanibel, has joined forces with the Florida Coalition for Assessment Reform in pressing for changes in the FCAT system. The group has gained attention in Tallahassee lately, even earning a seat on the DOE's advisory panel. Schaeffer talked with reporter Jeff Solochek about how Florida's testing culture might be turning a corner.
JS: How did you get involved with this particular issue, because we know you more on a national scene?
BS: Well, I live in Florida. And I've been connected to FCAR since they were established. I've been to and spoken at their statewide convention and participate on their email list. When I saw the initial wave of coverage ... when the state Department of Education admitted that last year's FCAT had been mis-scored I talked to a number of reporters about that. I was invited to be on a conference call with the FCAR board ... where w
... Pasco County School Board chairwoman Marge Whaley. During her 14-year tenure, Whaley has observed that the board never has had a strong hand in setting policy or budgets. It's generally deferred to the administration. Now the board, like many others across the country, is looking to take back the reins. She spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about the effort.
MW: We just got finished with our workshop. ... I realized that I certainly was not the only one who was a little unhappy with the way things were going in different areas.
JS: Such as?
MW: Such as the strategies being handed to us. They were already made by someone else and, as it turned out, they were actually formed by the (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) committee last year. ... We decided years ago that we wanted our workshops to be no more dog and pony shows. We want the stuff up front, we want a chance to read it. And if you're giving us a workshop, it's because we need to know something because w
... Roy Romer, the former three-term governor of Colorado and superintendent of Los Angeles public schools, the nation's second-largest school system. Romer now is the leader of ED in '08, a national $60-million campaign funded by the Gates and Broad foundations to get the presidential candidates talking about education issues. They have a distance to go. As California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger noted in a talk to the Education Writers Association on Friday, the Republican hopefuls debated this week and, "Education was never talked about." Romer sat with reporter Jeff Solochek in Los Angeles to talk about the initiative.
Q: Why is it that we can't get the attention to education? I know there's a war ...
A: I have a feeling that any president wakes up the first week after the election and says, 'OK, what are the issues that I'm going to have to master to prepare this country for the next 20 years?' You're obviously going to have the war on one corner of your desk. You've got
... Manatee County school teacher Susan Bischoff. A National Board certified teacher, Bischoff was one of 18 members to prepare Performance Pay for Teachers: Designing a System That Students Deserve. Bischoff talks about her involvement with the nonpartisan Center for Teaching Quality and the group's recommendations, which included 1) solve the base pay issue, 2) create a performance pay plan open to all teachers, and 3) reward teachers whose students make significant gains. (Yes, there's more.)
"I have never taken issue with the union position that base pay needs to be higher. You can't really argue that when you've got beginning teachers that can't afford housing. ... That's ridiculous. The only thing I'm taking issue with the union position is, why does it have to be an either-or thing, that you can't do something else to reward teachers who are doing more? Why are we saying we can't have one without the other? We need both.
I have always had the position that not a
... Hernando County School Board chairman Pat Fagan. First elected in 2004, Fagan is no stranger to Hernando education and politics. He taught in the school system for a few years and served as Brooksville mayor before becoming county Parks and Recreation director, a job he has held for more than 30 years. Now he's negotiating a contract for the county's new superintendent, and he has some thoughts about what the schools CEO needs to do. "Once he gets on board, which will be hopefully by mid-June if it all goes well, he's got a lot of work," Fagan says.
"One of the most important things that we need the superintendent to do is get out into the community and communicate with them what is going on in the school system. He needs to get out and identify himself to them. He needs to let the public know who he is ... and what he believes the school system needs. ... He's the No. 2 selection and he was close. No. 1, to be honest with you, the only reason we as a board selected (Henry La
