NAACP Fails Triumphantly!

As if they were retreating while declaring victory the NAACP met with the School Board on Tuesday and failed to achieve a single one of the 11 benchmarks for the Superintendent’s performance that the NAACP said in a letter 5 months ago were needed “to address enormous educational deficiencies in Hillsborough County Public Schools that have gone without solutions for several decades” (see previous article: NAACP demands ignored until after Superintendent’s contract extension).

Despite these decades old “enormous educational deficiencies” the NAACP president Carolyn Collins provided little more than toothless platitudes when she spoke to the School Board and practically thanked them for continuing to ignore the NAACP’s specific benchmarks saying that she “appreciated the attention the district has given these issues” while for the past 5 months the school board has failed to commit to a single one and already extended the superintendent’s contract without them.

In fact, despite a year marked with issues like student deaths, unreported student deaths, discrimination concerns, antiquated policies, training, qualifications and bizarre claims against lower staff (see Watchdogwire.com article: SHAWN LIVINGSTON PREVAILS IN BIZARRE ALLEGATION BY HILLSBOROUGH SCHOOL’S ADMINISTRATION) the School Board has so far not made a single known change to the Superintendent’s performance  evaluation criteria.

But the board assured the audience that it was committed to holding still more workshops, superintendent MaryEllen Elia announced the creation of yet another task force that will include community organizations, and Carolyn Collins proudly said that the NAACP would continue to ask hard questions with no stated deadline which should keep the conversation going and going and going for several more decades. So after another 5 months of delay, Hillsborough County should be proud that they all appear to remain committed to talking about these issues, ad nauseam, forever, to make sure that they never turn in to any real action that might actually change things.

The Tampa Bay Times reinforced this commitment to inaction with a report that failed to even mention the NAACP letter and their 11 specific benchmarks, resulting in a report that meandered aimlessly and kept the action plan ambiguous and undefined for Times’ readers.

In the interest of full disclosure, it should probably also be noted that NAACP President Carolyn Collins also serves on the Board of Directors for the Mount Pleasant Middle School operating under a charter granted by the Hillsborough County School Board.

Similarly, the NAACP Educational Committee Chair Saba Baptiste has also been involved in several Schools Charters and recently described her employment situation with Hillsborough County Public Schools as “fragile”. The NAACP Education Committee authored the 2 pages of performance Goals for the Superintendent that came with their June 12, 2013 letter.

The more you know the more you know you don’t know. And as if to add insult to injury, later this same Tuesday at the School Board recognition meeting, the Florida Educational Risk Management Association (FERMA) awarded the District’s Safety manager Glen Lathers the “Risk Manager of the Year Award”. FERMA noted “implementation of proactive insurance programs designed to provide adequate risk avoidance at the District were unmatched” including an “Outstanding Safety Manual and Safety Training Program”. Alternative Translation: The Risk Manager was forced by a series of tragedies to finally do what he should have done a long time ago. That’s kind of like getting an award for finally doing your job properly this year. Meanwhile, other staff were being blamed, disciplined, and fired for training related failures resulting from outdated manuals and programs. Hmmm.

But you know what they say: The difference between success and failure is determined by the rank of bureaucratic insanity. Or something like that. Congratulations on another failure…err, triumph!