Can the Florida Keys school district get any weirder? ? You betcha!

Two finalists for school superintendent announced

Anne Constable | The New Mexican
Posted: Friday, June 22, 2012 -

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On Friday, the Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education announced two finalists for the position of superintendent.
They are Michael McKie, of Missouri City, Texas, currently the assistant superintendent for the Fort Bend Independent School District in Sugar Land, Texas and Joel Boyd, of Philadelphia, Pa., who is currently assistant superintendent for the School District of Philadelphia.

Meaning, Jesus Jara was eliminated from getting that job. That sure puts our school board members in the crosshairs. Our superintendent has no job waiting elsewhere. He has a wife and children living in the Miami area. Would you pick him from the 5 candidate shortlist based solely on his job performance in this school district, if you were on the school board? I might, but not because I felt he deserrved it. I might do it to let him prove to everyone in the Keys that this school district is systmetically dysfunctional and the only way to straighten it out is to eliminate the school board and superintendent?s say so in how this school district operates. The only way I see to do that in a way that allows for self-determination staying in the Keys is for each school to vote to be a charter school.

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On Jara not getting the Santa Fe job and the superintendent seleciton, this in The Key West Citizen today:

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Public to meet school finalists

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The Monroe County School Board, along with the rest of the county, will get a first look this week at four of the five finalists in the running to become the district?s first-ever hired superintendent.
Superintendent Jesus Jara, appointed by the governor in August, joins four educators who will meet the public starting 5:30 p.m. Monday at First State Bank at 1201 Simonton St. in Key West. The board-hosted reception will last until 7:30 p.m.
?The only one we know is Dr. Jara,? said board Chairman John Dick. ?The other candidates will all be new for me. That will be my first time speaking with them on Monday.?
The Florida Keys is now the only place where Jara remains a contender for a superintendent job.
On Thursday, he withdrew his name from the schools chief selection in Santa Fe, N.M., after going through a series of interviews along with five other semifinalists.
?I just felt it wasn?t meant to be for me to be there,? Jara said Friday, while on the road back to South Florida.
Last Monday, Jara lost out on his bid to run public schools in Springfield, Mass. Springfield?s school committee instead voted 5-2 for an insider who has worked there for 37 years.
All of the finalists for Monroe County schools chief are men. They are Jara, and:
? Edward Shine, who is retiring from the superintendent?s job in Rye City, N.Y., after 16 years there;
? Mark Porter, formerly of the South Washington County School District, where the school board in December voted not to renew his contract;
? Shannon Goodsell, superintendent of Tahlequah Public Schools in northeastern Oklahoma; and
? Thomas Gay, president/CEO of the Quality Schools Group, which runs a private school in Broward County.
The five will take part in an interviewing blitz this week, culminating with Thursday?s 2 p.m. board meeting at Marathon High School, where the panel plans to select a superintendent.
?I don?t believe we will go home Thursday until we come up with someone we make an offer to,? said Dick. ?There won?t be any contract offer on Thursday. We have a committee that will work with this person to determine a contract.?
That three-person committee comprises School Board member Robin Smith-Martin, City Attorney Shawn Smith,sunand Monroe County Clerk Danny Kolhage.
The school?s attorneys will write the language of the contract, while the committee will negotiate the deal.
Aug. 1 is the start date for the new superintendent, who will make between $125,000 and $150,000.
?You never know,? said Dick. ?Sometimes they don?t come to agreements. We should have a second choice and maybe even a third.?

Strange comment from the school board member who all along has tried to make this a one-man race, that one man being Jesus Jara.
After Monday?s Key West reception, the superintendent search will move up U.S. 1 to Key Largo for a 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday event at Centennial Bank, 100280 Overseas Highway.
On Wednesday, the ?meet-and-greet? series heads to Marathon for a 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. event at Iberia Bank, 5601 Overseas Highway. This event is longer because each candidate will make a brief presentation and get a public question-and-answer session.

I think I will take in this event because I want to see how the candidates do on their feet, and I want to make sure each of them knows just how fucked up this school district is, which I seriously doubt anyone who matters has explained to them.
Thursday is the big final day, with board members taking turns meeting one-on-one with each candidate from 9 a.m. to noon at Marathon High School. Those interviews are closed-door and not open to the public.
The board will then go into a 2 p.m. meeting at the school?s library.

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On same topic, this from Larry Murray yesterday:

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Then this from Larry:

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Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2012 18:10:08 -0700
From: citizenlarry007@yahoo.com
Subject: Are You Serious?
To: robin.smith-martin@keysschools.com; ron.martinsb@keysschools.com; duncan.mathewson@keysschools.com; John.Dick@KeysSchools.com; andy@fishandy.com
CC: keysmyhome@hotmail.com; mhowell@keysnews.com; island@bigpinekey.com; johnlguerra@gmail.com; gfilosa@keysnews.com; skinney@keynoter.com; bigpinenews@aol.com; news@us1radio.com; rd.boettger@gmail.com

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John:

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Are you serious? You have postponed the regular Tuesday meeting of the School Board and moved it to Thursday, styling it a ?Special Board Meeting?. However, the meeting?s speciality is quickly lost in the agenda, which characterizes the meeting as ?Regular?, which is the case.

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If you go to the agenda and read along, you learn that the last item is the selection of the Superintendent. So much for a special meeting of the School Board to make the most important decision that any School Board has in the history of Monroe County.

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You plan to start with two Closed Attorney/Client sessions and then wade through the usual items, including five budget amendments to spend money that the District does not have. There will be the usual the ?Public Comment? section which I am told will be lengthy and lively in view of Superintendent Jara?s decision today to alter the District contribution to health insurance for administrators. Also, there will be public hearings on three subjects.

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Finally, and I mean finally, after everyone is suitably exhausted, the Board will shift its attention to the selection of the superintendent. How the selection process will proceed no one knows as the Board has not chosen to share that. It should be, as my father said of WWII, ?very interesting?.

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What was wrong with having the regular School Board meeting on Tuesday as scheduled and then have a truly special meeting on Thursday dedicated exclusively to the selection of the superintendent? Were you trying to save on travel? Staff time? or what? Also, scheduling the meeting at 2:00?was that intended to limit public involvement in the selection of the first appointed superintendent?

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I guess that I should not be surprised as every other aspect of the superintendent selection process has been muddled.

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Dr. Larry Murray

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PS: Are you laying the groundwork for an age discrimination suit with your repeated public comment that you do not want a superintendent ?who will retire here.? I suspect that Larry Tyree would take some offense to that observation.

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I will be at that school board meeting because I want to see what the each of the 5 board members does with the selection of a new superintendent. I imagine the less people there, the better the 5 board members will like it.

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This also from Larry yesterday, just to me.

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Sloan:

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Earlier this evening, I attended the Leadership Monroe recruiting gathering. The glitterati were there.

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Among those in attendance was Andy Griffiths. I asked for his opinion on the Gentile CPA affair. He was emphatic in his response. His voice rose and cracked as he said that Gentile should be fired for falsifying his credentials.

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I told Andy that I would hold him to his statement. School Board members are notorious for making statements and then, when the time comes to act, they become conveniently silent. We shall see if Andy ?puts his money where his mouth is? and takes further action. The School Board meets next Thursday and that will be a very convenient opportunity to express himself publicly and to take action with regard to the Board?s sole employee.

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Larry

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It will be interesting to see if Andy follows through on what Larry reported of their conversation. Interesting, because Andy and the other four current board members knew from the Mercer Group report vetting Gentile?s resume that the Mercer Group could not verify Gentile was a Florida CPA. Yet Andy and the other 4 board members voted to hire Gentile. Looks to me Andy needs to fire Andy.

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Larry told me last night, on US 1 Radio Morning Magazine yeterday, John Dick said he could not remember if he had read the Mercer Group?s report. I said baloney, the school board knew what was in the Mercer report and they hired Gentile anyway. In hiring Gentile, they waived being able to fire him over his resume saying he was a Florida CPA. If they fire Gentile, they will have to pay him the rest of what he is owed under his employement contract, which I understand runs to next March.

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I told Larry what this really all boils down to is yet another solid piece of evidence of just how terminally fucked up this school district is. Larry said he could not argue with that.

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This Editorial in The Key West Citizen today:

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Can district reserves be fixed by a garage sale?

Of the myriad controversial issues the Monroe County School District has dealt with over these past few tumultuous years, one of the biggest has been the district?s fund balance ? or lack thereof.
If one wants to get a quick snapshot of an organization?s financial health, a look at the fund balance (cash reserves) is the first place to go. A look at our School District?s dismal fund balance is actually an appropriate snapshot of the seemingly never-ending train wreck we have all been watching.
Back in 2004, under the reins of then-Superintendent John Padget, the district had a fund balance of $12.5 million, which was exponentially higher than the fund balance the district finds itself with today. It has been all downhill financially since then.
In December, Superintendent Jesus Jara had the unpleasant task of writing a letter to the Florida Department of Education, notifying them that the district?s fund balance had fallen below 3 percent.
If a district?s reserves fall below 2 percent, drastic remedial measures can come into play, including the possibility of the state assuming control of the district?s financial management.
A recent change of administrative responsibility for the district?s Finance Department has brought with it a startling improvement of the district?s fund balance. Chief of Staff Ken Gentile, in his first budget presentation to the School Board, assured board members that past concerns over the district?s reserves had been successfully addressed.
At first this development appeared to be welcome good news. But a closer look gives cause for concern.
While some of Gentile?s budget magic came from cutting expenses, about $2 million came from district assets not previously considered as reserves. In describing this ?new? money, Gentile explained that ?inventories count; you could sell it and spend it.?
That left a lot of folks, including some board members, doing double takes. Did he really just say that? He was kidding, right?
We are under the impression that reserves consist of unencumbered cash ? not some vague inventory that can be converted to cash.
To hear Mr. Gentile say we could, in effect, conduct a garage sale if things get tight is ridiculous ? and is an insult to all the people who recently have been ?downsized.?
Of course, maybe Mr. Gentile is right and his numbers, while creative, are acceptable to the state Department of Education. Were the old numbers wrong? Are some of the district?s budget woes merely the result of not thinking outside the fiscal box?
Or is the district?s financial management just getting weirder and weirder? Can it get any weirder?
? The Citizen

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Here is my email eight days ago to the Commissioner of the Department of Education, and the auto reply that came back. So far, nothing further from the Commissioner.

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From: keysmyhome@hotmail.com
To: commissioner@fldoe.org
Subject: Monroe County School District reserve fund balance question
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 13:24:10 -0400

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Dear Commissioner:

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This article about the Monroe County, Florida School District was in yesterday?s Key West Citizen, the daily newspaper in the Florida Keys. I highlighted the areas of concern to me and others. A few comments after the article.

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From The Key West Citizen:

District: Reserve fund OK

Gentile: Schools can use inventory in calculation

Monroe County School Board members this week heard some good financial predictions for a change ? that the district?s reserve fund will remain high enough to ward off state intervention.
When the 2012 fiscal year ends June 30, the reserve will likely amount to 4 percent of the year?s revenues, or about $3.2 million, Chief of Staff Ken Gentile told the board Tuesday.
The reserve, commonly called the ?fund balance,? is a bellwether of a school system?s financial health, so much so that the state Department of Education requires immediate notification if it dips below 3 percent of projected revenues.
Superintendent Jesus Jara sent such a notification letter to DOE in December, when the district?s best numbers showed that the fund balance wouldn?t hit 3 percent.
Although the district?s final numbers for 2012 won?t come in until a couple weeks after June 30, the end of the fiscal year, all signs point to a fund balance that will meet the state?s standard of 4 percent.
The funds are set aside as a reserve for unanticipated expenses, such as meeting state class-size requirements.
?These are the best numbers we have to date,? Jara told the board.
By 2013, the district projects an ending fund balance of 5 percent, which is what the five-man board had practically demanded.
?Things have changed,? said School Board Chairman John Dick. ?Some real frugal things have been done by the district since then, and we have been able to enhance our fund balance.?
Jara?s team went after funding that was owed to the district, decided not to fill positions when people quit or retired, and cut back spending, said Dick.
?I would say we?re fine,? he said. ?We?ve got to do what we?ve got to do. The district will survive.?
Gentile?s fund balance figures for 2012 and 2013, however, include some ?unavailable? money, in the form of about $2 million in assets the district could tap if necessary.
?Inventories count,? said Gentile. ?You could sell it and spend it.?
Once a school system?s fund balance falls below 2 percent, that district must submit to the state a plan on how to rebuild it.
In Monroe County, the fund balance is a touchy subject.
When John Padget left the superintendent?s office in 2004, the fund balance amounted to a flush $12.5 million.
Once voters handed the district?s reins to Randy Acevedo, the schools spent most of that reserve. By 2010, the year after the governor removed Acevedo from office after the financial scandal that sent his wife, Monique Acevedo, to prison for embezzlement, the fund balance was down to $2 million.
But by the end of the 2010 fiscal year, the fund balance had risen to 5 percent of revenues, or about $4 million, according to Gentile?s presentation to the board Tuesday.

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__________________________________

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To me and others, reserve fund balance is the difference between revenues and expenditures. Inventories are not factored into it. Would not surprise me, if the State audited this School District, it would find the fund balance at or below 2 percent. That may seem like a fantastical statement way up in Tallahassee, but down here in the Keys, we have come to expect the fantastical out of this school district.

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For your information, I am a write-in candidate for one of the School Board seats in this year?s election. Looks to me like my role is showing the voters what is really going on in their school district; can?t imagine getting elected. I am a former practicing attorney, in Alabama. Perhaps your legal department needs to look over this inquiry?

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Thank you.

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Sloan Bashinsky

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1031 Grand Street, Little Torch Key, FL 33042

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(305) 872-1705

(305) 407-4285 (cell)

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Subject: Thank you for contacting the Commissioner
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 13:24:13 -0400
From: commissioner@fldoe.org
To: keysmyhome@hotmail.com

Thank you for contacting the Commissioner at the Florida Department of Education. Due to the volume of emails received, please understand that there will be a slight delay in response to your correspondence. However, this in no way lessens the importance and seriousness of your issue for the Department.
Sincerely,
Office of the Commissioner

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There is one other thing stuck in my craw, which is how Andy Griffiths came to the Sugarloaf School barn-burner last Wednesday night. He came in his big double-cab white pickup with ?Andy Griffiths for School Board? magnet signs on the two front side doors, and a much larger 2-sided billboard in the truck bed, saying much the same thing, with 2 American flags flapping in the wind, attached by short poles to the top of the billboard. I could not imagine anything more tastless and insensitive than to arrive like that at a meeting so serious and disturbing to the children, parents, teachers and principal of that school. It told me nothing is more important to Andy than being reelected. Nothing.

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