Budgets, Bullying Remain Focus of School Board
The board approved the tentative budget for fiscal year 2012-13 at Tuesday's meeting.
The Pasco County School Board met for the last time Tuesday before the 2012-13 school year begins, and the theme of the meeting carried a familiar tune: budgets and bullying.
Tuesday's meeting was the first public hearing session on the district's budget for the upcoming year, and board members approved a tentative $1 billion plan, which is down 4.6 percent from last year, according to the Tampa Bay Times—including a tentative millage rate of 7.341 mills—without discussion.
Only one person addressed the board during the public hearing portion of Tuesday's meeting.
Jim Ciadella, a representative of the United School Employees of Pasco, said the budget, if approved, will further exacerbate the "trying times" that school employees face, as workloads and stress levels increase. The two furlough days in the plan are equivalent to employees donating two days of pay, he said.
A final public hearing on the budget is scheduled for Sept. 18 at 6 p.m.
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During the regular meeting, former Hudson Middle School assistant principal Buffy Simon broke down in tears as she addressed the board.
Simon of Land O' Lakes said after being "abruptly removed" from her position at Hudson, she was told she is not eligible to apply for other available AP jobs. She said her removal came after reporting a hostile work environment.
At the time she was told to support the principal, Simon said. She also recounted a text message received during school hours that asked her to attend a fundraiser for Superintendent Heather Fiorentino, after which she was told it was "in her best interest" to support her boss.
This is the type of environment the district is currently supporting, she said.
Simon said she has a master's degree in educational leadership, and her career is on the line.
"I cannot sit back anymore," Simon said.
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Former Sanders Elementary employee Peggy Lopez of Land O' Lakes also addressed the board to voice her concern over documents released to Patch.com as part of a public records request, a move she said demonstrated "bully tactics" by the district.
"I really feel it a wrong thing to do to release these files when I have never seen them," Lopez said.
Lopez said, according to her contract and union officials, such documents should not exist, nor should they be released to the media.
A public records request was made by Patch as part of an inquiry into an ongoing series of stories addressing issues at Connerton Elementary. Documents pertaining to the employment of Lopez and Cathy Brown, both organizers of the movement to have Connerton Principal Anna Falcone removed from her position, were requested in order to substantiate a claim by the school district that both had "issues" during their employment. As a result of that request, the investigative files and formal files of both were obtained. The contents of those files, however, have not been published on Patch.
"I don't know if these files are legal or not," Lopez told the board. However, she said, she planned to make sure every district employee knew these types of files existed, referring to the investigative files.
"These files need to be purged," she said.
After the meeting, district director of employee relations Kevin Shibley said investigative files are only initiated if allegations of misconduct warrant an investigation.
The notion that the district has investigative files on all employees is not true, Shibley said. If an employee is being investigated, they would know an investigative file exists to document that investigation, he said.
And those investigative files are part of the public record, Shibley said.
Those are in addition to all emails and written correspondence to the school district, regardless of whether there is a formal investigation, Pasco Schools spokeswoman Summer Romagnoli said.
Those documents are accessible to any employee or member of the public by request from the human resources department, however people have to be very specific in what they are looking for when making a request, and due to the number of requests received, it can take a few days, Shibley said.
If someone asks an HR representative for what was given to the press, they aren't going to have any idea what that may encompass, as press requests are handled through the media relations department, Romagnoli said.
The law is clear as to what documentation has to be retained and for how long, Ramagnoli said. And all of those documents are public record under the Sunshine Law, she said.
See also: Issues at Connerton Elementary
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Sick and Tired
10:46 am on Wednesday, August 1, 2012
did the school board or higher administrators of the school district receive a reduction in pay to help with the budget or was it just the real employees?
Henry Grady
11:59 am on Wednesday, August 1, 2012
When the media receives all the District's data on an individual, including the documents that are not subjected to the same level of veracity as the documents in the Personnel file proper, they have a responsibility to understand that these documents are typically only claims or observations. Notes and memos to file should not be taken at face value as they have apparently been. At least one of the employees whose file was released to the media was not even asked to comment on their contents by The Patch. The documents were just accepted as accurate. These Investigative files should be segregated from the clean Personnel file and come with a disclaimer that the documents are working papers that may or may not be factual and have not met the District standard for official personnel records. People, both inside and outside the media, need to understand that documents in the so-called Investigative files are rarely known to the employee (contrary to the claim of Kevin Shibley) and can be completely inaccurate. There is NO standard for accuracy with these documents and they can come about as a result of specious claims made by nearly anyone. Any VALID claim against the employee will result in some disciplinary document IN THE PERSONNEL FILE. Invalid claims and unsubstantiated allegations lay unresolved in the Investigative file, waiting for unsuspecting media members to publicize them when the District wishes to sully the reputation of a "thorny" employee.
Keli Sipperley
12:37 pm on Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Hi Henry, neither was asked for comment because there was no story done on the contents of those files. In the event any information in those documents is referred to in a future story, a comment will be solicited.
Henry Grady
3:01 pm on Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Thanks for your response Keli. In the original article from July 6, 2012, "Miscommunication, Misunderstanding Part of Connerton Problem?", you accepted Summer's "indirect" characterization that there were "personnel issues" in both of their files. One had one disciplinary issue during her entire career (with Falcone, during the first 60 days of Falcone's reign at Sanders), the other none. In fact, she had received an excellent review from Falcone less than 30 days before she left Sanders. If you realized that the documents that claimed there were problems (the so-called "Investigative file") in the otherwise pristine file were unsubstantiated and open to opinion, perhaps a validation of the claims (via a comment from the person against whom the claims were being made) would have been appropriate rather than allowing Summer to make the claim without any push back.
One other thought: we are beginning to get the impression from our failed attempts to obtain the Investigative files of key players like Falcone and Carswell that either there have been NO investigations of the numerous claims against them (we know there have been claims because our friends have made some of them) or their Investigative files are being buried illegally by the District. Perhaps you could look into this potentially embarrassing situation?
Keli Sipperley
3:32 pm on Wednesday, August 1, 2012
I will see what I can find out about the documents you've requested. Please email me and let me know what you've asked for from the district specifically. keli.sipperley@patch.com Thanks!
Henry Grady
6:41 pm on Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Thanks Keli. That is kind of you to offer. I am concerned that the "ongoing investigation" claim will be used to stonewall the freedom of information requests. After all, there is no real way to prove they AREN'T investigating anything. Summer said that the investigation into the child that was pulled from class and questioned was complete, but I suspect if you request that information, they will claim that investigation is ongoing. The parent has never received any communication from the District that the investigation is complete, either. It seems like a convenient tool to keep information out of the public domain that would be embarrassing or to make an assertion in the media under the cover of a completed investigation that is in fact, not complete (or possibly not even being actively investigated). I'm sure the "emails and written correspondence...regardless of whether there is a formal investigation" that Summer said were also available to the public would be interesting reading as well. After all, most complaints and accusations are probably coming in via email to the District.
Peggy Lopez
10:28 pm on Thursday, August 2, 2012
The SRP Master Contract states "All documents maintained concerning an SRP to be used for official purposes shall be kept only in the SRP'spersonnel file at the district office".