elpasospeak

The El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) says that they want community input before they decide what to do about the physical condition of our schools.  They have posted a survey on their web site and tell us:

“This questionnaire will gather input from the community on district-wide facility related challenges, gauge the perceived effectiveness of possible corrective actions, and be used by the Steering Committee to develop recommendations that will then be presented to the Superintendent.”

The first page of the questionnaire looks like this:

We are evidently supposed to answer the questions after reading a worksheet.  No such worksheet is available on the web site at the time of this writing as far as I can tell.

I’m having difficulty here.  I cannot decide whether to record strong support for option one or for option two.

What are your thoughts?

Be sure to give the district your input — they say they really want it.

We deserve better

Brutus

Looking at the district’s formal “Purchasing and Acquisition” policy some things trouble me.

From the policy:

“The Board delegates to the Superintendent the authority to make budgeted purchases of goods and services that cost up to $100,000 and other purchases of goods and services in accordance with other provisions in this policy.”

Presumably that means that the board does not even have to be notified of the purchase.

Then further from the policy:

“The Superintendent shall also be authorized to approve budgeted purchases of goods and services made in accordance with an inter-local cooperative contract up to $250,000 per vendor in the aggregate of a 12 month period.”

In light of what we have seen in the past, this seems dangerous to me.

It is particularly troubling if in fact the board (and therefor the public) do not have to be informed of these purchases.

Is the board to busy to even look at how our money is spent?

We deserve better

Brutus

The El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) recently announced that they have promoted one of their high school principals to the position of master principal.  This is evidently a new rung in the district’s hierarchy.

It appears that we now have:

• A superintendent
  • Two executive assistants
• A deputy superintendent of academics
  • An executive assistant
• Three area superintendents
  • Each with their own executive assistant
• An executive director of school leadership operations
  • Two coordinators of leadership support
  • An executive assistant
• A dizzying array of support departments (pupil services, family student and community engagement, and so on)
• A newly minted master principal
• School principals
• School assistant principals
• School counselors
• Teaching coaches

all before we finally get to the classroom teachers.  I apologize if I left any important bureaucrats off the list.

Yes, there are many talented, dedicated people working at the district in jobs outside of the schools.  I applaud them.

I worry more about the classroom teachers.  They don’t even get enough paper to run photo copies.

We deserve better

Brutus

According to a recently released report titled “Comprehensive System Review of EPISD” (read all 999 pages here), “This board hired Juan Cabrera as the new superintendent in the fall of 2013, and one of Mr. Cabrera’s first decisions was to have a comprehensive system evaluation conducted to determine where key strengths and weaknesses exist in the system”.

The district has placed a link to the report prominently on the home page of their web site.

Before we start

Let’s first admit that very few of us know how to read a report like this and compare our district to others.  We should understand that in an organization as big as EPISD policies and rules are not always understood by everyone, much less obeyed.

EPISD may have done pretty well in the review.

Not the way it looks though

It seems to me that the report has more to say about what they observed that was not good than it does about what good it found.

For example in “STANDARD 1:  The School District Demonstrates Its Control of Resources, programs, and Personnel” the report lists these five findings:

Finding 1.1:  The structural configuration of the El Paso Independent School District does not match its success metric.

Finding 1.2:  Evidence of planning was found in the El Paso Independent School District, but planning processes, plans, implementation strategies, actions steps, and communication protocols are inadequate to provide a clear focus with which to guide district initiatives, program direction, and system operations.

Finding 1.3:  Board polices are difficult to navigate and lack content and sufficient specificity to provide [t]he adequate quality control needed for effective management of curriculum and other district functions.  (Brutus’ note–evidently the report writers have some problems with quality control too).

Finding 1.4:  Job descriptions are inadequate in scope and in the ability to clearly communicate rules and responsibilities associated with curriculum design and delivery.  The organizational chart does not meet audit criteria and is inadequate to reflect sound general management of the school system.  The lack of a clear organizational structure is impeding communications across the system and contributing to a sense of organizational distrust.

Finding 1.5:  Critical human resource management system functions are weak in their capacity to support instructional priorities of the school district.  The teacher appraisal process is inadequate to inform improved curriculum delivery, district planning, or decision making.  Policy direction is weak in establishing clear criteria for making personnel decisions concerning teacher transfers and ineffective teachers.

Believe it or not, there are four more standards that were reviewed.

What does this mean?

The fact that the district has published this report so prominently has me wondering.  Often the district is not forthcoming with uncomplimentary information.  Then again maybe they want us to know what needs to be fixed.

Is our non-elected board of managers going to do something with this report?  Are we soon going to learn about steps to improve the situation?

Is this an effort to get public support for changes that the district thinks the unions will fight?

Since most of findings 1.1 to 1.5 address administrative issues are we about to see an overhaul at the top levels of the district?

The findings document things that many have been saying about the district.

What will happen next?

We deserve better

Brutus