- April 26, 2024
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Wary of the price tag, the Flagler County School Board rejected on June 18 a contract to hire a company to train administrators who evaluate teachers. If approved, the contract would have cost about $534,000 over the next five years.
Superintendent Janet Valentine brought the contract before the board, qualifying it first by saying it might look like a large line item but that it would help the district after the legislative changes that give teachers and administrators pay raises based on their evaluations starting in the 2014-2015 school year.
“We’re getting ready to move into a very high-stakes time for our teachers,” Valentine said. “We want to make sure when our principals evaluate teachers … it’s consistent from one principal to the next.”
The contract would have brought an outside company, TeachScape, to train administrators in observation evaluation, making assessments of teachers’ effectiveness more equitable across the county because all evaluations would be done by the same standards, Valentine said.
But the School Board was hesitant to approve such an expensive contract. While the first year would be paid for by Race to the Top dollars, the board would have to find money in its budget to fund it for each additional year. Valentine proposed that each year succeeding the first be funded by a combination of Title I dollars and revenue from the half-cent sales tax.
The five-year contract had language that would allow the board to cancel. Initially, the School Board considered approving the contract if the matter were placed on a meeting agenda for reevaluation after the first year. A motion to do so passed, but shortly afterward, board member Colleen Conklin rescinded her vote.
“I’m trying to compromise myself,” she said. “But I can’t approve this.”
Conklin asked why TeachScape was the only company certified to give observer training, questioning its credibility. She also said she expected the Florida Department of Education to provide assistance and training for the new evaluation system.
Valentine said the department was providing support through an additional $45,000 of Race to the Top funding for the next fiscal year. That money would have helped to pay for TeachScape, Valentine said.
After Conklin withdrew her supporting vote, the contract failed on a 3-2 vote, with board members Sue Dickinson and John Fischer supporting it.
Purchase of $100,000 teacher materials approved
At the same meeting, another contract prompted discussion by the board: a $97,000 purchase of an i-Ready diagnostic and instructional program for Title I schools. The materials would provide teachers with highly specific diagnostics of students’ needs and strengths and would generate specialized documents teachers could use for instruction.
Conklin questioned the purchase, saying the cost seemed high considering that the district already has diagnostic materials. But Valentine said the purchase would be covered using Title I dollars, which are meant to provide support to struggling students, and have strict regulations around how they can be spent.
“Obviously, we have a budget issue,” Conklin said. “We know we can expect a shortfall in those federal dollars, and again, we have a budget issue, so I’m uncomfortable right now approving a purchase of $100,000.”
Tammy Yorke, coordinator of federal programs for the school district, stood with Valentine to ask the board to approve the purchase.
“We’ve been very fiscally responsible in my office, even to the point of paranoia, because we weren’t sure where we would stand with sequestration,” she said. “We didn’t really spend this year, so we’re still well within our budget.”
This contract was approved by the board on a 3-2 vote, with Conklin and Fischer voting against it.
