Report to the Duval County School Board on Envisioning Committee and Focus Groups Meetings for Superintendent Search 2012 1 Introduction This report presents the findings from the Envisioning Committee meetings and the focus groups meetings conducted during April and May 2012 by Nancy Broner of Broner Consulting, nc. on behalf of the Duval County School Board. In late March 2012, the Duval County School Board embarked upon a search for the next Superintendent of Duval County Public Schools, creating an Envisioning Committee comprised of community leaders, business leaders, principals, teachers, parents and students to provide input and guidance to the Schoo! Board in answering the following “big” questions: “What are the components of a globally competitive school district?” and “What are the traits/characteristics desired in the new superintendent?” These questions were also posed to ten focus groups of school district personnel, including teachers, principals, assistant principals, guidance counselors, and dist administrators. Additionally, input was gathered from all groups regarding the assets and challenges of the district as well as questions for the superintendent candidate interviews. Findings will be presented in two ways: as a synthesis of input and as distinct voices of the groups. Input is presented without editing or editorializing in order to protect the integrity of the process, ll, Participation Three meetings of the Envisioning Committee were held during April and May to explore the national landscape of superintendent searches in large urban districts; understand the competitive market for urban superintendents; solicit input from their peers and organizations they represent and report findings to the Envisioning Committee regarding the big questions posed by the School Board; discuss. and answer the big questions within the Envisioning Committee; and react to input provided by the ten focus groups. Attendance at the Envisioning Committee meetings was as follows: April 9=40, April 16=33, May 14=24, ENVISIONING COMMITTEE MEMBERS Type of Member ‘Member Name Organization Community Group | Dr. Christine Arab___| Florida State College at Jacksonville Community Group | Elnora G. Atkins NAACP Education Committee Community Group | Dr. Lois Becker Jacksonville University Community Group | Terrie Brady Duval Teachers United Community Group | Mayor Alvin &rown | Mayor's Office Community Group | David Coffman Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Community Group | Judith Cromartie Miltary Affairs (US Navy) Community Group _| Trey Csar [Jacksonville Public Education Fund Community Group | Dr. tarry. Daniel___| University of North Florida Community Group | Dr. James Ewers Edward Waters College 1Community Group Patricia Hill AFSCME, Community Group Connie Hodges United Way of Northeast Florida Community Group Melissa Kicklighter Duval County Council of PTAs ‘Community Group im Love Jacksonville City Council Community Group Rachel Raneri District Advisory Council Community Group Pamela Rogers Retired Duval County Administrators Assn. Community Group __| Ben Warner Jacksonville Community Council nc. Community Group _| Cleve Warren Jacksonville Chamber Community Group __| Nina Waters ‘The Community Foundation in Jacksonville Community Group | Senator Steve Wise __| Duval Delegation Community Group __| Colleen Wood Save Duval Schools Principal-District1__| Scott Schneider Terry Parker High School Principal-Oistrict2___| Debra tynch Atlantic Coast High School Principal-District3__| Jackie Cornelius Douglas Anderson High School Principal-District 4___| Angela Maxey Justina Road Elementary Principal-District 5 Jackie Simmons Grand Park Center Principal-bistrict6 | Michelle Floyd Hatcher | Westview 8 Principal-District 7 | Denise Hall Lee High School Teacher-District 1 ‘Shannon Wine Woodland Acres Elementary Teacher-District 2 Laurie McDonald Duncan U. Fletcher Middle ‘Teacher-District 3 Michael Federico Hendricks Avenue Elementary Teacher-District 4 Deborah Bonner Ribault Middle School ‘Teacher-District 5 Mary Mott. James Weldon Johnson Middle Teacher-District 6 kimberly Ryerson Ed White High School Teacher-District 7 ‘Thaddeus Boges Mandarin High School Parent-District 1 Marla Bryant Parent-District 2 Edward Cottrell Atlantic Beach Elementary Parent-District 3 Suzanne Jenkins Parent-District 4 Garlene Atcherson Parent-District 5 Carrie Davis Parent-District 6 ‘Angelia Moore Parent-District 7 Colin Murphy Student-District 1 | Derrick Scott Terry Parker High School | Student-District 2 ‘Ashlee Hester ‘Duncan U. Fletcher High Schoo! Student-District-3 Courtney May Englewood High School Student-District-4 LaTeria Robinson Ribault High School Student-District-5 Tyler Saffore Frank H. Peterson Academies of Technology Student-District-6 Bethany Graham Baldwin Middle-Senior High School Student-Distrc-7 | Kenedy Talley Mandarin High School [Student Alternate | Kahla Coney [Lee High SchoolFOCUS GROUP MEETIN Al principals, teachers, assistant principals, guidance counselors, district academic and support administrators, and district operations administrators were invited to attend these meetings held at the Schultz Center for Teaching and Leadership during April and May 2012. Attendance was as follows: High School Principals 8 Midalle School Principals 7 Elementary School Principals 8 High School Teachers 4 Middle School Teachers 4 Elementary School Teachers 8 Secondary Assistant Principals & Guidance Counselors 12 Elementary Assistant Principals & Guidance Counselors 6 District Academie & Support Administrators 26 District Operations Administrators 23 Discussion was held during these meetings speculating about reasons for the low attendance, revealing several consensus themes: employees felt that their input would not make any difference in the search process; employee morale (especially among teachers and principals) has created a sense of apathy (not toward their students) and/or hopelessness; and fear of retribution for attending these meetings and expressing their honest views. All attendees expressed gratitude to the School Board for the opportunity to participate in the search rocess and expressed regret about the low attendance of their peers. Ill, Condition of the District: Bruised but not broken DCPSisin an emotional depression. The people ofthe district are fiercely proud of the quality of teachers, principals and staff, proud of their students, proud oftheir schools, and proud of the work being accomplished. But they are weary and depressed about the current conditions and attitudes in the district, city, state and country about education,| There are so many legislative mandates (many unfunded), ever-changing state and local directives, over-testing, extreme pressures about FCAT results, and of course the economic decline and budget cuts. Teachers are particulary troubled by the frequently expressed attitude in the past two years, most significantly atthe state level, about the poor quality of teachers, especially the notion that “if we just got ri of all those bad teachers our schools would be successful.” They feel that they have all the responsibilty with very litle of the authority. [Fescters and principals also expressed frustration about their role, or lack thereof, in the decision: taking process of the district. They feel irrelevant. Even when their input is solicited they believe it is Not used to inform decisions; that is, they feel that their input is disregarded and often is solicited just for “show.*)As professionals they believe they have substantive, “on-the-ground” knowledge to contribute but that too often the decisions have already been made. These feelings have resulted in a h level of cynicism and apathy toward participation in the superintendent search, which makes it critical for the Schoo! Board to genuinely apply their input to the process