The Future of Collier Public Schools

http://www.11alive.com/video/default.aspx?aid=98542

We can only hope Gov. Crist provides the same quick action as Gov. Perdue who immediately removed 4 school board members and called on the new board to address SACS concerns regarding the "transfer of power" from elected board to an appointed Superintendent.

Collier County has been on warning status since April of 2007.

At a time when all parties involved, from stakeholders to staff, should be working together to accomplish this goal - Superintendent Thompson seems determined to split us apart. From the schedule changes to the custodians, he just keeps drawing a line in the sand.

There is no reason for rash decisions. The only thing the School Board and Dr. Thompson should be focused on is securing accreditation. After 16 months they still haven't done so. If they were responsible they would be gathering support for this Novembers' ballot to move funds to provide temporary budget relief. All votes or discussions that even hint of divide and conquer should be tabled until accreditation is secured.

Should we lose accreditation there will be many parties with pie on their face, if the gators don't get them first.

Collier County - You've Been Punked!

Not sure why I can’t let this go. Maybe it’s the thousands of students who won’t be able to attend college, get scholarships or military appointments. Maybe it’s the loss of federal grants and programs to the district. Maybe it’s the loss of dedicated teachers and staff.

Here’s the bottom line…The Collier County School Board received a FAILING grade on a report issued in April of 2007 from the Region Accreditation Association (SACS.) One of the chief criticisms was the micro-managing of the district by the school board. Essentially the report indicated the voting majority of the School Board was inhibiting the success of the district by not working WITH the superintendent to accomplish goals. The report gave the Superintendent, teachers, and staff a PASSING grade.

Now here comes the Bait and Switch…
Certain School Board members got miffed and decided to create an inflammatory report to redirect blame to the Superintendent. They ensured the report received extensive media coverage and the SACS report was buried.

Follow the bouncing ball folks...Board gets bad report card...floods media with inflammatory report to throw them off from the real one...stomps their feet and cries foul until we (the citizens) let Mommy (Dr. Thompson) come in and change their grade.

Problem is, certain Board members didn’t do their homework and relied on the flawed advice of alleged “community” members with an agenda who had been jockeying for their cause in CCPS for over a decade.

First lesson for living in FL, especially Collier, “Choose your friends wisely.”

Are you ready to be punked? The SACS committee really doesn’t care who is super, who is on the board, etc…they care about what gets done…including the board working WITH the super…even though it’s not the same super reviewed in the report.

If you think firing Thompson is the answer, better take a look at his contract. Even if he is relieved as super…we have to employ him somewhere else at the same salary.

http://wftx.images.worldnow.com/images/incoming/pdf/superintendent%20contract.pdf

In Bytemeworld he would be demoted to custodial staff – it would be the best $240k + this district ever spent!

On the upside, Donovan promised in the NDN to resign if we lost SACS accreditation.

Teamsters Call Shenaningans!

The Teamsters are filing a lawsuit against certain Collier County School Board members as reported in the Naples Snooze...

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/sep/08/collier-bus-driver-teamsters-file-suit-against-thr/

It would seem they are taking a page from Clayton County, GA's playbook. Several parents there filed a similar suit here is what happened next...

From 11Alive News - Atlanta, GA
http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=120397&catid=8

"Meanwhile, Judge Michael Malihi has ruled that four Clayton County board members should be removed for violating their oaths of office. Governor Perdue had asked the judge to look into complaints against Michelle Strong, Sandra Scott, Lois Baines-Hunter, and Yolanda Everett. All four were declared guilty of violating the state's open meetings law, violating the board's code of ethics, and breaking the public trust."

"Thursday, Perdue issued an executive order ousting four members of the school board. Special elections will be held in November to replace Scott and Strong, while Baines-Hunter and Everett will be barred from running again -- they were up for election this year. "

For those of you wondering why Baker settled without bringing the facts into the Sunshine...it was simply because he was given a deal too good to pass up. The School Board released him for any and all liability in future lawsuits...and there are some really big ones coming up!

Can it Happen Here?...Yes it CAN!

"A Georgia school district lost its accreditation Thursday, an unusual move blamed in part on what has been called a "dysfunctional" school board."

Sound Familiar Collier County?



School Board is GA losses SACS accreditation and the future of their students... Is Collier Next?

Group: Troubled Ga. district loses accreditation from Associated Press

Have a Cheeseburger and Save Accreditation?

There is a youtube video regarding CCPS with over 900 views.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZXXwI0RWyY

There is another with over 500 channel views.
http://www.youtube.com/teamstermancollier

Yet, the Naples Daily News wrote about one with just over 400 views and extremely inflamatory towards Kathleen Curatolo. Interesting.

For the record, Ms. Curatolo is the only Board member who has done ANYTHING remotely productive toward securing accreditation.

If there is any hope to keep accreditation, it is with Curatolo and Sprague/Paterno.

Vote Curatolo and Sprague - replace Calabrese with Paterno - oh what a wonderful CCPS world it would be!

Collier County School Board.

Some quick facts regarding SACS Accreditation

SACS stands for Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the accreditation body for the Southern United States. Collier County is facing the loss of this prestigious designation due to the School Boards’ actions. They have been given multiple opportunities to improve and just received another 6 months. It may be the last opportunity for the community to react. The situation has been exasperated by the lack of media coverage in the local paper.

Collier has been on warning status since last year. The School Board first received the report in April of 2007 prior to the Ray Baker firing and prior to the Hinshaw and Culbertson report. The SACS team has been monitoring the situation looking for improvement from the board since that time.

Should district accreditation be revoked, all individual public schools will lose accreditation as well. It will be FIVE years before we can reapply. Collier County schools have maintained their accreditation since the 1950’s.

Graduating from a school district without accreditation will render the diploma virtually useless. Graduating Seniors in Collier County would NOT BE ELIGIBLE for most scholarships and NOT ELIGIBLE for admittance into many Universities, military academies and a variety of other opportunities.

You WILL SEE your property values decline significantly as a result. Families will flock out of Collier, so will Teachers.

I feel so blessed to NOT be a part of this School System while it crashes and burns.

Dr. Dennis Thompson Collier County School Board Researchers

If you are researching the Collier County School Board or Dr. Dennis Thompson...additional information can be found at http://bytemeworld.com/schoolboard.htm

6 months and counting until SACS returns...good luck Collier parents, you are going to need it!!!!