A balance of power
Leadership ongoing issue for School Board

By Jim Saunders
Times-Union staff writer

When bus driver Grant Lester went before the Duval County School Board in 1995, he was in trouble.

Lester had driven a bus loaded with schoolchildren across railroad tracks as a train headed toward him at 60 mph. His contract was suspended, and the schools superintendent, the transportation department and a state hearing officer said he shouldn't get it back.

Lester, however, got a friendly reception from the School Board.

Pointing to what they said were unanswered questions about the incident, board members stunned their staff by reinstating Lester's contract.

The board acted within its legal rights. But for a board that is responsible for an almost $1 billion annual budget and the education of 125,000 children, the vote was an illustration of how members delve too much into the details of running the school system, experts say.

In the corporate world, the vote would have been like the board of directors of Barnett Bank overruling a branch manager's decision to fire a teller. Or the board of Winn-Dixie supermarkets swooping in to save the job of a truck driver.

Officials of SchoolMatch, an Ohio-based firm that studied the school system this spring, said such board involvement in the daily workings of the school system is one of the biggest hindrances to improving Duval County's public schools.

That, plus frequent board arguments during meetings, has helped lead to a public perception that the leadership of the school system isn't doing a good job.

''The data that we examined indicates the central interest of the board of education is not the children of Duval County,'' said M. Donald Thomas, executive consultant to SchoolMatch.

The Times-Union hired SchoolMatch to study the school system and make recommendations about how it can improve. The study, released June 6, looked at a wide range of issues, in

SUBHEAD:Some questioning

interference call

cluding evaluating the academic performance of every school.

Some board members agreed with the conclusion that the board interferes too much in what should be the duties of the superintendent and staff members. But board members Linda Sparks and Stan Jordan questioned the findings.

Sparks, for example, said she doesn't see board members meddling in personnel decisions - one of SchoolMatch's main criticisms.

''If it happens, I must be sitting over here on the Westside in the dark,'' she said.

SchoolMatch officials graded the board's leadership as a D, while rating the overall system as a C+.

Those officials said the board should work similarly to a good corporate board. It should make broad policy decisions that guide the system. Then it should rely on trained experts - the superintendent and staff - to carry out the nitty-gritty of running the system.

Instead, SchoolMatch officials paint a picture of a board that squabbles over broad policy issues and then sticks its fingers into the details of running the system.

''I think boards of education should help participate and decide questions of 'What?' . . . 'What do we want?' '' said Donald Thompson, president of the American Association of School Administrators and a member of the SchoolMatch team that visited Jacksonville. ''The questions of 'How?' belong to those who are trained to answer those questions.''

Crossing the line

For School Board members, like most politicians, there's a fine line between serving their constituents and meddling in places they shouldn't.

Take Sparks, for instance. She sometimes receives as many as 40 calls a day from parents and other people who have concerns about the school system.

She said if she thinks callers have legitimate concerns, she will contact school principals and ask them to take care of the problems.

''I don't think that's interference,'' she said. ''I think that's what people think they elected me to do.''

The difficulty comes, however, in judging how far School Board members should go.

Staff members are supposed to report to the superintendent, not individual board members. Those staff members can be put in precarious positions if they receive orders from seven board members - who often have different agendas - about what work should be done or how to handle situations.

Also, board members dealing directly with staff can cause problems for the superintendent.

Royce Lyles, who headed a study of the school system in 1993 for Jacksonville Community Council Inc., said it is difficult to hold a superintendent accountable for running the system if board members are too involved in day-to-day decisions.

''A board has to be a policy-making board,'' said Lyles, former managing director of the Jacksonville Electric Authority. ''You cannot hold a superintendent or your CEO accountable if you're into the details.''

In theory, as Lyles said, board members are supposed to be policy-makers. If they have concerns or questions about specific issues, they are supposed to go to the superintendent, who is responsible for making sure staff members do their jobs.

''Any request for information should be given directly to the superintendent,'' said board member Susan Wilkinson, who agrees the board interferes too much.

But when a board member receives a call from an irate parent, it's often easier to pick up the phone, dial a principal and ask that the problem be resolved.

Board member Cheryl Donelan, who also thinks the board is too involved in day-to-day affairs, said she, like Sparks, sometimes calls principals about problems. She said, however, she doesn't take sides in dealing with principals or parents.

''I do not ever feel comfortable going in and telling the principals what to do,'' Donelan said. ''The principals don't work for me.''

Scope of SchoolMatch

The SchoolMatch study comes at a critical time for the Duval County school system: The board is looking for a new superintendent, and an appointed citizens commission is trying to come up with ways to improve public schools.

SchoolMatch officials have conducted more than 600 audits of school systems nationwide. In Duval County, they reviewed policies, interviewed dozens of administrators and teachers, looked at thousands of school records and surveyed parents, teachers and administrators.

They also met with School Board Chairwoman Gwen Gibson and interim Superintendent Donald Van Fleet but didn't interview other board members or former Superintendent Larry Zenke, who left in January.

Van Fleet said he does not think the board has meddled in his decisions.

But he said he has faced a problem with principals contacting board members - instead of the superintendent or their supervisors - when they have problems or are seeking support. Van Fleet said he has told principals not to contact board members.

In the report, SchoolMatch did not provide specific examples of how board members became too involved in the workings of the system.

But after hearing criticism from Jordan and Sparks about a lack of information, SchoolMatch offered examples.

One was the 1995 decision to reinstate the bus driver against the wishes of staff and the state hearing officer.

Another was Jordan's use in 1994 of a personal credit card to buy airline tickets for 16 employees traveling to a year-round education conference in San Diego. Jordan said he saved money for the county by buying the tickets himself and then getting reimbursed.

Jordan pointed to the lack of discussions with board members in questioning the validity of the findings about board leadership. He said he doesn't tell staff members what to do and doesn't see the board influencing personnel decisions.

''I'm highly suspect of those who make in-depth assessments from shallow observations,'' Jordan said.

The buddy system

At least publicly, Assistant Superintendent Joe Seager never appeared to be a major player in the school system.

He oversaw nuts-and-bolts operations: security, athletics and transportation. About the only time his name popped up was if a school had a particularly noteworthy crime or if a bus had an accident.

But Seager - and the story of how he got his job in 1991 - have been big news during the past six months.

A federal grand jury is investigating whether Seager received kickbacks on school security contracts. During the course of the investigation, School Board members said Seager got his job because of backing from board member Billy Parker, a friend.

Seager made a quick rise to assistant superintendent. After working almost two decades as a teacher, dean and vice principal, he was named principal in June 1989 of Robert E. Lee High School - the alma mater of both Seager and Parker. After less than two years as a principal, Seager was promoted to assistant superintendent.

SchoolMatch officials said board interference in personnel decisions, similar to the way Seager got his job, is a key problem in Jacksonville schools. It's a problem that can affect the quality of education that children receive.

The quality of education can be damaged, Gibson and Wilkinson said, because pressure from board members can lead to less-qualified people being appointed to jobs.

While superintendents are supposed to be largely responsible for appointing their staffs, it's hard for them to disregard board members' personnel recommendations, Gibson said.

''A strong superintendent says, 'No,' but the politics of the board says, 'If you say, 'No,' it's time for you to go,' '' she said.

Parker, who helped Seager, said he ''divorced'' himself from personnel issues about a year ago.

Time for a change

In the study, SchoolMatch said the board should change its policies to give the superintendent ''sole and exclusive responsibility'' for hiring, transferring, evaluating and firing employees.

Under Florida law, the board can reject a superintendent's personnel decisions only if it can show cause, such as an employee having a felony record. But in the past, board members have applied behind-the-scenes pressure that has influenced who gets appointed to jobs, some members said.

At least two states, Tennessee and Kentucky, have laws barring board members from intervening in personnel issues.

Part of the danger in allowing board members to influence personnel decisions is that it can inject more politics into schools.

Some staff members routinely become involved in School Board election campaigns as contributors or workers. For example, along with being a friend of Parker, Seager helped raise money for board member Jimmie Johnson's campaign last fall, Johnson said.

Phillip Schlechty, who writes about education issues and is president of the Center for Leadership in School Reform in Louisville, Ky., said board involvement in personnel decisions is a vestige of old political patronage systems.

''Any CEO [superintendent] that can't have control over who he is hiring and firing can't run the organization,'' said Schlechty, who was not involved in the SchoolMatch study. ''It's as simple as that.''

Times-Union staff writer Nancy Mitchell contributed to this report.