Focus Study on District-Level Operations

and Services Polk County School

District

Florida Association of District School Superintendents February 2012

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Table of Contents

Foreword ..........................................................................................................................................1

Introduction ......................................................................................................................................3

Description of Polk County .............................................................................................................3

Pervasive Issues ...............................................................................................................................4

Executive Leadership .......................................................................................................................6

Teaching and Learning Services ....................................................................................................13

Human Resources Services ............................................................................................................30

Business Services ...........................................................................................................................42

Operations and Technology Services .............................................................................................49

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Foreword

The Florida Association of District School Superintendents (FADSS) provides various forms of

technical assistance to Florida school districts. Technical assistance includes various forms and

dimensions of studies designed to analyze systems operations and to recommend alignment,

staffing and best management practices. These services are listed and described in the

Association’s web site at www.fadss.org.

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Introduction

At the request of Dr. Sherrie Nickell, Superintendent of the Polk County School District, the

Florida Association of District School Superintendents (FADSS) conducted a Focus Study of

District-Level Operations and Services for the Polk County School District.

This study and similar technical assistance services for Florida school districts are provided by

FADSS through grants from the Florida Department of Education, with in-kind services from

FADSS and from the district requesting the service. Both the State and the Association have

identified the need for technical assistance for Florida school districts as a way to improve

organizational efficiencies. The purpose of this study was to analyze alignment and deployment

of the administrative staff, review the processes and procedures for district-level operations and

services to divisions, departments and schools and make recommendations for improvement. In

advance of a site visit to the school district, a Comparative Analysis of the Polk County School

District with other Selected Florida School Districts was conducted using the state data base for

information. A report of this analysis was delivered to Superintendent Nickell at the time of the

site visit.

Also in advance of the site visit to the school district, FADSS conducted a Job Analysis Survey

of district-level administrators and school principals. Responses to the survey established a

foundation of perceptions of the district’s leadership personnel concerning the culture and

climate for work in the district and of the perceived status of the district’s goals and plans for

systems improvement.

The site visit was conducted during the period of February 6 through February 10, 2012. During

the site visit, team members interviewed key personnel in district-level leadership positions and

selected other persons. The team reviewed various district documents and procedural manuals,

observed the current system in action, examined and analyzed systems processes, and prepared

recommendations for improvement in alignment and management practices. These are presented

in this report. The current alignment of the district is depicted in Appendix A; the recommended

alignment in Appendix B; the recommended composition of the Executive Leadership Team and

the Cabinet in Appendix C; and the recommended position descriptions for administrative

personnel in Appendix D.

Description of Polk County

Polk County is a large county of 1,875 square miles located in central Florida. Only Miami-

Dade, Palm Beach, and Collier counties are larger than Polk. The Polk County Board of

Commissioners’ website states that there are 554 lakes in Polk. These lakes comprise over 7% of

Polk’s surface area with a total of 135 square miles. An unusual fact about Polk is that nine

other counties share county lines with Polk County. Beginning north and moving clockwise

around the county the bordering counties are Lake County, Osceola County, Okeechobee

County, Highlands County, Hardee County, Manatee County, Hillsborough County, Pasco

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County, and Sumter County. Orange County, although often associated with Polk, technically

does not adjoin Polk.

Per the Florida Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research which used the

2010 census, Polk is Florida’s 9th

most populous county with 3.2% of Florida’s residents. The

Polk County Board of Commissioners’ website states that Polk’s population grew almost 21%

from 483,924 people in 2000 to 584,343 people in 2009 and is projected to reach over 630,000

by 2015 and over 675,000 by 2020; using numbers from the Florida Legislature’s Office of

Economic and Demographic Research.

Approximately 62% of Polk’s residents are in unincorporated areas and 38% live in the

municipalities. (Source: Polk County Board of Commissioners’ website)

Pervasive Issues

The study team sought to determine pervasive issues influencing and affecting efficiency and

effectiveness of systems operations and particularly those issues impacting the teaching and

learning processes. Sources for this information were district-level administrators’ and school

principals’ responses to the Job Analysis Survey, interviews of district-level administrators,

reviews of records and documents, and observation of the district at work. Following is a listing

of the pervasive issues seen to be impacting the school district. These are listed in random order.

♦ The concept of Servant Leadership is encouraged and practiced in some units of the

organizational structure.

♦ The school district is geographically large with a variety of unique municipalities to be

served. There are various opinions among district administrators regarding how the

organization should be structured and how staff personnel should be deployed in order to

provide oversight for and services to divisions, departments and schools.

♦ Communication issues are negatively impacting the effectiveness and efficiency of the

school system.

♦ There is a sense that the district once enjoyed a level of productivity and recognition that is

no longer present, and there is a stated desire to return to that level of performance.

♦ There is a perception that district office functions are understaffed, stretched to the limit and

staff personnel are poorly compensated for services compared to nearby school districts.

♦ The division of functions into units of work is fragmented and lacks symmetry and constancy

of purpose.

♦ There are relatively large numbers of administrators in the DROP program or working after

the DROP sequence, indicating a strong near-future need for candidates for leadership and

management roles.

♦ The district does not maintain a master calendar of meetings and events. Administrators are

concerned about conflict, overlap and excessive time away from oversight and service

responsibilities when meetings are not coordinated.

♦ Diversity is valued in the system, but diversity issues and the district’s response to them are

not well understood or orchestrated.

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♦ There is a sense in the organization that positions lost due to budget cuts for economic

reasons will be restored when conditions improve. This creates a perception that some

operations are temporary, makeshift or functioning on borrowed time.

♦ There is a sense that in many instances district personnel are more concerned with form,

process and compliance than in service to schools at the time the service is needed and at the

point of need. The sense of urgency is missing.

♦ Charter schools, magnet schools, and school choice are drawing high performing students

from regular public schools. This reduction in students has a negative effect on the district’s

budget and the operation of the district and schools.

♦ Reduction in force to reduce costs is mainly being accomplished through attrition, resulting

in unfilled positions needed to accomplish essential functions.

♦ There is a sense that ineffective administrators/employees are not held accountable for their

lack of performance.

♦ There is a lack of an organized system for accessing data. Non-coordinated and random

requests for information by district personnel to schools are excessive and interfere with

school operations.

♦ There is a sense in the school system that student discipline issues are increasing in number

and intensity.

♦ The role of the school-based administrator is changing drastically with the enactment of more

prescriptive teacher performance evaluation requirements.

♦ The school district has a relatively large number of small schools, each with the basic

administrative staffing prescribed for schools at the respective organizational levels.

♦ The current organizational structure has forced the Superintendent into a management mode

of operation rather than a mode of operation that is balanced between leadership and

management.

♦ Face-to-face meetings are being held for the distribution of information when virtual

meetings or electronic transmission of information would suffice.

♦ The presence and the role of the school principal is not clearly defined as it relates to

participation in the decision-making process.

♦ There is confusion concerning the relationship of district-level administrators and school-

based administrators, particularly as it relates to exercising authority (oversight and

compliance) versus providing collaborated services (enabling, empowering and assisting).

♦ There is a perception that the district has low expectations for students, especially students of

poverty.

♦ There is little or no evidence of an organized succession plan. The lack of succession

planning for district-level positions is resulting in a lack of capacity building needed to

prepare future district leaders.

♦ There is a sense that communication is not always clear or consistent across the various

departments.

♦ Communications and requests for information to principals are not organized and/or

approved by leadership to ensure the communication or request is absolutely needed.

♦ There is the perception that meetings are called randomly and that a district-wide calendar

combining multiple meetings into one meeting with a full agenda is needed.

♦ There is a sense that the curriculum and instruction function of the district is isolated from

the senior directors and other critical instructional support positions (left hand doesn’t know

what the right hand is doing).

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♦ There is a sense of uncertainty as to specific areas of responsibility and accountability with

student achievement, i.e., who is responsible for, or “owns” the student performance of

elementary mathematics or science.

♦ There is an inconsistency in how and why over-time is granted for certain employees in

certain departments.

♦ There is a strong feeling that focused training of all principals and assistant principals on

specific subject areas such as reading, writing, science and mathematics is needed throughout

the year.

♦ There is not a clear understanding of, and commitment to, the district strategic plan.

♦ Sometimes administrators do not receive timely information related to issues or changes fect

their division, department or school.

♦ The provision of district-level services to service delivery units and schools is not systemic in

nature, showing indications of insufficient collaboration between and among divisions and

departments and an insufficient sense of interdependence among these units.

♦ There are pockets of excellence in the system where functions are being performed with a

high degree of effectiveness and efficiency.

Executive Leadership

Status:

The current chart depicting the executive leadership for the Polk County School District is

contained in Appendix A of this report. Currently, there are twelve district level administrators

reporting to the Superintendent and one vacant and unfunded position.

♦ Associate Superintendent, Learning

♦ Associate Superintendent, School-Based Operations

♦ Assistant Superintendent, Learning Support

♦ Assistant Superintendent, Business Services

♦ Assistant Superintendent, Support Services

♦ Assistant Superintendent, Information Systems and Technology

♦ Assistant Superintendent, Human Resource Services

♦ Senior Director of Community Relations

♦ Senior Director of Diversity Management

♦ Senior Director of Workforce Education

♦ Director of Legislative Affairs

♦ Director of the Polk Educational Foundation

The vacant, unfunded position is Assistant Superintendent, Facilities and Operations.

The senior director positions span from the oversight of elementary, middle and high school

principals to the supervision of workforce education, students with disabilities, charters and

magnet schools, community relations, and diversity.

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Findings:

The Polk County School District has an enrollment of approximately 95,800 students, including

those students attending charter schools. Student enrollment has increased about 25% over the

past 12 years; however, enrollment has leveled off for the past 4 years. Charter school

enrollment has dramatically increased over the past 5 years and presently 14% of the school-aged

students attend charter schools. It is projected that the district’s enrollment will increase over the

next three years by approximately 450 students and it is also projected that charter school

enrollment will increase from the present enrollment of approximately 10,000 student to slightly

over 14,000 over the next three years. In addition, the size of the district and the diverse

population has led to the development of unique communities within the district. The unique

character of these communities has created a difficult environment for the management of a

district wide school system. It was noted that one of the Superintendent’s primary goals is to

promote a sense of ownership by the community in the schools serving the children of Polk

County.

Many of the pervasive issues compiled previously in this report can be directly tied to the lack of

a cohesive alignment of personnel in this school system.

Polk County School District is at a crossroad in developing and accomplishing meaningful

district goals to increase student achievement in the district.

Confusion exists between the operations and management of schools and the curriculum and

instructional goals for schools. There is a need to unite teaching and learning functions and

support areas into one division. With such a structure, the district will increase the focus on

teaching and learning for students as well as improve communications between and among

departments and to the schools.

There appears to be no clear line of authority, accountability and supervision of principals. The

responsibility to evaluate principals, support their short and long-term school wide needs and

goals, as well as provide and ensure that appropriate resources are available is not clear.

There are communications issues within departments in the Divisions of Learning and Learning

Support and across other divisions. Clear lines of communication are lacking between divisions

and departments and school principals and from the Superintendent’s Cabinet to all employees.

In addition, there does not appear to be a consistent protocol for planning meetings,

disseminating information and following-up on major initiatives that are designed to assist with

student achievement.

There is a lack of adequate controls on from whom and for what reason information is requested

from school principals by personnel in divisions and departments and when meetings are

arranged requiring the attendance of school principals.

It appears that district-level personnel lack a consistent sense of urgency to focus the attention of

all employees on increasing student achievement. Some employees and departments do possess

a sense of urgency and commitment to high expectations but certainly not all.

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Polk is a minority-majority district with a large population of English Language Learners and

high levels of poverty. There is a pervasive feeling that these factors are the primary reason that

students do not perform better academically.

The district lacks sufficient curriculum support to effectively build the capacity of classroom

teachers.

There is not a sense of “ownership” to student achievement scores by the entire school district.

There appears to be overlap and duplication in the positions attending to the functions of

diversity.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that the executive leadership be structured so that there is clear responsibility

and focus on school improvement and increasing student achievement. The recommended

executive leadership is depicted in the charts are contained in Appendix B of this report.

It is recommended that the district establish a Deputy Superintendent position to serve in the

absence of the Superintendent and to supervise the Regional Executive Directors to ensure that

all district operations support school principals and school operations and emphasize student

achievement. The Deputy Superintendent should assist the Superintendent in maintaining a

district calendar as well as develop the agendas for cabinet and executive leadership meetings.

The Deputy Superintendent should work to ensure that all decisions, resources, and

accountability measures are focused on raising expectations for student learning.

It is recommended that the district create the position of Associate Superintendent for Teaching

and Learning to be responsible for all areas of curriculum and instruction and for teaching and

learning services to schools through the Regional Executive Directors. It is recommended that

this position be ranked slightly higher than the assistant superintendent positions to depict the

comparative scope and volume of responsibilities. Also, elevating the position to an associate

superintendent level will communicate the importance of teaching and learning as the core

business of the district to the district and community.

It is recommended that the district organize assistant superintendent positions in order to

supervise divisions with interrelated responsibilities so that meaningful and consistent support

can be provided to schools and effective communications is ensured.

It is recommended that the district establish five regions within the district determined by the

interrelationship of schools. It is strongly recommended that the configuration of the regions be

created by the Superintendent’s Cabinet to best serve the needs of the schools. A Regional

Executive Director would supervise each region and would oversee school operations as well as

evaluate the performance of principals within the region. The five Regional Executive Directors

should report to the Deputy Superintendent. The offices of each Regional Executive Director

should be located in the region so to be in close proximity to supervised schools and in order to

represent the district at community functions. The Regional Executive Directors should serve to

broker division and department services needed by the schools. This action should result in

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elimination of wasted travel time, reduced cost, an increase in the number and quality of

visitations as well as, an increase in ownership of student achievement and school grades. It

should also develop a sense of unity, support and healthy competition between and among the

five Regional Executive Directors.

The Director of the Polk County Education Foundation and the Director of Legislative Affairs

should continue to directly report to the Superintendent.

It is recommended that the position of Senior Director of Community Relations be deleted and

that a new position of Senior Director of Communications be created. The job functions should

encompass community relations, public relations, and internal communications in the school

district. This position should report directly to the Superintendent.

It is recommended that four divisions be established with leadership provided by an Associate

Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Services, an Assistant Superintendent for Human

Resources Services, an Assistant Superintendent for Business Services, and an Assistant

Superintendent for Operations and Technology respectively. These executive administrators

should report directly to the Superintendent.

It is recommended that the Superintendent and her Cabinet assess the overlap and duplication of

services relating to diversity. Currently there is a Senior Director of Diversity Management and

three other positions with diversity functions, one in purchasing, one in human resources, and the

third in operations. While it is fully understood that the roles and responsibilities for these

positions are different, the review team felt strongly that there is significant overlap in duties and

recommends that this area be examined and considered for a reduction in workforce. It is

recommended that the Senior Director of Diversity Management be placed at a director level and

report to the Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources.

Decision Making

Status:

The Superintendent currently meets with three groups of top-level administrators during the

month. The first, the Executive Cabinet is currently comprised of the following:

Superintendent

Associate Superintendent, Learning

Associate Superintendent, School Based Operations

Assistant Superintendent, Learning Support

Assistant Superintendent, Business Services

Assistant Superintendent, Facilities and Operations (vacant)

Assistant Superintendent, Support Services

Assistant Superintendent, Human Resources Services

Assistant Superintendent, Information Systems and Technology

This Executive Cabinet meets as required.

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In addition to the Executive Cabinet, the Superintendent meets with two other groups. She meets

with the Cabinet, which is comprised of the Senior Directors and up, and with the Expanded

Cabinet, which includes all Directors, the Cabinet and the Executive Team. The Cabinet meets

with the Superintendent on Monday of each week except on the first Monday of the month,

which is reserved for the Expanded Cabinet.

Finding:

Although district leaders have the opportunity to hear from one another and all may gain a

deeper understanding of district issues, there is little evidence from interviews with

administrative staff that these meetings contribute to effective decision-making. The meetings

appear to be informal with no agenda or follow up procedure to ensure dissemination to staff of

any information presented at the meetings or decisions emanating from the meetings.

Recommendations:

Regularly collaborating with top-level leaders will afford the Superintendent the opportunity to

develop, implement and communicate the long-range issues of the district. The establishment of

the Superintendent’s Cabinet must be purposeful if it is to be beneficial and contribute to

meaningful decisions that are based on stated district goals. It is recommended that the

Superintendent continue to utilize the expertise of her cabinet to maintain direction, strategically

plan and to focus on the future. It is recommended that the Cabinet membership be comprised of

the following:

Deputy Superintendent

Five Regional Executive Directors

Associate Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Services

Assistant Superintendent for Business Services

Assistant Superintendent For Operations and Technical Services

Assistant Superintendent for Human Resource Services

Executive Director of Technology and Information Services

Senior Director of Communications

An Elementary School Principal

A Middle School Principal

A High School Principal

It is recommended that the Superintendent meet regularly with the Cabinet. Key responsibilities

of the Cabinet should include the following:

Establish and maintain a focus on vision, mission, goals and beliefs of the district.

Develop and make operational the Strategic Plan and continually lead the strategic planning

process.

Ensure that budget allocation and all department and school budgets align with the strategic

plan.

Ensure that all decisions are aligned with the strategic plan goals.

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Lead or assist and support others with the strategic planning process.

Ensure that all School Board agenda items are researched and prepared for meetings.

Guide and monitor research and evaluation initiatives.

Engage in staff development and professional development activities individually and

together.

Ensure that decisions are data driven, analyzed and based on an understanding of their impact

throughout the district.

Coordinate and ensure the equitable allocation of resources (fiscal, personnel, facilities,

technology) throughout the district.

Monitor the district’s organizational climate.

Model collaboration.

Maintain a sharp focus on continuous district and school improvement.

Utilize data to make decisions and help others to understand the data.

Be a positive advocate for public education, the Polk County School District and system

initiatives.

Find ways to recognize others and celebrate accomplishments.

As the chief developer of district-level leaders, the Superintendent can provide key

administrators with a safe place to discuss their concerns and systems issues, and to learn to

meaningfully collaborate as they strengthen their roles and respective departments to be brokers

and service providers to schools.

In addition, it is recommended that the Superintendent create a Superintendent’s Executive

Leadership Team which would consist of the following:

♦ Deputy Superintendent

♦ Associate Superintendent for Teaching and Learning

♦ Assistant Superintendent for Business Services

♦ Assistant Superintendent for Operations and Technical Services

♦ Assistant Superintendent for Human Resource Services

♦ The five Regional Directors as required

The Superintendent’s Leadership Team in all or part would operate on an ad hoc basis and would

assist the Superintendent with more immediate decision-making. There are challenges with the

development, focus and implementation of the district strategic plan.

Legal Services

Status:

The School Board Attorney is employed by the district under a three-year contract which expires

on June 30, 2014.

The School Board Attorney is provided a suitable office in a district facility.

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Finding:

The School Board Attorney renders opinions and gives legal advice to the School Board and is

responsible for handling “day-to-day” legal matters. In addition, the School Board Attorney may

render general legal advice to the Superintendent and members of administrative staff personnel

as designated by the Superintendent.

Recommendation:

No modification of current procedures for legal services is recommended.

Communications

Status:

The communications functions currently reside predominantly with the Senior Director for

Community Relations. There are ten staff members reporting to the Senior Director including

three communications specialists.

Findings:

The unit responsible for Community Relations is credited with functioning very well in

developing and promoting external communications, which appears to be its main focus.

Responses to the Job Analysis Survey by district-level administrators and principals and

interviews of district-level administrators indicated that there are communications problems

throughout the district. The current organizational structure of the district does not contribute to

best practices in communication and past practice has resulted in a district where individuals and

departments tend to work in isolation. Often guarded, the working environment could be

described as one with minimal collaboration. Individuals and departments appear to focus on

their particular assignments with little sharing or minimal communication with one another.

Recommendations:

There is a definite need for a more aggressive public relations effort in the district. The primary

spokesperson for the district is the Superintendent. However, to effectively communicate the

mission of the district and to respond to unanticipated situations requires a dedicated public

relations effort including an individual who actively interacts with the external media.

A broad internal communication strategy should be developed that identifies the various

communication needs of the district and the appropriate tools to support each need. These tools

could be e-mail, digital communication, web pages, wiki’s, newsrooms, etc. Once a

communication strategy has been developed, management should actively monitor the proper

utilization of the prescribed tools until such time as the culture of the organization is aligned with

the guidelines. Internal communications issues are presented and discussed in various other

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sections of this report. These issues should be addressed by the recommended Department of

Communications.

It is recommended that the Superintendent repurpose the current Department of Community

Relations unit into a Department of Communications in order to more effectively promote the

mission of the school system internally and to the public, as well and to respond efficiently to

those unanticipated situations that always occur in a large school system. This includes the

designation of a Public Information Officer who can interact effectively with the external media.

Open, honest and two-way communication must be addressed. It is recommended that the

Superintendent and Cabinet remain committed to this cause. It will take time to build trust,

educate, and embed deeply into the district the kinds of information and the techniques to

communicate the district’s vision, mission, goals and expectations.

Teaching and Learning Services

Status:

Currently there is a Division of Learning organized under the leadership of an Associate

Superintendent, Learning supported by the following administrative positions:

Senior Director, K-12 Curriculum and Instruction

Senior Director, Assessment, Accountability and Instruction

Director, Federal Programs

Director, Grants Acquisitions

Director, Preschool Programs

Director, Professional Development

Currently there is a vacant position titled Senior Director, School Improvement which reports to

the Associate Superintendent. This Associate Superintendent continues to perform the duties of

his previous position, Senior Director, High Schools & Fine Art, until reorganization can be

accomplished.

A Division of Learning Support is organized under the leadership of an Assistant Superintendent,

Learning Support with assistance from the following administrative positions:

Senior Director, Specialized Services

Director, Exceptional Student Education

Director, Student Services

Director, Speakers of Other Languages

There is a Senior Director of Workforce Education who reports to the Superintendent. This

Director is responsible for K-12 career technical education and post secondary adult and

community education.

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Each of the departments in the Division of Learning, the Division of Learning Support, and the

Department of Workforce Education has additional professional personnel to assist with the

work of the department. Titles of these positions include Teacher Resource Specialist Trainer

(TRST), senior coordinator, coordinator, specialist, senior manager, and manager.

Findings and Recommendations

Finding:

In the current organizational structure for teaching and learning services, positions and functions

are not well aligned to ensure maximum efficiency and effectiveness in curriculum development

and implementation or in delivering services to schools in support of the district’s core mission.

Recommendations:

There is a need to establish a Division of Teaching and Learning Services to facilitate a district-

wide focus on the core mission of the school district; better support a commitment to curriculum

development, quality instruction and effective teaching and learning; provide services to schools

more effectively; group related functions together; and meet increasing demands on the district.

A Division of Teaching and Learning Services should be established under the leadership of the

Associate Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Services, who reports to the

Superintendent. The Associate Superintendent should provide leadership and direction for a

proactive approach to identifying and addressing immediate and long-range curriculum and

instructional support needs of the district, to ensuring a systemic approach to curriculum and

instruction, and to providing assistance, support and resources to address unique site-based

priorities. A major focus of this position should be to ensure that programs and services are well

articulated and that all of them support district priorities for students’ performance and well-

being. The Associate Superintendent and the proposed Regional Executive Directors must work

together to be sure that adopted programs are effectively implemented and that adequate

technical support is provided to school administrators and teachers in both curriculum content

and instructional practice.

The following administrative positions are recommended to carry out the responsibilities of this

unit and to cluster related functions:

Associate Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Services

♦ Senior Director of Elementary Curriculum

Director of Pre School Programs

♦ Senior Director of Middle and High School Curriculum

♦ Senior Director of Workforce Education and Adult Education

♦ Senior Director of Instructional Support

Director of Title I

Director of Grants Acquisition

Director of Professional Development

Director of Virtual School

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Director of ESOL

♦ Senior Director of Exceptional Student Education

♦ Senior Director of Student Services

Director of Alternative Education and Related Services

♦ Senior Director of Assessment, Accountability and Evaluation Services

♦ Senior Director of Magnet, Choice, and Charter Schools

As the administrative structure changes, the district will need to adjust in number and functions

the non-administrative professional/technical/supervisory (PTS) and classified workforce.

The recommended organizational structure for this division is depicted in Appendix B.

Additional assistance and support for carrying out the division’s functions and responsibilities

should be provided through non-administrative PTS curriculum, service and/or program

coordinators, specialists or supervisors as well as specialized, non-administrative professional

personnel such as psychologists and social workers. The following positions are recommended

as a minimum at this time:

♦ Curriculum content specialists who report to the Senior Director of Elementary Curriculum

or to the Senior Director of Middle and High School Curriculum. These specialists should

have content and instructional expertise in the area(s) to which they are assigned. The

specific titles assigned to the positions should be compatible with their responsibilities. These

personnel would provide leadership in curriculum development, refinement, and

implementation; provide coordination of support and training in applying current research on

effective teaching and student learning in the classroom; assist in the evaluation and adoption

of instructional materials and equipment; and serve as a resource in other matters related to

curriculum, instruction, and the improvement of student performance. Some specialists, such

as Performing Arts, Visual Arts, and Social Studies, might serve PreK-12 even though they

are assigned to a single Senior Director. Others will need to be designated for specific levels.

♦ Specialists for elementary reading, elementary mathematics, elementary science, secondary

mathematics, secondary reading, secondary language arts and secondary science at the

district level. Specialists in social studies, visual and performing arts, physical education and

world languages are also needed. These specialists could be assigned to serve K-12. A

specialist for physical education, athletics, and drivers education is also recommended.

Specialists may be assigned to one Senior Director for evaluation purposes, but K-12

specialists are expected to address systemic needs without regard to level.

♦ Coordinator for Advanced Studies and Academic Excellence reporting to the Senior Director

of Middle and High School Curriculum, but would also provide assistance at the elementary

level.

♦ Coordinator of Media Services reporting to the Senior Director for Instructional Support

Services.

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♦ Senior Coordinators and specialists for Assessment (1), Evaluation and Research (1), Testing

and Data Analysis (1), and Accountability/School Improvement (1) reporting to the Senior

Director for Assessment, Accountability and Evaluation.

♦ Coordinator of Academic Competitions reporting to the Senior Director of Middle and High

School Curriculum.

♦ Program/Service specialists who report to the Senior Director of Exceptional Student

Education or the Senior Director of Student Services. The number, exact assignments and

titles will vary depending on resources and needs of this department.

♦ Program/Career Specialists who report to the Senior Director of Workforce Education and

Adult Education.

♦ Non-administrative Professional, Technical, Supervisory (PTS) positions who report to the

Senior Director of Students Services to supervise psychological services, social work

services, school health services, and guidance services.

Clerical and secretarial positions will be necessary to support these positions. The district should

review personnel allocated to the division to determine if adequate support is provided and

whether these resources are equitably distributed. As the district’s resources and needs change, it

may be necessary to add or reduce professional and support personnel to effectively and

efficiently carry out the functions of the division. The staffing must be reviewed on a periodic

basis to ensure that staffing matches the student needs and district priorities.

Finding:

Based on feedback from surveys of principals and interviews with district personnel, there

appears to be a perception that there is inadequate assistance to teachers and school

administrators for implementation of instructional programs and proven best instructional

practices, accompanied by a consistent pervasive commitment to ensure that all Polk County

students receive engaging, meaningful experiences resulting in high levels of learning.

Recommendations:

A team of content area specialists and trainers should be assigned to each of the recommended

regions to serve the schools in that region. These specialists would report to and be evaluated by

the appropriate district-level content or training expert to ensure consistency of purpose. The

focus of these professionals would be to assist school-level administrators and teachers with

identified program implementation, building confidence and capacity to effectively and

consistency utilize best practices, and to keep abreast of curriculum and instructional priorities to

raise student achievement.

This structure would provide for closer contact with schools for the necessary time period to

make a significant difference in addressing identified priorities.

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It is likely that current staffing practices can be modified or existing positions be repurposed to

staff most of these regionally focused support positions.

The specialists from the various regions who have common assignments should meet together at

planned intervals with the district specialist to ensure fidelity of program implementation and

clear focus on priorities, as well as to share problem areas and successes. These meetings can be

in person or virtual meetings.

If this model is to be effective in moving the district forward, it is imperative that the Associate

Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Services and the respective Regional Executive

Directors have open meaningful dialogue. For example, if the services to the schools are not

perceived to be appropriate or helpful, the Regional Executive Director(s) must make the

Associate Superintendent aware of problems; if a teacher or school is not implementing a district

approved program with fidelity and effectiveness, the Associate Superintendent must

communicate with the Regional Executive Director who in turn will ensure that the principal

takes corrective action.

Finding:

Currently most, if not all, content area specialists are on 10 month contracts.

Recommendations:

The lead content specialist in high priority content areas such as mathematics, reading and

science should work through the summer on curriculum development, program planning, and

staff development. These positions should be Professional, Technical, Supervisory positions.

As new focus areas are targeted, additional content area specialists may need to be identified or

have their work year extended.

Finding:

A number of school-based and other personnel indicated a concern in interviews and in survey

responses that there are too many changes too often, so that the district cannot gather and

examine evaluative data to determine whether a program or initiative is meeting desired

objectives or not.

Recommendation:

Whenever a new program or initiative is developed or identified, an evaluation component

should be included that clearly defines what constitutes success to ensure that the kinds of data

needed to determine success can be gathered and analyzed to serve as the basis for decisions

related to continuation, modification or abandonment or the program or initiative. This

recommendation applies to organizational changes as well as to new program adoptions or

instructional strategies. The Department of Assessment, Accountability, and Evaluation should

have the capability to assist with the development of such evaluation plans.

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Finding:

Some schools are Title I schools and thus receive additional funding to meet the needs of their

students. These funds allow Title I schools to hire additional personnel, purchase resource

materials, and offer expanded staff development opportunities for staff. Other schools are not

classified as Title I schools, but may have uniquely demanding and challenging student needs,

and are unable to address some concerns because of a lack of funding and opportunities.

Recommendation:

When budgetary and allocation decisions are made, equal does not necessarily mean equitable.

To ensure equity throughout the Polk County School District, decisions regarding allocations,

services and programs should be flexible enough to allow some discretionary funding from

general funds to meet special needs and ensure excellence and equity throughout the system.

Student Services

Status:

Currently, the responsibility for administrative oversight of student services is assigned to the

Director of Student Services, who reports to the Assistant Superintendent for Learning Support.

To carry out the responsibilities of student services, the Director supervises the following

personnel:

Senior Manager, Psychological Services

Senior Manager, Prevention, Health and Wellness

Manager, Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention

Manager, Employee Wellness

Senior Manager, School Social Work Services

Senior Coordinator, Teen Parent Program

Elementary Guidance Specialist

Secondary Guidance Specialist

The Senior Director for Specialized Services, who reports to the Assistant Superintendent for

Learning Support, has responsibility to manage and respond to major discipline issues district-

wide. In this capacity, the Senior Director supervises secondary alternative education (including

two secondary alternative centers), processes expulsions and conducts Level II hearings related

to suspensions and expulsions. Additionally, the Senior Director is responsible for the

coordination and production of the district’s Code of Student Conduct.

The Senior Director also provides oversight for Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) education

services with the assistance of a Senior Coordinator for DJJ Education Services, who reports to

the Senior Director. The Senior Manager for DJJ Education Services is responsible for reentry

hearings of all regular education students who commit felonies, notifies schools of students

arrested and serves as contract manager for DJJ contracted sites.

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The Assistant Superintendent for Learning Support provides administrative oversight for the

BEST Center which is an elementary alternative center. At the time of the on-site visit, it was

reported that there were eleven students in grades K-2 assigned to the BEST Center.

Finding:

District-wide administrative responsibility for student services is currently divided among at

least three administrators. This has resulted in a less than comprehensive system of student

services.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that a Department of Student Services be established under the leadership of

the Senior Director of Student Services, who should report to the Associate Superintendent for

Teaching and Learning. This Department would include all student services including, but not

limited to, the following services:

Psychological Services

School Social Work Services

Guidance Services

Discipline

Alternative Education

Response to Intervention

Home-School Liaison

Juvenile Court Liaison

Juvenile Justine Education Services

Attendance Services

Work Waivers

Home Education

Crisis Intervention Services

School Health Services

Substance Abuse Prevention/Intervention

Violence Prevention

Character Education

Teen Parent Program

To carry out these responsibilities, the following administrative staff should be assigned to the

Student Services Department:

Senior Director for Student Services

Director of Alternative Education and Related Services

Service area specialists should report to the Senior Director for Student Services. The number,

exact assignments and titles will vary based on district need, areas of emphasis and available

resources.

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Finding:

There are discipline issues at all levels of the system.

Recommendations:

The best strategy to reduce discipline issues is to provide engaging educational experiences to

students that are challenging and guide students to success. School climate improves as high

expectations and meaningful student involvement increase. Discipline issues decrease as school

climate improves.

The district should examine instructional practices and student discipline data to determine

whether specific strategies could improve discipline issues at all levels.

Physical environmental and nutritional issues should be considered to be related to discipline

issues.

Discipline incidents should be analyzed by types of incidents, day of the week and time of the

day for the purpose of developing future professional development, policies and support services.

Priority emphasis should be placed on eliciting parent support for disciplinary issues.

Further study is needed to determine what teachers and schools are experiencing as disruptions

or interruptions to learning. A strategy could be to designate someone to collect data over a

specific period of time on numbers and types of disruptions, interruptions and discipline

incidents. Once causes are determined, practices can be implemented to address contributing

factors.

Discipline data should also be reviewed to determine patterns of disruption that could more

effectively be resolved by dealing with situational issues such as unsupervised areas of campus,

poor classroom management, and ineffective patterns of student movement throughout the day.

Finding:

The district’s Code of Student Conduct states the following:

“The aim of the district is to build effective environments in which positive behavior

is encouraged so that academic success can be achieved. Each school shall have in

place a schoolwide behavior management system based upon proactive, educative,

and reinforcement-based strategies. This plan is to be shared with parents, students

and staff.”

Recommendations:

A district wide behavior management plan should be developed that clearly articulates the

importance of prevention and early intervention. Focusing on prevention and early intervention

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is a more effective strategy than waiting until major discipline problems occur and may actually

be more cost effective. For example, teaching appropriate replacement behaviors would in many

cases stop the inappropriate behavior before it escalates to the level of suspension, expulsion or

alternative placement. Likewise, drug prevention is much more effective than intervention after

the problem has surfaced. The district wide plan should serve as the model for school behavior

management systems.

It is the responsibility of the Student Services Department staff to assist schools to effectively

implement school wide behavior management systems. Schools should be provided sufficient

resources that enable them to select the most appropriate discipline strategy for each situation.

Student Services staff should also facilitate school-based problem solving for specific situations.

Finding:

There appears to be a high number of expulsions and alternative school placements in the

district, including the elementary level.

Recommendations:

The district should review and monitor district-wide discipline data to identify exactly where

interventions are occurring. Are interventions being made early in the behavioral continuum or

are interventions being made later when more severe consequences are required?

A comprehensive, district-wide discipline plan should emphasize the importance of intervening

as soon as possible to correct behaviors before they become more serious offenses.

Finding:

There is a need to provide more structure to the educational experience of students assigned to an

alternative center with clear strategies to address the offending behavior, to ensure the student is

progressing academically and to verify that the student has met specific criteria for returning to

the home school.

Recommendation:

The district’s alternative education program should be reviewed and revised as appropriate to

ensure that the time spent in an alternative center assists the student to return to the home school

ready to continue their academic progress and to participate appropriately in the school program.

Placement in an alternative center should be viewed as an opportunity for the student to resolve

the issues that resulted in placement and to focus on academics in a more structured,

individualized environment.

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Exceptional Student Education

Status:

District wide administrative responsibility for exceptional student education (ESE) is currently

assigned to the Director of Exceptional Student Education, who reports to the Assistant

Superintendent for Learning Support. The ESE Department includes the following professional

technical staff who report to the Director of ESE:

Senior Managers, ESE Areas

Senior Manager, ESE Area PK

Senior Manager, ESE Area Transition

Teacher Resource Specialist Trainers, Program Specialists

Staffing Specialists

Senior Manager, FDLRS

ESE Learning Center Administrators

The Department also includes other staff personnel to assist with ESE services such as behavior

specialist, itinerant staff, additional staffing specialists, psychologists and more depending on

specific school and program needs. The Department provides services to schools in five

geographic areas that include a Senior Manager, Staffing Specialist and support personnel. In

addition to area responsibilities, the Senior Managers are assigned district wide responsibilities.

Finding:

The purpose of the ESE Department is to ensure the development and delivery of an appropriate

education in the least restrictive environment for all students eligible for exceptional education or

Section 504. The department accomplishes this through programming, technical assistance,

communications assistance, professional development, and conflict resolution.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that a Department of Exceptional Student Education be placed under the

leadership of the Senior Director for ESE who should report to the Associate Superintendent for

Teaching and Learning Services.

The Senior Director should be assisted by content and service area specialists. The number,

exact assignments and titles will vary based on district need, areas of emphasis and available

resources.

Finding:

It was reported that the district’s Gifted Education Program is not operating at a level of

maximum effectiveness.

23

Recommendation:

The Gifted Education Program should be reviewed by a team comprised of the Senior Director

of ESE, Senior Director of Elementary Curriculum, Senior Director of Middle and High School

Curriculum, district content specialists, school principals and instructional staff. The purpose of

the review would be to determine the most effective strategies for offering Gifted Education

services to schools. Consideration should be given to coordination with the regular school

program as well as acceleration options.

Magnet, Choice and Charter Schools

Status:

Currently, there is a Senior Director who provides administrative oversight for magnet, choice

and charter schools. This Senior Director reports to the Associate Superintendent for School-

Based Operations.

Findings:

The Office of Magnet, Choice and Charter Schools provides academic, fiscal and organizational

support and oversight to 48 magnet, choice and charter schools.

The major functions of this office include the following:

Charter Schools: Application review processes, state and circuit court appeals, contract

negotiations, monitoring and oversight of contracts, revocation and renewal decision making.

Magnet/Choice Schools: Program development and implementation, student achievement,

principal evaluations, magnet school lottery, waiting lists and applicant pools,

implementation of grant goals and objectives, and fiscal responsibilities related to these

functions.

MaKay Scholarships: Oversight of private and public MaKay Scholarship options,

placement, coordination with transportation, etc.

Other Scholarship Programs: Opportunity, Corporate as needed and/or required.

In addition, the Senior Director supervises the following principals:

Lawton Chiles Middle Academy

Jewett Academy

Union Academy

Bethune Magnet

Bartow Elementary Academy

Brigham Academy

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Recommendations:

It is recommended that the district-level administrative responsibility for magnet charter and

choice schools be assigned to the Division of Teaching and Learning Services; and specifically

assigned to the Senior Director of Magnet, Choice and Charter Schools.

It is also recommended that the Senior Director supervise appropriate professional/technical and

support personnel as needed.

The supervision of school principals listed above should be assigned to the appropriate Regional

Executive Director along with the other principals in that region.

Professional Development

Status:

The district’s Professional Development Department Director reports to the Associate

Superintendent for Learning and has a staff of six senior coordinators, three professional

development specialists and one teacher resource specialist trainer to support professional

learning throughout the district. The department is located in the Miles Professional

Development Center located between Bartow and Lakeland. The facility contains excellent

professional development offices, high quality conference and presentation rooms, and places

professional development, instructional technology and curriculum content staff personnel in

close proximity to enhance collaboration on district initiatives.

The Professional Development Department has concentrated on supporting the district’s

Strategic Plan goal to provide a coordinated system of relevant, timely staff development for all

employee groups consistent with the Florida Professional Development Evaluation Protocol.

Major initiatives include training staff in all schools in Learning Focus Strategies (LFS) utilizing

a U.S. DOE approved program for school improvement, training teachers with a Polk developed

workshop for Classroom Management Training, and coordinating training for administrators and

staff on the newly adopted teacher evaluation instruments.

Finding:

The most recent Professional Development Protocol Review noted that although the district used

a variety of informal measures to conduct evaluations of the impact of professional learning,

these evaluations seldom included formal and standardized measures. There is a lack of evidence

linking professional learning to student learning, as reliance is mainly on classroom

walkthroughs to document both implementation and impact, without formal links to the

professional learning objectives and intended skills of the programs. The district also provided

limited evidence that the results from the evaluations of professional learning are used to plan

subsequent professional learning, modify or adjust continuing professional learning, or

discontinue ineffective professional learning.

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Recommendation:

The Professional Development Department should work with the district’s Senior Director for

Assessment, Accountability, and Evaluation to develop front-end measures and templates to

measure the impact of professional learning upon major district initiatives that are designed to

improve student achievement.

Finding:

Some professional development initiatives have been undertaken without adequate coordination

with other departments which has resulted in a duplication of effort.

Recommendation:

Efforts should be ongoing to inculcate a culture of collaboration with other district departments,

such as Instructional Technology and Teaching and Learning, to present a unified program that

involves all stakeholders in the design and delivery of professional learning. The department has

begun this effort but it should become an essential part of professional practice.

Leadership Development

Status:

The district’s state-approved School Principal Certification Program, Leadership for Educational

Achievement and Development (LEAD), was developed in an effort to improve the quality of

future instructional leaders and is being implemented as outlined in the plan. According to the

2011 Professional Development Protocol Review conducted by the Florida Department of

Education, there is considerable evidence that this program is being implemented to prepare its

candidates to be entry level instructional leaders and effective administrators through meaningful

collaboration, clearly defined goals, and regular collection and analysis of performance data. The

LEAD Program ensures that candidates’ professional learning is clearly aligned with the Florida

Principal Leadership Standards and the William Cecil Golden School Professional Development

Program.

Finding:

The district LEAD program does not adequately address the need that current school principals

receive an ongoing continuum of professional preparation to become high performing

instructional leaders and future district executive leaders. Without building this capacity, the

district will not have a cadre of leaders prepared for higher-level administrative vacancies.

Recommendations:

In addition to professional development designed for principals to become knowledgeable on

new district initiatives, the district should identify the areas of strength and expertise of current

school leaders and insure that professional growth opportunities are structured to build the

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capacity of these leaders to assume higher-level leadership roles. The identification of potential

executive-level leaders and the provision of the skill sets needed to perform at a high level of

effectiveness need to become part of the district’s Core Value of fostering a culture of

continuous learning and personal development for all employees.

The district should continue to place emphasis on fully implementing all elements of the

Strategic Plan, including the need for recruiting and retaining a more diverse teaching and

administrative staff; developing more measurable goals that can be implemented, monitored and

evaluated on an annual basis; and developing a more formal succession planning process that

includes implementation of a district performance appraisal system that emphasizes student

achievement measures and that fully implements the district’s Principal Preparation and

Certification Program.

Finding:

Although a qualified, experienced leadership team, including a high performing principal, guides

and supervises aspiring principals during their preparation, the district has difficulty in providing

supervision of candidates experiences when they are in schools without a high performing

principal. The district appears to have a culture of low student expectations that prevents aspiring

leaders from learning best practices for student achievement from high performing leaders.

Recommendation:

The district Principal Certification Candidates would benefit from having the opportunity to be

assigned for a semester to a school designated as a training site headed by a high performing

principal. An existing assistant principal position at this school would be used for this purpose,

thereby providing the current assistant principal the opportunity to experience a variety of

leadership opportunities in the candidate’s school each semester. This would help to build

capacity for principal candidates to gain leadership experiences in a variety of school settings.

Finding:

The current district procedure for screening, interviewing and selecting candidates for school

principal, interim principal and assistant principal position openings is conducted through the

Human Resources Division without significant involvement of those involved in the leadership

development program. This results in a lack of coordination between those charged with

preparing and developing the skills of principal candidates and those charged with interviewing

and selecting those candidates.

Recommendation:

The director of the district’s leadership development programs should be involved as a team

member or advisor to the District Selection Committee for open administrative positions. This

would enable the committee to couple the information provided in the Site Analysis of the school

that is provided by district professional development staff with specific knowledge of the unique

skills possessed by the candidates to assist the committee in selecting the “best” leadership

27

candidate.

Finding:

School principals and assistant principals appear to be operating with an emphasis on compliance

due to a lack of proper evaluation of their job performance.

Recommendation:

The district would benefit from a more effective organizational structure that provides the

structure necessary for school level administrators to become part of a system of schools rather

than as isolated entities. The new administrator evaluation system has the potential to identify

and provide needed data essential to evaluating the strengths, deficits, and areas of expertise of

school-level administrators to build their capacity to perform more effectively and efficiently in

achieving the district’s goals to improve student achievement and to ensure that students realize

their highest potential.

Finding:

The district’s Aspiring Leaders Program currently has 78 self-selected participants currently

participating in the program. The program lacks any mechanism to identify and encourage

potential participants in the program to insure that program completers meet the needs of the

district. There are currently over 150 potential candidates in the district’s pool for assistant

principals. Candidates remain on active status for 5 years. They are then removed from the pool

and must reapply for admission. The district currently places 15-20 assistant principals annually.

Recommendation:

Successful succession planning requires that the district identify and build the capacity to create

an effective pool of potential administrative candidates. School and district level administrators

should identify and encourage potential aspiring school leaders as a part of a district culture of

effective succession planning. The aspiring principal program would likely be more effective if

mechanisms were in place to prescreen potential candidates in order to redirect candidates who

do not demonstrate the necessary skills to master the program successfully. The district should

consider reducing the number of years a potential candidate remains in the pool before having to

reapply for admission. Potential candidates should also be removed from the pool if they do not

apply for any positions over an extended period of time. Having fewer candidates will allow the

leadership development staff to concentrate on providing capacity building services to develop a

more qualified pool of applicants.

Functions Assigned to Recommended Departments

Associate Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Services

Provide leadership and direction for ensuring articulated, cohesive programs and services

across all departments within the division

Identify instructional priorities and direction

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Provide leadership for planning, implementation and evaluation of instructional programs

Coordinate and collaborate with the Regional Executive Directors to ensure that adopted

programs and identified best practices are effectively implemented and that adequate

technical support is provided to school administrators and teachers in both curriculum

content and instructional practice

Assist in the implementation of the District’s Strategic Plan

Assist in promoting the District’s vision and mission for the high achievement of all Polk

County students

Serve on Superintendent’s Cabinet

Senior Director of Elementary Curriculum

Articulate the vision for teaching and learning within the department and between the schools

Work with the Senior Director of Middle and High School Education in promoting and

assisting with program articulation and development

Direct and evaluate elementary curriculum studies and projects

Assist principals and departments in identifying program needs, materials and equipment.

Prepare budget and review budget performance for department and elementary activities

Expedite the distribution of resources to schools

Supervise the selection and purchase of elementary schools instructional materials to be

recommended for adoption

Coordinate district implementation of statutory requirements related to educational

accountability

Disseminate accurate information to schools in a timely manner

Provide outstanding customer service and use positive interpersonal skills

Ensure compliance with Board Rules and applicable Federal laws and regulations

Work with the Exceptional Student Programs as they relate to other elementary programs

Articulate with the Professional Development department

Assist in the preparation of the Student Progression Plan

Assist in coordinating the Title I Program

Assist in coordinating the ESOL services

Assist in the implementation of Drop Out Prevention programs

Senior Director of Middle and High School Curriculum

Articulate the vision for teaching and learning within the department and between the schools

Work with the Senior Director of Elementary Curriculum in promoting and assisting with

program articulation and development

Direct and evaluate middle and high school curriculum studies and projects

Assist principals and departments in identifying program needs, materials and equipment

.Prepare budget and review budget performance for department and secondary activities

Expedite the distribution of resources to schools

Supervise the selection and purchase of secondary schools instructional materials to be

recommended for adoption

Coordinate district implementation of statutory requirements related to educational

accountability

Disseminate accurate information to schools in a timely manner

29

Provide outstanding customer service and use positive interpersonal skills

Ensure compliance with Board Rules and applicable Federal laws and regulations

Work with the Workforce and Exceptional Student Programs as they relate to other middle

and high school programs

Articulate with the Professional Development Department

Assist in the preparation of the Student Progression Plan

Assist in coordinating the ESOL services

Assist in the implementation of Drop Out Prevention programs

Senior Director of Workforce and Adult Education

Assist schools in developing career academies with industry certification

Assist with equipment acquisition and replacement for assigned programs

Oversee adult education and community education

Collaborate with and assist school principals and directors

Coordinate and collaborate with post secondary institutions

Articulate with the Senior Director of Secondary Programs

Provide technical assistance and support to schools

Provide outstanding customer service and use positive interpersonal skills

Senior Director of Instructional Support

Provide administrative oversight of Title I, grants acquisition, professional development,

virtual school, ESOL, and media services

Ensure that services are appropriately delivered to schools and departments

Senior Director of Exceptional Student Education

Develop, implement, maintain and evaluate all Exceptional Student Education programs and

services

Coordinate the IEP development for ESE students

Supervise the ESE staff

Develop, implement and evaluate the IDEA budget for the district

Coordinate itinerant services for physical therapy and occupational therapy

Oversee the ESE Specialists

Contract for outside services for ESE students when necessary

Conduct Due Process hearings when necessary

Senior Director of Student Services

Direct and oversee the district’s comprehensive program of student services

Coordinate Bright Futures Scholarship Program

Disseminate information on Child Labor Laws

Coordinate Crisis Response Teams

Oversee Guidance Services throughout the district

Oversee the development of the Code of Student Conduct manual

Oversee School Health Services

Coordinate services provided to Students in Transition/Homeless students

30

Oversee School Social Work Services

Oversee Psychological Services

Coordinate the Home Education Program

Oversee the orderly maintenance of student records

Senior Director of Assessment, Accountability, and Evaluation Services

The best strategy to reduce discipline issues is to provide engaging educational experiences to

students that are challenging and guide students to success. School climate improves as high

expectations and meaningful student involvement increase. Discipline issues decrease as school

climate improves.

Direct and oversee the district’s student assessment system

Disseminate information on State Grades, No Child Left Behind (AYP) standards and results,

and other accountability requirements set by the Department of Education and Federal

legislation

Oversee educational and policy research activities

Train test administrators in the proper use of tests and assessments

Provide technical assistance to schools on student assessment and accountability

Assist schools and departments with the interpretation of testing and accountability data and

reports

Provide comprehensive summative evaluations as required or requested by the

Superintendent

Provide support to the schools on the development of surveys

Train school and district personnel on data collection, data analysis and utilizing data to

make instructional decisions

Human Resources Services

Status:

The Polk County School District provides human resources services to over 13,000 full-time

employees, as reported on the 2012 DOE Fall Staff Survey. Included in this number are

instructional employees, non-instructional employees, and administrators. The instructional work

force totals 6,735 teachers, and the non-instructional employees include 2,266 service workers,

233 skilled craft workers, and 26 unskilled laborers. Of the 382 total administrators, (310) are

located at schools, and (72) are based at the district-level offices.

The total district-wide work force consists of the following ethnic groups: White (9,546), Black

(2,022), Hispanic (1,380), and Other Groups (429). The 382 administrative employees include

the following ethnic groups: White (277), Black (83), Hispanic (16), and Other Groups (6).

31

The ethnic diversity of the administrative staff is in contrast to that of the students of the district,

with less than 50% White. The majority of the students are represented by Black, Hispanic, and

other groups, as reported to the study team by the school district.

The school district is the fourth largest public school district in area in the state of Florida (1,875

square miles), with a total of 157 schools reported on Count 2 of the Florida Department of

Education Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Count. Employees are located in elementary schools,

middle schools, high schools, magnet schools, alternative schools, Department of Juvenile

Justice facilities, exceptional student education centers, charter schools, Pre-k centers, a virtual

school, and career technical and adult programs.

The school district serves approximately 95,000 students. Since the 2007-08 school year, the

district has experienced an increase in student membership of 2.2%, and an increase of less than

1% is forecast for each of the next three years. The change in staff during the same period of

time is an increase of 1.6%.

In a comparative analysis completed by the Florida Association of District School

Superintendents, the Polk County School District reported the smallest percentage of full-time

staff classified as administrative to be (2.9%), which is lower than the other districts of similar

size and circumstances: Brevard, Duval, Lee, Pasco, Pinellas, Seminole, and Volusia. It should

be noted, however, that each district determines the classification system for personnel, and the

classifications not only may not be comparable in number, but they also may not even be similar

in type. Polk school district classifies administrative positions as those at the Director level or

above, and many other districts include coordinators and supervisors as administrative.

A comparison of student membership to full-time staff may be a more appropriate indicator of

the utilization rate of personnel in the comparable districts. Polk reported the fewest students per

full-time staff (7.2) of any of the comparative districts, which indicates that the district is staffed

more heavily than the other districts and may not be utilizing personnel as efficiently as they

should. In addition, the district is also more heavily staffed than the state average (8.2).

As reported on the Florida Department of Education Fall Staff Surveys for the 2011-2012 school

year, the district reduced the total number of employees during the past year by 183 positions,

most of which were made at the end of the 2010-11 school year. An analysis of the reductions by

activity assignment shows an increase in the number of district administrators (+2), a decrease in

the number of school administrators (-3), and the majority of the reductions in paraprofessionals

and service workers.

Recommendations:

The district is encouraged to begin an effort to become more effective and efficient in delivery of

services to the educational community by (1) realigning the administrative organizational

structure of the district and (2) carefully reviewing the workloads of non-administrative staff to

reduce the total number of Professional, Technical, and Supervisory (PTS) and support positions

as compared to the number of students. This recommended action is in addition to the personnel

reductions which have been made during the past few years based on revenues.

32

The district is encouraged to carefully study the Comparative Analysis of the Polk County

School District with Selected Florida School Districts, which has been provided by the Florida

Association of District School Superintendents and which provides data in support of an effort to

reduce total staff.

The district is also encouraged to discontinue the listing of unfunded positions on the

organizational charts for the individual divisions. This practice tends to give false hope to

administrators that the positions will be funded in the near future, and it tends to focus on the

number of positions that are no longer available instead of the need to reorganize and reassign

essential functions to other employees. If the positions were not officially deleted by the School

Board, the system for position control can maintain the list of unfunded positions for future

reference by management.

Current Organizational Structure:

The current organizational chart for the district is depicted in Appendix A of this report. The

human resources services which are offered in the district are included in the Division of Human

Resources comprised of the following departments:

Employee Relations

Human Capital Management

Personnel Services

The Professional Development Department, which also provides some human resources services,

is located in the Learning Division and is housed at the Miles Professional Development Center,

which is separate from the other district offices. The description of services offered by the

Professional Development office is included in the Teaching and Learning section of this report.

The major administrative responsibility for human resources is assigned to the Assistant

Superintendent for Human Resources, who reports to the Superintendent. The Assistant

Superintendent has previous administrative experience in the district and has returned from

retirement to lead the Human Resources Division. He expresses a strong desire to have the

entire department work toward a servant leadership/service-oriented organization.

The Assistant Superintendent directly supervises an administrative secretary, the Director of

Employee Relations, the Director of Human Capital Management, and the Director of Personnel.

The Human Resources Division also has twenty-nine (29) support employees assigned to the

Human Resources Directors.

Employees supervised by the respective directors are:

Director of Employee Relations—one (1) specialist, five (5) analysts, and two (2) personnel

assistants.

Director of Human Capital Management—two (2) senior coordinators, a specialist, two (2)

personnel assistants, and two (2) teacher support positions.

33

Director of Personnel—a senior coordinator, three (3) senior technicians, a secretary, a clerk

general, an analyst, seven (7) personnel assistants, and a clerk specialist.

The Human Resources Office is located in a building adjacent to the main School Board Office

building and is easily accessible to other district personnel and to the public.

Realignment

Recommendations:

The following delivery model for the provision of human resources is recommended:

The leadership for the Human Resources Office should be assigned to the Assistant

Superintendent for Human Resources Services who reports to the Superintendent. He should

supervise and be assisted by three (3) administrators who have responsibilities which include, but

are not limited to, the following functions:

♦ Director of Employee Relations—contract negotiations, mediation, grievance processing,

employee assistance program, requests for leave of absence, sick leave bank, unemployment

compensation claims, and issues regarding equity, discrimination, harassment, professional

misconduct and criminal misconduct.

♦ Director of Human Capital Management—teacher certification, employee recruiting and

hiring system, new employee orientations, out–of-field teachers, subject area endorsement,

No Child Left Behind requirements, substitute teacher management and scheduling system,

teacher exit interviews, and teacher contracts.

♦ Director of Personnel—employee compensation programs, personnel records, data entry of

compensation programs, salary handbook, personnel reappointments, job descriptions, and

staffing allocations.

The administrators listed above should be assisted in their duties by employees with a

Professional, Technical, and Supervisory (PTS) classification and by adequate clerical staff. The

job titles and assignments of the individual positions are found on the recommended

organizational chart in Appendix B of this report.

The organizational structure for the Superintendent’s Office (Appendix B) includes a

recommendation for Regional Executive Directors who will have direct supervision of school

principals. When this structure is initiated, it will be imperative that the Human Resources

Division review the assignments of the staff and reassign duties appropriately so that adequate

services are provided to each region.

Succession Management

Findings:

There is little evidence of an organized succession plan in the district. The lack of succession

planning for district and school-level administrative positions is resulting in a lack of capacity

34

building needed to prepare future district leaders. Currently there are twenty-three (23)

principals, ten (10) assistant principals, and eight (8) district-level administrators with a Deferred

Retirement Option Program (DROP) termination date between now and 2015. Additionally,

there are approximately twenty (20) other administrators who completed DROP and returned to

district administrative positions. The loss of these leaders will result in a depletion of

institutional knowledge and experiences essential for the proper functioning of the district.

The Human Resources Division has several employees who are in the DROP program and/or

nearing retirement, including the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, who has already

retired and has recently returned to a major leadership role. In a relatively short period of time,

the retirements will slow the momentum of existing leadership and district accomplishments.

The School Food Services Department has implemented procedures for training and selecting

managers and there have been isolated instances of training of personnel to replace someone who

is exiting, but there is no formal plan or procedure. There also has not been the opportunity to

adequately train or prepare other personnel who would be able to transition into leadership

positions and competently perform the functions.

Recommendations:

In developing and staffing an organization, succession planning is the process of identifying and

preparing suitable employees to replace key leaders within the organization. This planning is not

just for today, or tomorrow, but for the next year and the next five years. Thinking ahead and

planning for the future is a cardinal rule for any organization.

The district employees who are in DROP or who have returned to employment after completing

DROP occupy many executive level positions that are essential to the effective operation of the

district. In order to insure that the leadership of the district is sustainable, some basic issues of

succession management need to be recognized:

Successful leadership is sustainable leadership.

One of the most significant factors affecting the life of a school district and sustainability of

its improvement efforts is leadership succession.

Successful succession depends on sound planning, successful employment of outbound and

inbound leadership knowledge, limiting the frequency of succession events, and preserving

leadership in the face of movements toward more management.

Planned succession is one of the most neglected aspects of leadership theory and practice in

schools and school systems. It is one of the most persistently missing pieces in the effort to

secure the sustainability of school improvement efforts.

Principals’ impact on their schools and the Superintendent’s impact on the district are often

influenced greatly by their predecessors and successors.

Little or no attention is devoted to preserving past successes or keeping initiatives going

once the leader has left.

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Sustainable, significant improvement depends on understanding and managing this process

over time and should be measured over many years and several leaders, not just one or two.

A central issue in leadership succession is whether a transition in leadership establishes

continuity or provokes discontinuity-and to what extent this is deliberately planned.

Planned continuity occurs when the assignment of a new leader reflects a well-thought-out

succession plan meant to sustain and build on the goals of a predecessor.

Sustained school improvement over long periods and across multiple leaders requires

carefully planned continuity.

Planned continuity occurs only in the most innovative schools and districts and in cases

of isolated transitions.

Planned discontinuity is often the intent of leadership successions, to move a school in a

different direction than under its predecessors.

In many situations this serves the intended purpose of bringing about needed change.

Planned discontinuity is effective in shaking up schools and districts but not at making

changes stick.

This succession strategy can yield rapid results, but leadership needs time to consolidate

the new culture and heal the wounds that disruption creates.

Often leaders of planned discontinuity were changed before their existing work was

complete, resulting in a state of constant change but little lasting improvement.

Unplanned discontinuity and continuity often are the unintended consequences of poorly or

unplanned succession.

Discontinuity with the achievements of a leader’s immediate predecessor, and continuity

with (or regression to) the mediocre state of affairs preceding that predecessor, is the

result.

Successful school leaders are often removed prematurely from schools they are

improving to mount a rescue in another school facing a crisis. Much less thought is given

to the appointment of their successors since outsiders view the problems as being solved.

Understanding of leaders’ knowledge of improvement and succession processes is essential to

the development of stronger leadership cultures that make planning, selection, and rotation of

leaders more effective.

Inbound knowledge is leadership knowledge needed to make one’s mark on a particular

school or turn it around.

Insider knowledge to improve schools and districts is gained after becoming known, trusted,

and accepted within the community.

Outbound knowledge is what is needed to preserve past successes, keep improvement going,

and leave a legacy.

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Changing the nature of leadership in terms of large-scale reform:

School systems are preoccupied with inbound knowledge that can inspire change, but that

change cannot be sustained after a change of leaders.

Principals who are making strides in school improvement need to remain in their schools for

sufficient time if their changes are going to become part of the culture of that school.

Conclusions for improving leadership succession:

Succession should to be planned thoughtfully and ethically, and be an integral part of every

school and district-wide improvement plan.

Deeper, wider pools of leadership talent must be created so that succession issues are easier

to resolve.

Distributing leadership makes succession less dependent on the talents or frailties of

particular individuals.

Leaders are not all the same. Schools should cushion the departure of key leaders and

develop leadership capacities to provide a pool of growing talent from which future

successors may be selected.

From the first day of their appointment, leaders should give thought to the leadership

capacity they will build and legacies they will leave. Incorporating succession issues into

leadership training and development programs will help do this.

Principals should be kept in schools for longer than five years when their improvement

efforts are doing well and be used as mentors for other leaders.

While the district recognizes the importance of succession planning, as evidenced by the training

of the Superintendent to assume her current role, there is no formal district plan in place. The

district should consider the following actions during the development of a succession plan in

order to keep the district prepared and focused on the future:

Determine critical positions.

Identify expected vacancies, and identify current and future competencies for the positions.

Develop a communication and recruitment strategy.

Supplement Human Resources functions to include active recruiting for identified positions.

Identify potential administrators for district-level positions.

Develop a timeline for replacement of current employees to allow time for training.

Provide opportunities for leadership skills development for potential district and school

administrators.

Develop and implement coaching and mentoring programs.

Offer cross-training opportunities for support positions.

Ensure that procedural manuals are in place for all departments.

It is recommended that the Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Services provide

leadership for the design of a succession plan for district and school leadership executives.

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The district’s Leadership Development Plan should be expanded to include a planned program of

leadership experiences for high-performing principals so that they can gain a broader overview

of the system and the skills necessary to successfully transition into higher-level leadership roles.

The Division of Human Resource Services should work closely with leadership development

staff to insure that the district builds the capacity to provide the trained and knowledgeable

leaders for the future. Efforts should be undertaken to engage those soon to be retired school

leaders so they can become mentors of current and aspiring leaders in order to assist in the

transmission of knowledge and culture to these new district leaders.

Job Descriptions

Findings:

The district staff personnel are aware that job descriptions should be reviewed, updated and

submitted regularly for School Board approval, and that job descriptions in the Division of

Human Resources have been recently updated. However, many job descriptions were adopted as

early as 1994 and have not received subsequent review and/or revision. It is further noted that

for some positions, the job functions have been transferred to another position without the

adoption of a new job description or a revision.

A random review of job descriptions found that the district job descriptions do not indicate to

whom the employee reports or who the employee supervises.

Recommendations:

The district should complete a review of all job descriptions based on current and recommended

assignments so as to ensure that titles, essential functions, and qualifications are correct.

Accurate and up- to-date job descriptions will eliminate the possibility of duplication of efforts

and will better define and delineate position roles and responsibilities.

Understanding that there are hundreds of existing job descriptions, the district may consider

soliciting the services of an outside firm to conduct this review. Should the use of an outside

firm not be prudent, it is recommended that the administrator of each department or work site

establish and begin a structured review of the position descriptions that exist under his or her

supervision. Priority should be given to positions where frequent vacancies occur and to

positions where known vacancies will occur in the near future. To solidify the line of reporting,

the addition of the position to whom each employee reports and the positions that each

employee supervises should be added to each job description.

The Director of Personnel should coordinate this activity and present the revised job descriptions

to the Superintendent for approval by the School Board.

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Personnel Procedures

Findings:

The district includes guidelines for specific personnel functions as found within various School

Board Policies, in the salary schedule manual, on the website, and in the six (6) employee

bargaining unit contracts. The Department of Human Resources also maintains various other

manuals and procedures guides, including the following documents:

Staffing Plan

Employee Handbook

Recruiting: Reference and Procedures Guide

Staffing Plan and Guide (jointly with the Business Services Division)

Substitute Teacher Handbook

Due Process Handbook

Equity Handbook

Written procedures have also been developed by individual employees to outline various

functions associated with support staff personnel; however, a complete Human Resources

Manual that addresses all department functions was not available at the time of the study.

Recommendations:

Appropriate measures should be taken to ensure the continuity of personnel practices in the

district. A technical Personnel Procedures Manual, including all forms, should be developed to

address each of the functions performed in the Human Resources Division. The completed

manual should also be provided as a guide for school level and department administrators.

The areas to be included in the Personnel Procedures Manual should include but not be limited

to:

Vacancy advertisements

Review of employment application

Interview of candidates for employment

Background reviews

Verification of prior experience

Notification of personnel action

Personnel records

Discipline of employees

Staff appointments, transfers and terminations

New employee orientation

Compensation guidelines/calculations

Types of leave and associated procedures

Substitute teachers

Performance appraisal systems

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Employee wellness programs

Instructional certification- Teaching-out-of-field

Parapro testing

Fingerprinting

Worker's compensation

Employee assistance program

Sick leave bank

Drug/alcohol testing

Supplements

Retirement

Classification and Compensation

Findings:

The district maintains salary schedules for six separate union groups, for school-based

administrators (principals and assistant principals), and for non-union, non-school based

employees. The salary structure for non-bargaining employees was established following a

classification and compensation study which was completed in 2007. The classification study

expanded the pay grades but left the same titles, resulting in some positions with the same titles

but with different pay grades, appearing as an inequity to the employees.

The salary schedule for principals and assistant principals includes a base salary plus

supplements for school size, school levels, and educational level of the administrator. A newly-

assigned principal with a master’s degree in an elementary school with fewer than 500 students

receives a base salary of $74, 271 and a supplement of $2,500 for a total salary of $76,771. At

the top end of the spectrum, a principal with a doctor’s degree and with fifteen (15) years of

experience who is assigned to a senior high school of more than 1,500 students receives a base

salary of $74,271 and may receive supplements totaling $26,220, for a total salary of $100,491.

The difference in the two salaries is comparable to the difference in the negotiated salary of a

beginning teacher with a bachelor’s degree and a teacher at the top of the schedule with a

doctor’s degree.

District-level administrators, for the most part, receive a set salary with ranges from $84,082 for

a Director to $123,099 for an Associate Superintendent. Some administrators are outside the set

salary because they were receiving higher salaries at the time of transfer or promotion from

another position or because they have received performance pay.

The classification system for non-union employees is based on pay grades and number of months

employed. Each pay grade has a range of salaries, and new employees may be placed on the

schedule at the minimum, at 85% of the midpoint, and at the midpoint, based on the employee’s

qualifications and experience. A salary committee reviews the placement of all new hires on the

salary schedule.

There appear to be some concerns surrounding the issue of equity and consistency when

determining compensation for certain district-level administrators following lateral transfers or

40

promotions, and also following promotions from the school level to the district level.

Additionally, issues were raised concerning the rationale and justification for staffing certain

professional/technical services positions at one pay grade in one department, but at a higher pay

grade in another department when responsibilities and duties of both positions appear to be

equal.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that the district review the current formula and guidelines that are used to

determine compensation following transfers and promotions for non-union employees. It is noted

that flexibility in administering the placement guidelines should be afforded the Superintendent,

with appropriate measures in place to assure that all salaries are determined in a fair, consistent,

and equitable manner.

It is also recommended that the district should arrange for a comprehensive classification and

compensation study of non-union salaries. The study should clearly determine if salaries are

competitive to like positions in similar size districts and ensure that the hierarchy on the schedule

is accurately justified.

Staffing Allocations/Position Control

Findings:

The responsibility for calculating and identifying the staffing units allocated to each department

in the district is assigned to personnel within the Payroll Department in the Division of Business

Services. The staffing plan is reviewed annually by a committee which includes representatives

from each division of the school system and the schools. The committee is chaired by the

Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources and facilitated by a representative of Business

Services. Once all positions are finalized and allocated, the responsibility for position control is

administered by the Business Services Division.

The process for staffing allocations is formula driven and appears to be inflexible to some

administrators in the school district.

Recommendation:

It is recommended that the Division of Human Resources Services be afforded greater

involvement in the determination of the numbers of units to be allocated, as well as the

determination of need which falls outside the established staffing formula, especially for school

operations.

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Employee Recruitment

Findings:

The Division of Human Resources participates in an extensive recruiting program, with

personnel attending job fairs and career fairs at universities, posting openings on the web site,

and offering incentives to potential teachers.

The incentives which are widely advertised to applicants and teachers include the following:

Bonus of $3,000 for satisfactory completion of one full year of instructional services in a

school in need of improvement.

Up to $500 travel and lodging reimbursement for recruitment-related purposes, including

accommodations made to establish residency to teach in the district schools.

Reimbursement of $275 fee for the subject area certification exam for teachers in a critical

personnel group.

Bonus of $2500 for male classroom teachers for satisfactory completion of one full year of

successful instructional service in a targeted elementary school.

Reimbursement of up to $200 for participation by minority teachers in workshops to prepare

for certification examinations.

Project PRIDE—stipend of $2,500 per term to eligible minority individuals who commit to

teach in Polk County elementary schools.

The district has recently selected a high-performing principal to provide the oversight and

leadership for the Human Capital Management Department, which is responsible for recruiting

activities.

Recommendation:

It is recommended that the Human Resources Division expand the recruiting efforts to more

widely recruit potential administrators, especially principals and assistant principals.

Employee Relations

Findings:

The Polk County School District negotiates contracts with six (6) employee bargaining units:

Polk Education Association, Inc. (PEA)

Teachers

Paraeducators

Educational Support Personnel

American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)

School Food Service Assistants

Bus Drivers and Attendants

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Custodial/Maintenance/Vehicle Services

The three (3) contracts with PEA are negotiated at the same time, and the three (3) with

AFSCME are negotiated individually.

Membership in the Polk Education Association is about forty percent (40%), and membership in

AFSCME is approximately ten percent (10%) of the eligible employees.

The Chief Negotiator for the School Board is the Director of Employee Relations, and he has a

team representing human resources, business services, and the schools. The Chief Negotiator

has extensive experience in collective bargaining and is an officer of Florida Educational

Negotiators. Members of the team have been trained in labor relations and receive periodic

updates in pertinent legislation and bargaining issues.

The Chief Negotiator provides training in labor relations for aspiring leaders and candidates in

the Assistant Principal Pool. He also offers technical assistance for new principals and makes

presentations to current principals at their regularly-scheduled meetings.

The district is in the last year of a two-year contract with PEA and was at the table during the

time of the study. Articles which involve changes in language are currently on the table for

discussion, and major issues include health care and teacher performance assessment.

The collective bargaining climate, which was adversarial at one time, has greatly improved. At

times the teams have engaged in collaborative bargaining decision making, and at other times the

approach has been traditional, depending on the topic or issue.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that the district make continued efforts to move toward collaborative decision

making.

In an effort to more efficiently utilize the time of all parties involved, it would be in the best

interest of the district to make an effort to consolidate the three (3) contracts with AFSCME into

one.

Business Services

Current Organizational Structure:

The leadership for Business Services is assigned to the Assistant Superintendent for Business

Services, who reports directly to the Superintendent. He is assisted by the following seven (7)

administrative positions: Senior Director of Finance, Director of Financial Reporting, Director of

Payroll, Director of Purchasing and Warehousing, Director of Systems and Applications,

Director of Foodservice, and Director of Risk Management. Each director supervises a staff of

support employees who are assigned specific business functions.

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Recommendations for Realignment:

It is recommended that the Business Services Division be reorganized in the following manner:

Create the position of Assistant Superintendent for Business Services to provide leadership

for the division and to whom the following three (3) administrative positions directly report:

Director of Purchasing and Warehousing

Director of Food and Nutrition

Director of Risk Management

Create the position of Senior Director for Finance who reports to the Assistant

Superintendent for Business Services and to whom the following three (3) administrative

positions report:

Director of Financial Reporting

Director of Budget

Director of Payroll

All departments should be staffed with appropriate support employees.

Financial Summary

The General Operating Budget for the School Board of Polk County in Fiscal Year 2011-2012 is

approximately $732.5 million, including estimated revenues of $601.6 million plus other

financing sources of $51.5 million and the beginning fund balance of $79.4 million. Planned

local sources will provide about 22.5% of the budget while state sources add about 59.3%.

Federal sources contribute about one percent and other sources contribute 7.0%. The remainder,

10.8 % of the budget, is the prior year-end fund balance.

It is School Board policy to maintain an unreserved fund balance of 5% of revenues (Policy

1.003). The fund balance at July 1, 2011, carried over from the 2010-2011 school year, is

included in the 2011-2012 general fund budget at $79.4 million. The fund balance anticipated at

year-end, June 30, 2012, is estimated to be $56.7 million, of which 26.3 million is unassigned

fund balance. This amount represents 3.59% of the general fund budget.

The Capital Outlay budget is $250.3 million. The budget for Debt Service is $55.2 million. The

major source of capital outlay revenue is $38.3 million from the levy of the 1.50-mills authorized

for capital projects, and $30 million from a one-half cent sales surtax.

Long-term debt at June 30, 2011, totaled $566.2 million, consisting of $201.3 million in bonds

and $239.7 million in certificates of participation. Other long-term debt totaled $125.2 million

and included estimated insurance claims payable ($33.6 million) and compensated absences

($40.4 million).

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Budget

Current Status:

The budget process is currently assigned to the Senior Director of Finance. The budget area

compiles the FTE projections used in initiating the budget preparation process, starting at the

school level. During the school year, amendments for increases in funds and “zero-balance”

adjustments between budget categories are received from schools and departments and processed

into the accounting system. Budget adjustments are compiled monthly for School Board

approval.

Finding:

The current organizational chart includes a Senior Manager of Budget position that has never

been filled.

Recommendation:

It is recommended that a new position, Director of Budget, be established. All of the budget

function can then be aligned under this position and remain under the oversight of the Senior

Director of Finance.

Finance

Status:

Finance assists all areas of the district including departments, schools, federal projects and

capital projects in administering the budget, processes all purchase orders, contracts, and other

requests for goods and services, and processes the payment for those goods and services as such

payments are certified appropriate (22 total staff). Property Accounting accounts for the

district’s tangible personal property (5 total staff). Auxiliary Accounting provides accounting

services and policy compliance to school principals, foodservice managers and others in the

management of student activity funds and school cafeterias (3.65 total staff).

Finding:

The Polk County School District has leveraged its resources over the years to obtain maximum

use of continuing revenue streams. It has also made numerous investments using available funds

to realize interest earnings when able. Investments include Local Government Surplus Funds

Trust Fund Investment Pool, U.S. Treasury Bills, U.S. Government Securities Money Market

Funds and others. Borrowings include notes payable at Sun Trust and Capital One, Certificates

of Participation (COP’s), Qualified Zone Academy Bonds (QZAB - COP’s). and Bonds Payable.

At year-end June 30, 2011, the District had total outstanding debt in the amount of $566.2

million. These borrowings and investments are cited periodically in district financial reports and

budget documents with thorough explanations covering outstanding debt, maturity schedules and

revenue results from investments.

45

Recommendation:

It is recommended that the district form a Finance Committee to oversee the investment

program. Although the district has received clean financial reports, it would serve the district

well to have a Finance Committee that meets on a regular basis (quarterly or semi-annually) to

review the district’s major financial requirements. The committee should be comprised of

community individuals such as chief financial officers of local business and industry, local

college and university instructional staff, and others that can bring financial expertise to the

committee. The committee can be supported by district staff and the district’s financial advisors.

Finding:

The Property Accounting function currently reports directly to the Senior Director of Finance.

Recommendation:

It is recommended that this function report to the Director of Financial Reporting.

Payroll

Status:

The Payroll Department processes payrolls for the District’s 13,320 plus employees and reports

wage data to various state and federal agencies as required by law (8 total staff). The Director of

Payroll is responsible for the issuance of accurate and timely paychecks for the district’s

employees (Source: School Board of Polk County, District Budget, July 1, 2011 – June 30,

2012). The paychecks are produced using the SAP system. Schools and departments enter

positive pay information directly into SAP for hourly employees and leave taken information for

salaried employees. The department reports to the Senior Director of Finance. There is eight (8)

total staff in the Payroll Department as shown in the budget document referenced above.

Finding:

During the process of attempting to maintain a correct payroll history, the Division of Human

Resources (HR) will complete a form when an overpayment or underpayment is identified. The

form utilized is called a Manual Calculation of Overpayment/Underpayment form. On occasion,

the error requiring correction is very minor. It was noted that some of the overpayments made to

employees that were being processed were extremely small, including one overpayment of $.51

and a second overpayment of $1.68.

Recommendations:

The process is sound and should be continued to insure the integrity of the payroll system.

However, there should be an established value which concludes the process. The form is

prepared by a staff member in Human Resources and is then cross-checked by a second staff

member in Human Resources before it is sent for administrative approval.

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It is recommended that any overpayment below $5 should not go further than the cross-checking

step. A decision can be made on the proper amount to consider negligible. The time taken and

effort expended to process the form requires a higher investment than what is obtained in making

the payroll corrections.

Purchasing and Warehousing

Status:

The functions of the Purchasing and Warehousing Department include purchasing services,

warehousing and distribution, surplus property and textbook pick-up and disposal, central

printing services, furniture moving for classroom and office relocation services, and installation

of furniture and equipment for large construction projects.

The Purchasing Department’s responsibilities include the development of formal competitive

bids and requests for proposals, recommending contract awards, issuing purchase orders, the

oversight of acquisition and maintenance of the district’s telecommunications systems, and the

issuance and management of the purchasing card system.

The Warehouse receives, stores, and issues school supplies, frozen foods, non-frozen foods,

cafeteria supplies, and cleaning supplies. The warehouse is the central storage and dispersal

point for all surplus furniture and equipment and textbooks as well as the central storehouse for

maintenance materials, tools, and supplies.

Inventory values as of June 30, 2011, for school supplies were $1.38 million, $879,000 for Food

and Nutrition, and $1.9 million for maintenance. Inventory for supplies turned over nearly three

and one-half times for the 2010-2011 school year, over seven times for foods, about four and

one-quarter times for food service supplies, and about one and one-quarter times for maintenance

materials. The four inventory stores together total $4.2 million in funds that are earning zero

return on the investment during the time the inventory is in the warehouse.

The Print Shop acts as a clearing house for the district for major printing and copying jobs. Very

large jobs and large jobs with quick turn-around times are sent to PRIDE or to commercial

printers. However, during the 2010-2011 school-year, the Print Shop accepted a total of 2,956

jobs producing 16.5 million imprints, or about one image every two seconds around the clock for

52 weeks a year.

Finding:

The official organization charts show there are four “unfunded” positions in the Purchasing

Department.

Recommendation:

It is recommended that the district review the assignments given to staff and update job

descriptions to reflect those assignments and remove all unfunded positions from the charts.

47

Finding:

The Central Warehouse is an efficient operation that gets orders out promptly, maintains fresh

stock and obtains the lowest prices available. An analysis was completed in October, 2011, that

showed the warehouse was saving approximately $450,000 per year when comparing common

inventory (non-food) items purchased in large lots to direct deliveries to schools and district cost

centers. Bids were solicited from vendors for deliveries to the warehouse and for drop-

shipments to the schools and the results compiled and compared. The analysis captured all of the

costs associated with keeping the warehouse operational except the cost of the facility itself.

Recommendations:

The purchase of large lots of supplies forces a standardization of brands and products.

Standardization reduces the flexibility of teachers and staff to obtain supplies that work best for

them in their classrooms and offices. The need for central storage of food and food supplies may

begin to lessen over the next few years as on-site facilities are improved and enlarged so that

direct shipments can be made by vendors to the schools.

It is recommended that the district establish a task group to plan for the phasing out of central

purchasing, storage, and distribution of office and school supplies in favor of just-in-time

shipments to school sites and district offices.

Finding:

The print shop is an effective operation that provides prompt service for large printing and

copying jobs. However, the district has placed an emphasis on paperless operations.

Recommendation:

It is recommended that the district establish a task group to plan the phasing-out of large volume

print media and the expanded use of digital communications, accompanied with the phasing-out

of the Print Shop.

Systems and Applications

Status:

The Systems and Applications Department is led by the Director of Systems and Applications

and is staffed by four non-administrative positions. Two other positions are being displayed on

the organization chart as currently unfunded. Functions assigned to this Department include the

design and development of enhancements and upgrades to the SAP business management

system, liaison between the system users and technology staff, and user training for

enhancements and upgrades.

Financial and business operations are automated using SAP as the district enterprise-wide

solution. The system was purchased from SAP AG, an international software corporation

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headquartered in Germany, and is referred to throughout the district as SAP. The SAP enterprise

resource planning system was purchased by the district in 1999 and implemented in 2000. A

major upgrade, begun in 2010, was completed in 2011.

Finding:

The role of the Systems and Applications Department is one of application design, development,

and implementation support for the district business management system. The Department also

is the “user advocate” for systems enhancements and upgrades.

Recommendation:

It is recommended that the Systems and Applications Department be reassigned to the Division

of Technology and Information Services.

Food and Nutrition Services

Status:

According to the Polk County Public Schools web-site, the Food and Nutrition Services

Department serves about 4 million breakfasts, 10 million lunches and 350,000 after school

snacks each year. Changes in food services program regulations have rendered many school site

cafeterias inadequate in terms of space and in some instances equipment must be upgraded. The

Department has implemented a program for renovating school cafeteria facilities including

expanding freezer, cooler, and dry storage capacities.

The Department administers a training program that provides for a resource pool for foodservice

assistants and managers. The program is rigorous enough that pools of well qualified applicants

for vacancies are available for consideration.

Finding:

The Department maintains stocks of frozen foods, non-frozen foods and consumables in the

central warehouse. Deliveries are made on regular schedules to schools.

Recommendation:

It is recommended that the Food and Nutrition Department begin phasing out the central stores

concept in favor of regularly scheduled drop shipments by vendors at the schools.

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Operations and Technology Services

Facilities Management Services

Status:

State records indicate that Polk County Schools experienced a decade of steady growth, from

76,290 students in 1999, to 94,346 in 2009, a 24% increase. That increase in student population

growth has flattened to 95,840 in 2012. This nearly flat growth rate is projected to continue over

the next decade.

Charter schools in Polk County are currently shown in the Five-Year Work Plan as comprised of

10,083 students, a number that is projected to grow to 14,152 in the future years. These students

will come out of the overall district projection thus reducing the number of students housed in

the public schools.

Currently, Department of Education, Florida Inventory of School Houses (DOE,FISH)

documents for Polk County show a housed Capital Outlay Full-Time Equivalent (COFTE)

student count of 88,318. Charter School populations are not included in that number. FISH also

shows a current inventory of 129,204 student stations, of which 15,284 are in relocatables.

Further, actual average class size district-wide is currently reported in the Five-Year Work Plan

as 14 students per classroom and is projected to remain at this number over the next three years,

well under the requirements of state statutes.

Current capital outlay facilities’ funding comes from numerous sources including a local 1.5 mill

discretionary capital outlay levy amounting to $38.3 million. This revenue provides $8.4 million

for maintenance, $5.25 million for school bus purchases, $.86 million for capital outlay

equipment, $18.4 million for Certificates of Participation (COP) debt service, and $.5 million for

property insurance premiums. This leaves a balance of $4.9 million for construction projects.

State provided Public Education Capital Outlay (PECO) funding for new construction and

maintenance is not available this year, but is projected to be phased in beginning next year.

Polk County currently has a voted local sales tax amounting to one-half cent available for school

construction. This tax has provided as much as $33 million and as low as $29.5 million for

capital projects. Currently it is expected to bring the district an estimated $30 million in capital

outlay revenue this year. However, approximately $26.5 million of this amount is used for debt

service on bonds used for school construction projects already completed as part of the sales tax

program. This leaves a projected balance of $3.5 million for additional construction projects this

year. This sales tax increase will expire in 2018 unless approved by the voters.

In addition, the district collects Impact Fees on new residential construction. This has been

declining from $10.3 million in 2007 to $2.7 million last year. This year it is budgeted at $1.5

million in the capital outlay fund.

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Also, there is a fund balance carried forward from previous years of $12.8 million plus $.8

million earned on investments for funding current projects. This all provides a total revenue of

$24.4 million available for construction, renovations and preventive maintenance of all school

board owned properties this year.

Facilities services in the district are currently provided under the supervision of the Assistant

Superintendent for Support Services. Departments include Planning & Concurrency,

Architectural Services, Construction Services, Maintenance, and Custodial Services and each

department is headed by a Director. Staffs have been reduced through attrition over the last few

years.

Also included in this division are Environmental and Safety, Energy Education and the Resource

Recovery Program. Supplier Diversity is also included here.

This department is responsible for the development and the update of Educational Specifications

for new construction, preparing a Scope of Work for all projects, creating standardized prototype

designs, preparing construction budgets for every project as well as change order management.

They direct a program of construction administration to ensure value for construction

expenditures. They review and monitor construction schedules and approve all payments to

design professionals and construction managers. They also provide:

The planning functions of Ed Specs, Facility Lists, FISH Reports, Five-Year Work Plans,

and Five-Year Plant Surveys

Concurrency with local governments

Construction project management for every project from design development to completion

of construction

Real property management

Documents management functions

Regulatory compliance and safety

Project plan review, permitting, and inspection services

Personnel licensed to provide certified plan reviews and regulatory inspections

Environmental management

Cleanliness and energy standards

Oversight and supervision for site-based custodians

Energy management

District-wide maintenance and repair services

Relocatables management program

Paint and electronics services

Mechanical, plumbing and electrical repairs

Sites and grounds maintenance

Findings:

Changes in student population growth and reductions in availability of capital outlay funding

requires a reassessment of priorities and practices as facilities work has transitioned from new

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construction to upgrading existing buildings for parity with new schools. This has also created a

need for a realignment of existing functions and organizational structures.

The current structure includes separate departments located in separate office groupings which

limit cross talk and collaboration. They work together but separately even though they are

required to closely coordinate their work.

Both the Planning Department and Architectural Department work on the district’s FISH even

though they perform different functions. Planning, Architecture and Construction all participate

in A/E and CM selection but have different responsibilities. Planning creates facility lists and

Architecture checks the designs for compliance with the list. Architecture oversees the creation

of construction drawings and Construction provides the permits. Maintenance and Construction

share responsibility for preventive maintenance. Custodial cleans and Maintenance repairs what

Design and Construction build.

Each area is responsible for some functions, but only the Assistant Superintendent is responsible

for all functions.

Recommendations:

♦ It is recommended that the district reorganize the current departments under the new

Assistant Superintendent for Operations and Technology Services to provide a

comprehensive, integrated facility management format, “owning” all functions relating to

facilities. This new position also includes new areas of responsibility, as shown on the

recommended chart in Appendix C.

♦ This new Facility Management Department should be headed by a new Senior Director of

Facilities Management Services.

♦ The existing departments would become sections of the new department and include the

Director of Construction Services, the Director of Architectural Services, the Director of

Maintenance, and the Director of Custodial Services all reporting to the new Senior Director.

(Under this structure, custodial services can still be provided through contracted services.)

♦ A new Senior Manager of Planning and Concurrency would report to the Director of

Architectural Services.

♦ The Senior Manager, Environmental & Safety, and the Energy Education Specialists would

also report to the new Senior Director of Facilities Management Services.

♦ The Supervisor, Facilities Office and Budget would report to the new Senior Director of

Facilities Management Services.

♦ The function of Supplier Diversity would be combined with similar functions currently being

performed in the purchasing department.

♦ The district should evaluate the cost effectiveness and benefits of establishing on-site “Plant

Managers” to bridge the gap between custodial services and maintenance.

♦ The district should evaluate the Resource Recovery program in light of a reduced

construction program.

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Findings:

The district’s Five-Year Work Plan shows that the actual utilization of student stations for the

entire district is 70.57%. By 2015, this utilization is predicted to change to 69.35% if the

projected increase in charter school attendance continues. A reasonable “full” utilization could

be calculated to be 80% as a district average. This utilization rate allows for flexible use of the

school facility to meet DOE mandates, and for the fact that available student stations may not be

located where areas of greatest need occurs.

Using 80% utilization as a benchmark, operating at 70.57 % results in an excess of 10,000

permanent student stations, not including the 15,284 temporary student stations assigned to the

district’s portable classroom inventory. This is an excess of ten percent of permanent student

stations, or the equivalent of ten extra elementary schools, or six extra middle schools, or four

extra high schools, not including the existing portables. When the temporary student stations are

assigned to the District’s portables, the excess is over twenty-five percent.

It should be noted that this “extra space” is not free use space, but in fact it costs the district

much needed operating funds in utility, security and maintenance costs.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that the district complete a comprehensive review of the Florida Inventory of

School Houses (FISH) to determine the accuracy of the report, and a school-by-school validation

of correct FISH reporting. This would include elimination of student stations from portables that

no longer qualify for student stations.

It is recommended that the district initiate an aggressive program to eliminate portable

classrooms throughout the district.

The district should develop a plan to consolidate or re-purpose schools until a proper balance of

student stations and student population is achieved.

The district should consider a comprehensive Choice program to increase building utilization.

The district should embrace the concept of “purposeful abandonment” of under-utilized or excess

facilities or facility components.

The district should require that any construction project that includes “student stations” be only

allowed to proceed with at least a corresponding reduction in student stations elsewhere in the

district. This could include the disposal of portable classrooms.

It is recommended that the district require a planning and student accommodations plan based on

verifiable records be submitted to the Superintendent at least annually that will maintain the

proper balance of students and facilities.

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Findings:

The district prepares the required Five Year Work Plan update annually. This planning

document takes time and effort to complete and becomes a public record of the district’s plan for

construction at its school sites. However, the planned list of projects and the schedule are not

followed. While this practice may give administrators some flexibility, the schools and

communities have nothing to rely on regarding upcoming work at their campuses.

The district has begun a Facilities Condition Inventory at selected schools that is comprehensive

and valuable as a tool in determining construction priorities.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that the district expand the Facilities Condition Inventory program to include

all non-new and non-renovated sites.

The district should add to this inventory document a side-by-side evaluation of the educational

program elements as shown in FISH at every existing campus with the program elements

contained in the Facility List for the appropriate new “prototype” school. This will clearly

demonstrate a site-by-site picture of educational program needs.

The district should utilize the above documents to determine a realistic statement of need for

each campus that can be prioritized and developed into a plan that can and will be implemented.

Finding:

There is uncertainty from year to year in the amount of capital outlay funds available. Property

tax assessments appear to be stable, allowing the millage rate to be reasonably estimated.

However, PECO funding is controlled by the state and not certain. Also, revenues from the sales

tax referendum and impact fees are based upon the local economy and have varied widely.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that the district conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the existing five-year

capital plan and the sales tax project list (“Polk Promise”), the new Facilities Condition

Inventory and the side-by-side Educational Program Needs summary in order to determine the

amount of remaining work to be done compared to the current available funding.

Based on the funding available for construction, the district should determine the appropriate

level of staffing under the recommended organizational structure.

Findings:

The Architectural and Construction departments currently manage new construction including

additions to existing campuses, remodeling and renovations of existing buildings and site

improvements. Architectural and Engineering design services and Construction Management

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services are negotiated and contracted through normal state approved processes (Section 287.55

FS) for each major project. This department utilizes continuing contracts (also Section 287.55

FS) for design and construction services for minor projects. They are responsible for obtaining

site surveys, soils analysis and Civil Engineering services.

Currently, the Construction Department also provides in-house construction services on small

construction projects. The Architectural Department provides the required construction

documents for this work, which are typically drawings made by inside staff, but include outside

professional services for structural or mechanical work. The Construction Department provides

the permitting and inspection of this work. These projects include renovations and remodeling,

but have also included new construction for student occupied spaces. All of this work could be

accomplished utilizing the processes, procedures and contracted services already in place in this

department.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that the district limit the work undertaken by the in-house group to projects

requiring the replacement or remodeling of existing construction elements.

It is recommended that the district limit the construction amount for in-house construction

projects to up to $50,000.00.

The district should utilize continuing contracts to provide for all new construction and

remodel/renovation projects over $50,000, but less than $2 million.

Finding:

To manage work orders, the Maintenance Department currently utilizes the SAP System, an

accounting program that lacks management functionalities. There is currently no project

management software in place for design and construction.

Recommendations:

The current SAP software should be updated to provide live status reporting and management of

work orders.

The district should accelerate the process of review and selection of a system that is robust and

that supports design and construction activities in addition to management of maintenance work

orders.

Transportation Services

Status:

The Transportation Department functions under the direction and supervision of the Assistant

Superintendent for Support Services. The Department is divided into two areas of control:

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Transportation Operations and Vehicle & Safety Services. Both areas have a Director to direct

and supervise the daily operations of the department. These Directors report directly to the

Assistant Superintendent for Support Services. The Transportation Department oversees the

transportation of approximately 50,537 students daily, utilizing 580 daily route buses, covering

1,858 square miles and serving 160+ educational centers. The administrative staff is responsible

for the operation of three (3) transportation facilities and seven (7) fueling locations strategically

placed throughout the county.

The administrative staff is responsible for the routing of school buses, the review of bus stops,

hiring employees, monitoring, evaluation and discipline of all transportation personnel;

communicating with schools, administrators, the public and parents; the completion of federal,

state and local reports and mandates; the training of all transportation personnel; the state

mandated vehicle maintenance program; the purchasing of buses, district vehicles and other

related equipment; enforcement of safe driver policies and the administering of the drug and

alcohol testing program.

The morale and attitude of the department appears extremely good.

Finding:

The district web site does not show a listing for the Transportation Department. The only

heading that reflects Student Transportation is “Bus Delays”. If a person were looking on the

web site for information about Student Transportation, he/she would not find it with the current

listing.

Recommendation:

The district has a good transportation system of which it can be proud. Parents and the public

could benefit from an informational section on Student Transportation. The heading of “Student

Transportation” should be listed on the District web site. This heading should contain all

transportation information or reference a separate individual web site for Transportation.

Finding:

There is an issue concerning schools’ desire to alter starting and ending times to preserve as

much time as possible in their schedules for instruction. While ten minutes doesn’t seem like an

unreasonable request, to start a particular school early or delay its ending time can create major

implications for bus routes and times. Even five minutes or less can create routing problems in a

large geographic county. This can have a significant impact on the provision of transportation

services with regard to efficiency. Educational personnel may view transportation as trying to

maintain their efficiency at the expense of school programs. Transportation personnel may view

the school requests as resulting in more operational costs, due to increased routing, buses and

employees at a time when economic issues are particularly significant.

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Given the size and geography of the Polk school district approximately one hour between the

starting and ending times of the school day is needed to maintain a three (3) tier system of

busing. A three (3) tier system of busing provides for the most economic efficiency.

Recommendation:

Regional Executive Directors, School Principals and Transportation personnel should meet to

consider the implications and consequences of adjusting school times. They should provide

information and recommendations to the Superintendent’s Cabinet concerning this issue. The

Cabinet should discuss factors related to these issues and determine the best course of action.

Finding:

The Transportation Department is not always included in the decision making process regarding

the assignment of a student needing special transportation or the assignment of a bus stop

location. These decisions are often made during an IEP assignment of a student to a FLOW

school or a student being assigned to a school which is different from his/her regular school.

Recommendation:

A member of the Transportation Department staff should be invited to meetings that could result

in a student’s bus route being changed or a stop location being altered. There may be hazardous

conditions or other reasons prohibiting a bus to stop at a particular location. In addition, there

could be a better method of transporting the student to the desired location. This process would

also provide the transportation staff with more time to investigate or arrange for the

transportation of the student.

Finding:

Some school administrators are not able to quickly identify the person to call to obtain specific

information from various departments. The Transportation Department provides a call list for

administrators and takes part in a training session for new principals and assistant principals.

Information can also be found on the web site and internet. However, in the hectic day of school

administrators, it is, at times, difficult to research the needed information. They often need that

specific information immediately, while they are with a parent or making an immediate decision.

Recommendations:

The Transportation Department should develop a “Quick Reference Guide” for transportation

contacts. This guide should be placed in a School Administrator’s Handbook on Transportation.

The notebook should contain the names, contact numbers and e-mail addresses of Transportation

office staff. It should also contain the names of the specific school contacts for various topics

and concerns such as field trips, late buses, driver problems, route concerns, transportation

emergencies, student safety programs and other relevant topics.

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Additionally, the notebook should contain a short synopsis on typical transportation issues that a

school administrator could encounter, as well as a list of the federal and state statutes, State

Board and local School Board policies and directives, should the administrator want a more in-

depth review of the topic. These topics should include such areas as mandated school bus

evacuation drills, mandated bus safety programs, qualifications for bus ridership, FEFP student

counts, schools bus rules, routing and bus stop requirements, safety issues, types of vehicles not

permitted to transport students, student bus behavior, objects not permitted on the school bus,

courtesy bus riders and all other issues that a school administrator may need to know or answer.

The purpose of the notebook is to give the administrator a “quick reference” on topics, with a

short explanation, as well as where to look for more in-depth information. Even though school

administrators have received much of this information prior, through training and memos, a

quick reference guide would be helpful to them and would eliminate many calls to the

Transportation office.

Finding:

There was a strong positive feeling among non-instructional/support administrators about the

Superintendent including them in staff meetings. They perceive that the experience made them

feel more connected to the systems goals and aware of and committed to the district’s over-all

mission and goals.

Recommendation:

The inclusion of non-instructional administrators in appropriate staff meetings should be

continued. The alignment recommended in this report ensures their participation in the decision-

making processes.

Findings:

The replacement schedule for vehicles, both school buses and the “white fleet”, has fallen behind

and is at the point of becoming costly. While the district’s vehicle maintenance services have

done an excellent job of keeping vehicles maintained, due to the age and mileage of the vehicles,

they are becoming a significant expense to the district. The district maintains (580) school buses,

(496) “white fleet” vehicles and approximately (100) trailers.

No school buses were purchased in 2003 or in 2011.

White fleet vehicles have not been purchased since 2004. From July 2011 to February 2012, the

district spent $736,358.93 on fuel, labor and parts, for the white fleet. Two (2) months of the

seven (7) months were during the summer, when schools were closed. Therefore, it can be

predicted that the cost will at least double during the current fiscal year.

Approximately, 30% of the fleet has over 125,000 miles.

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Recommendations:

The “rule of thumb” and/or recommendation is to replace 10% of the school bus fleet, plus or

minus growth, every year. Once a district falls behind in bus replacement, it is very difficult to

catch up, due to the high cost of school buses. Due to the technology of buses today, it is

possible to extend past the ten (10) year age recommendation, but certainly not by more than two

(2) years. The district has already extended this factor by two (2) years and falling behind any

further back could become very costly. The district should not withhold any more bus purchases

and should gradually work back to the ten (10) percent per year replacement.

It appears that there is a good system in place for reviewing the need for a white fleet vehicle,

and for deciding on the type of vehicle needed. There is also a system for deciding when and if a

vehicle is to be driven home. Requests for a new or replacement vehicle go to the Director of

Vehicle & Safety Services for approval and are forwarded to the Assistant Superintendent for

Support Services. The safeguards should remain. It is imperative that a replacement cycle be

established for the “white fleet”. It is recommended that that cycle be no more, than the

recommendation for buses, which is ten (10) percent per year.

Finding:

Some bus loading zones, at school sites, do not meet safety criteria. These loading zones are

located at older schools, where the schools are land-locked. Some are impossible to change at

this time and the district has taken added safety precautions to compensate.

Recommendation:

The departments of Transportation and Facilities should continue to work together to resolve

these issues. The district should move quickly to resolve loading zone problems.

Safe Schools

Status:

There is a sense in the school system that student discipline issues are increasing in number and

intensity. This same feeling permeates the community and is considered to be a factor in

students choosing private or charter schools.

Finding:

Students released from commitment programs, i.e. detention center and juvenile justice programs

are returning to their school immediately. In many cases these same students are creating

problems in the classroom upon their return.

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Recommendation:

Re-entry of students into the school district should be through Student Services. These students

should be transitioned in an alternative school and should be given time to prove by their actions

that they are ready to re-enter a regular classroom. In addition, they should only re-enter at the

start of a semester so as to not disrupt the learning process of the other students. The community

needs to know that the district is taking every safety precaution possible to ensure the safety and

welfare of students.

Finding:

There is a need for additional security cameras on both school buses and in certain schools.

Starting in 1999, the district ordered that all buses purchased have security cameras on them.

Many buses purchased prior to that time do not have cameras. Older cameras were VCR and

required much repair and maintenance. In recent years cameras have become digital, and they

last longer and require far less maintenance and repair than before.

Recommendations:

The district should phase in placement of cameras on all buses and replace the older VCR

cameras with digital ones. Cameras tend to deter negative behavior and serve as a major tool to

providing evidence for disciplining inappropriate behavior.

Like buses, the newer schools were equipped with security cameras when they were built.

Therefore, there is a need to equip the older schools with security cameras as well. As they do

on buses, the cameras serve as a deterrent to inappropriate behavior and supply evidence for

discipline or prosecution, if bad or violent behavior occurs in the school facilities.

Technology and Information Services

Staffing and Organization

Status:

The overall organization, functionality, and skilled staff capability of the Information Systems &

Technology Division appears to serve the district well. The department is providing high quality

technology services that directly support classroom instruction as well as district departments.

Extensive work has been done to provide access for parents and teachers to district information

systems.

The Information Systems & Technology Division has mature systems in place. The division has

a large enterprise wide vendor-purchased system (SAP), has two student systems (Genesis and

IDEAS) that are self-supported targeting teachers and school support as well as working towards

meeting Race To The Top (RTTT) requirements.

IT leadership is committed to focusing resources to improve the district’s academic ranking.

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Feedback from district-level and school-based leaders given on the job analysis survey forms

yielded no negative comments about services from the Information Systems & Technology

Division.

The school district has a wealth of infrastructure and technologies in schools as well as offices.

There are local area networks at all schools, connected with enough bandwidth to support video

conferencing, extensive telecommunications capability within the district, repair facilities with

technicians assigned to respond as rapidly as possible.

Key central information systems include PASS = Polk Application System for Schools (PASS),

SAP = SAP ("Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing"); Genesis, its Student

Information System, and IDEAS – a data warehouse application with historical student

accountability data.

There are dozens of other applications that Technology & Information Services currently

supports, primarily under the Application Development unit. These are applications that are

crucial to business systems including finance, payroll, accounts payable, facilities, maintenance,

transportation, foodservices, state reporting of personnel and student information, email, video

conferencing, file sharing, accountability systems and many more.

Guiding Principles for Recommended Changes

The following principles guided the team in making its recommendations:

The Technology and Information Services Division should provide the required

infrastructure to support the application needs of all users.

The Technology and Information Services Division should be involved in all technology

related decisions made by the district.

The Technology and Information Services Division should maintain the infrastructure in a

manner that provides dependable reliable service.

The Technology and Information Services Division should assist user departments in

selecting the appropriate tools necessary to support their work requirements

.The Technology and Information Services Division should not own applications. Every

application should have a designated owner who is responsible for the operation and data

integrity of their applications.

The Technology and Information Services Division should provide a help desk function that

acts as a first point of contact for users.

The Technology and Information Services Division should manage the overall technology

budget for the district.

Alignment

Status:

The current Information Systems and Technology area is led by the Assistant Superintendent,

Information Systems and Technology, who reports directly to the Superintendent.

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The current organizational chart for the Assistant Superintendent of Information Systems and

Technology shows nine direct reports although, per interviews, there are in reality only eight

direct reports with the Senior Analyst for IT being reassigned to the Senior Manager of Software

Development.

One administrator reports to the Assistant Superintendent of Information Systems and

Technology: the Director of Information Services.

Finding:

A new alignment system is recommended for the school district.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that the district create a position of an Assistant Superintendent of Operations

and Technology Services who will oversee all school support operations including technology

services.

Reporting to that Assistant Superintendent for Operations and Technology Services, would be

the Executive Director of Technology & Information Services.

The Executive Director of Technology & Information Services, in turn, would have six direct

reports:

The Director of Student Information & Reporting Services

The Senior Manager of Application Development

The Senior Manager of Networks & Engineering Services

The Senior Manager of Electronic Equipment Support Services

The Senior Manager of School Technology Services

The Senior Manager of Central Operations & Help Desk

There are no recommended increases in administrators or in professional-technical staff for

Technology and Information Services. There are recommended title changes to identify the

major functional areas of realigned responsibility.

It is recommended that the Executive Director of Technology & Information Services serve on

the Superintendent’s Cabinet.

The following list identifies the major functional responsibilities assigned to each area of

Technology and Information Services:

Student Information and Reporting

Student database management

State reporting for students and staff

Student records management

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Pupil accounting, FTE

Electronic records transfers

Application Development

Application development PASS/SAP, IDEAS, Genesis

Special Applications

Applications support

Web applications

Departmental support

Networks and Engineering Services

Systems engineering

Network design

Infrastructure: Wide area networks, local area networks

Database management

Electronic Equipment Support Services

Equipment installation

Equipment repair

Support

Telecommunications: Telephones, wiring, installation

School Technology Services

Classroom technology

Integration training and support

Instructional television

Teacher training

Grants

Technology resource

Specialists and trainers

Moodle: Learning Management Systems

Design, content development and support

Central Operations and Help Desk

Data center operations

Disaster recovery planning

Help desk

User support and training

Email support

Website content support

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Finding:

The department is commended for its extensive support of schools in creating and promoting

their web presence. The district’s central website is extensive in its presentation of information.

Email support in the district, web design, and web content creation for schools and departments

are assigned to the Coordinator of E-mail/Web Services.

Recommendations:

The functions of E-mail support / operations and the management of web content should be

moved to the Help Desk.

The function of developing Web applications (thus specialists for the technical side, not content)

should be moved to Application Development.

Refinement of the district’s central website should be continued. A traditional listing of district

departments should be placed directly on the main page.

Finding:

There is a Database Administrator (DBA) currently reporting to Operations.

Recommendation:

The Database Administrator currently under Operations should be moved to Networks &

Engineering Services.

Learning Management System / Content Management System

Status:

The district, until this past year, used a proprietary program called Blackboard, learning

management system (LMS) or a content management system. Due to high costs, the district

moved from Blackboard to an Open Source series of programs called Moodle. Open Source

means that the program source code is supported by users and programmers around the world

and has free software license. Moodle, like Backboard, is also classified as a combination of a

learning management system (LMS) or a content management system.

The potential applications of Moodle for Polk County Schools are limited only by the

imagination. Such a content management system could be used as a document management

system in which users classified by group could access procedures or policies. It can also be used

as a course management system.

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Finding:

Moodle is a tool. The department is currently working with others to develop content in addition

to developing interfaces for various groups and training them to use the Moodle modules.

Leadership is actively engaging targeted areas to inform them of the potentials of using Moodle

as a learning management/course management system.

Recommendation:

Over time, as Moodle gains acceptance, content creation should be a function residing with the

appropriate content experts in other departments. The Technology & Information Services

Department would continue to support the users with the training and the technologies necessary

to access the tool(s).

Finding:

The Senior Coordinator for Online Training (currently supporting Moodle) reports to the

Assistant Superintendent.

Recommendation:

The Senior Coordinator of Online Training should report to the Senior Manager of School

Technology Services.

Finding:

A team supporting Systems Applications is currently housed in and reports to Business Services.

Recommendation:

That Systems Applications team should report to the Senior Manager of Application

Development in Technology & Information Services.

Help Desk

Status:

Technology and Information Services has a Help Desk unit that is used to provide technology

users a first line of contact for assistance.

Findings:

The Help Desk’s primary function is to assist users of applications, however, the Help Desk

receives and either directly answers or directs the caller to the right department or person.

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The function of help desk operations is also present in several other sections of the department.

That is, there are several positions within these sections that have a person responsible also for

help desk in their areas.

Recommendations:

The district should enhance the present Help Desk concept to include a first point of contact for

all users of district services both internal and external to the organization. The goal of this

redesigned unit would be to provide all customers with a single point of contact and either

problem resolution or referral to the correct contact to resolve the issue.

A committee of representatives from the operational units of the organization such as

transportation, human resources, and facilities should be organized to visit some large

organizations with effective customer service operations and determine how their respective

units could be revised to support a centralized customer service approach. The typical initial

reaction will probably be that no one but us has the expertise to answer the questions we get on a

regular basis. The reality is that the technology of today can be utilized to organize information

in such a way to allow non experts to respond to routine questions and build a growing ability to

address more and more complex inquiries. To further assist with this effort the Technology and

Information Services should review their present staff to determine individuals with the

capability to perform and document work flow analysis. They should select the proper software

tools and work with the various operational units to develop a procedural flow for their work

products. As a part of this work flow analysis, a determination should be made of the required

information to support the off-loading of routine inquires to a centralized service.

A centralized help desk can be a powerful tool to improve district services to the community and

district employees.

Calls for information or help could be captured using tracking software. Over time, such a

system can build intelligence into a Wiki or Frequently Asked Questions format.

Findings:

The district should systematically examine its work processes to determine the most effective

and efficient way to accomplish those processes. There is also a need to identify those processes

that are redundant.

Not all district departments are systematically examining their work processes.

Recommendations:

The Technology & Information Services Department can serve as a vehicle to help other

departments examine their workflow processes. The department should identify skilled

personnel within the recommended expanded Help Desk who have the analytic experience and

background to function as Procedural Analyst(s) to assist departments in workflow.

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The statistical data derived from Help Desk inquires can be utilized to determine communication

issues and assist with quality improvements. Good procedural documentation will assist with

training of new employees and ensure that the work of the organization is performed in an

orderly and prescribed manner.

Finding:

The virus filtering and anti-Spam defenses are currently functions of Electronic Equipment

Repair Services.

Recommendation:

These virus filtering and anti-Spam functions should be moved to Networks & Engineering

Services.

Finding:

The Senior Manager of the Electronic Equipment Repair Services is called upon by investigative

staff personnel of Employee Relations to examine computers used by staff or students for

improper content (digital forensics). In turn, the senior manager confers with legal authorities.

Recommendation:

Such examination and securing of equipment with unauthorized digital content should be a

function assigned directly to the investigative staff under Human Resources. The technology

department staff can assist in training of that person. This removes potential liabilities from the

technology department.

Finding:

Currently, the acquisition and accounting for telecommunication voice lines are budgeted and

accounted for in the Purchasing Department.

Recommendation:

The responsibility for all telecommunication circuits should be transferred to Technology and

Information Services. This should include the budgets and accounting responsibilities.

Status:

Funding for technology acquisitions is presently occurring in various departments throughout the

organization. This practice could result in a duplication of effort, the inability to determine total

technology investment, and restrict the orderly replacement of equipment and software.

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Recommendation:

The district should, where possible, determine a fixed level of funding to be allocated to

technology on an annual basis. This will facilitate the establishment of long-range planning for

the allocation, initial acquisition, and eventual replacement of technology resources in a

predictable manner. This is essential due to the increasing amounts of technologies that are

being placed in classrooms.

Technology and Information Services should determine the present district investment in

technology, develop a life expectancy for each class of equipment, and compute an annual

allocation necessary to ensure that district technology can be maintained in a reliable manner.

For example, if the district has 45,000 computers with an average cost of $600 and a life

expectancy of 5 years, then an annual allocation of $5,400,000 would be necessary to create an

orderly replacement program. Once the total investment is determined, an annual allocation can

be determined and adjusted for growth or additional products. These requirements can then be

built into the Five Year Capital Plan. Almost all technology has a fixed life cycle and the district

should exercise care when acquisitions are made to determine if it is truly affordable and if the

cost benefit ratio is reasonable. Likewise, there are many hidden costs associated with

technology such as training, support, energy costs, and space requirements. These hidden costs

must be strongly considered when technology acquisitions are contemplated.

Finding:

Presently, technology acquisitions or initiatives can be made that are not aligned with the

district’s strategic plan. These purchases can be made without Information Technology

guidance.

Recommendation:

The district should enhance its planning processes to ensure that all resources necessary –

including technologies and infrastructure - to implement its strategic plan are identified. This will

ensure that all the necessary parties are involved and have clear direction in the alignment of

their services to complement the goals of the district. This will also assist with establishing

priorities and help to focus individual operational units on common objectives.

Finding:

Technology and Information Services staff personnel are currently reviewing voice over internet

telephony services (VoIP).

Recommendations:

This review of VoIP capability should be continued to determine the feasibility and cost

effectiveness of this solution for telephony services. This review will probably result in a cost

savings to the district; if so, an implementation plan should be developed.

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Status:

The district is currently utilizing server virtualization technologies.

Recommendation:

The district should review the overall cost effectiveness of increasing bandwidth to individual

school sites and maximize the utilization of virtualization technologies to simplify their network

services and reduce the associated support costs. Ideally, all servers would reside at a central

location.

Status:

The Technology and Information Services Department has developed a process to support the

filtering of internet sites for employees and students and an approval process for opening blocked

sites.

Recommendation:

This process should be reviewed and modified so that this approval or denial of blocked sites

would operate similarly to media services’ approval of material or book challenges.

While there are exceptions when the technical staff may have to block a web site immediately

due to inappropriate content or for operational purposes, the technical staff should not open

access to sites for instructional purposes without written approval from Teaching & Learning.

Finding:

The Technology and Information Services Department has strong technical capabilities. It

provides significant cross training to the entire staff.

Recommendation:

Technology is a rapidly changing field and the effectiveness of this division is dependent upon

having a highly trained staff.

Technology and Information Services should develop formal training requirements for their

technical staff. Funding for their ongoing training is essential to successful operations of this

department.

Finding:

Technology and Information Services collects and monitors a large number of internal

operational metrics.

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Recommendation:

Technology and Information Services should develop a set of performance metrics that can be

shared with upper management to give an indication of their workload and overall performance.

Finding:

Currently, there are several organizational areas performing student projections such as for FTE

and staffing purposes. These projections are developed by committees but the individual

members may vary.

Recommendation:

It is recommended that the district review committee memberships to ensure as much

membership consistency as is possible. This will further ensure that projections are reliable and

that everyone involved in the process is aware of how projections are utilized by the various

entities and may assist with refinement methodologies.

Status:

Each school in the district has a data entry position for entering student data into the student

information system. Data collection for all schools has increased significantly in recent years and

this is especially so for elementary schools as their student schedules must now be developed by

subject area very much like middle and high schools. This has resulted in more sophisticated data

entry for these schools.

Recommendation:

The district should take the necessary steps to ensure that elementary school principals and

assistant principals are aware of the impact of these evolving requirements on their support staff

personnel and that adequate cross training is provided.

Status:

Most school districts utilize staffing formulas to ensure there are adequate staff personnel

available to perform the work of the organization. This is generally true for school-based

personnel such as teachers, guidance counselors, and support personnel. This is not typically the

case for district-level personnel. Many technology positions can be directly related to numbers

and types of technologies utilized.

Recommendation:

Technology and Information Services should identify those positions that can be directly related

to readily available metrics. Staffing formulas should then be established to ensure an acceptable

level of service. For instance, if it is determined that it requires one service technician to support

800 computers a formula to ensure the expected level of service is easily developed. Technology

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is expensive and should always be acquired for a specific purpose and be directed at a work

process.

Often malfunctioning technology is accepted in the office or classroom that would be intolerable

on the assembly line. This can result in a hidden personnel cost as well as lost instructional time

that is never visible but is nevertheless costly to the organization. These costs can be alleviated

by ensuring that adequate support positions are available for the chosen technology.

Instructional Technology

Status:

The district’s Instructional Technology Department is headed by a Senior Manager, School

Technology Services that reports to the Assistant Superintendent, Information Systems and

Technology. The department is housed at the District’s Miles Professional Development Center.

This provides close proximity to the K-12 Curriculum and Instruction and Professional

Development Departments that are located in the same building.

The department is providing high quality technology services that directly support classroom

instruction that could be used as a model for other districts.

The district provides a classroom digital device package in all classrooms in grades 3-12. This

package includes a Lightspeed sound enhancement unit, a mounted LCD projector, SMART

Boards (elementary classrooms), SMART Slates (middle classrooms and 9-12 science and

mathematics classrooms), and summer institutes to train teachers in how to effectively use the

equipment.

By collaborating with Title 1, IDEA and EETT funds, the district has been able to place mobile

laptop carts in 102 schools. Each cart has 25 laptops with wireless access points. The district is

using Race-To-The-Top funds to provide 40 additional carts for high schools and 26 carts for

middle schools to support computer-based testing requirements. This support has resulted in a

2.5:1 student: computer ratio.

Finding:

At the school level, there are more than 300 technology coaches located in 112 district schools

who have gone through digital educator training and are able to provide support to teachers in

their schools. With grant funding limited, the district’s Information Systems and Technology

Department has assisted in continuing this needed training for the schools.

Recommendation:

The use of technology integration specialists and others who have been trained as Master Digital

Educators should continue to be supported and encouraged. Closer coordination and

collaboration by technology integration specialists with curriculum content specialists may in

time require that those positions be even more closely aligned.

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Finding:

The district is moving quickly to implement new technologies such as the Moodle platform (a

content management system and learning management system) that will impact and support a

wide variety of instructional services.

Recommendation:

The use of emerging technologies such as the Moodle platform should continue to be supported

and encouraged by the district. Information technology staff supporting this platform should

continue to work with schools and district staff in order to encourage their use of emerging

technologies like this.

Finding:

The department is piloting BYOD, or a “bring your own device” program, in which teachers and

students bring their own digital devices and connect them to the district wireless network.

Recommendation:

This program holds promise for students and teachers, and will most likely become the norm in

the future. The department must be proactive in anticipating impact on the networks, support,

security, and monitoring.

Appendix A

Current Organizational Alignment Charts

Appendix B

Recommended Organizational Alignment Charts

Appendix C

Recommended Executive Leadership Team and

Superintendent’s Cabinet

Appendix D

Recommended Position Descriptions for

Administrative Personnel