Operational Audit of Greece School District

1
Welcome
2
Operational Audit of Greece School
District Special Report Interviews of
Individual Board of Education Members

by William J. Dadey, Ph.D. October 15, 2005
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Overall View
Question 1 In order to obtain a
current perspective on items that were
included in the 2001 Parent School Quality
Survey, please respond to the following
statements
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Operational Audit of Greece Central School
District Interview Questions for Board
Members Interviewer
William J. Dadey, Ph.D.
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On a five point scale using Strongly Agree
(SA), Agree (A), Neutral (N), Disagree (D)
or Strongly Disagree (SD), please respond to
the following
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a. The quality of Greece education is
improving.
_____ b. Graduating Greece students are
well prepared to enter the workforce.
_____
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c. Graduating Greece students are well
prepared to enter college.
_____ d. The Greece
School District provides a good
value for my tax dollar.
_____
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What would be the overall grade you would give
the Greece schools? ( A,B,C,D, or F)
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Question 2 Are you aware of the
mission statement of the Greece School
District ? Do you agree with that
mission statement?
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Question 3 What is your perception of how well
the Greece Schools operate with regard to the
quality of instruction provided to students ?
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Question 4 If you were developing a report card
for the Greece schools, what would be the most
important factors or characteristics of the
schools you would grade?
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Question 5 What do you believe are the most
important factors that should be taken in to
account in evaluating the performance of staff
members? A. Teachers
B. Administrators
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Question 6 What would it take for the Greece
schools to be world class ? (i.e. What
changes would I see if you were to invite me to
visit your school district in a couple of
years?)
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Question 7 What role does the school board play
in identifying, implementing, and sustaining the
changes required for the Greece schools to be
world class ?
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Question 8 If you could change one thing about
the Greece Central Schools to strengthen the
effectiveness of the schools, what would it be?
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Question 9 If you could change one thing about
the operation of the Board of Education to
strengthen the effectiveness of the Board, what
would it be?
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Question 10 What do you view as your primary
responsibility when serving as a member of the
Board of Education?
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Question 11 How do you view your personal
responsibility to work together on the Board of
Education as a member of a team ?
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Question 12 What do you believe are the most
important factors that should be taken in to
account in evaluating the performance of the
Board of Education?
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Question 13 Is there a question about the Greece
Central Schools that you wished we had
discussed that you have a strong opinion
about? If so, what are your perspectives about
this issue?
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Responses
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SUMMARY OF RESPONSES TO INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

The
following summary reflects brief statements that
are a portion of the actual selected responses
made to interview questions 3 through 13.
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These responses, including those summarized
earlier under questions 1 and 2, indicate again,
when viewed in this manner, that there is a wide
range of feelings among Greece Board of Education
members on a variety of topics .
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Summary of Board Member Responses to
Interview Question 1a "The quality of Greece
education is improving"
Strongly Agree 4 Agree
5 Neutral
1 Disagree 2
Srongly Disagree 0
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Question 1b
" Graduating students are well prepared to
enter the workforce"
Strongly Agree 1 Agree
5 Neutral
2 Disagree
4 Srongly Disagree 0
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Question 1c
" Graduating students are well prepared to
enter college"
Strongly Agree 4 Agree
4 Neutral
0 Disagree
3 Srongly Disagree 1
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Question 1d
" Greece School District provides a good
value for my tax dollar"
Strongly Agree 5 Agree
1 Neutral
2 Disagree
3 Srongly Disagree 1
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Question 1e
" What would be the overall grade you would
give the Greece schools? (A, B, C, D or F)"
A 3 B 4 C 3 D 1 F
1
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• Question 3 What is your perception of how well
  the Greece Schools operate with regard to the
  quality of instruction provided to students?
• My perception is not a good one
• based on inputs that Ive gotten from my own
  relatives.
• The curriculum is a cookie-cutter type that
  doesnt leave room for the art of teaching.
• I think they do a very good job .
• It operates very well.

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Q-3

• Is well done.
• Its a good quality.
• Made some drastic improvements
• Huge morale problem within the district
• Questionable
• Present curriculum is geared toward test results.

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• Question 4 If you were developing a report card
  for the Greece schools, what would be the most
  important factors or characteristics of the
  schools you would grade?
• Academic performance
• Order within the classroom
• How much of the money that we collect from
  the public is used in the classroom
• Overall morale of the workforce
• Intimidation from speaking
• Are the children challenged

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(Q. 4)

• Treat all those different levels of
• students
• Safety is important
• The main goal where learning is
• the goal
• Accountability
• We do a very poor job of evaluating
• in an open, honest way
• Academic results
• How the money is being spent

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• Questions 9 If you could change one thing about
  the operation of the Board of Education to
  strengthen the effectiveness of the Board, what
  would it be?
• Get better quality candidates to run for the
  Board
• and help them win election
• If they could stay more focused on issues rather
• than personalities
• I think it probably goes to trust
• Im not an expert and I dont understand why you
• hire professionals, pay them very well, and
  then
• refuse to take their advice

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Q-9
At a Board meeting when you see people
throwing rocks at each other verbally, when
you see people getting angry, when you see
people grandstanding in order to get points,
then it ceases to be a board meeting and it
becomes a media event and thats the only
benefit for TV is if you want to have a media
event. Id just as soon they didnt broadcast
them.
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• Question 11 How do you view your personal
  responsibility to work together on the Board of
  Education as a member of a team?
• Once we come to a conclusion, being a member of
  the team, we have to support it, whether
  individually we believed in it or not
• Ive served on a lot of boards, and this is the
  only board where Ive encountered that
• personal animosity
• I think theres an obligation on the part of each
  member to try and be a team member

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Q-11
There are three rules that I always use as a
board member 1) never undermine the
superintendent in public 2) never undermine
fellow board members in public 3) unless it
violates rules one or two, dont make yourself
look stupid in public. Five/four votes are not
bad unless theyre always five for one and four
for the other. And thats the signal that
theres something drastically wrong.
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Q-11

• Listening to each other.
• There needs to be some give and take.
• My intention in working together with the board
  is to make sure that the only thing that the
  President does is coordinate the meeting.

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Q-11
Too much politics in the school board as it
exists now. I would like to see that eliminated
and I would like to see more trust between board
members. A lot of us are on the board, in my
opinion, for the wrong reasons.
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• You cant have a majority and minority board.
• It was a Board Policy that I broke several times
  that said once a board votes, the majority
  opinion is the opinion of the entire Board and
  should be supported by the entire Board. I
  couldnt do that in some cases.

Q-11
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• Question 13 Is there a question about the Greece
  Central Schools that you wish we had discussed
  that you have a strong opinion about?
• If so, what are your perspectives about this
  issue?
• Openness with the public that we serve
• Any information about whats going on in the
  school district should be easily provided to the
  public when we inquire.

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Q-13

• When we recognize the problem, we should talk
  publicly about the problem and then describe what
  it is were going to do to remedy the problem.
• I struggle with our role and how far do we delve
  in.

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Conclusion
Several questions were generated during this
special study. A sampling of these is included in
the listing below
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1. Does the televising of Board meetings have a
   negative impact on the quality of communications
   at the actual meetings of the Board? If so what
   should the Board do to improve the situation?

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WJD
Communications Create Perceptions
You are fair, compassionate, and intelligent,
but you are perceived as biased, insensitive and
stupid
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2. What should be included in the training
of Board members in order to create a
more effective Board of Education?
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3. What can be done to increase
the Board of Educations focus on
student learning?
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WJD
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1. What can be done to improve discussions and
   increase understandings around the topic of
   contingent budget during the annual budget
   development process?

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5. What can be done to further clarify
and differentiate the role and
responsibilities of the Board and
Superintendent ?
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Which one is the Superintendent?
WJD
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• What can be done
• to reduce the impact
• of rumors on
• decision-making by
• the Board?

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• What can be done to
• improve the use of
• personnel evaluations
• at all levels in the
• district ?

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Indicators of Dysfunction on the Greece Board of
Education - Is there a lack of focus on the
primary goal of student learning? - Is there a
lack of trust among some Board members?
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- Do Board members violate Board Policies? -
Is there a lack of confidentiality? - Do Board
members exhibit personal animosity?
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- Is there confusion about the roles of the
Board and the Superintendent? -Do some Board
members use rumors as a basis for
decision-making? - Is there a misuse of
closed meetings?
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- Do consistent factions exist on the Board?
- Is there an insufficient use of
teamwork on the Board ?
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- Do some Board members exhibit disrespect for
the opinion of others? - Is there a lack of
self- evaluation by the Board?
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Emphasize the positive !!
Bill Dadey
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Thank You !!
Bill Dadey