Cowin, Lake school board at odds over merit pay

Superintendent Anna Cowin is facing accusations that she used district money to give schools a merit-pay program without the Lake County School Board's knowledge.

[Super or the Board]

It is starting to look like the Board isn't really paying attention. Maybe audits need to be done all around not just TAP. Maybe the Board needs to establish "before the fact" briefings to avoid the "didn't catch the changes"

It always is Cowin's fault with the Board missing something they should have known about. Not suggestion micro-managing but a little might help a lot!

[Bill]

Super or the Board wrote:

It is starting to look like the Board isn't really paying attention. Maybe audits need to be done all around not just TAP. Maybe the Board needs to establish "before the fact" briefings to avoid the "didn't catch the changes"
It always is Cowin's fault with the Board missing something they should have known about. Not suggestion micro-managing but a little might help a lot!

LOOKS MORE LIKE THE SUPERINTENDENT IS NOT DOING HER JOB, AGAIN, AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN.

She and her staff of 100's have a full time job of reading, digesting, and evaluating the ton's of information and then bringing that information to the board BEFORE and NOT AFTER the fact.

Maybe there should be an audit, very quickly, and the results be sent to the Gov and Attny Gen for their review??. Did she or did she not authorize the spending of about $440,000 without properly informing the board and the public?

Only a few more months!

[Aloof]

This women is a monster.

[captain bird]

Is there no one not at odds with this woman? Is there no way to rid the school board of this obviously devisive individual?

[Integrity]

I am an educator and the board indeed did ask many questions about the TAP grant and they were not told the full truth. It is hard to blame the board for issues of Anna's integrity. These are the kind of issues that will end when with an appointed Superintendent, whom the board can hold accountable.

[DPack]

The Fl. Statutes define the role of SB and Super, generally speaking, as the SB sets policy and the Super so carries out the policy in day to day operation. Do not think by appointing rather than electing this problem will disappear. The only thing that changes is the school boards ability to fire the Super, which would have another set of problems as in severance to the outgoing Super under contract, see the firing of the Leesburg City Manager saga for reference. However, till such time as the current Super is finished the LCSB should, as well as all concerned, consider her for what she is, as in, a lame duck super with little or no power to affect any request given at any SB meeting that requires approval to implement. In addition there should be no tolerance, if any question arises regarding any program such as TAP from a question of any SB member as regards implmentation by the Super. The SB should and could rightfully deny every request at meetings proposed by the Super until such time as her term ends thereby providing status quo to the district. Then again we are talking about the LCSB, literally the gang that can't shoot straight". By the way when the current Super is ousted and the problems that have stymied LCPS continue what then? The SB over time is as complicit as the Super for the district being as mismanaged as its been!

[HUH]

Same old story, "everyone is responsible but nobody is responsible" to the taxpayers and nobody is seriously held accountable . Mea culpas are getting old and heads need to be severed. Can the School Board accomplish that?

Its real money folks! The often repeated reason for allowing the school impact fees to be raised so drastically was to accumulate money to build what are obviously badly needed schools, not to allow money to be siphoned-off, to allow the School Board to throw money around like this, so please explain how it is possible, desirable, or feasible for the taxpayers to pay $440,000 to hire six TAP teachers at an annual per teacher cost of $73,333.33 each? That is equivalent to approximately 11 additional full-time classroom teachers that could do one heck of lot more good by actually reducing the class sizes to where they should be. How many more miracle cures may we afford ---- UGH!

[TAP Master Teacher]

TAP is an exhorbantly expensive program that produces, in my experience, negligible results. That $440,000 probably includes TAP bonuses for teachers, and trips to the TAP Conference where the alcohol flows freely.(Seriously, is all that alcohol paid for with grant money?) and to pay travel for the national TAP team to visit the campuses regularly. And this high cost will only increase proportionally with the number of schools that are implementing the program. I think it is very wise for the school board to look closely at this unproven program. Talk to the teachers (off the record) in Eagle County and Waseca.

[Jerry Holcome]

Another thing that the school board should do immediately is to inform the public and the superintendent that ANY JOB TRANSFERS WILL BE LOOKED AT VERY CAREFULLY ----- She has the right to change and with an appointed superintendent that superintendent will/should change them back !!!! as appropriate...
From what I have seen so far she will make wholesale changes "just to get even"... Hope I am wrong.