and you thought these employees were lazy before? Wait until they are making minimum wage, little to no pension,crappy health insurance little to no background check or follow up,yup can't wait to see what the schools will look like. Course no mention was made about the custodial supervisor positions, you know, the ones who make the big bucks. on the other hand this will help cover up all of the mismanagement that has happened under Tysinger and his ilk. Couldn't even let her employees know, how's that for loyalty?

From the upcoming School Board meeting agenda Feb 12, 2013:

Meeting

Feb 12, 2013 - Agenda - The School Board of Volusia County, Florida

Category

Board Action Items

Subject

Authorization to Subcontract all Custodial and Grounds Maintenance Functions

Type

Action

Preferred Date

Feb 12, 2013

Absolute Date

Feb 12, 2013

Fiscal Impact

No

PRESENTED BY:

Michael G. Dyer, Chief Counsel; and Dr. Robert Moll, Deputy Superintendent for Financial and Business Services

SUBMITTED BY:

Michael G. Dyer, Chief Counsel

BACKGROUND:

Subcontracting all custodial and grounds maintenance functions effective July 1, 2013, will result in the elimination of the following five job classifications:

1. Custodian shift leader (facilities/maintenance and operations);

2. Head custodian (facilities/maintenance and operations);

3. Custodian;

4. Ancillary custodian (facilities/maintenance and operations); and

5. Utility crew - grounds maintenance (maintenance and operations).

The last day of employment with the district for employees within these job classifications would be June 30, 2013. The decision to subcontract is a unilateral and non-negotiable managerial right of the district.

The superintendent will make provision in the procurement process for the hiring of employees within these classifications and for a pension benefit by the vendor(s).

Upon approval of this recommendation, the decision to subcontract these services shall be final and the superintendent would be authorized to take those steps necessary to implement the board's decision, including, but not limited to, initiation of the procurement process and the negotiation and submittal of a contract with a private vendor, or vendors, for approval by the school board at a later date.

I believe the email that she sent was to a small percentage of employees, and probably not to the ones affected.

I'm still waiting for the records request and I'm unsure what is taking so long. She has sent one email out in her VCSB career that talked about privatizing (or out-sourcing) custodial services, and she sent it before 8AM this morning.

How hard could that be to find?

Okay even if you factored in calling an emergency meeting.. conversations in the shade, sitting with a posse of attorneys, lunch with Russ, and advice from Aramark.. there would still be time left over to amuse me, yes?

While it's nice she has informed the employees who are being affected first, you think she would also have the reasoning to notify the parents and taxpayers also. Oh right, we use the parent call system when we want people to come out and vote for a tax increase, but not on Agenda items which may possibly affect our children. If they hadn't already lost this taxpayer's faith, with their repeated wastes of money, and inability to meet standards, I may have supported this decision, does this mean the big wigs making 65k+ are privatized also, as we will no longer need them? Does Tysinger and his cronies, as well as Dr. Smith's salary get reduced, as they will now have fewer responsibilities?

I'm waiting on a "records request" for the email that Superintendent Margaret Smith sent out earlier today.. so any details would be guessing on my part right now.

I believe this has been in the works since at least May of 2012, but it is the first time that anyone from the School Board has actually acknowledged their intentions.

This is not a done deal, of course.

Who's getting the presumably no bid contract? That big company that begins with an "A"?

Circle the wagons (teachers, lock up your valuables).. the decision has been made to privatize custodial services at the VCSB.

Yes absolutely, I'll stand tirelessly behind a movement to place School Board term limits on the ballot as long as we will multitask and stay equally focused on the need to replace Superintendent Margaret Smith first and foremost.. and vote out the remaining School Board members in the 2014 election.

Candace Lankford, Diane Smith, and Stan Schmidt.

Linda Costello may need to join the outgoing group in 2016 if she doesn't start showing something.. showing some moxie would be a good start. Ida Wright is still in the honeymoon phase, and Linda Costello is to some extent but we need these two to start shaking things up.

We want to see the character and backbone that voters thought they were getting.

My comment is directed at the guy who is yelling at Scott in regard to vouchers.

First of all, your tax dollars go towards public school tuition as well (yes, there are costs to send children to public school - it's not free just because it's public.)

In fact, the average cost to the tax payer to put a child through public school is in the neighborhood of $9,035 per pupil...Which is comparative to private school tuition. In fact 9k is less than my child's private school tuition per year (albeit he's still in elementary school.)

So, what's your real reason for getting so uppity about letting parent's choose what's right for their children education wise?

How about we start to push for TERM LIMITS!right now there is no limits for these people on the School Board! We The People get stuck year after year with the same stale members time for a change!!! Time to get Voters involved and push for an Amendment to be put on the local ballot that would create term limits!

Some time ago in an email exchange between myself and Mitch Aten before the new VCSB website was even started, the Volusia County Schools "Manager of Web Services".. Mr. Aten said:

"...our plan is to take a holistic approach to

reinvent the manner in which the district utilizes the web."

Mr. Aten, you've disappointed me. Broken links.. slow updates, database errors, and now "web parts" timing out consistently.

Isn't that the same kind of service that we were used to before the INSANE AMOUNT OF OUR MONEY was spent on that website, on your recommendation?

Mr. Aten believes that the School Board website is too large and therefore unmanageable for one person to be the site "manager" or quality control person.

He is wrong.

Mr. Aten also made it clear that I just could not understand the important work they were doing, and my input was not needed, nor welcomed.

I understand perfectly that creativity with OUR money eludes you.

Mr. Aten, perhaps it is YOU that does not "understand".

Paul Hale

They were so lazy, and so inattentive it took them 6 months to update the organizational chart, up to a week ago it still showed the ousted Conte and the decesaed Williams as School Board members, talk about distasteful, disrespectful, and indicative of their lack of concern to tax payer funded functions. Managed to save screen caps.

It is certainly difficult to get someone in an administrative role or one of the School Board members to acknowledge or answer an email. They leave little choice but to air our questions or concerns publicly.

Here's one..

For quite some time, the link provided on the very Very VERY expensive Volusia Schools public website for their event calendar is:

http://ems.volusia.k12.fl.us/MasterCalendar/MasterCalendar.aspx

.. and there is (and has been!) a database error that prevents displaying of the calendar.

ATTENTION MARGARET SMITH, could you instruct one of your $70,000.00 a year brainiacs that decided to spend $11,000.00 a year of OUR MONEY to rent a web based calendar (that you could do for free).. to at least make a call to get it fixed, since obviously it is beneath them to fix it themselves?

And please resign.

Paul Hale

http://OURvolusiaschools.org

I used to attend meetings, myself and four or five others, you get your moment to speak, are met with stony silence, and god forbid you try to speak to your elective representatives after the meeting before they disappear behind the "secret doo". It's much better to call them on the carpet, in a true public forum, and maybe they will be forced to answer questions if there is a ground swell of citizens asking questions.

Hey Scott how about you pay for your childrens' private education on your own. What in the heck makes you feel it is ok to take my money and give to someone else in the form of a voucher. Don't forget when you take MY money you are taking money from my family.

Give vouchers to parents so they can decide which school is best for their child. Government can certify the schools. Most of the issue schools face when they take government funding are the insane rules imposed on schools via federal mandates, while the fed contribute less than 10% of the money. The more the feds have gotten involved in local schools the worse they have become.

Funny this board passes so much judgement of how a Charter School is run, by a Superintendent and Board that has let us go from an A district to a C District and fines. This board chose to ignore what the voters wanted in place for our children and knew years ago that they needed to meet these requirements! I would FIRE and rate an F on the performance of the existing Staff and Administrators!Wake up we need NEW Management in Volusia County get rid of all this dead weight.Maybe we should not fund this current Administration another year either!!

Close it down!!!!!!! And close the rest of the charter school. Do a better job with what we have.

Hey Hugh:Do some more investigating look into where Peg Smith came from look up Key West and the big scandal down there that included her being a district Superintendent where major money from her boss was Embezzled and she supposedly knew nothing?? LOL and they didn't keep her so WOW Volusia County took her in though why??Then I ask all of you who write on these articles to have guts enough to show up at School Board meetings and voice your 3 minute concerns!! instead of just venting here where it does no good! the Good comes from the SQUEAKY WHEELS not a 1 person ARMY! This town has to stand together for Reform of this board!

When you are condemning Lankford you are forgetting one thing, she, and the rest of the School Board have been rubber stamping Margaret, and her hired thugs for so long, despite dropping test scores, despite ratings decreasing, despite school security dropping, they don't know how to do anything else, but they will keep giving Margaret her bonus!Think i's been proven her that Costello was elected with a rubber stamp in her hand, let's see what Wright does.

The volusia county schools that aren't making the standards, or that are district is now rated at a C, where are Dr. Smith's comments regarding that fact?

We've provided the information, and contacts, let's see Mr. Everson run with it, and publish a real news story about our schools, not just press releases.

Dr. Smith if this is the poorest performing school in the system move forward with closure. However be honest and compare this school with all other like schools and let facts tell the real story behind your effort to close this school. Figures don't lie but liars do figures.

I think the school boards main opposition to charter schools is the fact that they receive public funds that the school board wants for themselves. They ignore the fact that many of the students who attend charters are special needs students whose needs are not met at mainstream local schools. Some of them would not pass or meet the test standards the state requires no matter what school they attend but at least at these charters they are able to develop and grow to the "best of their ability". What saddens me the most is that if these children are forced into local schools, they may lose the opportunity to reach their full potential. The idea that all students are capable of reaching a standard arbitrarily decided by legislators is akin to requiring a giraffe to climb a tree to prove they are an animal. These are children that attend this school. Their parents/caretakers support and depend on this school to provide a caring, supportive and encouraging atmosphere for their children to develop and learn. Residents who question what this school accomplishes should visit the school, meet the teachers, talk with the parents and decide then what impact this school has on its students and their community.

Mr. Strickland is right on point with "The Volusia County Schools are a sad shell of outdated structure and leaders".

Great leaders make no excuses, Superintendent Margaret Smith fabricates them.

Candace Lankford is serving her last term.

@ Charlie and Doran: you two do a great job illustrating why no new people can get in: Everyone will be protecting their interests and barring any common sense from getting in. much to protect. The blog has some very interesting information

The same reason we can't dock the School Board's and Dr. Smith's inflated salaries for failing to meet class size ammendment 3 times, balance a budget, or get our schools out of their "c" division, despite the fact that they were in a "a" division a couple of years ago. They managed to do away with 240 teaching positions, despite Dr. Moll stating they need 123 teachers minimum to meet requirements (no mention of the TOA's, or other wasteful programs). Their salaries don't decrease as a result of poor work, or protecting our children's safety. ****, Mr.Akin got a raise despite the fact that more children were hit by cars this year. No comment yet on the fact that all of the gates to our children's schools are locked by a simple, and easy to get master lock, no comment yet on how they are trying to get some coordination with local law enforcement on securing our schools. Why should they, obviously their salary does not come into play for the things that are not taken care of do not come out of their pay. As long as they ride the gravy train, why should they work harder? Ask anyone who makes more than 75k at the school board what they have done to increase safety, children's scholastic achievement, or meeting class size requirements. Guarentee you will not get a response, or at best. "We are looking into it.".

The longer these negotiations go on, the more money Ted Doran, representing the school board, makes, as well as his law firm. Who are we fooling...Ted makes money, he supplies money to Team Volusia, where Dr. Smith is on the board, the entire Team Volusia makes money off County money (private/public partnership), where Josh Wagner sits, himself a member of Ted's law firm (while his cronies are under indictment), and making connections, while these private schools attempt to make acceditation. The longer they fight, the more money Ted and his law firm makes. Make no mistake there is a conflict of interest. The more Dr. Smith "fights" against these private schools, the more money Ted makes, thereby increasing the contributions he can make to school board candidates (Lankford and Conte...proven google it). How can you make political contributions to a publically funded board, and then be employed by the same board....only in Volusia county! 2 million and counting. Guess Peg wears some nice shoes.

Who writes these contracts? Every penny of the litigation cost should be deducted from the school board members and lawyers salary. These contracts should be written to prohibit legal appeals and give the school board complete and final authority to close under performing schools and get the kids the education that they will need later in life.

Dr. Smith has a record of failing schools and can't face the facts. She and the School board need to fix the schools they run before being on the attack to kill a community school. Candace Lankford is opposed to community schools and hates public involvement in children's education. The Volusia County Schools are a sad shell of outdated structure and leaders.