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Once Harmonious School Board Plagued By Discord

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By MARILYN BROWN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 13, 2007

TAMPA - Some school boards are known for shouting, table pounding and discord.

For years, the Hillsborough County School Board was not.

Board members were polite, usually cordial and most often in lock-step by the time the formal meeting came.

Now board members sometimes turn testy or contentious when certain topics come up.

"We never had the problems we're having now," said school board chairman Jack Lamb, a retired school administrator elected to the board in 2000.

Lamb, the only male board member, said he is often asked why he can't stop the conflict. "I tell them I've tried," he said.

Hillsborough does have a new dynamic, said Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association.

"What it has been in the past is teamwork and united front," Blanton said. "Right now you don't have that. People are not used to that."

A trainer from Blanton's organization who conducted a team-building session for Hillsborough in August watched as her session quickly erupted into accusations, scoldings and door slamming.

The team building part ended after board member Jennifer Faliero suggested that board member April Griffin resign and Griffin left, slamming the door behind her.

The tension had been building.

A year ago, board members turned snippy when asked to make rules to govern themselves. They haggled over the scope of their power and travel money.

It hasn't gotten any better.

At any time, debate can turn personal. After a heated discussion on consultant contracts, board member Susan Valdes said she considered herself scolded by Carol Kurdell, a board member for 15 years.

"I said, 'Wait a minute - who does this chick think she is?'" Valdes said.

Valdes, on the board since 2004, and her close friend, Griffin, elected a year ago, have changed the board's chemistry, challenging everything from the way the board works to personnel recommendations.

Kurdell said any distress is a result of the pain of change, unavoidable because of a new superintendent, new board members and changes in the world.

"It's all pretty exciting," she said.

Lamb said he attributes the board's problems to some members not doing enough homework, including getting most questions answered by staff before meetings.

Meetings - which may run five hours - need to be shorter, both Faliero and Lamb agreed.

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking the questions we ask," Faliero said, who frustrated fellow board members with her questions when she was elected in 2002.
Faliero said the blame must be shared.

"The system is actually starting to crack," Faliero said. "It's a combination of the board and the superintendent. It's a lack of leadership, it's a lack of communication. It's a lack of common focus."

Board members said they hope that will change after they rewrite the district's vision, mission and values, which they are now doing in workshop meetings. They have also hired a consultant to help update the policy manual.

Blanton, who has observed and trained school boards for 32 years, said that he frequently tells boards, "When the elephants fight, the grass suffers."

Sometimes, though, school boards just learn to get along with disharmony, he said.

"Some things aren't fixable," Blanton said. "You just say, 'This is the way it is' and move on."

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampatrib.com.

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