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School Board Could Use Some Downsizing

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By JACK HARRIS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 7, 2008

I'd like to offer my suggestion on one way to help cover the budget shortfall for schools in Hillsborough County. How about laying off a couple of school board members? The savings on the $40,000 salary from each would free up enough money for hiring at least a couple of new classroom teachers.

And quite frankly, I don't think the board members would be missed.

The recent imbroglio over travel expenses has led to some of the most juvenile behavior this side of a day-care center. The squabbling, bickering and backbiting has made them an object of ridicule.

First of all, the travel extravagances are no longer affordable. Susan Valdes, the most itinerant of the bunch ($50,000 in travel in four years) has justified some of her trips by claiming one was to receive an award for the district (FedEx can do it cheaper) and another was to help her get board certified (don't they have an Internet connection in which they could download such stuff?).

In reality, there has been very little that has been learned in these educational odysseys that would really contribute to improving education in Hillsborough County.

Our problem is that we apparently have no one of vision on the board, or in the ivory tower of the school administration in downtown Tampa.

As an example, I have talked to numerous educators about the possibility of switching language classes from the high school level to kindergarten through third grade. To a person, they agree that the younger kids would absorb language training for a lifetime, and not just until the next test rolls around. They could actually become fluent in a second tongue far more easily than those in the upper grades.

And yet no one is ready to step forward to do anything to implement such a program. There are many more revolutionary ideas that are floating out there in the public sector. Perhaps it's time for some kind of major effort to tap that resource locally, without having to travel to distant places for nothing in return. After all, Las Vegas, New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C. have their own problems in the field of education. It would be nice if the folks from other cities would travel here someday to see an exemplar of a system that offers an effective learning environment for its children.

Crown Prince Returns

If you've been around these parts long enough and are old enough, you certainly recall the excitement of the Tampa Bay Rowdies in their heyday, which drew crowds of 25,000 to 50,000 "fannies" as their followers were called.

The star of the show was the irrepressible Rodney Marsh, as charming and disarming off the field as he was overwhelming on it. But first and foremost, he was an entertainer.

Rodney is back in the bay area working with his son in the construction business. He spent years in the UK as a radio and television soccer commentator before returning to his adopted homeland here.

The folks who are attempting to resurrect the Rowdies locally would do well to consider Marsh as a stellar front man.

Jocularly,

Jack

Jack Harris co-hosts AM Tampa Bay from 6 to 9 weekday mornings on WFLA-AM.

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