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Coaching Alafia Principal Could Cost District Thousands

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 8, 2008

Mending fences at Alafia Elementary School won't come cheap.

Depending on how long Grace Ippolito is assigned to shadow Alafia Elementary Principal Ellyn Smith, the fix could run in the thousands of dollars.

Now retired, the longtime educator is serving as a mentor and coach for Smith at the suggestion of a 16-member school effectiveness assessment team sent to review the school after Alafia parents complained about Smith's leadership skills. Ippolito was the first principal of Alafia when the school opened 21 years ago.

Ippolito is working under an open-ended contract at $340 a day with the school district. District spokesman Steve Hegarty said the length of the contract has not been determined. Ippolito began working with Smith Nov. 21. Her duties include helping Smith improve her personal interactions with teachers and parents.

Smith and her assistant principal also will receive leadership training at Eckerd College at a cost of $4,500 each.

Hegarty said this expense isn't unusual.

"We send dozens of administrators, often principals, through the training each year," he said. Depending on the expense, the funds come out of either the general operating budget or the staff development budget, he said.

Other costs were more difficult to get a handle on.

Hegarty said there was no way he could extract the cost of the school assessment team's three-day visit to Alafia, followed by the time it took the team to put together a report with recommendations for the superintendent.

"The team was made up of school district employees," he said. "Working with schools is part of their job."

Nor could he assign a cost to the current FOCUS team charged with taking an overall look at the school's woes for the same reason.

He added that the district's staff development department, which routinely provides training for staff, will provide the conflict-resolution, team dynamics, disability awareness, behavior management, professional and ethics training for the teachers, staff and administrators at Alafia that was recommended by the assessment team.

This isn't the first time problems with school administration have prompted school Superintendent MaryEllen Elia to send in an assessment team into a school to get a handle on problems. In recent years, Elia has sent teams to McLane, Madison and Van Buren middle schools and Carrollwood Elementary School, said Hegarty.

While the middle schools required less drastic fixes, in the case of Carrollwood Elementary School, both Principal Jan King and Assistant Principal Jamie Whitlow were removed from their duties at the recommendation of the assessment team.

Many Alafia parents are wondering why that wasn't done in this case. They say the fact that 33 teachers have left since Smith arrived at the school in 2005 should indicate that something is drastically wrong at Alafia, that the problems are as severe, if not more severe than those experienced at Carrollwood.

PTA board member Beverly Harbord points to the 2007-08 Whole School Effectiveness Survey results for Alafia as further evidence.

Harbord said the survey results showed the principal had difficulties with communications, professionalism, motivating and rewarding teachers, school safety and teamwork.

Of particular concern to her was the fact that 91 percent of the teachers "strongly disagree" that the principal treats them fairly and empathetically, and 85 percent "strongly disagree" that the principal recognizes and rewards staff when appropriate.

Nevertheless, Smith has consistently received glowing evaluations from her supervisors, and some co-workers have come to her defense.

The maintenance supervisor at Alafia since the school opened in 1987, Rachel Driggers found herself in the center of the maelstrom when parents complained to Elia at a meeting at Alafia Nov. 20 that portables to be used as temporary classrooms while part of the school was renovated were filthy when teachers attempted to move in. One parent said she had to clean out a nest of wasps. Driggers disputed the state of the portables.

"My crew went in and cleaned all those portables," said Driggers. "And there were no wasps. I looked. There was one mud dauber."

She also said the publicity, blogs and a group of outspoken parents make it appear as if everyone feels Smith should go.

"Mrs. Smith has a lot of supporters," she said. "She's a very good principal."

Armed with petitions containing the names of hundreds of frustrated parents, a group of Alafia parents plan to attend the Tuesday school board meeting to request that the school board overrule Elia and have Smith removed as principal. The board meets at 3 p.m. at the school district administration building, 901 E. Kennedy Blvd. in downtown Tampa.

Reporter D'Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524.

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