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Costs Of Principal Woe Grow

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE

dlwhite@tampatrib.com

Published: December 9, 2008

VALRICO - 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 with the district at $340 a day. District spokesman Steve Hegarty said the length of the contract has not been determined. Ippolito began working with Smith on Nov. 21. Her duties include helping Smith improve her personal interaction 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 money comes out of the general operating budget or the staff development budget, he said.

Armed with petitions bearing the names of hundreds of frustrated parents, a group of Alafia parents plans to attend the school board meeting today to request that the board overrule Schools Superintendent MaryEllen Elia and have Smith removed as principal.

The board will meet at 3 p.m. at the school district administration building, 901 E. Kennedy Blvd., in downtown Tampa.
Hegarty said other costs of fixing problems at Alafia were more difficult to get a handle on.

He said there was no way he could extract the cost of the school assessment team's three-day visit to Alafia or the time it took the team to put together a report 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 a different assessment team charged with taking an overall look at the school's woes based on complaints about Smith.

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.

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

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