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Parents Level Criticisms At Alafia Principal At Meeting

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE

dlwhite@tampatrib.com

Published: November 20, 2008

  Ellyn Smith

VALRICO - Alafia Elementary School Principal Ellyn Smith sat stoically by tonight as school parents hurled complaints against her to Hillsborough County Schools Superintendent MaryEllen Elia.

Elia was at the elementary school to talk about the findings of a 16-member school district assessment team she sent to the school last month to look into parents' concerns about Smith's leadership skills.

Parents said Smith's poor communication skills and inflexibility had led to high teacher turnover and poor morale at Alafia. They also said Smith was unresponsive to safety and other concerns they brought up.

During a meeting marked by heated outbursts from parents, Elia outlined a proposal for change.

"Alafia has major problems; I'm not saying it doesn't," Elia said. "But the strife here is not good for the kids, and the modeling I've seen on this campus is not good for the kids."

Sitting beside Smith was Alafia's first principal, Grace Ippolito, now a school district administrator. Elia said Ippolito will serve as Smith's coach/mentor, providing her with leadership training and the people skills she may be lacking.

The district also will send out a team of education experts to assess Alafia starting next week.

In addition, the staff will receive five days of conflict resolution leadership training at Eckerd College, team-building exercises with an opportunity for parents to participate and professional ethics training.

Parents wanted to know how the training would solve their immediate concerns. Among them, they told Elia that three grades were told they had to move into portables within four days to accommodate school construction scheduled to take place beginning in January. When the teachers hurriedly packed up the classrooms with the help of parents, they found the new portables unclean and in disrepair.

Wilda Isabel, who has had three children at Alafia over 15 years, said she was concerned to see good teachers suddenly leave the school after Smith came on board in 2005.

"These women were devalued and there was no place for them to turn," she said. "Where were you for them?"

Elia said teacher turnover isn't unusual when a new administration takes over. During the same time period that Alafia lost 40 teachers, Lockhart Elementary had a change in administration and lost 48 teachers. Buckhorn Elementary also got a new principal and lost 38 teachers.

Darlena Sommer, parent of a second-grader, said the teachers at Alafia acted unprofessionally when they spoke with parents about their concerns with administration.

"I think they overstepped their boundaries and now they've divided the whole community," she said. "This is embarrassing. I've never had an issue with Mrs. Smith. My encounters were always fine."

Fifth-grade teacher Stacey Hirn said she was disappointed to see the acrimony at the meeting, especially after the positive meeting the teachers had with Elia and Smith last week after the release of the assessment team's report.

"We walked out of there excited, smiling, happy," she said. "It was the first time I've slept in a long time. From this moment on we were moving forward."

Elia told parents she would have answers to their questions raised at the meeting by Monday. She plans to provide the parents with progress reports through the school Web site.

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

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