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It was more a meeting of minds than head bumping

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By TOM JACKSON tjackson Tom Jackson

@tampatrib.com tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: June 19, 2009

LAND O' LAKES - Those who filled the school board chamber Tuesday night hoping for fireworks came away sorely disappointed - unless their idea of a Big Finish is the simple elegance of Robert's Rules of Order administered with an understated flourish.

In that case, the evening was everything the most veteran thrill-seeker could have hoped for, and then some.

Never mind that the setup called for something far more combustible: incensed board members itching for a showdown with a second-term superintendent lately cast as ruthlessly imperious, needlessly secretive and rudely dismissive for the abrupt use of her administrative scythe.

Gone last week in swift succession were an energetic assistant superintendent, a tech-savvy communications director and a longtime assistant principal, all with slight explanation. "Different direction," said a cryptic Heather Fiorentino, leaving the rest to fill in the blanks - which they did, of course, attributing to her only nefarious intent.

Such is the razor's edge of keeping one's own counsel.

Let's set aside for the time being Fiorentino's failure to retain veteran Pasco High Assistant Principal Robin Futch, who had fulfilled her deferred retirement option plan requirements and was fully prepared to become yet another double-dipper.

More interesting, and far more serious, is the board's possible response to Fiorentino's dismissal of Assistant Superintendent Ray Gadd and communications director Maureen Moore.

Rookie board member Joanne Hurley, wielding the trusty cudgel bequeathed by the previous occupant of District 2, roughed up Fiorentino both for her actions and for her failure of elaboration. But the inadequacy of her complaint - why it lacked the spark to ignite a big-bang showdown - soon would be revealed.

Kathryn Starkey of the High Chaparral Starkeys was no less annoyed, heaping praise on the departed and urging reconsideration. Like Hurley, she hinted darkly that she would know the intended "different direction" before she willingly joined the voyage.

But their solution is unprecedented, and dangerous.

Revolutionary thinking

What Hurley - and, by implication, Starkey - mean to accomplish is nothing less than usurpation of the superintendent's constitutional rights and obligations. Without respect to how conduct of Fiorentino's responsibilities is polling, what Hurley - and, by implication, Starkey - seem to be recommending crosses into extraconstitutional territory.

Tuesday night, Hurley moved to reconsider the board's approval of the slots formerly held by Gadd and Moore. A nodding Starkey seemed ready to sign on. Doing less, she said, would reduce the board to the superintendent's "rubber stamp." But Robert's Rules intervened - the board could not strip out two of the 100 or more positions approved in the original motion - and Hurley backed down.

Voters' wisdom affirmed

Adherence to proper procedures notwithstanding, are the members suggesting that unless Gadd and Moore fill those slots, the district does not need an assistant superintendent for support services or a director of communications and public relations? If that is the case, then they are putting themselves on the record favoring make-work jobs for favored individuals.

The implication, however, is even more insidious - that Fiorentino, constitutionally the school district's chief executive officer, must identify the successors to Gadd and Moore before the board signs off on retaining those positions in the budget.

That is not the board's job. By their stand, Hurley and Starkey appear to advocate legislative overreach in service of a brass-knuckles political agenda.

It will be interesting to hear Starkey explain herself as her campaign for the GOP nomination for state House District 45 ramps up. The relationship between the Legislature and the governor parallels that between the school board and the superintendent.

Question: Should the governor be required to declare his or her slate of agency chiefs before the Legislature approves the executive's operating budget? Does the failure to do so turn the Legislature into a "rubber stamp"? If not, why would the Pasco County School Board impose a similar requirement on the superintendent?

This latest showdown affirms the wisdom of Pasco voters who, several times but most recently in 2006, have declared their preference for an elected superintendent. An appointed schools chief would view every appointment and every decision through a lens polished by a small board that recent activity reveals is easily stampeded.

Better to be answerable every four years to constituents who can be counted on to weigh the totality of the superintendent's work.

Hear Tom Jackson on "The Jax Files Weekend," 11 a.m. Saturday on WGUL, 860 AM.

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