Hillsborough schools considering two Gates grant hires

With mentors chosen for teachers, training in the works and assessments being created, the project intended to remake education in Hillsborough County Schools is coming closer to reality.

Today, school board members will consider two new hires to work on the project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. One would manage evaluations and compensation, and the other would develop performance strategies for the Empowering Effective Teachers project.

In November, Hillsborough County Schools won a $100 million, seven-year grant from the Gates foundation to improve teacher effectiveness. In the months since, school officials have been working on the details of the project, which focuses on how teachers will be trained, mentored and evaluated.

The new positions being considered today will cost $223,202 in salaries and benefits for two years; a $100,000 grant from the Gates foundation would pay for about half that, while the school district would pick up about 25 percent. The other 25 percent would be paid by The Broad Foundation, an entrepreneurial philanthropic group that offers residencies for experienced private industry executives interested in a career switch to public education.

The two candidates being recommended are Jamal Jenkins, a former Chrysler executive who worked in human resources and has experience as a recruiter, and Donald Dellavia, a former plant manager for the H.J. Heinz Co.

Board members also will review a contract with the University of Wisconsin-Madison to help create "value-added'' assessments for school districts, developing mathematical calculations to help determine student gains.

The Gates grant will cover the $3.4 million cost of the contract over seven years, according to school district staff.

The University of Wisconsin team has similar contracts with public school systems in Milwaukee, Chicago and New York City.

Tracking student achievement is necessary to accurately determine teachers' effectiveness, administrators say. Learning gains also will play a part in how teachers are paid, promoted and tenured.

The school board also will get a look at new teacher and principal evaluations for the upcoming school year. Both were created by teams of teachers, principals and area directors and administrators along with noted education consultant Charlotte Danielson.

A teacher's evaluation will include input from her principal, peer or mentor, while student gains also will factor in. Evaluations for principals will include what's called a 360-survey that allows input from faculty members; student gains, attendance and discipline, retention of effective teachers and teacher evaluations also will be considered.

Still in the works are evaluations for guidance counselors, adult education teachers, media specialists and others that won't go into effect until 2011-12.

The school board meeting starts at 3 p.m. at the Raymond O. Shelton Administrative Center, 901 E. Kennedy Blvd.