Note to the leaders of the Hillsborough County School District: You are a partner in what amounts to a preemptive cover-up, and that needs to be changed.
Quickly.
When substitute teachers wig out and do something that gets them fired or disciplined, the district's official policy now is that whatever they did is none of our business.
Tampa Bay Times education reporter Marlene Sokol brought that bit of substitution subterfuge to light in her story about the district's "Do Not Use" form. That's where principals can tell Kelly Educational Staffing - the private company contracted to provide substitute teachers - not to send a specific individual to their school.
There used to be a place on the form where the principal could explain why that action was taken. That apparently created consternation at Kelly because the Times successfully argued it is a public record and then reported on sub specifics that were troubling at best.
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Now, there is a new form, minus the detail box.
This is what happens too many times when private enterprise convinces a public body it can do something more efficiently (read: cheaper) than clunky bureaucrats and civil servants.
The corporate mentality often is to keep its policies and practices secret.
That doesn't work when the public is involved. If there are warts, they can be exposed. If it's embarrassing, too bad. Do better next time.
Now, well, who knows? That's the point.
District spokeswoman Tanya Arja, in trying to explain that no, really, this new way is an improvement, had an unfortunate quote, telling the Times, "Not everything needs a form."
Without those forms, we might not have known how messed up some classrooms can get when bad actors slip into the sub pool.
We wouldn't have known that some of them were sleeping on the job, or had struck students, subjected them to verbal abuse, or that one had students draw a dog eating a cat, or vice versa.
Nope.
It would have been handled, as they say, internally. The principal calls Kelly, and Kelly fires the offender.
Problem solved, right?
Not even close.
The people at Kelly have argued the vast majority of subs they send to the schools are peachy keen and do swell work, but nothing could be more irrelevant if you are the parent of a student subjected to one with curious teaching methods.
There is another striking example why transparency matters, and it should be familiar to every district leader.
In January 2010, a 7-year-old special-needs student named Isabella Herrera, afflicted with a neuromuscular disease, died after her head tilted forward and blocked her air passage while on a school bus.
After discovering the problem, the bus driver followed district policy at the time and called dispatch instead of 911. The dispatcher said to call the girl's mother. The mother finally had to dial for emergency help.
It was too late.
None of this became public for about 10 months because then-Superintendent MaryEllen Elia fell back on a police report that said no crime had been committed. It took a federal lawsuit from the girl's parents before the public knew what really happened.
Only after that was the 911 policy changed. If not for the lawsuit and the uncomfortable public airing of a tragedy, that might have never happened.
So, listen up school leaders.
I don't really care if the private enterprise doing business with you doesn't want bad publicity when it sends a lunkhead into the classroom. You shouldn't either.
It's not about the tender feelings at Kelly Educational Staffing. It's about the kids and those paid with public dollars to teach them.
If a private business wants public money, play by the public's rules and operate in the sunshine. It's mind-boggling that the school district needs a refresher course to learn that lesson.