Tag: LIIS
The failed Bartow mindset and the illusion of meetings
Late Tuesday afternoon, I was driving to Lake Wales for a Chamber of Commerce gathering when I got a call from a desperate Lakeland mother. I met her a few weeks back at a Valencia neighborhood function at the Larry Jackson Library in northwest Lakeland. At the time, I gave everybody there my card. I urged them to call me…
The Business Voice/PCBA choice: “Major investor” or fixing problems?
The Lakeland Chamber’s “Business Voice” Political Action Committee (PAC) is about to start interviewing candidates for its endorsement. I’m scheduled for Tuesday. The Polk County Builders Association (PCBA) PAC is doing the same thing next week. It’s highly unlikely I’ll get either endorsement. My incumbent opponent Hunt Berryman has deep business and personal ties with both organizations. Bank of Central…
The DSM deal is good for David Robinson. Is it good for you?
Important update below in bold. Some time last year, former Polk Superintendent of Schools Kathryn LeRoy signed a contract with DSM, a Polk-based technology services provider. For full context, DSM’s owner and CEO David Robinson, who describes himself as a “ technology visionary,” is a major contributor to School Board Member Hunt Berryman. Berryman is my incumbent opponent in the…
A diet without a menu: the Polk School Board’s unStrategic unPlan
The Polk County School District has a 2014-2018 Strategic Plan that is neither strategic nor a plan. It’s one of the many exploding gifts Kathryn LeRoy left behind for us to disarm. Nevertheless, the School Board is meeting today in a retreat to “review and update” this so-called Strategic Plan. So I want to explain to you — and board…
Bartow Horror Story: the catastrophic failure of Polk’s testing and student data system
Nothing illustrates the comprehensive rot at the Polk School district administrative and leadership level (talking about the Bartow office, not principals at schools) as powerfully as the failure of the Local Instructional Information System (LIIS) project in the last two years.
