Three teachers at Freedom High School in Tampa, Florida were interviewed for this story and will be referred to as “Teacher X,” “Teacher Y,” and “Teacher Z.” Along with those teachers, others were interviewed for this story for the purpose of information gathering and opinion polling. For those who have requested anonymity, their real names will not be used. Some details may be altered in order to conceal their identity, however the veracity of their statements will not be affected.

In 2009, the Hillsborough County School Board, led by then-superintendent MaryEllen Elia, unanimously approved the Empowering Effective Teachers (EET) program. The initiative, partially funded by a $100 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, intended to improve teaching in the Hillsborough County School District. The EET sought to accomplish that goal through pay schemes where 40% of teacher pay came from students’ scores on standardized testing and 60% on scoring from “peer evaluators” who judge teacher performance in the classroom.

“The Empowering Effective Teachers initiative aims to: 1) improve student achievement in Hillsborough County Public Schools through an intense focus on excellence in teaching, 2) ensure every classroom has a highly effective teacher with the proper support, 3) increase the percentage of students who graduate ready for college or a career,” Marie Whelan, Manager of the EET program for the Hillsborough School District said.

That seems like a pretty solid program, right? By giving raises to teachers who perform well in the classroom and whose students score highly on standardized tests, it will push them to become better at their job, right? Well, in a perfect world that might be the case, but as we all know, we do not live in a perfect world.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, the Hillsborough County School Board recently learned that the district was running a budget deficit and had been taking money out of its reserve fund to cover its losses. Board members concluded that the fund was still well above the legal minimum requirement, but the rate at which the reserves were being drained was alarming to many. During a recent budget workshop, board members decided to have a full-scale audit of the district’s finances costing $900,000.

“Regarding the Efficiency Audit requested by our School Board, this is a great idea. Every business, whether public or private needs to review their everyday operations. We need to review everything we do for the school district,” said district Chief Financial Officer Gretchen Saunders.

“Coming from the business sector, I am astonished at some of the things that I see,” said Hillsborough County board member Cindy Stuart. “With all the planning we have done, this [audit] is a natural next step.”

So what does the district’s budget gap have to do with the Empowering Effective Teachers program? A lot, actually.

According to analysis by the Tampa Bay Times, the Gates Foundation has only paid Hillsborough County $80 million of the $100 million promised, leaving the district in a $20 million hole. In addition, the EET program has proved to be much more expensive than originally thought. The program was found to have up-front costs exceeding the $100 million grant from the Gates Foundation, and costs in excess of $50 million per year to keep the system running.

Note: the Freedom Revolution reached out to the Gates Foundation for comment on lack of full EET funding, in addition to financial strains on the district as a result, but has not heard back at the time of publication.

“The EET grant provided a system of teacher support and feedback and several benefits emerged from the EET program: the great feedback provided by teachers and leaders, the training that has been delivered around the evaluation framework, the administration of evaluations and observations, and the capacity of expertise that has been built among our peer evaluators and mentors regarding observation, evaluations, and teacher feedback,” Stuart told the Revolution when reached for comment on the EET program.

While Mrs. Stuart paints a rosy picture of the EET program, teachers do not share the same views.

“What should be a concern to every person in this room is that, for too many teachers, the evaluation process feels demeaning or unfair, even with teachers who fare really well in this evaluation process,” said Jean Clements, president of the Classroom Teachers Association during a recent School Board workshop.

That workshop was ordered by school board member April Griffin after it was discovered that teachers are required to be terminated after a second poor evaluation, with no way to appeal those scores.

The EET has been a controversial point for teachers and the school board. In interviews, teachers have used words such as “demoralizing”, “punitive”, and “unfair” when describing the program.

Teacher X, serving more than ten years in the Hillsborough County School system, has opposed the EET program from day one.

“Myself as well as other teachers knew that this program would not work. It is just another example of bureaucrats downtown who haven’t been in a classroom in years, if ever, passing down regulations to us,” they said.

Teacher Z, who has taught in Hillsborough for less than five years, also opposes the program, especially the new pay scale that was instituted along with it.

“As part of the EET program, teachers are supposed to receive bonuses for exceptional performance on their classroom evaluations. There are teachers who have not received that bonus and I believe that is very unfair. That is like telling a student they will receive an ‘A’ if they meet all the points on the rubric, yet not giving them a grade for their hard work upon completion. Additionally, the county removed the pay increase for teachers with an advanced degree, which I have. I think it is very backwards that a teacher with higher education is paid the same as someone with similar years of service, but less education.”

In addition to opposition to the program’s ideals and execution, some teachers have been faced with irregular and even missed paychecks in the midst of the county’s budget issues.

Teacher X has been personally affected by the board’s financial woes.

“With the EET program, there was an opt-in pay scale for teachers. In this pay scale, every three years we are supposed to see a raise of about $3,000. I opted in three years ago, this is the year of my raise and I haven’t seen a penny of it,” Teacher X said.

Alarmingly, Teacher X told the Revolution that their pay has actually diminished as time progressed. “At the beginning of the school year I had missed wages and I haven’t yet received my performance bonus. At this point in the year, I am actually making less than I did last year. It has been really rough as I haven’t been able to contribute as usual to the household. I usually have all my Christmas shopping done before October. It’s going to be difficult making sure I get everyone what they want if I am not getting paid what I am owed.”

When the Revolution reached out to the school board for answers regarding Teacher X’s payment issues, board member Cindy Stuart said, “Compensation falls under the union’s collective bargaining umbrella. Teachers must contact the Human Resources division if they have questions or concerns about their compensation.” The board declined to comment on whether teacher pay has been affected as a result of county budget problems.

Note: the school board and teacher’s union are still in contract negotiations, with the board citing “financial difficulties” as it rejects union proposal after union proposal, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Additionally, Stephanie Woodford, Chief Human Resources Officer for the Hillsborough County School District, provided insight to the situation. “Raises each year are negotiated and not automatic. And, we are still negotiating for this year and have been unable to reach [an] agreement with the union so far. No raises are applied until negotiations are finalized and board approved.”

Many teachers believe that the EET is the greatest contributor, if not the main source of the county’s budget crisis. Both Teachers X and Z cited the EET as a major reason why the county is running into debt.

While the county continues to have its funds drained as it runs a deficit, teachers point out supposedly obvious ways to cut back on spending. An example of this would be the purchase of classroom electronics. According to teachers, the district holds contracts with vendors for certain classroom appliances. While this seems innocent, vendors are charging much more than retail price for certain items.

Teacher X brought this issue up in an interview. “A few years ago, I decided to use funds to purchase a new laptop for the classroom. I did my research and found a laptop I thought would be perfect for the lessons that I teach. However, the ‘approved vendor’ has the laptop listed for $900. If I walked into Best Buy and bought the same laptop, I could’ve gotten it for $300. But because I don’t want to have to pay out of pocket, I had to use $600 more in funds for the laptop that could’ve been used to improve the classroom environment for my students.”

While it must be conceded that education is not an easy subject and that all school districts have their problems, teachers say that Hillsborough is among the most difficult to work for.

Teacher Z has been teaching for more than five years, but only three of them in Hillsborough County. When comparing Hillsborough to the other areas they have taught in, Teacher Z said, “It is definitely more unstable here than anywhere else I’ve taught. The worst is the uncertainty; there have been teachers with missing pay and bonuses. Other school districts usually plan in advance so there is some stability, but Hillsborough seems very short-sighted.”

Another issue that was brought up by teachers is that they have to pay for certification tests. It is required of teachers that they take certification tests in order to teach in their field, and then re-take those tests every five years in order to maintain their status.

“I teach a variety of classes,” Teacher Y said. “That means I have to take many different certification tests. They reach up to $75 a pop and it can become very expensive. I don’t think it’s fair that we aren’t reimbursed for these exams. They’re expensive and why do I have to prove every five years that I am qualified?”

It is clear that many policies instituted by the Hillsborough County School Board, including the EET program, have created a rift between teachers and board members. It appears that teachers are angered by the district’s choices in the past, however there seems to be a communication problem between the two parties.

According to Marie Whelan, “Based on survey responses we have received regarding the peer evaluator portion of the EET grant over the past 5 years, we [the district] have received positive feedback with over 80% of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing to survey questions.”

Sadly, every teacher interviewed for this story said that the district’s problems have made them consider transferring out of the county or the profession all together.

“It is very difficult coming into work every day when you feel unappreciated. The district doesn’t want to listen to us even though we are the ones working on the front lines. It’s hard taking orders and having to incorporate things designed by people downtown that are out of touch,” Teacher X said.

“We come into school every day knowing that we are unappreciated, but we have the simple satisfaction knowing that the district will have our backs,” Teacher Z said. “When we start hearing about all these pay issues in addition to the problematic EET and such, it is hard to justify why we are still here.”

“Whenever I have interns that I am working with, I always tell them to make sure that teaching is what they really want to do. I do this because when I wanted to become a teacher, my parents kept telling me it was a mistake. Now, I believe I should have listened to them,” Teacher X said.

While the teacher-board relationship is important, there is also another key question that hasn’t really been asked. How is the district going to pay back their debts?

“We are reviewing our revenue and expense lines every day,” Saunders said. “Streamlining the way of work, purchasing practices, and academic programs. We’ll be making sure to meet the needs of all of our students and community members.”

As Chief Financial Officer Saunders also points out, one source of financial strain comes from the dramatic growth the county experienced in the past couple decades. “Hillsborough County has been building schools at a fast pace since 1995. Many years we built and opened six or seven new schools. As the economy and enrollment has slowed we need to pay our debt for these schools.”

For reference, Saunders provided that total start-up costs for an elementary school runs about $22 million, $36 million for a middle school, and $45 million for a high school.

Board member Cindy Stuart laid out a plan for the Revolution on tackling this budget crisis:

• Focus on developing sustainability and exit strategies for grant funding
• Agenda items will include a financial impact report
• An internal audit of all expenditures
• An external audit of every school district operation (referring to the $900k audit, Mrs. Stuart points out that that same auditing firm saved Clark County, Nevada’s school district over $17 million in a similar external audit)

While the situation appears to be hopeless, it is important that these issues are brought to the attention of not only the board, but teachers, students, and taxpayers as well. A solution that is beneficial for everyone can only be achieved if all parties come together and make sure they are on the same page. There is a huge rift between teachers and the county right now and it will only get worse if the issues remain unresolved. Hopefully an agreement can be reached that will contribute to the effectiveness and success of the Hillsborough County School District for many years to come.