TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Parents Complain About Alafia Elementary Principal

ADVERTISEMENT

By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE

dlwhite@tampatrib.com

Published: November 26, 2008

Related Links

• Related Story
• Poll: Should Principal Be Removed?
• School Assessment Report
• Staff Survey
• Parent Survey
• Parent's Blog

  Ellyn Smith

VALRICO - Alafia Elementary School Principal Ellyn Smith sat stoically Thursday night as parents hurled complaints against her to Hillsborough County Schools Superintendent MaryEllen Elia.

Elia was there to talk about the findings of an assessment team she sent to the school to look into parents' concerns about Smith's leadership skills.

Parents said Smith's poor communication skills and inflexibility had led to high teacher turnover and poor morale and that the principal was unresponsive to safety and other concerns they brought up.

"Alafia has major problems; I'm not saying it doesn't," said Elia. "But the strife here is not good for the kids."

Sitting beside Smith was Alafia's first principal, Grace Ippolito, now a school district administrator. Elia said Ippolito will serve as Smith's coach/mentor. The district also will send out a team of education experts to assess Alafia starting next week.

The staff also will receive five days of conflict resolution leadership training at Eckerd College, team-building exercises with an opportunity for parents to participate and ethics training.

Parents wanted to know how the training would solve their concerns. They told Elia three grades were told they had to move into portables within four days to accommodate school construction scheduled to take place beginning in January. When the teachers hurriedly packed up the classrooms with the help of parents, they found the new portables unclean and in disrepair.

Elia said teacher turnover isn't unusual when a new administration takes over.

Elia told parents she would have answers to their questions by Monday. She plans to provide the parents with progress reports through the school Web site.

Reporter D'Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524 or dlwhite@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT