Local instructors and Carnegie respresentative agree foundation funds are being used correctly
July 25, 2004
By Beverly A. Carroll and Edward Lee Pitts
Chattanooga Times Free Press
After spending nearly $6 million in grant money in the last two years, Hamilton County educators said a nearly 4 percent jump in freshman promotions last year is proof all the travel for staff development is working.
'The ninth to 10th grade transition is a critical point in all this work,' said Dan Challener, president of the Public Education Foundation, which administers the grant program. 'In ninth grade they begin to make choices about their future. It is the key moment for their success in school.' Under an $8 million grant from the Carnegie Corp. of New York, Hamilton County principals, teachers, students and parents have traveled to Colorado; California; Hawaii; Nevada; Texas; New York; Virginia; Vermont; Louisiana; Washington, D.C.; Kansas; Florida; Ohio; and Arkansas. But Hamilton County Commissioner Curtis Adams has questioned the extensive travel to such exotic places as Hawaii. 'I know it’s paid for by private money,' Mr. Adams said. 'But the average working man doesn’t understand that. We all need to tighten our belts.'
Educators understand the negative perception about school travel, especially when school board members are cutting school buses, teachers, janitors, sports programs, maintenance and other items to trim $21 million from next year’s budget request.
'The public doesn’t understand that it is a grant,' Sale Creek principal Devota Barnes said. 'I know people sometimes think we can find a way to spend that money on transportation or sports. But we cannot. It’s either spend it like we are supposed to or not get it.'
Despite the costs, high school teachers need to learn new ways to reach students, Mr. Challener said.
'Teachers rarely have a chance to see anything but their own schools,' he said. 'We can’t expect people to revision high schools unless they’ve seen something different. You can’t get that from a book.'
Mr. Challener said the results are encouraging. The number of students passing the ninth grade increased from 77.3 percent in the 2002-03 school year, to 81.2 percent last year. In addition, the number of ninth-grade dropouts fell from 112 to 87 for the same period.
Improving these numbers is among the high school reform goals implemented after Hamilton County became one of seven districts selected nationwide in 2001 for the five-year Carnegie grant.
Constancia Warren, a Carnegie director, said Hamilton County schools are slightly above the midpoint of what the other six Carnegie school districts are spending. Some of Hamilton County’s travel costs are driven by the expense of flying out of Chattanooga, she said. And local teachers had a higher learning curve than other districts such as Boston or Dallas, she said.
'Chattanooga is doing an awful good job of applying the knowledge they are gathering,' Ms. Warren said. 'They are spending the money appropriately and moving forward.'
Last year the 17 high schools spent $788,724 on travel to conferences and other schools. Central spent the most at $95,858, followed by East Ridge at $76,311. Howard, Ooltewah, Tyner and Red Bank all spent more than $50,000 each on trips and staff development, while Harrison Bay, Sequoyah and Washington Alternative School spent the least, ranging from $673 to $2,482.
TRAVEL
Central High principal David Cowan said school officials visited Miami, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle and New Orleans to stay on top of the fast-changing world of technology. He said the school had no choice about the conference location and most organizers choose 'glamorous cities to entice people to come.'
School board member Debbie Colburn, who went with East Ridge school representatives to Hawaii using Carnegie dollars, said the school was invited to make a presentation at a national career academies conference highlighting the school’s construction academy.
'The underpinning of the entire grant was to network with other schools and learn,' she said. 'It came as a surprise to me the conference was in Hawaii. It was in Arkansas the year before.'
East Ridge principal Cheri Dedmon was one of six people who went to Hawaii. The group stayed at the Sheraton Waikiki for $165 a night, and each teacher received $360 for eight days of meals, records show.
'It was during our fall break, and we missed one (school) day,' Ms. Dedmon said. 'Teachers used their unpaid break time for the rest of time.'
School records show the bulk of Carnegie money was spent on lodging, transportation, food and registration fees for conferences. But receipts also documented the occasional indulgence. Carnegie funds reimbursed purchases of lattes, soft drinks, nuts, fruit and other snacks often bought at airports.
Ms. Warren called the extra expenses part of routine travel costs and not a misuse of funds. 'This is the kind of stuff businesses routinely pay for,' Ms. Warren said. 'If someone was having an $800 dinner, that would be different.'
Most travelers spent less than $50 on three daily meals, but last November eight teachers from Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences spent $548.69 at Morton’s Steakhouse in Columbus, Ohio.
Officials from the school could not be reached for comment, but Mr. Challener said such expenditures are unacceptable.
WEIGHING THE VALUE
Wade Kelley, principal of Red Bank High School, said the travel is not just for teachers. Red Bank High has used Carnegie dollars to take 18 students to Washington, D.C.
Other schools used Carnegie funds for students to visit college campuses or for freshman orientation retreats.
Katie Johnston, a rising junior at Central High School, said she has witnessed how teachers have been influenced by their travel and training.
'Teachers are saying, ‘When I went to New York, this is what I learned, so let’s try it,’' Katie said. 'The way we are being taught now is not just the general ‘get out your textbooks and read.’'
Several county high schools opted to spend their money at home. Tyner Academy paid more than $8,000 for a two-day retreat at The Chattanoogan for teachers, while Chattanooga High Center for Creative Arts spent nearly $10,000 to bring in consultants.
Creative Arts principal Gary Record said his school was further along in the academy concept than other high schools, and its staff did not need to travel as much. Now the school uses its money to bring in consultants to fine-tune its practices, he said. Schools also used Carnegie dollars to purchase food at local grocery stores, catered meals from area restaurants and office supplies for staff development meetings. Additional schools use the foundation money to provide salary supplements to teachers working on school reform during their off hours. Don Swafford, principal at Hixson High School, spent Carnegie money on on-campus activities for ninth-graders and teachers. Dr. Swafford said he tried to limit the amount of time teachers were out of classrooms. 'Teachers do a better job in the classroom than substitutes,' he said. 'If that wasn’t true, then we need to fire the teachers and hire the substitutes.'
The grant process was one of the most involved and competitive schools Superintendent Jesse Register said he has seen. Hamilton County was asked to participate and was given a oneyear planning grant to come up with a proposal, he said.
'The award said the Carnegie people think we have capacity to do systemic, system wide change,' Dr. Register said.
Grants of this size are rare and give the Hamilton County school system a chance to set itself apart, educators said.
'This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to reform our high schools,' Mr. Challener said. 'We are doing everything we can to seize the day because it will transform Hamilton County.'
E-mail Beverly A. Carroll at bcarroll@timesfreepress.com
E-mail Edward Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com