Either way I find his response to WJCT’s Rhema Thompson very
troubling.
From WJCT
The
news comes weeks after an investigation into the district’s ESE department by the Florida Department
of Education determined that it violated federal and state laws pertaining to
special instruction for students with disabilities in math and reading.
Vitti has said he brought Davis in
as head of the special education department to help revamp the program which
has had a history of issues.
When asked about his decision to
promote Davis on the heels of the state department's investigation, Vitti said
the findings weren't reflective of Davis' role in the district.
"You certainly want a system
of monitoring and tracking of a lot of the instances that were highlighted in
the findings," he said. "But at the end of the day, most of the
findings were linked to what was properly or improperly done by principals; and
those principals, A. Did not report directly to Mason Davis; and in many ways,
it is humanly impossible to be in each of those schools looking at each of
those situations."
Oh boy.
I was at a district ESE meeting in
December where teacher after teacher told Davis about the problems in the
schools. How they were being called away from their children, told not to get
subs and being given impossible schedules among other things.
Did Davis keep those complaints to
himself? Did he do something to try and fix them? If he did it wasn’t enough
because the state was investigating us five months later.
I don’t know if he is qualified
for his new job or not, it seems like anybody can be the director of curriculum
the way we go through them and I do find Davis generally affable but to pass
the buck like this and plead ignorance isn’t right and either Vitti is covering
for him, Vitti was kept in the dark, or they either didn’t care or couldn’t fix
the problems any of which should give us pause.
But to blame ESE problems
on rogue principals is ridiculous. Some may not have been doing their job but I vote it was the director of ESE or the superintendent because they should have been making sure that they were. Where does the buck stop around here? 
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