Wharton’s Warren Among District’s Budget Casualties

Jas Warren

This is not how Jas Warren, Wharton High’s theatre teacher and director, expected the curtain to close on his long career.

Warren, who has been at the school since it opened in 1997 and helped lead the theatre department to dozens of awards and State competition appearances, is one of many teachers caught in the crosshairs after budget cuts were announced last week by Hillsborough County Superintendent of Schools Addison Davis in an effort to chop down a $100-million deficit.

The cuts mean that more than 1,200 positions in the country’s seventh-largest school district are being eliminated.

In New Tampa, Warren was far from the only teacher to be affected, but was one of the most senior among teachers who found their positions eliminated as the District continues to struggle with finances. Wharton’s theatre program has been one of the District’s best for many years.

“I guess I’m kind of a little bit sad, a little bit angry and kind of surprised,” says Warren. “I’ve done nothing but exemplary work for 31 years. I thought that meant something. I’ve been at Wharton for 24 straight years; I stood here when it was nothing but a dirt floor, and we’ve had award-winning theater productions, won at the District level and went on to the State level where we have received superior ratings. But, I guess that doesn’t seem to matter much.”

It does matter to parent Kelly Miller, whose daughter went through Warren’s program and whose son also attends the school. Miller says she was disappointed to see the program lose its founder.

“The school is known for its award- winning theater programs,” Miller says. “I’m very shocked at this. Without him, the program will collapse.”

Warren, like many of those who have seen their positions eliminated in the most recent round of cuts, was moved into the teacher’s pool — where he could land another job, although there will be few theatre positions available — because there were fewer students to teach these days.

A Hall of Fame inductee for the international Educational Theatre Association, Warren says he has been told he was being let go because he didn’t have enough students — although he still has about 50 kids in his program now, which is down from 110-120 pre-Covid. 

He says he has been overwhelmed with the level of support and outrage from former students and parents, and will keep on fighting “until there is nothing to fight for.”

The theatre program will go on at Wharton, under the direction of a new teacher who also teaches other classes. The same goes for the band program at Benito Middle school, where 10-year veteran Staisy Kibart was told she no longer would run the program (but would be guaranteed a job somewhere else in the District) and it would be taken over, presumably, by another teacher.

Kibart says that when cuts were made last fall, she was told something was coming down. This time, she says she was caught off guard. “We were told something could happen in the fall when cuts were coming in October, but that conversation was never had this time around,” Kibart says. “I was pulled in Wednesday afternoon (April 14) and the bomb was dropped. They said we have to let a music teacher go, and it’s you.”

Benito will have a net loss of 8.08 positions, while Liberty Middle School will lose 6.88. Turner-Bartels K-8 School, however, is losing 16 positions, including five positions in grades 1-4, three Exceptional Student Education (ESE) positions and a music teacher, believed to be chorus.

At the high schools, Wharton actually gained some key positions (including two in reading) and will suffer a net loss of only 3.48 positions, while Freedom High will lose 12.32 positions.

However, Freedom principal Kevin Stephenson says those numbers don’t equal teachers. When vacancies that will go unfilled are unaccounted for, he “only” expects to lose 5-6 teachers.

Stephenson says the cuts will hurt everyone, but are needed.

“It’s something our District really needs to do to get into alignment financially,” he says. “There are challenges, but we have those every year. You have to make payroll, and that means doing things that are really tough.”

Jessica Vaughn

The cuts come after dozens of meetings between Davis, the School Board and principals and assistant principals this year. 

District 3 School Board member Jessica Vaughn, a Tampa Palms resident, says the cuts are hard on so many but she feels Davis and his staff tried to be as thoughtful as they could, by including school administrators in the process.

But, in order to avoid a state takeover of the District for not meeting certain thresholds in the county reserves, as well as payroll, Vaughn said the action had to be taken.

“I don’t see any way around the cuts to avoid the State taking us over,” she says. “We have to stay out of receivership. I don’t trust the intentions of the State when it comes to doing what’s best for the District.”

Instead of directing her ire at Davis, Vaughn pointed a finger at the State legislature, which she says has continued to vote against providing more money for education and has instead focused on charter school expansion.

Necessary or not, “I think that these cuts drastically, drastically hurt our School District, and that we will feel it for a long time to come.”

Pebble Creek’s Karen Perez Is Running For Hillsborough School Board Dist. 6

The difference that a good learning environment can make to a child is a lesson Karen Perez says she learned when her family moved to Tampa from Brooklyn, NY, so she could attend a safer high school (King High, on N. 56th St. in Tampa).

As one of two candidates in the run-off for the Hillsborough County School Board District 6 county-wide race, the Pebble Creek resident, who has been endorsed by previous HCSB District 6 seat holder April Griffin, says that ensuring today’s students have that same opportunity to get a good education without distractions, such as school violence, is what she wants to achieve as a School Board member.

“I was able to go to high school here in Tampa and I was able to focus on my education and not have to worry about the crime. What is ironic is, what I experienced at 16 in New York, is now something that students nationwide are experiencing.”

What also has changed, according to Perez, is the nature of some problems, like bullying, that have been around for decades, but which have taken on new meaning in the Digital Age, where rumors and gossip can spread far and wide very quickly.

“Before, it was between you and the bully,” Perez says. “But now, because of social media, it’s cyberbullying.”

Perez adds that signs of the need for mental health support in schools include that fact that more and younger children are committing suicide, rather than dealing with the challenges that life presents to them.

“The mental health piece in these children’s lives is at a critical point,” she says. “We need to address this with our children.”

Perez has insight to issues related to mental health. She followed up her graduation from King High by earning her Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and Master of Social Work (MSW) degrees from the University of South Florida and building her private Tampa practice, the Embracing Changes Center for Mental Wellness.

She also is a primary social worker at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital.

Perez says her 17 years of experience as a mental health professional will bring a new and much-needed perspective to the School Board, which is responsible for ensuring the success and safety of more than 200,000 students in 250-plus schools in the eighth-largest school district in the U.S., while dealing with issues ranging from broken air conditioners to finding enough bus drivers.

“When you have an education board that has members on it with the same mindset, everybody’s looking through the same lens and everybody’s coming toward a problem with the same tools, everybody’s going to come up with the same conclusion,” Perez says. “When you have someone that’s thinking outside the box…you get a different viewpoint.”

Another way Perez, who unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the School Board in 2006, wants to bring diverse perspectives to the school district’s operations and possibly stretch resources, is by working with people and businesses who want to be involved in helping to educate the community’s children.

“There is so much collaboration we could be doing,” says Perez, who has lived in New Tampa for 18 years and has raised two daughters and a son, all of whom are now either working in or pursuing professions of their own.

After nearly two decades living in the local community, Perez has become known to her neighbors, like Ann Green, who says Perez is accessible and committed to supporting others in achieving their goals.

“Karen is a great listener,” Green says. “Her ears and heart are always turning to help people and when she says she’s willing to do something, she’ll do it no matter what.”

Opposing Perez in the General Election on Tuesday is Henry “Shake” Washington, a retired Hillsborough School District educator who touts his 42 years of experience with the school district.

Washington began his career with the district as an instructional assistant and came up through the system to work as a teacher, principal and area superintendent for Hillsborough County schools.

Among the positions Washington’s campaign promotes on its website (ShakeforSchoolBoard.com) are strong oversight and accountability of the School District’s finances and putting more emphasis on learning skills and course content in the classroom, instead of standardized test preparation. The District 6 at-large seat is currently held by April Griffin, who decided not to run for reelection. Griffin has endorsed Perez to succeed her.

Perez ran for State House in 2006, winning her primary with 62 percent of the vote before falling in the General election to Ed Homan.

 

Turner-Bartels Kindergarten Teacher Runner-Up For ‘Teacher Of The Year’

Kindergarten teacher Carrie Donatelli of Turner-Bartels K-8 School was a 2017 finalist for Hillsborough Teacher of the Year.

At the annual “Excellence in Education” awards banquet to be held February 28, Hillsborough County Public Schools announced the school district’s 2017 Teacher of the Year.

Although she did not win, one of this year’s six finalists was Carrie Donatelli, a kindergarten teacher at Turner/Bartels K-8 School in New Tampa.

“Just to be one of six finalists in Hillsborough County, which is one of the largest school districts in the country, is such a huge honor,” Donatelli said. “It’s very humbling.”

Donatelli has been teaching for 16 years, with the last four years being at Turner/Bartels. She says she loves teaching at the school because of its commitment to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), and she serves on the school’s technology committee, which is currently working to design “capstone projects” to determine what kids at each grade level should be able to do using technology.

“In kindergarten, it’s things like turning on the computer and logging on to websites,” Donatelli says. “But, by the eighth grade, these kids are doing some amazing things.”

Her supervisor is Turner-Bartels assistant principal Lara Barone.

“(Carrie) does great innovative things, different than what you would expect in a typical classroom,” Barone says. “She wants her kids to be citizens of the world, so her kids have Skyped with people around the world.”

Donatelli also uses technology to strengthen the bond between home and the classroom. For example, she posts pictures of her class to a private Instagram page. “It gives the parents a window into their kids’ class,” she says.

In fact, while it seems schools are increasingly focused on testing, and technology plays an integral part in Donatelli’s classroom, neither test results nor technology are what Donatelli says is her biggest goal.

“The most important thing is that my students know I care about them,” she says. “I’m here for them, whatever they need. My classroom is very structured and has high expectations, but it’s also very loving and caring.”

Clearly, her students feel the love. Barone says Donatelli is often requested as a teacher and Donatelli says she is now teaching younger siblings of previous students, and strives to maintain relationships with those families. In 2015, she was invited to a high school graduation for a girl who was in her very first kindergarten class. “It’s pretty cool to maintain those relationships,” she says.

Barone says that, in addition to Donatelli being a natural leader and someone who can always be counted on at the school level to go above and beyond, she also has shown a commitment to the next generation of educators.

“She is a great mentor to interns, and is able to mold and help shape some of our future teachers,” Barone says. “Her past intern is now a teacher in the classroom right next door to hers.”

Donatelli credits those around her, including Barone and her former-intern-turned-next-door-neighbor, for helping her students succeed in a great educational environment.

“I don’t do this job alone,” says Donatelli. “It’s an amazing school with amazing teachers. We collaborate well and work well together, and we’re all here for the kids.”