Memphis City Schools consultant earned failing grades at last stop
By November 2009, then-Palm Beach County Chief Academic Officer Jeffrey Hernandez (left) had begun to feel the pressure of parents opposed to his policies for turning around schools there.
A consultant hired Monday by the city school board to turn around failing schools in Memphis was driven out of school administration in Palm Beach, Fla., this year after a revolt by parents.
Jeffrey Hernandez, 39, former Palm Beach County Schools chief academic officer, left the Florida district June 30, 13 months after he was hired.
By that time, he had already worked six months here, flying from Miami several times a month on sick and personal days to work for Memphis City Schools Supt. Kriner Cash under a $43,500 consulting contract.
A second contract approved by the Memphis board Monday, would pay Hernandez $1,500 a day up to $72,000 through Oct. 31, plus an additional $21,600 for travel.
That agreement is now being reworked because it was backdated to May 18.
Cash says he didn’t notice the date until board members had the contract in hand.
“It will be a two-month contract,” Cash said late Tuesday after meeting with board president Freda Williams. He promised to bring a “clearer contract” to the board for its consideration in September.
By the time the board sees the new contract, Hernandez will have been on the job several weeks, doing work Cash calls imperative to turning around 30 failing schools.
Hernandez is credited by Memphis administrators with helping the district write a proposal for using $68 million in federal stimulus dollars and structuring the 30 schools that will receive the lion’s share of the money into a “striving school zone.”
He was hired in the spring of 2009 at Palm Beach, where he centralized instruction, requiring all teachers in each grade level to teach the same lesson each day and follow up with frequent tests.
He also instituted a plan for elementary students to change classes like high school students.
Mark Halpert, who runs a private school in the area, said of transfer students: “You knew which kids were from Palm Beach.
“He was taking students in the early grades and exposing them to two, three, four teachers. … You could tell in their stress levels. They were going through the roof.”
By October 2009, Palm Beach parents and teachers were demanding Hernandez’s ouster and started an anti-Hernandez website called Testing is not Teaching. To quell the unrest, Palm Beach Supt. Art Johnson demoted Hernandez in December, abandoning the centralized curriculum.
Hernandez kept his $180,000 salary but instead of overseeing instruction in a district of 172,000 students, he was put in charge of 32 low-performing schools.
“We decided to use Jeffrey’s proven talent and have him focus on lowest-performing schools,” said Palm Beach schools spokesman Nat Harrington.
Tuesday, commenters on Testing is not Teaching wrote that they were incredulous that Hernandez had so quickly landed on his feet.
“I would not have minded if the school district paid off Jeffrey Hernandez to go away,” wrote Mike Dowling, a Palm Beach teacher and frequent contributor.
“The cost of the remainder of his contract is a pittance when compared to the loss of a school year. I find it very sad that he is taking his snake oil show on the road. The people of Memphis deserve better.”
Tomeka Hart, MCS board member, voted against the contract Monday, largely because it was backdated and unclear.
“You can’t make a decision based on an article (in a newspaper) and what happened in another community without knowing the full context,” she said.
“The board makes a decision based on the best information it has before it and holds the superintendent accountable based on that.”
Hernandez was appointed to his first principal’s job at Miami-Dade County Public Schools by MCS Deputy Supt. Irving Hamer, who spent a short time as deputy superintendent in Miami-Dade schools, where Cash also worked before coming to Memphis.
Hamer praised Hernandez Monday for his ability to turn around failing schools.
“This particular vendor is important to us,” Hamer said, describing Hernandez as someone who has worked in large districts, turning around failing elementary and secondary schools.
On the state-approved list of similar vendors, Hamer said, “No one has that expertise.”
Similar Posts:
- Pay reduced for controversial consultant at Memphis City Schools
- Memphis School board rejects proposal to consolidate printer contracts
- Teacher who criticized Cash now MCS team player
- Last-minute changes slow Memphis City Schools funding resolution
- Martavius Jones: Shelby County’s special-district status will raise taxes
Leave a Reply