01-13-2009 7:48 PM — Nashville's public school system is legally obligated to follow directives made by the Tennessee Department of Education, due to repeated failing of benchmarks required by federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) laws.
But according to DOE accountability chief Connie Smith, who has orchestrated many of the changes at Metro schools this year, not all state directives have been followed.
"The state directives have not been met," Smith told Board of Education members at a meeting this evening. "There is a disconnect between what occurs in the system and what the state mandates as directives."
Fulfilling these directives has been cited as a strain on the school system's budget, district officials have said.
State directives have included the addition of 41 full-time employees, district-wide, at some schools that have failed to meet NCLB requirements. But a number of these positions have not been filled, Smith said, including employees to support math education, students with disabilities and English Language Learners.
Of the 41 positions specified by state directives, more than 14 have not been filled.
An ongoing problem at Metro Nashville Public Schools, Smith said, is unequal distribution of resources. State directives are identified at individual schools, Smith said, to help address these issues.
These unfulfilled state directives have been cited in some media reports as having an undue impact on the district's budget, in a time when the district faces mid-year cuts as a result of revenue shortfalls. Smith pointed, for example, to a news story in which district leaders were quoted as saying that $1.3 million was spent in hiring assistant principals at high-priority schools, and that those expenditures were linked to state directives. In reality, Smith said, state directives only mandated the hiring of one new assistant principal - and that position has yet to be filled.
"I don't know who's talking, but I'm just here to clear this up," Smith said. "A pattern exists of inaccurate communication and linking of mandated state directives to budget items."
The City Paper and NashvillePost.com have been told by district officials that it's tough to pin down a cost for state interventions. Smith did not identify in her report to the board a net total cost of state directives.
Smith's presentation also included a status report on the success of the state's restructuring of areas of MNPS, as a six-month trial period for that restructuring has just concluded.
No Child Left Behind Act | 
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