Hillsborough County Schools Important Dates

When you consider what constitutes “willful neglect” remember this simple 6 item sequence of events:

1. On December 15, 2011: a special needs student is forgotten on a school bus for most of the school day. The student is unharmed but the Aide is charged with child neglect.

2. January 1, 2012: the 2012 campaign season begins with 4 incumbent school board members running for re-election.

3. January 26, 2012: Isabella Herrera dies after suffering respiratory distress on a bus. Neither the aide nor the bus driver call 911 or sought assistance while parked in front of a pediatric Office but no one is charged with neglect, Superintendent Elia, Chair Candy Olson and the Sheriff’s Office are all together at a “Battle of the Belts” event when Isaballa passes away but none of them inform the school board or the public about the death (see Watchdogwire.com WHERE WERE HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY’S SHERIFF, SCHOOL BOARD CHAIR AND SUPERINTENDENT WHEN SPECIAL NEEDS STUDENT ISABELLA HERRERA DIED?)

4. August 14, 2012: Primaries are held and incumbent school board members Doretha Edgecomb and Susan Valdes are re-elected.

5. November 1, 2012: 9 months after it occurred the public and school board learn of the death of Isabella Herrera when a lawsuit is filed after the death of a second student Jenny Caballero.

6. Nobember 6, 2012: The General election is held and incumbent school board member Carol Kurdell is re-elected.

When you consider what constitutes “willful neglect” consider that one of the responsibilities of the Superintendent and her staff is to recommend policy and training updates for the school board to adopt. But the Not-so-superintendent Elia will later claim that her excuse for not informing the school board for 9 months about Isabella Herrera’s death was that no “criminal wrongdoing” was found. But criminal wrongdoing was found in the previous December 15, 2011 incident but no policy & training updates were recommended by the not-so-Superintendent and her staff like Cathy Valdes, then Chief of Facilities (bus transportation). Instead they sat in front of the board for 9 months and said nothing. Had they recommended policy & training updates then both Isabella Herrera and Jenny caballero might still be with us. And conceivably had policies and training been updated after the December 15, 2011 incident then Shawn Livingston and all the staff at Rodgers Middle school would have received those updated policies and training and Jenny Caballero would not have drowned. Or, in other words, Superintendent Elia and the school board’s failure after the December 15, 2011 incident is directly responsible for any perceived failure on the part of Shawn Livingston and the Rodgers Middle School staff .

Do you believe that the 2012 elections did not factor in to the decision of Not-so-Superintendent Elia and then Board Chair Candy Olson to not inform the school board and the public? Imagine how that campaign year would have gone for those 4 incumbent board members if we had all known about this awful failure of the school district. And this was followed by the school board doing nothing to discipline Superintendent Elia and, worse yet, promoting Cathy Valdes to deputy Superintendent.

Well now we are on the eve of the 2014 election and you have the opportunity to fix what the School Board and school administration failed to do: FIRE all incumbent board members that are running for office. School Board member April Griffin and School Board member Stacy White have failed to serve Hillsborough County citizens. It is only fitting that those responsible for frivolously firing lower ranking staff for upper management failures now be fired themselves.

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