New TTI Leader Chosen
A new leader has been chosen to replace Ken Olsen as the head of TTI. Congratulations to Jim Brannan on being selected for the job.
Apparently a team of interviewers was brought in from outside of the district, and that team believed that Mr. Brannan was the best candidate. The other applicants were David Dunkle, Sandy MacDonald, and Horace McLeod.
Best of luck to Mr. Brannan in his new position.
Apparently a team of interviewers was brought in from outside of the district, and that team believed that Mr. Brannan was the best candidate. The other applicants were David Dunkle, Sandy MacDonald, and Horace McLeod.
Best of luck to Mr. Brannan in his new position.
OMG!!!
Reply to this
Do you think he was the best person for the job, or was it just his turn. I haven't really seen anything at any of the other schools Mr. Brannen has been involved in that lead me to believe he has progressive ideas, that would move TTI ahead. I hope this isn't just another nail in the TTI coffin.
Reply to this
You have to give kudos to this blog, it now has Dyal and Company issuing press releases to paint a positive spin on the Dyal fiasco!
As for "another nail", you have it wrong, this is the final nail! Dyal has now idea on what to do for TTI! Jim is a great individual, but has little ability to lead this post-secondary institution into greatness of the past. It will continue more of the same as the last director did over his tenure. I say find Bryant Russell and Ann Copper for a life-line! LOL!
Seriously, Jim is of little threat to Dyal the Great, I fear that Jim will muddle through, with little direction from Dyal or the School Board, and very little will happen. Did not Dyal want a totally different person?
Reply to this
I stand behind my original statement. OMG!!!
Reply to this
Bryant Russell travels throughout Florida and surrounding states evaluating Technical School programs. He is one of the best directors TTI has ever had. Too bad he wasn't utilized in the search for a new Director.
Reply to this
Remember that the interview committee was made up of people from out of town. They didn't have the information that folks who have lived and worked in Taylor County for years have.
Remember, too, that the pool of applicants was small. There were two reasons for this.
First, the district did little to recruit candidates--particularly candidates from outside of the county. Far more effort was made in searching for a new football coach than was made searching for someone to run TTI (I'm not looking to open that can of worms again--just stating a simple fact).
Second, they cut the pay of the job to a level that ensured that few qualified candidates would be interested. In fact, advertising the job outside of Taylor County probably would've been a waste of time, anyway, because no one good would go to the trouble of relocating here to work for peanuts.
I'm optimistic that this whole fiasco will be a learning experience for the district. They'll undoubtedly realize that if they want to attract great candidates for a job in the future, they'll need to pay a decent salary and actively recruit applicants.
Reply to this
What does the school board and administration do with poor performing staff members: promote them to director. Prior to the election, wasn't there a lot said on this blog that Brannen has done a p*** poor job everywhere he has been an administrator? So here's a novel idea, the guy loses in the primary (by A LOT of votes), is hired as a math teacher at TCHS, and promoted to TTI director. Way to go Dyal and Co! What is wrong with this picture?????? I agree with Anonymous -- OMG!!!!!
Reply to this
I agree that he was not an effective administrator. However, that's not always visible through paper trails and interviews--I doubt that the committee was aware of his performance problems. No one in the district ever gets a bad performance evaluation, so I'm sure that if they looked at those he would've come out shining.
Conceivably, Mr. Dyal could've rejected the committee's recommendation--but I'm sure that doing that would've given his critics reason to complain as well.
Also, remember that the board hasn't approved this appointment, and there's a (slim) chance they won't do so. It's not quite a done deal yet. Maybe enough complaints will reach their ears that they'll be motivated to send the superintendent back to the drawing board on this.
Reply to this
Only in Taylor County will someone hire a non-effective person for an admin job. And as for doing the best in the interview I highly doubt it giving his rep for being lazy and non-productive I don't see him helping T.T.I any. But who said it was his turn was right on the money PD probably made this recommendation because of what he was presented with he didn't do his own research but the board does not have to accept this decision but they will.
Reply to this
So cynical!
It's not at all uncommon for people to look good on paper and interview well despite being non-performers. Again, remember that the interviewers were from out of town. They would have no way of knowing about Mr. Brannan's reputation.
My gut feeling is that Mr. Dyal, however, knows full well about his reputation. However, he probably felt that since he had brought in this committee, he was obliged to go with their recommendation lest people accuse him of bias. There's no doubt that if he had gone against their recommendation, people in this forum would be slamming him for that.
I have no criticism about him following the recommendation of a selection committee. My criticism is over how few candidates there were to begin with, because that's a direct result of his decision to cut the job's pay and not widely advertise it.
Reply to this
I KNOW how it was done the so called committee didn't know Jim when they walked in but they knew him after the personel director got through with them he had a long talk with them behind closed doors before any of the canidates got there. Nobody is suppose to know that, they want everyone to think it was done without bias but the committee was told who to pick why else go behind closed doors something was hidden. Yes the committe didn't see paperwork but it probably wouldn't have mattered now that school is going to have bigger problems. Lets hope not!!!!
Reply to this
To Richalene: I would not doubt that at all. I am finding more and more that they are doing whatever they want. Thesad thing is that the school board members accept what is presented to them wihtout researching or questioning in public their concerns. One thing I can say about Frank Russell (the con that he is!). At least as a county commissioner, when he went to the BOCC meetings, not a whole lot got past him. Many of the other commissioners are like our school board members, perusing their school board packet during the meeting. They have an obligation to the taxpayers of this county that they make informed decisions and take care of the school district's finances. Apparently, 4 out of the 5 school board members are way past their effectiveness and should step down next election. I know one thing, I won't be making the same mistake I did last election. I will campaign for anyone except the incumbents. It's time for a change!
Finally, they will get who and what they want. Hope they can live with their decisions.
Paul Dyal, NO MORE THAN 4!
Reply to this
Partnerships have become a canker/blithe on the Florida citizen’s right to be heard, considered, and informed of decisions made by decision, law, and policy makers. A partnership gives an appearance of legitimacy to community leaders/decision makers through publicized acknowledgment of community/citizen involvement/participation in the self-governing process known as democracy. While more often than not partnerships are simple tools of rubber stamping poor decision making, laws which disadvantage the public interests, bad policies, and programs that are ineffective in maintaining, promoting, and contributing to the health, wealth, and long term well being of public/citizens.
GED and SKILLS based programs are significant in the funding process for TTI. Public funding is being used as an avoidance action. This action is taken by local school system leadership to address ramification from identifiable numbers of extremely high rate of high school drop outs which has plagued this community since the sixties. Shifting the problems of failing school systems onto the tax payer again under the guise of employment opportunity in order to double dip the funding or redirect funding is not a solution.
I attended the graduation ceremony last year and was amazed at the record count of GED recipients. Is this higher education or training for private sector needs of cheap labor resources? Education systems based on the needs of employer’s (partnerships) defeats the purpose of education for all students/workers to have choices. This simply takes out the right to choose and streamlines public dollars in support of private gains. This tactic has been used again and again and we still can not figure out why our school system is having problems and failing our children.
Reply to this
A good example of such a partnership between local education system and local industry is a (contract labor/skills) company and TTI publicly funded industrial skills programs. A partnership expressed publicly as a jobs provider with above average earnings to otherwise unemployable workers in economically depressed rural communities in North Florida. This all sounds good but the devil is in the details.
New employee training cost companies 60% of the employees pay in lost production time. Saving 60% of employee labor cost for training through transferring training cost to the public coffers is an excellent business decision. This partnership may well be a disadvantage to the worker considering the eventual job offerings and training of temporary, occasional, and seasonal employees. Are public dollars supplying a cost effective work force for companies of partnerships which disadvantage citizen workers who will make considerably less earnings than full time employees, long term benefits, and security of jobs/employment placements? Yes and the silent partner in these education dollars fiasco is the industry of special interest in this community which will ultimately benefit in low cost production of product lines through reduced labor cost.
It’s a sweet deal for the business community and a great disservice to the tax payer, student, and worker. In other words it cost more than it’s worth. The temporary, part time, hired as needed (PRN) employee receives unemployment compensation, food stamps, and Medicaid when unemployed. How does that help? We pay for training of workers that does little more than subsidize and support a specialized/industry specific workforce. The pay out is higher than the pay back every time.
Reply to this