Ed Tierney, superintendent of schools for the Monroe County School District, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the schools.
The initiative to bring administration officials into the schools has been going well.
Tierney said, “I really appreciate everybody being so open to it, the teachers and principals who could potentially look at this as additional work, more people coming in the school and them having to help and it’s disrupting their schedule. They still have full time jobs. And when I asked them to do this and support the schools, every single person said, happy to help, love to go, thanks for the heads up. I speak Spanish. I can go anywhere. So it’s been so remarkably well received that I’m really kind of humbled and so proud to be a part of the organization. There’s times that our building is empty, the lights are off, doors are locked because everyone’s in schools, supporting students, supporting teachers, some of them former educators and some never having taught before, but we worked through the anxiety with some training and support for people getting ready to go out, and then universally, they come back to that building energized and how much they enjoyed it and how much they love working with the kids. And the other thing is just an organizational focus on how difficult a teacher’s job is and how important it is in the district office for us to always be recognizing we have to be supporting schools and teachers in the district.”
There have been two advisory committees formed recently, one to help steer the budget process, the other for construction.
Tierney said, “Those two creating a budget for a school district, managing the construction efforts as a school district are incredibly complex and wide reaching tasks, and I found that the more people, if we cast a net widely on feedback and opinions, the better product we will produce. So we have boards for both those areas, budget and construction, and our board members are each appointed, one for budget, two for construction, and they’ve just appointed such impressive people we’ve already met with them to give us feedback on the budget creation process, to oversee and help us with our construction projects. And it’s new programs in each area, but I’m seeing benefits already, and I just think it’s going to help us be better in both those areas in the coming years.”
Is Monroe County School District being supported in Tallahassee?
Tierney said, “We’re well supported in Tallahassee and from our local representatives. The relationship is so amazingly strong. I feel very, very well supported. We did host the Board of Education meeting earlier. It was hosted at Tennessee Williams with our friends and partners at the College of the Florida Keys. And then after that, we went on a tour of Poinciana, and the State Board and the commissioner got to walk through those classrooms and see the amazing part done by the teachers and staff members of Poinsettia and I thought that Monroe County as a whole represented itself so well, to the Board of Education and the commissioner.”
This will be Tierney’s second semester in MCSD.
He said, “I came from a high performing district to a high performing district. I’m really impressed with the quality of the teachers we have in Monroe County. I’m so impressed and pleased with the quality of the teachers throughout the Keys. And I think their technical approach to instruction is strong, but the collective community feels the love of the kids, the love of the community, that’s palpable even in the classrooms.”
MCSD is also at a low vacancy rate for employees.
Tierney said, “We’re at .6 vacancy rate for instructional personnel, so remarkably low. And the team really works year round. Once Labor Day hits, they start working on the next year of hiring. So they’re on a Zoom call every Wednesday with prospective teachers down here, and talk about the expense and the living arrangement and some of the challenges to get here. So it’s really a 10 or 11 month process, and it’s just resulted in a remarkably low vacancy rate and a very, very high caliber teaching force we have here. I’ve been aware of this district and this board for years before I applied. And the school board is known for fiscal discipline and wanting to get the teachers’ pay as high as possible. They’re known throughout the entire state for that. When I was in Palm Beach, I had board members reference some of the work happening in Monroe, instructional kind of tendencies that they were doing that we should look at. So this district has a well deserved, very good reputation throughout the state, and now, having been here for 10 months or so, I certainly see why.”
The graduation rate continues to be on the rise in Monroe County.
Tierney said, “We doubled the increase of the state. We’re dedicated to improving that, putting a lot of effort into helping the juniors and seniors in the schools. Our data indicates we may well be able to increase again this year. The whole district is focused on student success and supporting teachers in schools, and we’re out in schools doing everything we can to improve outcomes for all of our kids.”