Wednesday, November 18, 2009

In many occupations, job requirements are flexible. The job-seeker (or the job-holder) probably needs some training, maybe a college degree, some experience in the chosen field. Skills learned in one field may be applied with success in another.

But in certain callings, requirements are much more specific and often outlined by law. Doctors must meet stringent educational requirements. Lawyers, in addition to educational requirements, must pass bar exams. And there clearly is good reason to require people who operate nuclear reactors to understand the control and safeguards of the power they harness.

So, too, we require specific skills of the people who educate our children. If you want to teach, you need certain degrees, certain certification. If you want to administer educational programs or support services, that too requires specific skills.

But that has not been the case since Virginia-based Management Advisory Group rewrote the requirements for employees in the Monroe County school system. For some positions, job requirements were rewritten to fit the person who was already in the position, not what was needed to handle the job as mandated by the Florida Department of Education.

School Board member John Dick has speculated that MAG rewrote requirements to appease former Superintendent Randy Acevedo and other administrators -- including his wife, Monique, who was coordinator of Adult Education.

An investigator has found that MAG, hired by the board, changed job requirements for 39 positions, lowering them for 21 and raising them in 18. In some, even though the state called for a bachelor's degree, the consultant changed the requirement to two years or less of college. MAG was paid almost $100,000 for its efforts, money the board is now trying to get refunded.

Because Monroe schools, through the rewritten requirements, have unqualified administrators, Superintendent Joe Burke has targeted those positions for correction -- either by getting the administrators qualified or by dismissing them.

We are all for his determination to set it right. Burke has said he will give employees time to obtain the required education and experience, but at some point may ask the unqualified personnel to resign and then reapply for their jobs.

The rewriting of the requirements is another wedge that helped fuel the recent school scandal that has seen perhaps a half-million dollars go astray.

Getting people with the right qualifications in the right slots won't bring that money back, but it may improve quality and accountability of district administration.

We know that a school system is much more complex that many imagined, but Burke again has taken a position that we believe will make the operation more transparent and efficient, as well as professional.

We wish Burke well. He seems to have an agenda that, in the end, will give the county a school system in which residents get their money's worth and students get the education that will qualify them either to go on to college or find employment for which they are suited.

-- The Citizen