Second Letter Ending a Professional Standards Investigation

Ms. Cobbe: The Professional Standards file you sent me for Steve Kemp's investigation for child abuse does not contain the summary record by Ms. Kipley that the rules you sent me that a Professional Standards investigation dictates must be part of the file.

An example of such a cumulative file appears below.

Oddly enough, Ms. Kipley's file on Mr. Kemp that you sent to me contains five such files citing the cases of other teachers who have been investigated by Professional Standards, but no such file on Mr. Kemp. He is due one.

May I have the analogous Kemp summary letter from the Kemp file, please, to complete the file I paid for?

Thank you.

Lee Drury De Cesare

~

Hillsborough County PUBLIC SCHOOLS ~Uzg~n

Superintendent of Schools MaryEllen Elia

School Board

Carol W. Kurdell, Chair Susan L. Valdes, Vice Chair Doretha W. Edgecomb Jennifer Faliero

April Griffin

Jack R. Lamb, Ed.D. Candy Olson

Deputy Superintendents Kenneth R. Otero Daniel J. Valdez

General Manager of Professional Standards Linda A. Kipley

Gregg Wicktor

126 Silver Falis Drive Apollo Beach, FL 33572

On March 4, 2009, you met with me to discuss an investigation conducted by Dr. John Hilderbrand, Director of Accountability and Assessment. The investigation was conducted regarding a testing violation that was reported to the office of Professional Standards by Clyde Trathowen, Principal of Spoto High School.

Dr. Hilderbrand's investigation revealed that you provided your Integrated Science students at Spoto High School a semester exam worksheet that you admitted you constructed from the District semester exam. Specifically, you reproduced 60 of the 93 questions that were to be given on the exam.

When questioned as to why you provided your students with the exact exam questions on their study guide sheet, you stated that your students were behind, and you did not think it was fair to test them on content you had not covered in class. Due to your poor decision-making, the District was forced to construct a new Integrated Science exam, and delete the one you compromised.

It is a teacher's responsibility to pace the instruction of the subject content to make sure that those areas as outlined in the curriculum are reviewed with the students through the normal course of your instructional delivery. Your failure to provide your students the necessary content exposure to be proficient on the semester exam has deprived them of knowledge that is critical to their overall success as high school students.

As a result of your actions, you are required to meet with Mr. Trathowen or his designee, to review testing protocol for semester exams, MAP exams, FCAT, and any other State or District tests that you may be required to facilitate in your capacity as a classroom teacher. This meeting should take place before any District or State test is given for the 2009-2010 school year. Be aware that if this incident was not reflected in your annual evaluation completed for the 2008-09 school year, it will be reflected in your 2009-2010 evaluation.

You are hereby reprimanded for your unprofessional behavior, and any future incidents will result in a recommendation to dismiss you from employment. This letter will be placed into your personnel file on or after July 24, 2009. Florida Statute gives you the right to respond and any response you choose to make will be attached upon my receipt of it.

. Sincerely, ~

~ .

Linda A. Kipley

General Manager of Professional Standards

CERTIFIED MAIURETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED C: Daniel J. Valdez, Deputy Superintendent ~

Clyde Trathowen, Principal, Spoto High School /

Phil Carr, Assistant Principal for Curriculum, Spoto High School / Rachel Frierson, CTA representative .;

Department of Testing and Accountability /

Personnel file J

Instructional Services Center. 2920 North 40^th Street. Tampa, Florida 33605 Office: 813-840-7128. FAX: 813-840-7186

School District Information: 813-272-4000. Web Site: www.sdhc.k12.f1.us