Tough review of superintendent

Nearly half of board rates Fennoy as subpar in annual review

Donald Fennoy received a tough review during his second full year as Palm Beach County schools superintendent, with nearly half the School Board rating his performance subpar in a year disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fennoy received an overall rating of effective, but just barely. His score was 2.51 out of 4.0. A score below 2.5 would be “needs improvement.” It’s a big decline from last year when the School Board gave him a highly effective score of 3.5.

Most board members voiced concerns about the district’s chaotic effort to close and reopen schools as the community battled COVID-19, although some cut him slack due the unprecedented nature of the pandemic.

“I don’t think it was the most stellar job done by any human, but in the given circumstances he’s done the best job he can,” board member Erica Whitfield said at a board meeting Wednesday. “It’s a very stressful job to be superintendent in this country right now. I’d like to give him a little bit of grace.”

The overall ratings ran the gamut.

Chuck Shaw rated Fennoy highly effective for the second year, while Karen Brill improved her rating from effective last year to highly effective in 2020.

Barbara McQuinn and Whitfield scored him on the low end of

effective, down from highly effective last year.

Debra Robinson and Chairman Frank Barbieri said he needs improvement. Last year, Robinson rated him effective, while Barbieri rated him highly effective.

Marcia Andrews, who rated Fennoy highly effective last year, flunked him this year by giving him a rating of unsatisfactory.

Robinson and Andrews asked Wednesday night to put Fennoy on a 90-day improvement plan, but other board members rejected the idea.

Shaw, who is retiring from the board in November, gave Fennoy the most praise, saying he’s developed a “focused and effective approach” to dealing with academic issues during the pandemic.

“The superintendent’ s actions were better than most districts and have been met with successes and challenges,” Shaw wrote.

But other board members complained Fennoy wasted months of planning time in the summer, leading to a rushed and disorganized effort to reopen schools.

A week before campuses opened in

mid-September, district officials struggled to explain what safeguards were in place to protect students and employees, how students’ education would change and whether there would be enough teachers to cover classes.

The Palm Beach Classroom Teachers Association said teachers felt misled about whether they could work remotely due to health concerns and called for the removal of both Fennoy and his chief human resources officer, Gonzalo La Cava.

“The lack of planning has left educators floundering amid a barrage of inconsistent messages,” Andrews wrote. “As a result, credibility, respect and confidence has been lost. ... Some educators have left the profession.”

Parents also complained of subpar remote education last spring, saying their children were falling behind academically.

Another concern was his handling of a scandal involving the former principal at Spanish River High in Boca Raton, who made comments appearing to question whether the Holocaust was a factual event.

William Latson’s comments were made in 2018, but he wasn’t fired until 2019 when news reports led to an international backlash against the district.

“In well-managed education organizations, serious personnel situations do not escalate to the level of national/international scandals,” Barbieri wrote. “The superintendent’s purported lack of awareness of these situations until they become public is unacceptable.”

Although the Holocaust comments also outraged Brill, she said Fennoy’s review period was supposed to be July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020, and issues involving Latson happened outside that time frame.

“There have been some fantastic things that have happened in the district,” she said.

She praised Fennoy for improving access to mental health for students and building partnerships in the community that enabled the district to secure take-home computers for every student who needed one.

“I said last year the superintendent needs to be more visible in the schools, and he took it to heart and he has been,” Brill said.

Fennoy said he appreciates receiving an overall effective rating.

“In leadership, especially now, you have to be open to criticism and feedback,” he said. “We’ll take the information and make some shifts to make sure we’re in a better place next year.”