A Principal Without Principles: Show Us the Money!

What’s North Miami Beach Senior High School Principal Raymond L. Fontana up to now? Well, no good, of course!

As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, he’s pared all the arts programs down to a bare minimum. In addition to destroying the highly successful Television Production program, I hear Principal Fontana has broken the hearts of all the students who were in the now defunded and defunct Choral program. These are kids who have the voices of angels, some of whom had hoped to get into prestigious schools such as The Juilliard School in New York City or the Berklee College of Music in Boston, among others. All their dreams have been dashed by the dastardly Raymond L. Fontana.

But I bet the funding never got cut for the school’s football team, which went 0-11 last fall. That was money well spent, huh?

The arts aren’t the only losers at North Miami Beach Senior High School.

According to the Verified Minutes of the January 31, 2012 Educational Excellence School Advisory Committee (EESAC):

“Mr Fontana spoke at length on NMB’s having moved up from a “C” to a “B” grade on the FCAT. He explained we had one of the highest scores overall, actually making our school an “A” school, but were penalized one letter because our at risk students did not move up. They did not move down either. They just remained as they were, at 74%. He has appealed the grade. He believes we are being penalized for our success the previous year.
Our programs are working and are being implemented with fidelity by teachers all the way around.
He explained superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, called him personally and our school is now the talk of the town. Our feeder patter, with our demographics, has scored absolutely phenomenally.”

Furthermore:

“Mr. Fontana explained that the state, if a school improves a letter grade gives funds as a reward. The staff must vote on the means of distribution of said funds. Reward moneys provided to NMB were $70 per FTE.
$156,000 given as bonus money to the staff. The staff has voted on an equitable distribution plan. Everyone in the school will get something, teachers will get $1000, $500 to non instructional. Security, custodial, cafeteria staff, all will partake of the pot.
This was approved by staff, only two were against it. Anyone who was here last year and left will be receiving a portion. Even new teachers coming in this year will receive $100, as an incentive to continue the success trend.”

According to those minutes, the following meeting was scheduled for February 23, 2012. Strangely enough, there are no Verified Minutes for the EESAC meeting held on February 23, 2012.

There are Verified Minutes for the EESAC meeting held on March 22, 2012, but the minutes don’t mention anything about the distribution of the FCAT funds.

You will note that Principal Fontana specifically stated that of those funds teachers will get $1000. However, several teachers have confirmed to me that they only received $660.00. Does anyone know where the missing $340.00 per teacher went? I bet Principal Fontana does. And he’s not talking.

According to Rate My Teachers, there are 80 teachers at NMB. At $340.00 a pop, that’s a grand total of $27,200.00 completely unaccounted for.

Disappearing money at North Miami Beach Senior High School is nothing new. During the school year 2008/2009 I was a member of the school’s EESAC. At the meeting held April 23, 2009, Principal Fontana “(m)otioned to present laptop computers to graduating seniors (contingent upon the availability of funds).”

To my recollection, laptops were supposed to be given to five high achieving students who were headed off to college in the fall. One of the deserving students just happened to be my neighbor, Steve Della Valentina, who also happens to be a computer whiz. He had also designed and maintained the NMBSH Alumni Website. For free. If anyone deserved a laptop for college, it was Steve.

Need I tell you that Steve never got his laptop? I don’t recall who the other four students were so I can’t ask them, but I’m betting they never got theirs, either.

I clearly remember that particular meeting on April 23, 2009. I also clearly remember that no mention was ever made that the gifting of laptops was “contingent upon the availability of funds.” Somehow, that parenthetical phrase was interjected into the minutes of that meeting once they were posted to the website.

At least there were Verified Minutes of that one. The next meeting was scheduled for May 7, 2009, in Principal Fontana’s office. I clearly remember attending that particular meeting, too, because I had notified the Committee that I was sponsoring the Harvard Book Club Award that year on behalf of Williams College, where my son was a senior that year. I remember asking the committee to choose a deserving student to receive this Award. To my knowledge a student was never chosen, nor was the Award presented. Yeah, that’s a hundred bucks I’ll never get back. Of course, I have no proof that the meeting ever took place, nor of my Harvard Book Club Award, because THERE ARE NO VERIFIED MINUTES OF THE MEETING THAT TOOK PLACE ON MAY 7, 2009!

I’ve sent numerous emails to School Board Representative Dr. Martin Karp, asking him to help me get a copy of those minutes. Dr. Karp referred me to his Administrative Assistant, Jerold Blumstein, who referred me to Community Development and Public Outreach Director Rolando A. Martin, who referred me to Chief Communications Officer John Schuster, who referred me to the website where all the Verified Minutes are published.

Guess what? I was back to square one. I already knew they weren’t there! DUH!

I’ve written several letters to all of the above to find out how I can get copies of minutes that aren’t posted to the Official Verified Minutes Website.

I’m still waiting.

Maybe I’ll get a copy of those minutes before Steve Della Valentina graduates college next year? Yeah, rhetorical question.

At the EESAC meeting held on September 10, 2009, my husband brought up the laptops and asked why they weren’t distributed. According to the minutes, Principal Fontana stated that he “will investigate and discuss with Mrs. Stauffer [EESAC Chair] outcome of purchase and distribution of laptops.” Ironically, according to the minutes, Steve Della Valentino was present at the meeting and offered to continue to maintain the Alumni Website, even though he had already started college. (As an aside, I had resigned from the Committee at the beginning of the school year so I wasn’t in attendance; however, my name was not removed from the membership list until January of 2010.)

At the October 15, 2010 meeting, Mrs. Stauffer inquired again about the laptops. No response was recorded.

No mention was made about the laptops at the November 12, 2010 meeting.

Ditto at the December 10, 2010 meeting.

On January 14, 2010, they finally took my name off the membership roll, but still no mention of the laptops in the Verified Minutes.

On February 18, 2010, Mrs. Stauffer finally brought up the laptops again. You go, Girl! The minutes stated, “[Mrs.] Stauffer brought up the encumbered monies for last years students that had not been awarded the computers from lap tops from EESAC. V. Martin explained that the computers were not given out.” No reason was given out, either.

No mention of the laptops were made at the meetings held on March 25, 2010, April 29, 2010, or May 20, 2010. I guess Mrs. Stauffer gave up. Principal Fontana, however, did manage to allocate “$1,500.00 to paint the pillars outside the front of the school.”

Yeah, because that was so much more important than laptops for deserving students.

If you’re ever inclined to review any of the Verified Minutes of the North Miami Beach Senior High School Educational Excellence School Advisory Committee meetings, you’ll notice all the grant money that’s been pouring into that school over the years, including the Title I Funding with which Principal Fontana has always been obsessed. I understand he finally achieved that status. He also likes to bring in all kinds of “innovative” programs, such as the iPrep, which is nothing more than a bunch of students chilling out in a lounge, doing what they do best … sitting in front of a computer screen. Somehow, he’s always short on funding all the various and sundry programs, and there is NEVER any accountability for all the money brought into the school. But if you ask Principal Fontana how any of the money was allocated, you’ll never get a straight answer. In fact, he gets insulted if you dare ask! His favorite response is to put you on the defensive by accusing you of accusing him of taking the money. The very nerve of you to question the King of NMB Senior High!

As if destroying the hopes and dreams of talented artists and cheating the teachers out of thousands of dollars weren’t enough, Principal Raymond L. Fontana received a whopping TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS of FCAT money. For barely showing up at school all year I’m told. What did he do with that unearned bonus? Why he bought a spanking new Corvette!