Hillsboro Superintendent Addison Davis scores high in ratings

Hillsborough County Superintendent Addison Davis has won his most important audience: seven members of the school board who are his bosses.

Rating scores released this week show that all seven are happier with Davis than they were a year ago. His total points rose from 174 to 213.

Davis, 46, is overjoyed at the turbulent results of his two-and-a-half years at the company.

The news comes despite a narrow defeat in the tax referendum last month and possible controversy as school districts plan to change school boundaries.

“I never had to make a difficult decision,” Davis said. “But I’m glad I did.”

Related: Read all evaluations, including superintendents.

Scores are for feedback and do not affect Davis’ job security or $310,000 salary.

In June, the school board agreed to extend the original contract for three and a half years. The board also agreed that Davis could expect a salary increase of at least 4% per annum if district managers also got a raise.

Some teachers were upset that budget issues prevented annual raises, but Davis’ first raise won’t go into effect until June 2023.

Decisions he cited included job cuts in 2021 after state leaders called for an austerity plan to reverse years of deficit spending. The majority of headcount reductions were achieved through layoffs and transfers, not layoffs. But teachers said they left some classes more crowded and smaller schools shared specialized teachers.

To solve the problem of sharing teachers and raise salaries to compete with neighboring school districts, Davis this year called for a referendum to raise property taxes by $1 for every $1,000 in valuation. He told business groups and a small city hall audience that the tax would give elementary school students the full-time music, art and physical education teachers they need for a well-rounded education.

The referendum was defeated by a narrow margin, so a recount was required. It was the only such bill to be defeated in Florida this year. Davis vowed to try again in 2024.

Hillsborough County Public Schools Superintendent Addison Davis addresses an audience at Armwood High School on the proposed property tax increase on July 13, 2022. [ MARLENE SOKOL | Times ]

At the same time, Davis oversaw changes to improve grades in the district’s most problematic elementary and middle schools.

Hillsboro, once infamous for having 39 “persistently underperforming” schools, the most in Florida, has cut that number by more than half, Davis reports. The number of schools with D and F grades has also dropped dramatically.

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When comparing district-wide performance points, Hillsboro rose from 35th to 19th out of 67 districts in the state.

Students at James Elementary School in East Tampa tackle reading words with their second grade teacher, Diana Patrici, in November 2021. James Elementary School, with her 93% poverty rate, improved from her F rating to a C twice. [ AYA, AYA DIAB | Times ]

Davis has expanded its middle school and high school academic programs. He furthered his Spanish dual language in elementary school. He oversaw the revitalization of the district’s career education programs, including medicine and construction. The Florida Association of Career and Technical Education this year named Davis its superintendent of the year.

Davis elaborated on these and other achievements using self-assessment in bullet points on page 7.5. He named more than 100, including monthly training sessions for bilingual classroom aides and teaching 17,210 teachers and his 945 administrators how to use the new Canvas Communication his platform. .

Board members commended him for his work and attention to their concerns, while also offering suggestions for improvement.

Board chair Nadia Combs urged Davis to “make sure instruction is teacher-centered and not computer-based programs.” I asked him to streamline the district’s hiring system because

Stacey Hahn warned him he must keep his spending under control.Jessica Vaughn wrote that there is still room for improvement when it comes to “employee motivation, engagement and retention.” Karen Perez agreed that employee relations could be improved.

The challenges ahead center around an ongoing school boundary survey initiated by school districts in response to dozens of schools well below optimal enrollment levels.

Consulting firm WXY Studio held a series of virtual community meetings to explain their research process. If the board follows the company’s recommendations, the result could be new boundaries for some schools and new uses for others.

Neither result has been popular, and conference attendees have so far vehemently opposed any changes.

Hillsborough County Superintendent Addison Davis (right) bumps his fist at student James Braden on the first day of school at Sessums Elementary School in Riverview on August 10, 2021. After taking office as principal in March 2020, Davis implemented COVID-19 protocols across his seventh-largest school district in the nation. [ CHRIS O’MEARA | AP ]

More quickly, the school district is at a standstill in hearings with the teachers’ union, which wants union members to receive the pay increases advertised in their salary plans, rather than the one-time subsidy the school district is offering. .