When they “graduate” from the Disney Institute’s leadership workshop in November, 50 hand-picked Fairfax County Public School administrators will receive a certificate of completion and Mickey Mouse ears, complete with tassels. Fairfax County taxpayers will get a bill for $50,000 — not including airfare to and from Orlando, Fla., $125 per diems for two travel days and hotel accommodations “comparable in quality to the Walt Disney World Resort hotels designated by us as ‘moderate’ ” for Disney “cast members.” The agreement, signed on March 5, 2012, by Terri Breeden, FCPS assistant superintendent for professional learning and accountability, specifies that non-FCPS employees cannot attend this private event without prior approval. Disney would not provide The Washington Examiner with a copy of the course catalog.
However, we did find this written description of the two-day course, which costs as much as a full year’s salary for one beginning teacher with a master’s degree: “Leadership Excellence explores strategies and tactics for delivering results through Disney’s approach to values-based leadership, helping organizations to grow and succeed. Learn time-tested leadership principles for influencing significant change in your organization, your team, and yourself as a leader.”
Dr. Breeden’s subsequent explanation was similarly vague: “The Disney Leadership Institute will train FCPS leaders in the areas of vision, mission, customer service and communication skill.”
“A school might not sound as if it has customers, but they really do,” Disney Institute spokeswoman Stacey Thomson added. This will come as news to the many parents and taxpayers who are treated more like nuisances than customers whenever they question actions by school officials.
Unfortunately, Mickey Mouse mortarboards are not FCPS’ only frivolous expense. The school system has a contract with Lands’ End for umbrellas, watches and leather laptop bags to reward public employees for longevity. An outside consultant is being paid $3,000 for each newsletter she writes for the Instructional Services Department. Another contractor, who lives in a $1.5 million mansion in Hawaii, was paid $17,000 in March for a two-day training course entitled “Teaching with Poverty in Mind.” And the school system even spent $27,610 “to evaluate FCPS participation” in a free federal grant program.
FCPS spends tens of thousands of dollars on such contracts while children in one of the largest and wealthiest school districts in the country are crowded into classes with more than 30 students and, at some schools, taught in “temporary” trailers so old they are falling apart. That’s a failure of leadership that even Disney is unlikely to correct.
