Tonight's canceled Warsaw School Board executive session was originally called to discuss Superintendent Dr. Dave McGuire's evaluation further.

But, what kind of evaluation did McGuire receive? That depends who is doing the evaluation.

The evaluation is based on a 5-point scale, with 1 being unsatisfactory and 5 being outstanding. The evaluation was conducted by two groups - the school board and a group of 31 Warsaw Community Schools administrators including principals. Seventy-four percent of administrators returned the evaluation. The current school board's evaluation is compared to last year's school board evaluation of McGuire.

No school board evaluation score is below a 2 (needs to improve), while no administrative evaluation on the superintendent is below a 3 (meets expectations).

The evaluations are broken into eight standards: educational vision; school culture; management; communication and collaboration with communities; acting with honesty, fairness and professional ethics; the political, social, legal, economic and cultural environments; instructional program; and policy implementation.

Under educational vision, there are 15 points McGuire was evaluated on. His lowest score by this year's school board is a 2.3 for "systematically communicates progress toward the vision and goals to the greater school community" and for "identifying, clarifying and addressing barriers to achieving the vision and goals." Those scores are down compared to 3.6 and 4.0 (exceeds expectations) respectively from the school board last year. In the same categories, administrators gave McGuire a 4.0 this year in both categories.

The lowest score by this year's school board under "school culture" also is a 2.3 for "defines and clearly communicates role responsibilities" and for "creates and maintains a positive school district culture and climate." Those scores, again, are down from last year's school board evaluation of 3.8 and 3.4. Administrators gave McGuire a 3.9 and 4.0, respectively.

Under management, this year's school board's lowest evaluation was a 2.1, compared to a 3.4 from last year's school board. The low score was for "using effective communication skills within the organization," and compared to a 3.8 from the administrators.

On the communication and collaboration with communities standard, McGuire's lowest evaluation by the school board was a 2.4 for "regularly uses information about family and community concerns, expectations and needs" and for "establishes an ongoing comprehensive program of community and media relations." Last year's school board in both categories gave McGuire a 3.4 and 3.8, while the administrators gave him a 4.0 and 3.8 respectively.

For standard five, acting with honesty, fairness and professional ethics, the lowest scores were a 2.5 for "treating all fairly, equitably and with dignity and respect" and for "recognizing and respecting legitimate authority of others." That compares to a 3.8 and 3.6 from last year's school board and 4.3 in both categories from administrators.

A 2.5 rating, again, is the lowest for McGuire under the political, social, legal, economic and cultural environments. The score comes for "developing lines of communication with political decision makers" and "creating decisions-making processes which are inclusive." Last year's school board ratings for those were 3.4 and 3.6 respectively and a 3.9 and 4.3 from administrators.

The lowest scoring for McGuire under instructional program is a 2.8 for "involves appropriate faculty and community members in decision-making regarding curriculum and special programs." That is down from a 3.6 from last year's school board, while the administrators gave McGuire a 4.1 this year in their evaluation of him.

In the last standard, policy implementation, McGuire received a 2.8 from this year's school board, compared to 4.2 from last year's and 4.3 from the administrators this year for "keeps all staff current on applicable laws and regulations."

In the November school board election, winners included Dan Robinson, District 3; Charles Sauders, District 4; and Deb Wiggins, District 6. Wiggins replaced Craig Allebach, whose term limit expired. Robinson beat incumbent Jim Folk with 1,471 votes to Folk's 809 votes. Sauders beat Sterling Watkins in a closely contested race for Mark Minatel's seat on the board. Minatel did not run for re-election.

A representative from McGuire's office told the Times-Union this morning McGuire "does not wish to comment at this time" on the Web site or his evaluation.

Ron Yeiter, school board president, declined to comment today.

McGuire's full evaluation is on the Web at www.warsawspeaks.org, operated by John Armacost.

This morning, Armacost said he decided to start the Web site after the last public school board meeting to further understand the issues being discussed by the board. The school board had announced McGuire's evaluation was complete and then decided to meet to consider McGuire's contract. Armacost said that seemed like a big step to him and he wanted to know what happened.

The Web site will be a place for people to receive and give good factual information as well as voice their opinions for or against an issue. While the Web site was started in relation to McGuire's evaluation, Armacost said he hopes other important issues will be discussed factually.

"So we all can take part in educating ourselves on the issues better and provide better feedback to the board," he said. [[In-content Ad]]