The 2020-2021 school year has been a DISASTER for the School District of Hillsborough County. COVID-19 has aimed a spotlight at the critical problems we were already facing, not the least of which is a budget shortfall in excess of $140 million. 

One key factor in this situation is the leadership of Superintendent Addison Davis, and Deputy Superintendent Dr. Michael Kemp.

• CONFLICT OF INTEREST: Addison Davis spent $3.7 million in district funds to purchase learning materials from Achieve3000, a company that employs his brother as a vice president. He did not disclose this connection prior to making the purchase.
• CARELESS SPENDING: Addison Davis also spent $5.2 million to expand the use of i-Ready, a software program that replaces valuable face-to-face instructional time and has no peer-reviewed or externally conducted studies on whether or not the program is even effective. There is currently no data that shows whether i-Ready scores result in actual real-world learning gains.
• TEACHER CUTS: After making questionable choices with funding, Davis has insisted that it is necessary to cut teachers, assistant principals, and instructional staff in order to balance the budget. In the process, schools are losing key leaders including veteran teachers who have years of valuable experience that cannot be easily replaced.
  • CUTS TO THE ARTS: Addison Davis originally promised that no arts programs would be cut. However, we then learned that this promise came with a disclaimer that only applied to elementary schools-- and even there, many elementary art and music teachers are now being split between 2 or 3 schools, which increases class sizes and reduces the quality of the program. Some middle and high school art and music teachers were cut entirely, resulting in the loss of entire programs like choir and orchestra.
  • CUTS TO EXCEPTIONAL EDUCATION: Additionally, many schools have lost teachers in Varying Exceptionalities and Gifted, which directly interferes with accessibility, disability accommodations, and other specialized instruction that is required for exceptional learners to thrive. 
• STRUGGLING SCHOOLS: Hillsborough County has more D and F graded schools than other comparably sized school districts in Florida. These low-performing schools disproportionately affect BIPOC students and English Language Learners. Even these schools that need the most help and resources have suffered critical cuts to instructional staff. We need leadership that is equipped to fix this problem for the sake of our most vulnerable students. 

We, as parents, teachers, staff, and concerned members of the community, demand the immediate resignation of Addison Davis, along with Dr. Michael Kemp (who Davis brought with him from his previous district of Clay County).

We need leadership that can creatively and effectively solve these problems, not someone who will slash our most important resource-- our teachers! Davis is making careless decisions for short-term fixes that will harm our children in the long run. We will not allow our children to be used and tossed aside in this process.