R.B. Holmes, Jr.’s term on the FAMU Board of Trustees expires on January 6, 2011. Gov. Rick Scott should replace him with a new appointee who is fully committed to making the university’s Developmental Research School (DRS) into an “A” institution.Lack of objectivity
Holmes showed a lack of objectivity over the past three years by failing to ask tough questions about the crisis his brother, former DRS Superintendent Ronald Holmes, created at FAMU’s K-12 school.
R.B. kept his mouth shut while Ronald let the DRS school grade slide backwards from a “C” to a “D” on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). He also offered no public criticism when Ronald failed to boost DRS’ student numbers enough to bring in the money required for the 2009-2010 year’s budget. Enrollment only reached 544 after Ronald projected 600. The new DRS building is designed for 764 students.
Ronald announced plans to lay off nine DRS teachers in January 2010 to help close the budget hole. R.B. did not raise a public stink about his brother’s decision.
President James H. Ammons eventually stepped in to save the nine DRS faculty jobs by proposing a bailout for the school. On January 29, 2010, FAMU trustees accepted the university administration’s recommendation to use $425,802 from the FAMU DRS Trust Fund to cover projected deficits at DRS.
Rattlers near and far are now shaking their heads at the inconsistency in R.B.’s criticism of layoffs. R.B. recently bashed Ammons for planning to hire three new employees at a time when dozens of personnel salary lines are on stimulus dollars that will expire at the end of this fiscal year. FAMUans are asking how R.B. can claim to be truly concerned about job cuts when he never publicly criticized his brother for trying to lay off teachers at DRS.
Holmes defenders don’t care about DRS
There are some FAMU employees who still defend R.B. despite his record on DRS issues. Many of these people want R.B. to stay on the Board of Trustees because they are personally on good terms with him and think he can help keep their names off any future layoff lists.
Scott should ask the students, parents, teachers, and alumni of DRS what they think about R.B. Holmes. He should also read the recent opinion columns about the Holmes brothers that were published in The FAMUan newspaper. He will find that the real DRS supporters are angry about how R.B. has dealt with FAMU’s K-12 laboratory school and want a better trustee to be appointed in his place in January.
The three other developmental research schools in Florida are all at public universities (UF, FSU, and FAU) with trustees who would never excuse any backtracking in the FCAT grades or enrollment numbers. That's a big reason why they are all scoring "As" on their School Accountability Reports. FAMU should have trustees who have the same commitment to quality when it comes to FAMU DRS.