Central Office Jobs

Did we hear that the Central Office is cutting jobs? I think that's what is going to be said tonight at the Public Hearing on the budget (which might just have an interesting twist, I'll let you know but I don't want to tip off our friends in the district who read the blog).

But let's go check the employment page at SPS.

There's a "Chief Talent Officer" in Human Resources who will report directly to the Superintendent. This used to be the Executive Director of HR but now we call it Chief Talent Officer. Salary? $118k-$163k.

Then there's Executive Director of Schools which I think is a new position but, like the Executive Director of HR, may be a new name for an old job. This pays between $102-142k and the person reports to the CAO.

Update: Executive Director is the new name for Education Directors. The district seems to have filled 3 of the 5 positions according to HR so they are advertising for two of them. All will report directly to Dr. Enfield, the CAO.

Also, Gary Ikeda, long-time General Counsel for the district, appears to be leaving as his job is also listed.

I also want to point out what was previously mentioned in another thread by LA Teacher's Warehouse:

Perhaps this has been covered elsewhere, but I'd like to point out a couple things about the district's bargaining team.

First, Phil Brockman (former Ballard principal) is a member. No big deal--I just thought it was interesting.

What is a big deal is that Lizanne Lyons, the lead bargainer, has two assistants whose salaries are paid for by Alliance for Education: Eileen Norton and Kate Destler.

In effect, Alliance for Education is now a paid party to the bargaining process.

I find this very disturbing. I'm sure the district would say the Alliance won't be involved at all but this doesn't have a very good appearance.

Comments

Charlie Mas said…
"Executive Director of Schools" appears to be the new title for the job that used to be called Education Director.

The administration plays such games with the job labels that it is difficult to know what is happening. Jobs are sometimes counted as central jobs and sometimes they aren't. They are sometimes reported as central and sometimes not. All kinds of claims are made, but none of them are credible.

Some transparency would be welcome. I can't believe that the Board doesn't want it. Actually, I can't believe that the Board doesn't demand it.
Charlie Mas said…
Where is the information about the District's bargaining team?
I don't know, Charlie, LA Teacher posted this and I am looking into it.
dan dempsey said…
OK so I used the employment link and found a job listed at Cleveland HS: it said Bio-Med.

But it is talking about Project Lead the Way ... and says nothing about the fact that every class needs to be using Project Based Learning. So what happened to "DownTown" are they unaware of the $800,000 New Tech Contract? (Surely they are not worried about all those legal appeals still in the works)

"Join an exciting Cleveland High School Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Life Sciences program! Minimum qualifications for this position include a college degree in any of the science related fields: Health-Medical, Bio-medical Sciences, Therapeutic Health, Science Education, with at least two college biology /lab science courses and the ability to fully qualify for at least a conditional Career & Technical Education (CTE) certificate from business and industry. Candidates must qualify for a CTE certificate and be willing to complete Washington Professional Standards Board approved programs for the Business and Industry route. Candidates document 3 years (6,000 hours) of paid occupational experience in a related content field to qualify for this position. One year (2,000 hours) must be within the past 6 years. If any of the experience is more than 6 years old, 300 hours of the experience must be within the past 2 years. Candidate must enjoy high school age students, and be ready to plan and implement PLTW curriculum, and complete Washington State OSPI CTE program standards, including: Health Occupational Students of America (HOSA) student leadership, student employability and workplace skills, cross-credit options, industry certifications, post-secondary and tech prep subject articulations for college credit, advisory board participation, and professional development and outreach in this program with Cleveland High School Life Sciences and in CTE. The program requires a summer training in St. Louis, Mo. Please send your application materials to Marjorie Milligan, mamilligan1@seattleschools.org.

So folks is it PLTW or NTN PBL?
The SPS dysfunction in multiple areas just never stops.


NTN STEM with PBL .... where???
(not in this Bio-Med position)

Didn't KS-B advocate for PLTW instead of NTN? Looks like now we shall see a blending of both .... Millions will be spent and all as a result of another "Arbitrary and Capricious" decision by Sundquist, Carr, Martin-Morris, and Carr.

The reasons the "Four" gave for voting for "NTN" on 2-3-10 were pathetic, the data they overlooked enormous especially as they voted for "NTN" again on 4-7-10 with no further explanation of their votes.

As usual when "Appeals" were filed in Superior Court a "Certified Correct Transcript" of the evidence used in arriving at the decision was never supplied. (and the Superior Court Judge of 2-3-10 decision did not care) Legislature may pass laws but SPS ignores them. This is going to be resolved by the WA Supreme Court eventually.

As is said: "Justice Delayed is Justice Denied" wonderful that Gary Ikeda's general counsel position is available and advertised.
MoneyPenny said…
Gary Ikeda was the RIF list for a position that has already come back. I hear he is also telling people he is retiring. Double dipping in unemployment and retirement at the same time?
dan dempsey said…
One cannot draw unemployment and retirement simultaneously. (I believe)
Mr. Edelman said…
The information about the SPS bargaining team comes from Olga Addae, the President of the SEA. I have a handout that she gave us at a meeting, and it includes a list of the members of each bargaining team. She told us verbally that Eileen Norton and Kate Destler, assistants to head bargainer Lizanne Lyons, were being funded by Alliance for Education. I have that in my notes.

Other SPS members are:

Misa Garmoe, HR Manager.
Gloria Morris, HR Manager.
Phil Brockman, as I stated elsewhere.
Scott Whitbeck, Director for School Improvement.
Cordell Carter, Assistant to SPS CFO.
Cathy Thompson, Director of Teaching and Learning.
Awnie Thompson, Elementary Principal.
Eric Anderson, Research and Assessment (and MAP trainer).

The handout is dated June 9.
Unknown said…
Dan,

Do most job postings sound so convoluted? To me it seems like either they were being so specific only one person they already had in mind would qualify - or they are just incompetent at writing job descriptions...
Funny you should say that Tim. I was at one of the public hearings yesterday and talking with some people and at one point someone asked about communications in the district saying, are they incompetent, hiding something or both? Good question.
Sahila said…
So, on the SPS bargaining team, we have the Alliance via Eileen Norton and Kate Destler, assistants to head bargainer Lizanne Lyons, we have Cordell Carter (Broad:http://www.broadresidency.org/student/207_Cordell++Carter.html?page_filter=0&src=student/map|student/alumni|student/alumni.html , Scott Whitbeck - Milken Foundation (convicted junk bond king Mike Milken) http://www.mff.org/mea/mea.taf?page=recipient&meaID=1099,

Kinda stacked with reformites, isnt it?
dan dempsey said…
Tim,

I think the reason we have such bloat at central office must be that someone decides which convoluted descriptions are blended with others to get the most bizarre combination to attached to each job. {Then a panel reviews the output}

The thing that blows me away is how often job descriptions look for are things completely different from those likely to produce improvement in student performance.

Example : for years a belief in inquiry learning as effective math pedagogy persisted as math scores plummeted but such belief was needed to get hired or advance up the totem pole. (statewide nonsense that the Terry B and the local and state administrative drones lapped up)

Here coming to Cleveland is NTN PBL, which is incredibly flawed and very expensive, yet that was what was purchased. So now apparently some Cleveland jobs will require training in something else and NTN PBL is not even mentioned in the job description.

What kind of community engagement score for this move?

Dan
Charlie Mas said…
What bothers me about the way that the superintendent and her team reduce the number of Central jobs by re-classifying the jobs as "teaching", but then, count them as Central jobs when they are cut them, isn't so much the brazen dishonesty of it, but the way that no one on the Board has the vertebrae to say anything about it.

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