Please Do This Soon
Please send an e-mail as soon as you can with what you think the Board should be doing.
I can tell you what I think but really, you have to decide what you think is best and LET THEM KNOW. They are going to make a decision this weekend and probably announce on Monday (unless MGJ's lawyer ties them up in knots).
I believe the Superintendent and Don Kennedy should be let go for cause.
I believe that Phil Brockman is the most honorable and believable person to be interim Superintendent.
I believe the Board should careful examine the role of legal counsel, Ron English, in this episode and whether he did do, as an officer of the court, all he should have done.
Comments
All work on the budget should be put on hold until a new CFOO can be hired. The recent news about the lack of financial oversight by Maria Goodloe-Johnson and Don Kennedy shows that they are not capable of looking at the money in SPS objectively and overly rely on what their program managers tell them. Furthermore, they have created an environment of fear and intimidation that prevents concerned employees from speaking out and encourages them to pass along incomplete or inaccurate information to the board.
Do you see now how the Superintendent and her staff (from the top down) have been deceiving you? Everything should be in question. It is time that the board gets answers to the questions that have been put on hold for months and even years by the staff's assurances that "we'll get back to you on that". The board is not getting the full picture and never will under the current administration. How many people actually work in Central Admin and how could it be restructured to save money? You don't know because they won't tell you. How much savings did the district see from the transportation disruptions? You don't know because they won't tell you. Why did the district RIF hundreds of teachers only to re-hire them a few months later? You don't know because they won't tell you. Positions like Silas Potters are exactly the ones that should have been eliminated before closing schools and eliminating elementary councilors.
Finally, this event should teach this and future boards the importance of creating checks and balances within the organization. The Superintendent should NEVER have been allowed to bring her own CFOO with her. I believe that both Maria Goodloe-Johnson and Don Kennedy should be fired with cause given the dire economic situation the district is facing but at the very least, Don Kennedy should go and a new CFOO be put in place to start the budget process from scratch. The benefits will outweigh the disruption and would help to put some public trust back into the process.
Fire her, let her fight it in court if she wants.
Bringing it to court would almost undoubtably bring out more ugly details that will dirty her name going forward. If she wants to fight being fired, she should at least pay that price.
Another Seattle Mama
You have a difficult decision to make. I am not among those who think you should have known where that $1.8 million went, it was hidden in the capital budget. You have to be able to count on the Superintendent and CFOO to supervise their staff and behave ethically. You have done your best, I believe, to ask staff to account for their actions and I believe you have not been sufficiently supported in that by the Superintendent and her senior staff. You need to fire Mr. Kennedy for cause and request that the Superintendent tender her resignation. If Dr. Goodloe-Johnson resists this, or pursues any sort of compensation for separation, you need to fire her for cause.
Then you need to initiate a national search for a CFOO with a spotless technical and ethical reputation. And you need to put in place an acting Superintendent who puts the needs of Seattle school children above all else. This person has to have credibility with the teaching staff. Dr. Enfield is a possibility, but you need to talk to the teachers (not the principals or the downtown staff and not necessarily the union) about that. Phil Brockman is another possibility. In the end, we need a Superintendent who has a real connection to and understanding of the Seattle community, not one who is pursuing a national agenda. The new senior staff should review the Moss-Adams report and get to work making its recommendations a reality.
Good luck,
Chris
When you send a request for the CFOO's head, don't forget the Pay for K debacle.
Sorry to say
disgusted by all of this
"Finally, we conclude that the Board did not receive a briefing on the Sutor Group Report.
The only information provided to the Board was a notification that there may be an article in the
Daily Journal of Commerce about the Sutor Group Report. Again, management’s failure to
keep the Board adequately advised of the significant issues identified by the Sutor Group was
unacceptable and impacted the Board’s ability to ensure that proper oversight and checks were in
place to monitor Potter’s activities. "
Wow. So you were informed of the article in the DJC? You did not need to have the Sutor Report handed to you on a platter. It was public, it was in a newspaper. You were told it was there. Did any of you read it? Did any of you follow up? You are elected officials with a job to do. That job is to oversee the district, regardless of how much the staff hides information from you.
Saddened and appalled,
Dorothy Neville
------------end of letter--------
And I saw in the comments on the Seattle Times article someone mentioning putting that unnamed Risk Manager into COO position on interim basis. That's not a bad idea.
Really, we need a CFO/COO who can handle running a corporation with thousands of employees, a billion dollar budget divided between a public service industry and a construction/facilities industry. There is no reason that a superintendent would have these skills. These are not skills gotten rising through the ranks of education and academia. These are different skills and require executive management. Clearly Don Kennedy is out of his league here and clearly no one we have had in the recent past has been adequate either.
I am not leaving Maria off the hook. She needed an effective CFO/COO. She knew that since she had to have read the Moss Adams report. (and if she didn't, fire her over that.) Instead she trusted her pal from Charleston. That shows lack of effective leadership and decision-making.
Has anyone used this e-mail address & received a response from one of the directors?
Let's remember that the Board can dismiss the superintendent for cause without buying out her contract, and the cause doesn't have to be this Potter Affair.
On January 29, 2009 - over two years ago - the Board voted to direct the superintendent to review and suggest revisions to Policy D12.00. She had not taken the first step to fulfill that direction. That alone is grounds for dismissal.
Board Policy B61.00 (and others) require the superintendent to make annual reports to the Board on every District school and program. There are a number of District programs for which she has never made any report. That alone is grounds for dismissal.
The Superintendent made incomplete disclosures of her potential conflicts of interest to the Board. That alone is grounds for dismissal.
The Board can easily dismiss her for cause and avoid any buyout of her contract. They just have to choose the right cause.
I can't tell you a bio of Phil but I can tell what I know:
- he was a well-respected principal at Ballard by staff and parents
- he came in as worked as an interim high school director. I worked briefly with him as Roosevelt was seeking a new principal. I came away feeling like here was someone who listened, who was easy to talk to and who knew how to get things done
-Phil received the first-ever Washington Music Educators Association Administrator of the Year award in 2010 for "advocating music as a core quality of education."
-from the letter nominating him for the award
"Phil Brockman is the most supportive, caring and respected administrator we have ever had the privilege to work for."
- He won the 2008-2009 Thomas B. Foster Award for Excellence for outstanding leadership from the Alliance.
I want to state that I don't know Phil personally (I'm not sure he remembers my name but I know he knows my face). He doesn't know that I'm saying this about him.
I'm sure he would probably say no but again, it never hurts to ask.
I worry that the Board might think it a good idea to get someone like, say, Norm Rice.
Not a good idea.
Can you do it Phil? Otherwise, NEXT!
--
Kay Smith-Blum
Director, Position 5
Dear Ms. Smith-Blum....I am writing to express my very strong feelings that Dr. MGJ has GOT TO GO.....Let the healing begin.......I attended GHS myself and used to even buy clothes at your husband's (family?) store for what that is worth...I've lived in Seattle all of my 51 years, and this scandal is vile and disgusting.....Do the right thing,please!....May God Bless You and Yours, "X" :) Mister Mr.
Isn't there a deadline established in law by when they have to have their budget done? If so, they cannot just "stop."
Really? And what standing do you have to DEMAND that?
Way too many people had their radar up on Goodloe-Johnson and got ignored in favor of whatever input Nickels and the Alliance for Education gave the then-Board.
To assume that an "outsider" will fair well is to forget that MGJ was an "oustider."
What SPS needs is a steady hand who has knowledge of the district, the schools, the principals, the unions, and the community. They need a steward to right the sinking ship. That is Phil Brockam.
AIEC
First, she saw the report as a public relations problem - not as evidence of an internal control problem. Her response to criticism is strictly defensive.
Second, her response was to try to hide the report from the Board and to encourage them to see it as a public relations problem and not as a sign of real problems within the District administration.
She acted like some kid who got sent home with a note from the teacher. Her aim was to hide the note, not to improve her behavior. We can't have someone like that running our school district. We need a grown-up.
As a long time employee of the Seattle Schools, I say hire someone who has been in the schools - not outside of. These people forget what a school is like.
A colleague once said, I think every administrator in the district should be required to spend at least three months of the school year in a school to understand what teachers and staff are asked to do. I always loved the energy and chaos, but I also knew that once the school year started, my personal life was limited. It was pretty much 24-7 and those breaks in the school year were necessary to re-coop.
We need to elect a new school board and think about paying them for their time. Perhaps they would be more accountable to the WHOLE community rather than the special interests.
I'm writing my second letter to the School Board this morning.
Thank you for this blog.