District Updates
- As for the Focus Group Committee recommendation issue, several readers pointed out that on April 19th there was a press release that had said the same thing.
Do I think this was all an error? Not sure. I think since the committee's own non-disclosure form said there would be no recommendation, it is an odd mistake. (They had to sign it before the April 19th press release.) It could have been someone laying early groundwork to say there was a recommendation in case cover was needed for a superintendent choice, either during Board deliberations and/or when there was a public announcement.
- The Times will be revealing their pick in Sunday's Times. You have three guesses.
- Budget update from Dr. Enfield. Highlights:
- Cathy Thompson is leaving as head of Curriculum and Instruction for a position at UW. Her last day will be May 24th. Wendy London will replace Thompson on an interim basis.
- Noel Treat will be leaving as deputy superintendent at the district deputy city manager for Mercer Island. His last day will be May 21st.
- Bob Boesche will serve an Interim Deputy Superintendent through the summer bridging the gap between when Dr. Enfield leaves (sometime in late June) and the start of our new superintendent's term in early August.
- No independent verification but it seems that Tom Bishop in Transportation may also be on his way out.
However, it leaves a lot of gaps including the lack of a hire to fill the Special Education director position.
I worry a bit that whoever comes in may chose to bring his/her own people and that didn't work out well under Dr. Goodloe-Johnson.
This strengthens the hand of some of the long-term senior leadership and that is not an altogether great thing.
I know the Board was working on the superintendent appointment late yesterday afternoon and may be working through the weekend. My thought was they have have decided last night, made the job offer and gave the person the weekend for an answer. Then, if the person says yes, then they make an announcement early next week, possibly at the Board meeting on Wednesday.
Comments
DWE
I'm feeling pretty good right now...
Does this make any of you question electing Knapp? Husk laid off 400 of your brethren. She's best buds with the Salem Chamber of Commerce Prez (the big kahuna in town, I'm sure). Not ONE teacher or principal from any of Husk's districts has come out in support of her.
Meanwhile, remember that Enoch re-opened contract negotiations to GIVE BACK concessions made during hard times. A number of parents and teachers have sung his praises (no chamber of commerce type).
Just makes the SEA's record that much lousier.
At some point, you get what you deserve.
SEA is comprised of intelligent and capable members. The fact that they allowed Knapp in, by vote or lack of vote, means they were okay with the status quo.
The members were not so beaten down that they couldn't make a change. Such an excuse is ludicrous.
This complacency is why I deperately needed to get out of dodge, and finally did.
Get a backbone, folks!
--enough already
Get informed.
Personally, I was extremely disheartened when Knapp won.
n...
After this SEA Pres. position you will see him with a $100,000 District job.
SEA Rep.
Now — finally — we have tumbled into my central point. We have turned school testing into a huge corporate profit center, led by Pearson, for whom $32 million is actually pretty small potatoes. Pearson has a five-year testing contract with Texas that’s costing the state taxpayers nearly half-a-billion dollars.
This is the part of education reform nobody told you about. You heard about accountability, and choice, and innovation. But when No Child Left Behind was passed 11 years ago, do you recall anybody mentioning that it would provide monster profits for the private business sector?
It is all about the marketing of education. Ed reform is marketing.
Enron, Worldcom, credit swaps . . . it's all about marketing. "The Best and the Brightest" . . . young turks . . . Hanauer and Liu.
It all comes back to marketing.
Husk is an absolute no from every parent in my peer group with a special needs child. It is a big peer group. No doubt Knapp could care less. The SEA agreement has been a dirty companion to the problem of getting services for kids like mine. The teacher's contract could do less for our community, but boy it would be hard.
Word is Knapp thinks he owns McLaren? If she votes for Husk, then maybe he does. Hard to believe independent McLaren would actually go for the reduced power of the board and reduced input from parents that Husk seems to prize in her district.
We're watching Knapp and the board on this hire. Goodloe-Johnson didn't start the slide of poor Seattle special education services but she accelerated the dive. Children like mine have licked the floor for the crumbs of district attention for 4 years now. We're done being polite.
Done being polite. Welcome to my world!
Knapp may not care but you would hope that his handpicked VP would! Or was she just window dressing? To make SEA appealing and inclusive of the wee folk.
If both daughters were hired at the same time, no doubt it was because they were the most experienced and qualified.
I once heard that Cathy Thompson "started out" with Pat Sander. I also heard that Clover Codd "started out" with Pat Sander. It would be interesting to see how these prior school connections form a web in the bloated downtown administration. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of downtown hires have emanated from a few powerful old timers.
Outside of SPS, it's called nepotism.
--enough already
--we need to keep the good ones
Bishop didn't trim costs nearly the way he forecast. But at least he was a more responsive director than the usual downtown. (His staff however...does ANYONE ever pick up the phone in that office?)
Savvy Voter
Imagine being a primary teacher with no breaks except for recess and lunch - neither of which is ever a full interim - and trying to get information from downtown. It is impossible.
And when you do get a live person, it is never the right one!
n...
Why are we so expendable to them? How could a figurehead-type beat out two finalists (one in particular) with proven special ed track records? Because LEV and the Alliance and Knapp want her? Why don't THEY care about special ed?
That's not a rhetorical question. I want to actually know WHY special ed is not a priority with these folks. Or, if I'm mistaken and special ed IS a priority with these folks, I would be happy to hear some details about that.
I was happy to hear my student's peers take him to task.
I did not vote for Knapp. Unfortunately some of our membership tends to fearful of change. I am hopeful that in the next SEA election people will be tired of same old same old.
No Husk for me!
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20110415/NEWS/104150338/Salem-Keizer-cuts-target-school-librarians
--Old School Music
-in the know
FHP