The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested. It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio. (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Comments
DeBell, the Seattle School Board president, said the search committee was aware of the incident.
"I'm not terribly concerned" about it, DeBell said. "Obviously everything of relevance goes into the candidate's overall profile, but this was a long time ago. Our last president had a DUI. I think it's something that does happen to people occasionally."
Sunny Sundquist had one?! Geez DeBell, you are really tacky.
I think a better phasing might have been "I think it's something that happens to people who drink and drive occasionally."
Funny how some stuff comes around ....
New Tech Network that the SPS flushed $800,000 on for three years of lousy tools at Cleveland, was performing very poorly in the Mapleton SD..
During the Board's looking to make an informed decision ... I sent the Board information on New Tech Welby ... in the Mapleton SD.
The results were an absolute disaster.
The NT Welby School is now closed.
From NT Welby in Colorado:
(1) Cohort math scores decline from grade 9 to grade 10. Grade 10 scores range from 1% to 8% proficient, while the state average is 30%.
(2) Reading score in 2009 = 36% while State average was 67%
(3) Writing score in 2009 = 14% while State average was 51%
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The data was as usual ignored by four board members who just wanted to rubber stamp MJG's every desire .... Carr, Martin-Morris, Sunquist, and Maier. .... perhaps Sandra L. Husk can explain about NT Welby how it started and how it ended.
OhGawd
Mr White
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_15264840
K-5: Adopted materials are Investigations (the program that ruined Seattle kids before EDM), and Bridges in Mathematics.
6-8: Connected Math (CMP2) - what Seattle has been using for the last six years
High School: CPM (College Preparatory Math) - More group work and inadequate content
Please, kill me now.
Solid texts from McDougal-Littell, with enVision Math K-5, all Board approved 2010-11.
http://www.srvusd.net/cms/resources?d=x&folder_group_id=1276351828080&group_id=1276351828080&id=1276351828183
math mom
- math teacher
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018025565_supehusk20m.html
no comment
what % of your kids were fluent with fractions, decimals, percents, integers, order of operations, the fundamentals of linear relationships and graphing -
BEFORE
they entered the confounding garbage reform labyrinth?
FRL students do much worse with reform garbage because there aren't the resource$ in their families to make sure those basics get mastered while in the garbage or before the garbage - BUT - you don't want to face those facts, do you?
Won't get those nice NSF junkets, will you? Won't get those jobs training in garbage manipulation, so that teachers can get blamed teachers for not implementing garbage properly, will you?
- ALSO a math teacher.
He was referring to President Bush.
If you haven't noticed, Dan, MGJ is gone, and Sundquist and Maier are also gone.
GET A LIFE!
-had enough
Professional Experience Superintendent: Salem-Keizer School District, Salem, OR, 2006 – Present
(39,500+ student enrollment)
Superintendent: Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools, Clarksville, TN, 2001 – 2006 (26,000+ student enrollment, unified city-county system)
Superintendent: Mapleton Public Schools, Adams County, CO, 1996 – 2001 (5,000+ student enrollment)
Executive Director of Learning Services: Adams County School District, Westminster, CO, 1993 – 1996 (13,000+ student enrollment)
Principal: Elementary School [bilingual], 1989 – 1993
Principal: Alternative Middle School, 1991 – 1993
Supervisor: Staff Development, 1985 – 1989
Elementary Counselor: 1980 – 1985
Classroom Teacher: Grades 3, 5 and 6; substitute for all grades, 1977 – 1983
==============
Very limited teaching experience.
At Mapleton 1996 to 2001 -- likely before NT Welby and TFA.
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Keizer-Salem Public Schools
Supt. Sandy Lusk
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Curriculum Maps
Looks like grade 4 Math is missing
Grade 5 Math looks like straight reform math (estimating justifying etc.) and "Arithmetic" is largely avoided until being tossed in in May.
KUOW reports today that Husk was a consultant to the search firm, and was caught out lying during the application process for her current position. She said she couldn't admit that she was a candidate for another position, since she had a non-disclosure agreement in place. I find that a very thin excuse.
Husk is starting to feel a lot like the Option 3 put forward at every public works project community engagement. It's the clearly impractical and awful alternative that makes the other two options look good by comparison.
The Board president's dismissive attitude about this is concerning.
-another listener
Superintendent Finalist Consults For Search Firm
Feeling very concerned.
I do find it troubling that she just worked with OUR consultants on a superintendent placement in OUR state and now she's a candidate under the same consultants? C'mon, Michael, that does not look good.
Could one of you (or someone) give me a fuller explanation of the "working as a consultant" issue and the "lied in getting the Salem job" issues? I would have thought that, as long as our Board was aware that she had consulted on other Supe searches, it should not be a problem. Wasn't this what we wanted MGJ to do with MAP tests? Otherwise -- how would they ever get good supes, with hopes and ambitions to go to larger districts, to consult? And her point -- that going through other searches, in a consulting position, would in fact be highly informative in terms of what Districts value, what supes need to bring to the table to be competitive, etc. -- seems to me to have some merit.
The second issue troubles me more -- but I am curious as to how people think she should have more ethically answered. Should she have simply said -- "As I am sure you are aware, these situations normally involve non-disclosure agreements that would preclude me from answering your question truthfully, even if I WERE a candidate elsewhere. Given those circumstances, I believe it is an inappropriate question, and decline to answer"? This reminds me of the Neuheisel issues. I am not condoning lying (at least I don't think I am), but I am reluctant to jump on a bandwagon on this issue until I am clearer on how she could have/should have resolved this in a better way, and how reasonable it is to think that she would have come up with that solution. (Mind you, my spidey senses are much less confused on OTHER issues -- NTN, reform math curricula, "business solutions" for non-business problems, etc.)
The DUI is a marker of poor judgement. If nothing else, it just doesn't look good on paper. I can forgive it if she took full responsibility and learned from it. If she has a good story of personal redemption, then I can let that go by, although with slightly gritted teeth.
As I understand the lying issue, she was asked if she was a candidate anywhere else, and said no, even though she was. She later excused that by saying that there was an NDA. I find lying as justified by a secret agreement very troubling. She should have given a non-answer as you suggested (which would have clued a reasonable person to a yes answer) or if the NDA allowed, said yes she is a candidate elsewhere, but can't reveal where due to an NDA.
The overall picture to me is someone who hides behind business principles rather than stepping forward with as much accountability as possible. I know nothing else about her, but I don't like the picture I see forming.
One critical thing is that we get someone strong enough to endure -- and refute -- the "anti-Supe" backlash that will follow when the Alliance and the other ed reform astro-turf organizations realize that their "dog" has slipped his leash and is running his/her own show, instead of sitting/heeling on command. I just don't see enough evidence of "independent thinking" in Dr. Husk's resume to give me any confidence she can be that wily, independent dog!
http://www.salkeiz.k12.or.us/content/school-board/school-board-minutes
It is interesting to read about districts with charter schools i.e. December 2011.
Salem Kaiser streaming board meetings.
Yeah, I'll bet the Masters of the Universe LOVE her.
"If there is any good news, it’s that the budget problems are nowhere near as dire as a year ago, when the district made the difficult decisions to eliminate middle and elementary school librarians, to drop some high school classes and to start closing five small elementary schools"
School budget cuts will hurt workers again