Dr. Goodloe Johnson

I received this from the Office of Public Affairs:

Dear colleagues,
We are saddened to learn that Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson, our former Superintendent, passed away today. She is survived by her husband and young daughter.
We do not have any details tonight but will keep you informed when we know more.
Our sympathies go to her family.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Woah, that is awful. Prayers for her family.
:( TS
Nick Esparza said…
Rip Goodloe
Jan said…
Terrible news, especially as she has a young child who is now motherless. My thoughts and prayers go out to her entire family.
Tracy @ WSB said…
I was at the school-board work session when this started circulating on Twitter. Kept expecting someone to say something but nobody at the table seemed to be checking news at the time (not that that's a BAD thing). Anyway, the article with the most info so far - cause of death, etc. - is this Charlestown story: http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20121205/PC16/121209646/1180/former-charleston-schools-superintendent-maria-goodloe-johnson-dies-after-battle-with-lung-cancer

Tracy @ WSB
Anonymous said…
Holy crap. How Shakespearean.

Pity for daughter and husband.

DistrictWatcher
Anonymous said…
This is an unbearably sad day for Dr. Goodloe-Johnson's family. I send my thoughts of comfort to them all.

Concerned Teacher Educator
Anonymous said…
Her daughter is maybe in 2nd grade now? Poor thing. 2 cross-country moves, then losing her mother.

What an unfortunate ending for MGJ. What a shocking continuation for us. (I do not say ending for us because we will be dealing with the fallout from her tenure for years.)

EdVoter
Anonymous said…
How very interesting. The Seattle Times has taken off the ability for the public to comment on her death. I saw it there when it was first posted, then BAM, it was removed. They do this when they think they will get tasteless comments.

And speaking of tasteless, here is Harium Martin-Morris in the Times. With a pathetic quote from our most pathetic school board member:

"What I hope people don't remember is how she left the district," said School Board member Harium Martin-Morris. "What I want people to focus on are the things that she accomplished when she was here."

Yes, I remember what she accomplished: making life hell for teachers, parents, many students (special education in particular), and making an almost $100 million mistake in closing schools when we begged her not to. That was before Potter.

We can say rest in peace, and we can issue condolences to her family, but not for a moment should her history be revised.

DistrictWatcher
Anonymous said…
So sad. Terrible how Seattle treated her - she led with the conviction that ALL kids will succeed very courageous leader.
- sad principal
Patrick said…
My sympathies to her family.
Maureen said…
I am very sad for her daughter.
south end said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said…
A very sad ending for a tragic figure and a worthy adversary.

Counting both successes and failures, I believe we are a better from her being here.

It's sad she won't be here to reflect back many years on.

WSDWG






Anonymous said…
At the Seattle Times HERE

"What I hope people don't remember is how she left the district," said School Board member Harium Martin-Morris. "What I want people to focus on are the things that she accomplished when she was here."

District Watcher makes a great point about revisionist history.

Harium Martin-Morris and the Board failed to fire MGJ with cause because it would have been incredibly embarrassing for the Board who continually failed to supervise MGJ.

-- Dan Dempsey
Anonymous said…

On a purely political level, part of me wishes HMM's comments were that great double edged kind; 'no really, please forget the exit (both from life and from seattle) so we might instead pay heed to the bad mgmt instead so we don't have the relearn from those painfully expensive mistakes again!'
Any chance?


Rip MGJ. And yes, her family deserves our sympathy. Cancer is awful.

N.seattleparent
joanna said…
RIP. Both Michael and Peggy were called away for a time and Michael at one point was caught checking a message. I think it was Sharon who asked for his attention. When I returned home and heard the news I assumed that this news was the distraction.

Anonymous said…
Not a chance N Seattle Parent. Harium was and is a believer in all things Corporate Education Reform under MGJ. I still wish Buetow had beat the pants off him. He continues to be a waste of space on the board IMHO. Name one piece of leadership out of him in the past year. You won't find it.

Ahh, but this is not about Harium. I find myself this a.m. very ambivalent about the news. Of course I did not wish the lady ill, and I feel sad for her family, but I actively and intensely wanted her out of Seattle. To have her pass away means I cannot do the occasional Google search to see how she was faring in her role in Detroit. That means I - we - can never get a wider perspective on whether she was wrong for Seattle or just plain wrong. It is an unsettled ending for a person who unsettled our district even more than usual. Reading the headline made my stomach queasy, just as it felt when she made headlines during her reign here.

To be honest the feeling also is sickening because she was such a cold persona. Therefore it is hard to think warmly about her at this time. Which was a pattern - she took the warmth out of me more than perhaps any other leader or politician ever has. What a sad legacy for us both.

SavvyVoter
My sympathies to her family. Cancer is a terrible disease, no matter what its form.

(I was aware of Michael exiting the Work Session for awhile and had it in my notes. Now we know.)
Anonymous said…
Good points SavvyVoter. I think many feel that way.

The tragedy to me is why she chose to be heavy-handed and bullish, instead of working with people and making change progressively, instead of all at once, from the top down.

Maybe the explanation lies with her health. Perhaps her health concerns caused her to feel she had no choice but to act quickly and forcefully in order to get anything accomplished.

It's tragic she missed so many opportunities to partner and cooperate with the community, which likely would have made her time here much more pleasant and meaningful, given her situation.

I always felt she was smart and talented, but failed to connect with the community in a way that could make both happy. Many could've beens and should've beens were left behind. Simply tragic, all the way around. WSDWG
Anonymous said…
Wow, my grammar is going to pot lately, btw. I need to switch to tea or something. Sorry for causing eye stumbles folks. WSDWG
Anonymous said…
RIP MGJ. And sympathy for your family. This is a sad news for all of them and we can not really change that.

I wonder what will happen to Mr King now? I think we will see how her legacy will work out with him...

-LL
Po3 said…
Very sad. I also wonder if she had health issues going back to her time here in Seattle. The photos from when she arrived and when she left seemed different.

My thoughts are with her husband and daughter, they have been through so much!


Anonymous said…
Sympathy for her family? Yes, absolutely.

"What you need to know about me is that I don't lose sleep."

-Maria Goodloe-Johnson

The real legacy. No revisionist history.

http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/the-true-legacy-of-seattle%E2%80%99s-fired-broad-academy-superintendent-maria-goodloe-johnson/

-Sue in Zen Field
KG said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Folks, let's just let the announcement stand. We have had plenty of discussions over her professional work but that is not what this is about.
Jan said…
I am glad the ST turned comments off. I won't generally go near the ST comments. I recall going to the comments once, hoping to get some additional information on something (a bicycle accident that one of my children had witnessed, I think). It was appalling, the things that a few of the posters would say -- about the victim, the truck driver who hit him, bicyclists in general, drivers in general, Seattle-ites, liberals, conservatives, etc. etc. I think the ST was correct to be concerned, and to take away the possibility for unkind or inappropriate comments.
Darla said…
I only heard Ms. Goodloe-Johnson once in person at Washington Middle School and felt she was a decent person. I also like the NSAP that I believe came to be on her watch. Could anyone but a black woman gotten that pushed in our racially divided city? Pottergate was a fiasco, but a blessing in disguise perhaps as it shown the light on racial pussyfooting. Im no policy wonk, but is the district better for her work? I say a resounding yes!
Anonymous said…
Darla, sorry, but I am in total disagreement. I do not believe the District on the whole is better for her work. In fact, I say a resounding no. And, a whole lot of heartache on many fronts were endured. Education Reform? I think not.

That aside, we as a family also extend extend sympathy to her family.

One and a half years to go.
Anonymous said…
Nobody can deny that the NSAP was her deal, and it returned SPS to a rational assignment footing. No more white flight. No more special deals. Reduced costs. Focus on quality. Focus on equity. That is a good thing.

Rest in peace.

=reader
Okay, let's set the record straight.

Dr. Goodloe-Johnson did see the NSAP thru to its finalization. She did NOT start the process. That was already being talked about long before she came.
Anonymous said…
No, the school board has crappy "guiding principles" that we're mutually inconsistent. There was nothing done beyond that prior to MGJ?

-Was there
mirmac1 said…
My mother died when I was 45 and I still feel lost...
Anonymous said…
White flight? Heck the kids are not only not leaving, tons are coming back to SPS.

Ship Canal
Anonymous said…
Yeah. There was a Seattle process. Everyone agreed that SPS should move to something that resembles what normal districts do. But, nobody could move an inch towards it. MG was the one who did that. The main thing was breaking "sibling attendance" as the first tie breaker for "choice". The reality is, that decision was the death knell of choice and a return to local school assignment which benefits communities. Those seeking a white flight escape hatch no longer have it.

-parent
Charlie Mas said…
White Flight was ended by the mortgage crisis, not the new student assignment plan.
Maxwell said…
I say BS. The district added mixed race to knock down white race numbers in north end schools at the same time as the NSAP. Racial insecurities are very real in this town.
Anonymous said…
Ship Canal, tons of white kids are now going to Ranier Beach? Franklin? Where are those white kids? Uh. Somewhere else. And no CHarlie, the mortgage crisis didn't end anything. The disttrict makes that escape somewhat more difficult with the NSAP. The NSAP process isn't complete. At some point all choice, mostly racially motivated, will be over.

-parent
Anonymous said…
I like the NSAP. In the past, our community had kids shipped all over the city, to whatever schools had space left over. Families did not feel connected to these schools and long bus rides did not improve academic performance.

I believe that parents knowing which schools their children will attend is a huge positive over the past confusion. I have also heard that real estate agents are once again recommending SPS to clients moving here. The old system was especially bad for parents moving here during the summer.

S parent
tiger said…
@parent,
northend kids are not going private so much as before because their local schools are perceived as and are in fact safer. bussed in kids from the SE have nothing to tie them to the community and resent the implication that the only way for them to succeed is to be near wealthier students. northend schools are taking off and hopefully this plan works for struggling schools too. the racial sins of the past must be exorcized somehow, we cant just wish them away.
Anonymous said…
@ship canal & 1206pm parent,
Stats can be stretched like silly putty, but is there any cite you can offer backing either of your points of view ?
I'll add that the census shows more kids being raised here in town than before but that neither proves nor disapproves white flight, or white kids 'moving back'- it just means citizens are procreating during a sliver of time in a sliver of space. One stat to note perhaps is that per SHG membership numbers, the number of kids / families changing to homeschool status has roughly doubled every year since 2007 (from ten to 500+ now) and for what its worth theres a socioeconomic/race aspect that those kids are disproportionately of the 'white' race category.

Thanks Melissa for clarifying nicely MGJ's actual level of responsibility for NSAP

N.seattleParent

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