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
:( TS
Tracy @ WSB
Pity for daughter and husband.
DistrictWatcher
Concerned Teacher Educator
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
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
- sad principal
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
"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
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
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
(I was aware of Michael exiting the Work Session for awhile and had it in my notes. Now we know.)
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
I wonder what will happen to Mr King now? I think we will see how her legacy will work out with him...
-LL
My thoughts are with her husband and daughter, they have been through so much!
"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
That aside, we as a family also extend extend sympathy to her family.
One and a half years to go.
Rest in peace.
=reader
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.
-Was there
Ship Canal
-parent
-parent
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
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.
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