Turns out a tough analysis of dysfunctional management at Poway Unified School District that we got after a public records battle was a lot tougher before we got it.
Superintendent John Collins decided to take a red pen to a $40,000 consultant’s report about district tech problems.
VOSD’s
Ashly McGlone uncovered the superintendent’s significant edits, but
only after we threatened the district with litigation. As she reports,
“words like ‘arrogance’ were replaced with ‘overconfidence.’
‘Dysfunction’ became ‘issues.’ ‘Extreme and even chaotic’
decision-making became just ‘problematic’ and ‘reckless and wasteful
decision-making’ became ‘uncontrolled and inefficient,’ while other
descriptors like ‘short-sighted’ and longer passages were scrubbed
entirely, district records show.”
The
superintendent’s told us this about the report: “The result has helped
us to celebrate the outstanding work we do and formulate new goals and
organizational structures to continuously improve upon our successes.”
A
tech staffer went to a meeting with Collins and said the chief wanted
to avoid “calling anybody out for the problems that were discovered.”
Parents at West Valley Elementary in Silicon Valley are rightly upset by the disruption caused by the involuntary transfer of all twenty-five teachers from their children's school--and I agree that this is a bad situation for the students. But the causes of the current dismal situation might be more complex than parents think. I doubt that the most recent principal was the sole cause of the conflict. I
suspect that an unhealthy culture developed at the school over a number of years. Most schools are highly political institutions with constant maneuvering by certain teachers and administrators to establish power. There are usually a few people struggling to behave professionally, but those people are not likely to be highly influential for the simple reason that humans tend to follow those who have the most political power. Parents need to establish a new culture of healthy, open communication among all adults at the school--and the PTA might not be the ideal vehicle for this. A new organization of parents concerned about poor communication at the school would seem to be a reasonable response to the crisis. While parents do not have the right to be informed about personnel matters, they DO have the right to establish a culture of open discussion and mutual respect among all stakeholders. It's amazing how much trouble can result from small problems that are not handled professionally by teachers and administrators. Teacher cliques sometimes react with remarkable outrage to small changes in daily schedules, curriculum, training programs and committee assignments. And the most powerful teachers often launch into destructive fury when they are given unpopular class assignments or when the principal fails to suspend a student when the teacher demands it. But administrators are often even more politically motivated than teachers. "WVE town" provided this reaction to my original post about this story:
...The teachers
were asked to attend a consultant's "Human Systems Dynamics" training
class, which the Superintendent falsely portrayed as "multiple
interventions". Superintendent Gudalewicz discussed it with the School
Board in a single closed session without a vote, and then she told
parents that teachers would apply and interview for to return to their
positions, but internal district leaks revealed that all the teachers
would be transferred. Within a week, they started using the description
"reconstitution", Superintendent Gudalewicz, and the School Board led
by Phyllis Vogel, refused to meet with parents in open meetings all
through the summer. One thing to note is that the consultant Royce
Holladay of Human Systems Dynamics that was paid $15,000 to "facilitate"
the failed teacher session is now hired to facilitate the "re-imaging"
of the school which was said would take 3 to 5 years. From the internal
emails obtained, it is a story of administration arrogance and
retribution, facilitated with some consultant greed.
"WVE town" also wrote this very interesting piece
for the Cupertino Patch, summarizing the secretive and dishonest
behavior of district officials. Sadly, this secrecy and dishonesty
sounds typical of most school districts. If anyone is going to start an
honest, open discussion it will have to be parents.
Why am I not surprised that Jay Martinez was an award-winning educator? It's long past time for an effective evaluation system for teachers--partly because we need to know who we're dealing with when teachers move into jobs as administrators.
ALBUQUERQUE,
N.M. — New Mexico's attorney general said Monday he will investigate
how the state's largest school district hired a high-level administrator
who faces child sex abuse charges in Colorado.
The district's new superintendent, meanwhile, faces increasing pressure to resign over the debacle.
Attorney
General Hector Balderas announced his office will look into why
Albuquerque Public Schools' safety protocols were dismissed and former
deputy superintendent Jason Martinez was hired in June before a
background check was completed.
Superintendent Luis Valentino hired Martinez to head the district's instruction and technology division.
Martinez
resigned abruptly last week. It later surfaced that he faces four
felony counts of sexual assault on a child in Colorado involving two
victims. Two previous counts have been dismissed, according to the
Denver District Attorney's Office.
A
lawyer for Karen Rudys, the district's interim assistant superintendent
for human resources, said Valentino was informed multiple times about
Martinez refusing to complete his background check but ignored those
concerns.
"This
was a horrific breach of trust for the parents of APS," Balderas told
The Associated Press on Monday. He stopped short of saying if his office
would seek criminal charges, but he said the office will see if the
district conducted necessary criminal background checks on other
employees.
Valentino
was selected for the superintendent post in June, and the school board
plans to vote Thursday on whether he should be dismissed...
The
Denver Post reported Martinez won a districtwide award in 2011 for
helping design The Digital Door Project, which gathers data for teachers
and principals, including individual student data, to help improve
standardized test scores...
"The AG’s report highlighted how Mr. O’Keefe edited his videos to
appear as if he was engaging in his ACORN hi-jinks wearing
“stereotypical 1970’s pimp garb”, the intent being to suggest that ACORN
employees would willingly do business with someone dressed in this
manner. However, it turns out that O’Keefe was actually wearing a coat
and tie when he entered the ACORN offices."
That would be the same James O’Keefe who brought down community
organizing and voter registration organization ACORN in his march to
becoming a conservative icon for his alleged ‘good works’.
Matthew Phelan and Liz Farkas over at Wonkette have broken the story about the first bit of blowback resulting from O’Keefe’s brand of ‘journalism’.
It seems that the master of the cleverly edited—if highly
deceptive—video reel is now being required to pay the sum of $100,000 to
Juan Carlos Vera, a one time California
employee of ACORN. Mr. Vera had been portrayed by O’Keefe as being a
willing participant when O’Keefe and his accomplice, Hanna Giles,
proposed smuggling young women into the United States to work as prostitutes.
While Mr. Vera had no idea he was being surreptitiously video
taped—which is not surprising given that California law expressly bars
the secret recording of one’s voice or image—there was also something
Mr. O’Keefe did not know until after he released the damaging video of
his conversation with Vera for broadcast.
As soon as O’Keefe and his partner-in-crime left the ACORN location,
Mr. Vera called the police to report the entire incident. It turns out
that Vera had been playing along with O’Keefe in an effort to ensnare
O’Keefe and Giles whom Vera believed were in the act of breaking the law
by proposing to engage in the importing of young women to become
prostitutes.
Recommended by Forbes
Oops.
As part of the settlement, Mr. O’Keefe was required to say that he
“regrets any pain” he caused Mr. Vera—although I have some doubts as to
whether O’Keefe has been losing any sleep over his illegal behavior and
the harm he did to Mr. Vera.
Why might I feel that way?
Because Mr. O’Keefe’s lawyer—Los Angeles
attorney Michael Madigan—wasted no time in characterizing the $100,000
payment as a “nuisance settlement.” Apparently, when releasing videos
smearing an innocent man by suggesting he is willing to participate in
the flesh trade turns out to do that individual serious damage, it
counts as nothing more than a nuisance to Mr. O’Keefe and his attorney.
[Vera's lawyer was Eugene Iredale of San Diego.]
A report issued by the California Attorney General
in 2010 revealed that O’Keefe and Giles were given immunity from
prosecution (a serious mistake in my opinion) in exchange for turning
over the complete and unedited tapes that O’Keefe shot in Los Angeles, San Francisco and National City where O’Keefe worked his magic on Juan Carlos Vera.
The AG’s report highlighted how Mr. O’Keefe edited his videos to
appear as if he was engaging in his ACORN hi-jinks wearing
“stereotypical 1970’s pimp garb”, the intent being to suggest that ACORN
employees would willingly do business with someone dressed in this
manner. However, it turns out that O’Keefe was actually wearing a coat
and tie when he entered the ACORN offices. The report also stated that
ACORN employees “may be able to bring a private suit against O’Keefe and
Giles for recording a confidential conversation.”
Here’s hoping that Mr. Vera is but the first of many to take advantage of the opportunity to bring such a legal action.
Oddly, a Google
scan revealed no coverage of the settlement in Breitbart.com or any of
the other conservative media who so enjoyed Mr. O’Keefe’s exploits.
Go figure.
Contract Rick at thepolicypage@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter and Facebook.
HARTFORD
— School board Chairman Richard Wareing apologized to city families
this week and declared that what happened at Sport and Medical Sciences
Academy "is never going to happen again in this district."
Wareing
was referring to last month's letter from Sport and Medical Sciences, a
magnet school near Colt Park, advising the family of a low-performing
seventh-grader that transferring her elsewhere would be in the student's
"best interest."
The
letter seemed to confirm an old suspicion among education advocates:
That area magnet schools push out students who struggle academically,
essentially dumping them on impoverished neighborhood schools that are
often criticized as failing institutions.
"I'm going to be very blunt: This [expletive] stops now," Wareing said at Tuesday's board meeting. "School
choice means choice for kids, not for the people that work for our
kids," said Wareing, reading from prepared remarks. "We are a public
school system, which means we welcome and we serve every child who walks
through our door. If anyone here is not 100 percent committed to that
vision, then they need to reconcile themselves to it now, or they need
to leave."
...Wareing's
heated speech followed a recent letter from Superintendent Beth
Schiavino-Narvaez warning all school principals in the district that
student transfers will be closely monitored.
"I
am writing to you because I want to be explicit about my expectations:
all students have a right to be educated in the school in which they
enroll," Narvaez wrote in the letter sent July 20. "A student who is
failing to meet academic performance standards should not be encouraged
to transfer to another school. It is each school's responsibility to
find the path to success for each and every student."
After Matt
Conway III, executive director of the mentoring group RiseUP, posted a
redacted copy of Sport and Medical Sciences' June 25 letter online —
"Transfer paperwork has been enclosed for your convenience," the letter
stated — administrators at the school apologized to the student's family
"for any misunderstandings" and offered her intensive academic support.
But
that hasn't quelled concern from advocates and some educators who
assert that Greater Hartford magnet schools have long counseled
underperforming students to leave.
Sandra Inga, president of the
Hartford union that represents school administrators, said she heard
from several city principals who wished that Narvaez had singled out
magnet schools in her letter last week...
"Because
it's not all the neighborhood schools — Bulkeley's not doing that,
Weaver's not doing that, Hartford High is not doing that," Inga said
after the board meeting. "It's the magnet schools ... . They've been
doing that for years."...
