San Diego Unified School District allowed teachers and parents to decide for themselves whether they wanted students to see President Obama's speech to America's school children on September 8, 2009. La Mesa/Spring Valley school district outright banned the viewing of the speech, but that's no surprise, given that Rick Winet and friends have a majority on the board.
Up in Washington, Amalia Cudeiro started out her tenure at Bellevue School District by going on a "listening" campaign. But she doesn't think students should be allowed to listen to the President of the United States. No, that's not necessarily true. I'll bet she would have let the kids listen to George W. Bush or George H.W. Bush (the latter did address the nation's students during his term).
Politics Bellevue School District: We Didn't Ban Obama's Speech Because We're Right-Wing, Teabagging, Evangelical Racists
We Did It Because We Did Zero Research and We're Beholden to Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories
Posted by Dominic Holden
September 8, 2009
...Bellevue School District won't allow its students to watch the president's national address to students this morning.
The district's superintendent, Amalia Cudeiro, decided to ban—or at least suspend—classrooms from airing Obama's speech last Friday.
She posted a notice on the district's website, stating that "the tape will be made available to any teacher who wants to use it in a balanced discussion, so long as it fits within the education objectives of the class." And she sent district staff a message saying that, when she made the decision, "none of us had seen the script of the speech and we received multiple contacts from parents and community members who were concerned that this was going to be a political speech rather than just a motivational one."
But school district spokeswoman Ann Oxrieder says there was no evidence that the speech would contain inappropriate content.
Despite the uproar stoked by the radical right, other local school districts didn't block the speech, instead choosing to let parents or students opt out.
Was the Bellevue district concerned that the objections were based on rumors and speculation—and that there was no indication the speech would contain the socialist "indoctrination" messages that Glenn Beck and other right-wing pundits warned it would?
"At that time nobody had time to research," says Oxrieder. "We just knew that people were saying it was going to be a political message. We didn’t know where it was coming from. It was coming from our families."
Oxrieder doesn't know if the school district aired similar addresses to students by former presidents George HW Bush and Ronald Reagan.
"I don’t think there is any reason to worry because we have read the script now," Oxrieder says. Of course, they're still not airing the speech.
Showing posts with label . Cudeiro (Amalia Cudeiro). Show all posts
Showing posts with label . Cudeiro (Amalia Cudeiro). Show all posts
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Monday, September 07, 2009
Former Bellevue Interim Superintendent Karen Clark steps down
See all posts re Amalia Cudeiro.
Former Interim Superintendent Karen Clark steps down
By LINDSAY LARIN
Bellevue Reporter
Aug 24 2009
Former Interim Superintendent Karen Clark will be leaving the Bellevue School District now that a permanent superintendent is on board.
According to Ann Oxrieder, director of communications and community engagement for Bellevue schools, Clark will continue to work on a part-time basis until a replacement can be found to fill her former position of finance director.
“I’m guessing it will take some time to find a replacement, since the people with expertise in the area of Washington school finance will be starting work in the next few weeks and may have contracts that are hard to break,” Oxrieder explained.
Former district finance director and finance consultant Howard Johnson is lending his expertise on a temporary basis until a full-time replacement for Clark is appointed.
Clark stepped into the position of interim superintendent following the resignation of former Bellevue Superintendent Mike Riley in November 2007. Riley recommended that Clark, deputy superintendent at the time, take over as interim superintendent until the school board appointed someone permanently.
Nearly two years later, the board appointed Dr. Amalia Cudeiro as the new superintendent of Bellevue schools...
Former Interim Superintendent Karen Clark steps down
By LINDSAY LARIN
Bellevue Reporter
Aug 24 2009
Former Interim Superintendent Karen Clark will be leaving the Bellevue School District now that a permanent superintendent is on board.
According to Ann Oxrieder, director of communications and community engagement for Bellevue schools, Clark will continue to work on a part-time basis until a replacement can be found to fill her former position of finance director.
“I’m guessing it will take some time to find a replacement, since the people with expertise in the area of Washington school finance will be starting work in the next few weeks and may have contracts that are hard to break,” Oxrieder explained.
Former district finance director and finance consultant Howard Johnson is lending his expertise on a temporary basis until a full-time replacement for Clark is appointed.
Clark stepped into the position of interim superintendent following the resignation of former Bellevue Superintendent Mike Riley in November 2007. Riley recommended that Clark, deputy superintendent at the time, take over as interim superintendent until the school board appointed someone permanently.
Nearly two years later, the board appointed Dr. Amalia Cudeiro as the new superintendent of Bellevue schools...
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Amalia Cudeiro is starting out in Bellevue exactly like Libia Gil started in CVESD
See more on Amalia Cudeiro.
UPDATE MARCH 8, 2011 Steve McConnell said...I do wonder whether we in Bellevue are getting what we thought we were with Dr. Cudeiro. Check out my blog on the topic...
UPDATE: AUGUST 9, 2009 ANONYMOUS COMMENTER REPORTS: "I hear from reliable sources that she's cleaning house at the dictrict, firing old reliables and hiring outside people at MUCH higher salaries. Haven't seen any news reports about this yet but I'm wondering how local parents and educators will react to this kind of drastic change." MAURA LARKINS' COMMENT: Wouldn't it be hilarious if Curdeiro hired Libby Gil's right-hand man Richard Werlin?
ORIGINAL POST:
Back in 1993 Amalia Cudeiro's friend Libia Gil was hired as superintendent in Chula Vista Elementary School District. Gil said she was just going to listen to other people for the first few months. She went around listening to business people and politicos, everybody except the teachers. And when did she begin to speak? Never, as far as I can recall. The ability to sit quietly and say nothing seemed to be her strongest trait. But she ruled with the help of a few close associates, particularly Richard Werlin, assistant superintendent for human resources.
Gil instituted site-based management, which meant that as long as they kept things quiet, principals were on their own. If a problem developed, Richard Werlin swooped in and started yelling and putting people on administrative leave.
There were few tears when Libia Gil left mysteriously in 2002, supposedly for a job in Virginia. But she never left San Diego, and she never has been hired as a public school superintendent since then, though not for lack of trying.
Amalia Cudeiro and Libia Gil are old friends and business partners. I imagine that the Bellevue School Board has a majority of rigid, right-wing members who wanted someone just like Libby Gil. They picked the right person if that's their purpose.
She's going to listen: where have we heard this before?
New Bellevue schools superintendent says her first assignment is to listen
Seattle Times
March 30, 2009
By Katherine Long
Amalia Cudeiro, a 52-year-old education consultant, will officially become Bellevue's new superintendent in July, although it's likely she'll work informally with the district in the months leading up to that date.
She's a good listener and a no-nonsense administrator who makes her decisions after poring over assessment data.
[Maura Larkins' note: Actually, I think she makes her decisions BEFORE poring over assessment data, as seemed to be the case when she did "research" on Tom Payzant and Libia Gil.]
She holds a doctorate from Harvard University and lectures at the school's Urban Superintendents Program, but as a parent she's known firsthand the frustration of trying to find a school that works for a daughter with a learning disability.
Amalia Cudeiro, a 52-year-old education consultant, will officially become Bellevue's new superintendent in July, although it's likely she'll work informally with the district in the months leading up to that date.
She swings through Bellevue today, her first visit since being offered the job, with a packed itinerary that includes meeting with district officials, signing her contract and talking to the media.
Cudeiro will take leadership of a district considered one of the best in the state, with schools with a national reputation for excellence.
But the School Board wants to make more headway at helping lower-income students perform better. About 18 percent of Bellevue's students are on free- or reduced-price lunch, and more than 80 languages are spoken by students in the district's increasingly diverse schools.
Cudeiro says her first job will be to listen to what others have to say, especially teachers who went on strike six months ago over the district's standardized curriculum. "I am going to have to spend a little time understanding what has been put in place," she said.
Cudeiro's most recent public-schools job was as deputy superintendent of Boston Public Schools from September 1999 to June 2001. After that, with her husband, Jeffrey Nelsen, she founded a consulting firm, Targeted Leadership Consulting. She became an adjunct lecturer at Harvard University's Urban Superintendents Program in June 2004.
As a consultant, she's worked in school districts across the country, helping principals and teachers become better leaders and work together more effectively. The company also diagnoses a district's weak areas by examining data that show how students are doing, then building a curriculum based on that work.
"She has had the unusual experience of having been in literally dozens of school districts," said Tom Payzant, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "She has a frame of reference that's much broader than you'll see in a lot of candidates."
As a consultant, she's done work in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; Chicago; Chula Vista, Calif.; Elizabeth, N.J.; and internationally with Department of Defense schools.
Payzant was superintendent of Boston Public Schools when Cudeiro worked as deputy superintendent. He described her as a good listener but someone who didn't hesitate to make tough decisions, such as not renewing the contract of a principal who wasn't doing a good job.
One of her high-profile assignments was to overhaul Boston High, a school with some of the lowest test scores in the district.
Lowell Billings, the superintendent of Chula Vista Elementary School District in California, worked with Cudeiro's consulting firm on education reform in the diverse district south of San Diego. "Our achievement trends have been rather impressive, and Amalia played an important part in that," Billings said.
He said Cudeiro's work, which focused on developing better leadership skills among principals, helped raise test scores in low-income schools. But it also helped schools in well-to-do neighborhoods, where there was a core of students whose failure rate was masked by the overall success of the system.
As a mother, Cudeiro has also known what it's like to battle the system. She spent years trying to find a Boston public-school program that would help her dyslexic daughter catch up to peers.
She said she eventually "had to make a real tough decision" to pull her daughter from public school and put her in private school.
Cudeiro's daughter is now in college and doing well, she said.
UPDATE MARCH 8, 2011 Steve McConnell said...I do wonder whether we in Bellevue are getting what we thought we were with Dr. Cudeiro. Check out my blog on the topic...
UPDATE: AUGUST 9, 2009 ANONYMOUS COMMENTER REPORTS: "I hear from reliable sources that she's cleaning house at the dictrict, firing old reliables and hiring outside people at MUCH higher salaries. Haven't seen any news reports about this yet but I'm wondering how local parents and educators will react to this kind of drastic change." MAURA LARKINS' COMMENT: Wouldn't it be hilarious if Curdeiro hired Libby Gil's right-hand man Richard Werlin?
ORIGINAL POST:
Back in 1993 Amalia Cudeiro's friend Libia Gil was hired as superintendent in Chula Vista Elementary School District. Gil said she was just going to listen to other people for the first few months. She went around listening to business people and politicos, everybody except the teachers. And when did she begin to speak? Never, as far as I can recall. The ability to sit quietly and say nothing seemed to be her strongest trait. But she ruled with the help of a few close associates, particularly Richard Werlin, assistant superintendent for human resources.
Gil instituted site-based management, which meant that as long as they kept things quiet, principals were on their own. If a problem developed, Richard Werlin swooped in and started yelling and putting people on administrative leave.
There were few tears when Libia Gil left mysteriously in 2002, supposedly for a job in Virginia. But she never left San Diego, and she never has been hired as a public school superintendent since then, though not for lack of trying.
Amalia Cudeiro and Libia Gil are old friends and business partners. I imagine that the Bellevue School Board has a majority of rigid, right-wing members who wanted someone just like Libby Gil. They picked the right person if that's their purpose.
She's going to listen: where have we heard this before?
New Bellevue schools superintendent says her first assignment is to listen
Seattle Times
March 30, 2009
By Katherine Long
Amalia Cudeiro, a 52-year-old education consultant, will officially become Bellevue's new superintendent in July, although it's likely she'll work informally with the district in the months leading up to that date.
She's a good listener and a no-nonsense administrator who makes her decisions after poring over assessment data.
[Maura Larkins' note: Actually, I think she makes her decisions BEFORE poring over assessment data, as seemed to be the case when she did "research" on Tom Payzant and Libia Gil.]
She holds a doctorate from Harvard University and lectures at the school's Urban Superintendents Program, but as a parent she's known firsthand the frustration of trying to find a school that works for a daughter with a learning disability.
Amalia Cudeiro, a 52-year-old education consultant, will officially become Bellevue's new superintendent in July, although it's likely she'll work informally with the district in the months leading up to that date.
She swings through Bellevue today, her first visit since being offered the job, with a packed itinerary that includes meeting with district officials, signing her contract and talking to the media.
Cudeiro will take leadership of a district considered one of the best in the state, with schools with a national reputation for excellence.
But the School Board wants to make more headway at helping lower-income students perform better. About 18 percent of Bellevue's students are on free- or reduced-price lunch, and more than 80 languages are spoken by students in the district's increasingly diverse schools.
Cudeiro says her first job will be to listen to what others have to say, especially teachers who went on strike six months ago over the district's standardized curriculum. "I am going to have to spend a little time understanding what has been put in place," she said.
Cudeiro's most recent public-schools job was as deputy superintendent of Boston Public Schools from September 1999 to June 2001. After that, with her husband, Jeffrey Nelsen, she founded a consulting firm, Targeted Leadership Consulting. She became an adjunct lecturer at Harvard University's Urban Superintendents Program in June 2004.
As a consultant, she's worked in school districts across the country, helping principals and teachers become better leaders and work together more effectively. The company also diagnoses a district's weak areas by examining data that show how students are doing, then building a curriculum based on that work.
"She has had the unusual experience of having been in literally dozens of school districts," said Tom Payzant, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "She has a frame of reference that's much broader than you'll see in a lot of candidates."
As a consultant, she's done work in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; Chicago; Chula Vista, Calif.; Elizabeth, N.J.; and internationally with Department of Defense schools.
Payzant was superintendent of Boston Public Schools when Cudeiro worked as deputy superintendent. He described her as a good listener but someone who didn't hesitate to make tough decisions, such as not renewing the contract of a principal who wasn't doing a good job.
One of her high-profile assignments was to overhaul Boston High, a school with some of the lowest test scores in the district.
Lowell Billings, the superintendent of Chula Vista Elementary School District in California, worked with Cudeiro's consulting firm on education reform in the diverse district south of San Diego. "Our achievement trends have been rather impressive, and Amalia played an important part in that," Billings said.
He said Cudeiro's work, which focused on developing better leadership skills among principals, helped raise test scores in low-income schools. But it also helped schools in well-to-do neighborhoods, where there was a core of students whose failure rate was masked by the overall success of the system.
As a mother, Cudeiro has also known what it's like to battle the system. She spent years trying to find a Boston public-school program that would help her dyslexic daughter catch up to peers.
She said she eventually "had to make a real tough decision" to pull her daughter from public school and put her in private school.
Cudeiro's daughter is now in college and doing well, she said.
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