Who? Me? Micromanage?

I didn’t get my Falls News this week so I don’t know if there was anything needing a rebuttal but there were some great articles in the Plain Dealer last week. Teacher salaries was a good one. One thing I have always said is that teachers make plenty of money. A study by the Manhattan Institute for Public Research says the same thing. And please don’t post that I don’t understand the amount of extra work and things that teachers must do at home. We all take work home. Of course the Ohio Education Association doesn’t agree with this report. Surprise, surprise. Teachers Vs. Unions touches on this issue of the NEA and local teacher unions is trying to do something about the teacher pay myth. Their main complaint is that teacher unions are not using teachers union dues wisely. No one has a problem paying an excellent teacher fair pay. It’s the crappy teachers with tenure that we are tired of supporting with tax dollars. It’s contracts slanted to benefit union officers with not one mention of student achievement that we are tired of funding. It the system of no accountability while the rest of us must prove ourselves to keep our jobs that we want to see change. But unions wont touch these issues with a ten foot pole. I was told to not even think about making student achievement with a merit pay system part of the new teachers contract. The strange thing is that good teachers do not seem to be afraid of an accountability system. But unions are. The same people who tell you that all children can learn are the same people who refuse to make it a contract issue.

Another great article was on the many superintendent job openings in the area. The part that struck me was the amount of money spent on superintendent searches. This is another area of extreme school district waste. Consultants, associations, contractors, etc. One of the great fears of the board majority during out CEO’s contract renewal scare was the cost of a superintendent search. It never even crossed their minds to look from with-in like Kent did. Duh! Besides, whatever happened to classified as in major newspapers, not to mention that new fangled internet thingy with places like Monster.com. It’s like every small claim must be made into a federal case. Another thing the article points out is that most local openings have had 10 or more applicants. Of course these are highly sought after jobs. It’s one of the few jobs you can hold and dole out favors and tax money and not be held accountable to the voters. One thing I have noticed since being involved in this school board business is this- generally a school employee is part of a school family. And I don’t mean that in the sense of “work” family. I mean if you are a school employee, chances are your wife, husband, brother, cousin, son-in-law, and spouses best friend are also school employees somewhere in some capacity.

I got a memo in my Friday board packet that suggests we try using the Ohio School Board Associations “consultant” for board relations to fill us in on what our roles are as board members. Along with this was a suggestion to read an article in the months issue of their magazine entitled “Is micro-management stalling your board?” Ironically this was the first article I read when I received my issue. Here’s the problem. The OSBA is staffed by former school administrators, not board members. We all know by now that administrators expect a board to approve their recommendations. Period. No ifs ands or buts. Recently across Ohio school board positions are being filled with concerned tax payers. Not the traditional levy cheerleaders. This has become a concern to the people spending your tax money. Yes OSBA is spending your tax money. We pay dues to belong. Here’s the part that kills me. We pay dues and get a magazine and various new letters. But the first thing you get from them is a list of consultants we can pay to use and a list of courses we can take for a fee. Now I get to the funny part of all this. I pushed for FREE federal mediators to come in and try to smooth this board rift we have and I quote our board president on this one “We need to learn how to get along on our own”. Now it seems someone wants to pay a buddy to try to help us understand our roles. I took the role course from OSBA. It basically goes like this: You pay a superintendent a lot of money to run your district. Let him do his job and do not interfere. If you interfere you are being unprofessional and difficult. What you promised the voter does not matter now. Do not question the super. Just realize that he knows best and blame the screwed up state funding for all the problems you face. Pay us $3000 - $8000 and we will send you your own tax spending personal trainer for more details. We’ll throw in a free Power Point presentation with every $5000 you spend. (Read this part really, really fast) Meals, mileage, and lodging not included in consulting fee but are expected to be paid in full. High end lodging only and valet parking must be included. Spa and pool desired but not required.

So let’s answer the question: Is micro-management stalling your board? Was I elected to be guided by the administration or the other way around? Is making suggestions to the administration on how I am told taxpayers want their money spent micro managing?

One last quickie. Make sure you check out the Plain Dealers' Regina Brett article on “The Homework Myth”. The book should be required reading for all teachers, parents, administrators and testing companies.