Opinions Are Like ....

Everyone is bugging me to write about last Wednesday’s meeting. I had to wait because I would have been too cruel to too many people. I’m sure some of you will find the following cruel anyway. But I assure you it is not as cruel as it would have been had I wrote this blog last Thursday. I am not naturally a politically correct person. Writing without offending someone is virtually impossible. An opinion letter in today’s Beacon Journal (scroll to T minus Imus) from a Falls resident said it beautifully: Don’t say anything, you’ll offend someone, Don’t hear anything, you wont be offended, Close your eyes, you wont see the hypocrisy.

I was shocked at the army of Silver Lake residents in attendance. But the motive became clear a few minutes into the meeting. It’s the start of the campaigning season. A member of the public asked Mrs. Gunter to resign. Before I go into specifics, I want to clarify a few things. I call this person a member of the public because he is not a home owner or renter. In fact he has no idea what it is like to support a family, pay property taxes, city, state and federal income taxes, insurance premiums, etc, etc, etc… He twice ran for school board and lost, is a politician’s dream lackey, and lastly, our superintendent was his high school principal and Mr. Public Member absolutely admittedly worships the ground he walks on. That said he made the following statement, the grammar belongs to the speaker. As usual my comments are in red:

I just have a few comments and questions that I would like to share regarding the Board evaluations of Dr. Holland and the subsequent newspaper articles related to the evaluations. To start I would like to remind this Board that on September 22, of last you year, you voted to give Dr. Holland a four-year Contract extension, some of the reasons that you cited for giving him this contract were things like his outstanding performance as he led the district out of financial disaster, your desire for continuity in the leadership of this district, and Dr. Holland's sincere desire to remain a Black Tiger. (I did none of this and the “desire” was so sincere that our superintendent applied for two jobs subsequent. Do you think that was on the boards’ minds while evaluating?)

Now, almost 6 months removed, we have all this controversy that comes out about individual board member evaluations and whether or not they are fair. So I think that the community deserves some very direct answers from the Board and specifically one board member for his or her evaluation of Dr. Holland. I am only singling out this one board member because (as I prepare to run for school board again and) as I read each of the evaluations and the comments contained in them, this person is the only one who fails to show any hint of objectivity in their evaluation. I am very interested to know what has changed from Sept. 22 of last year when this person sat at that table and excitedly voted yes to renew Dr. Holland's contact and Feb. 13 of this year when this person submitted their evolution of Dr. Holland to the Board's attorney. The public deserves an explanation as to why this board member voted yes to approve a contract worth close to a half a million dollars (because when dealing with a frightened-of-losing-the-superintendent board majority, you agree to vote yes to negotiate the BS out of the contract, my little grass hopper) to a man that he or she has deemed to be grossly inadequate, so inadequate that this Board member rated him as such in 34 of 39 areas of evaluation. (Here are copies of the evaluations for those who are interested) I would also like to know how Dr. Holland, the man that this Board member has deemed to be so inadequate and down right unprofessional has made it through his entire professional career of more than 20 years without having anything less than outstanding evaluation, evaluations that are actually done by qualified professionals. (Oooh, that hurt)

I also question why this Board member at the March 21 Board meeting chose to congratulate Dr. Holland, the man that she deemed to be inadequate and unprofessional a month earlier for not getting the Hudson superintendentcy, ( <--- not a word) a position that would have taken his alleged inadequacy out of Cuyahoga Falls. (What was she supposed to do, say ha ha?) It just doesn't make sense to me. It seams that someone is talking out of both sides of their mouth.

As I conclude, unless there are some very compelling reasons that this person can come up with to explain their actions, it seems to me that they have clearly have lost all objectivity as a Board Member and it has clearly become their goal to slander the superintendent, opening the district to a tremendous amount of legal liability, liability that the taxpayers should not have to assume. (LOL! Opinions on an evaluation do not equal slander! I hope you are not looking to be Public Member, Esq.) In addition, I would say that not only this persons lack of objectivity but their highly unprofessional behavior during board meetings (for instance the time that this person quacked like a duck in lieu of a yes or no vote) (Grrrr ruff ruff) tells me that this person no longer deserves the privilege of holding this office. A privilege that in my opinion, this person has abused time and time again. It is time for this community to step up tell this person and other public officials that this conduct is not okay. With that being said, I want to publicly ask Ms. Barb Gunter to resign. Without objectivity and a clear sense of right and wrong you are of no use to the children and taxpayers of this district. Thank you

First of all I want you to know Mrs. Gunter has no intention of resigning. Talk about losing objectivity! Objectivity was lost on him when he assumed that his opinion of the superintendent should be Mrs. Gunters’. Walk a mile in her orthopedics before you rush to judgement! You have no idea the personal experiences each member has had with the superintendent. I guess you’ll have to wait until she is up for reelection to show her your personal dissatisfaction. The Falls News sums it up best this week in their editorial.

Next up in the firing line was the survey. It seems quite a few residents who couldn’t bother to read about or come to meetings regarding the survey, couldn’t understand why there was so much in the survey and why it was formatted the way it was. I will explain once again why the survey was so daunting for all of you that were perplexed by it. This board agreed that this was a costly undertaking but a very important one. The only way to know what the public wants and expects from us is to ask them. We put each and every piece of information into it that we could think of. The work sessions where input from the public could have been garnered, were posted and advertised! Where were your regiments then? I suspect garden club. If it was too confusing throw it out! But I believe this board did one hell of a job getting all the information we could into this. We were putting a lot of money into it and wanted to get the most out of it. We have 5 members. Everyone wanted to know something different. I wanted to know financial priorities. Another wanted to know how people thought we were presently doing. Another wanted input on reconfiguration. Another thought all of our ideas sounded great and had nothing to add. Get involved next time and maybe you’ll understand it better!

If I Could Save Time In A Bottle....

The times, they are a changin’. No, I’m not talking about the times we live in. I’m talking about school start and stop times. Looks like those rumors of this happening have proved to be true. Funny how you get lambasted for “spreading rumors”, yet time and time again they aren’t really rumors. The proposed time changes are 9AM til 3:30 at the elementary level and 8AM til 3PM at the middle school level.
So far we have had two public meetings regarding the time changes. We used the super-sized Post-It notes that so many meetings have. Silly me assumed that the positives and negatives were being noted. I questioned why the comments were noted as “Strengths” and “Opportunities for improvement”. When I questioned it another board member told me that the facilitator of the meeting doesn’t believe in negatives or weaknesses. Now I’m not of the yarn toed hippy generation so I was a little perplexed by this slant on things. Especially when most of the parent comments seemed to be how these changes would negatively affect them.
A few things concern me. The main negative effect I heard about was drive time to work and explaining to the boss that 9:15 or 9:30 will be the new starting time. I know that is going to go over well. In fact I know an attorney that is going to be thrilled to tell a judge that court can’t start until 10 AM because his paralegal can’t get to court with him until then. And I’m sure the judge wont mind telling the jails to hold the prisoners an extra hour and having the prosecutors office change their hours as well. And what about doctors offices and the post office and every other business and governmental entity.
“Get morning childcare in addition to after school care” they said. Yeah, that’s a walk in the park. I just lovvvve having other peoples kids at my house in the morning. It makes getting my kids ready for school so much easier. Oh yes, there are people you can pay. That’s an extra $25- $50 per week. More than the cost of a levy!! And I can tell you right now that this school district cannot be involved in setting up morning parent provider networks as suggested. I don’t know many people that will leave their kids with just anyone, but I assure you that this district cannot shoulder the liability. Please don’t try to convince me that someone wouldn’t sue us if a morning provider turned out to be a bad person. I don’t even want to touch morning parent providers with someone else’s ten-foot pole.
Another negative was the 1-hour difference in start times between elementary and middle school. This means middle schoolers who might typically help with getting younger siblings off to school when mom and dad leave for work would now have to leave with mom and dad, leaving little Sally to watch out for herself.
“But this will make it easier on bussing:” they said. But an excellent counter point was made when a gentleman asked, “what percentage of our students are bussed? Are we inconveniencing 90% of parents for a mere 10% that are bussed?” Oddly enough it was a question that for the first time in administrative history no one had an answer to. Apparently once again, no one thought about what segment of the community would be most affected by this. When we closed Sill and Newberry, it was sacrificing the few for the greater good. Now the sentiment seems to be let’s turn an entire cities schedule upside down for the few that are bussed.
“Well… actually we are doing it to improve academics” they said. This proposal adds 15 minutes to the elementary day and 20 minutes to the middle school day. OK. I can go for that. But how about leaving the middle school proposal as is and starting elementary at 8:30 AM or the current 8:45 and dismissing at 3:15 or 3:30? Parents have expressed to me that the earlier drop off time is crucial to them. After school care is much easier to come by. But then another voice piped up and stated that middle schoolers need more sleep, not less, to excel academically. So I say how ‘bout middle school from 8:30 to 3:30, elementary from 8:45 to 3:15, and use neighborhood bussing where middle schoolers and elementary kids ride together.
“Oooooh scary” they said. Children do it across the US and the rest of the world for that matter. Kids ride with their siblings. My cousins do it and much to everyone's amazement- live through it every day. There are even districts that add high schoolers to the mix! Oh and guess what there is a bonus! You fill each and every non special education bus up with kids. No more running big giant busses with 2 – 10 kids on it. You assign each bus to its capacity. Then the 15 minutes between elementary and middle school start and end times works for bussing, but more importantly works for parents who drop off and pick up as well. I also feel it is the most cost efficient way to bus. If you add to it designated stops rather that curbside pick up you save even more! I guess if everyone is on this school board to push an agenda, I might as well push one too. Mine is the taxpayer-stake holder-funder agenda. I push the agenda of that very important majority. And that majority seems to conflict with the Cuyahoga Falls Board of Education majority most of the time. Where is the fiscal prudence that was promised? I think it got lost in the agenda schematics.
Is this a done deal? Don’t ask me. I’m always the last to know. Besides I’m the same person who was told that “Newberry wasn’t closing” and “rumors get started over the dumbest things” Only to have someone show up at Newberry the next day and announce it was closing. I was also given false information regarding building student populations that were slanted to under populate Newberry and Sill. Am I leery, distrustful, and cautious? You better believe it. I have no reason to feel otherwise.

These Rules Are Made for Breakin'

This dictatorship by our board president and his minions has reached new levels. Let me ask you all a question. Do you have the authority to refuse an evaluation from your boss? Do you get to decide whether it is fair or not?
In February the board president handed the board an evaluation form and instructed us to evaluate the superintendent individually. We were to turn them in to the board attorney by the 14th of February, said attorney would tabulate the scores and present the board with a composite evaluation composing of the five scores averaged into one with comments from members included. The superintendent was to receive his evaluation from the board president by March 1st.
We followed all the set rules and received back a composite score evaluation. I was then told that certain board members didn’t think this was a true reflection of our CEO. It wasn’t fair they said. They proposed that we give our evaluations individually. They refused to sign the composite evaluation. This was at the March 7th meeting. Our board president had already let the deadline slip by! I shouldn’t have been surprised yet I was. At this point the CEO also declined to accept the evaluation. For the first time in my entire life I was speechless.
Now I didn’t necessarily like other members’ comments or scores myself but this wasn’t my evaluation, it was the boards. So I was willing to accept that. But I am not willing to change the rules after the game has begun. That’s what they want to do.
The board agreed on a procedure and I followed it. I can’t help it some members did not like the outcome. But since it was obvious the board was going to remain dead locked forever regarding this issue I offered a compromise. I moved to have the board president explain to the media why there was no evaluation given to the CEO this year and have the completed evaluations destroyed. The motion passed 4-0 with 1 member abstaining.
Then this Monday morning our board president released the evaluations to the Falls News with the following statement, my comments are in red:

Press Statement: April 9, 2007
At the April 4, 2007 meeting of the Cuyahoga Falls City School District’s Board of Education, the Board passed a resolution directing the Board president to provide the public, through the media, an explanation as to why there has been no written evaluation of Superintendent Dr. Edwin Holland for the 2006-2007 contract year, and to dispose of (actually it was “destroy”) all evaluation forms.In an effort to produce a written Board evaluation document, each Board member had submitted individual evaluation forms to the Board’s legal counsel in February. The individual evaluations were compiled by the Board’s legal counsel who issued two written drafts of a composite evaluation. (Actually he submitted one written draft as was expected. The second draft with the individual scores arrived days later after a board member requested it that way).Several of the board members stated that the draft composite evaluation was not an accurate representation of the majority opinion (? Board majority was not in the instructions!) and therefore a consensus on the draft composite evaluation could not be reached. No written evaluation was finalized or signed by the Board of Education or the superintendent. (It was finalized when it was returned as a composite from the attorney, I’ve found nothing that says a signature is needed.)Although a written evaluation for the superintendent was not approved for the 2006–2007 school year, Board members provided Dr. Holland with a verbal evaluation (I must have missed that portion of the meeting) regarding his job performance. Several Board members indicated that he is meeting or exceeding expectations, and this was reflected in the majority of individual evaluation forms. Pursuant to the Board resolution of April 4th, these forms will be submitted to the district records commission in accordance with law. (Why bother now?)The Board is working in conjunction with the superintendent to establish goals for the 2007-2008 school year. (Well, we voted to anyway) The evaluation process for the upcoming school year will in part be based on these goals.

Suddenly the phrase “board majority” has entered the picture. Never before in the history of our school district has a superintendent been evaluated by a majority vote. This evaluation wasn’t supposed to reflect the positions of the majority. In fact it was the board majorities idea to do this evaluation in the manner and format that it was. If it had been agreed upon from the beginning to evaluate based on the board majority, I wouldn’t have wasted my time filling out the form. I could have predicted this outcome. But our board president told me that we were to fill out the forms and get them to the attorney so he could average our collective scores and comments. I did that. Now that the majority of the board has voted to destroy the completed evaluations, then released them to the media, I’m not sure I can enter into an agreement with these people in the future. Twice now regarding this evaluation they have reneged on their own decisions. And I guess my attorney client privilege only applies to levy memos, not documents that are sent to the attorney sealed and meant for his eyes only, as these individual evaluations were.
This board member was betrayed, bullied and violated. I do not know how to work with people I cannot trust, even when a vote is taken.

Woo Hoo! Surveys Hot Off the Press!

Who would’ve thought that a survey could cause so much controversy? To the nice lady in Silver Lake that is concerned I might cry foul if the results aren’t to my liking, fear not! I am not ashamed of myself and I hereby promise to accept results of said survey as they come in whether I like it or not. You see, my intent is not to verify any preconceptions. My intent is to find out what this district needs, wants, and is willing to pay for. I do not fear the results as some people seem to. I embrace the opportunity to make changes according to what the funders want. Now I’m not a member of the Gallop Poll board as the letter writer claims to be but I am a member of society. I have a stake in this district and a right to be heard.
Now let’s talk about the cost and my seemingly thrifty ways. I’m not against spending money. We obviously have to spend money to operate. But there is spending and there is waste. Money spent on a survey that can garner input better than any committee or public forum ever could is money well spent. Money spent on consultants to reorganize administrative offices is waste. If you don’t like where you sit, drag your desk down the hall. I guarantee this survey costs less than the money the district has paid to the “Plan for Excellence” facilitator.
I wasn’t going to brag about this but under the circumstances I feel I must do something to justify my asking for more money for this survey. I recently placed three district surplus items on E-bay. I put together the ads and listed them out of the kindness of my heart and brought in over $18,000.00. Not bad for a couple hours work. I think this amount more than covers the added cost of the surveys.
I must tell you the hell I was put through to get a letter to the editor put in the Falls News. Let me explain something to you. Therese Dunphy sent a letter to the Falls News stating that the district had decreased expenditures by 12.2 million dollars from fiscal years 05 to 06. What she failed to mention was from FY 04 to 05 there was an unusual one time increase of expenditures of over 12 million dollars. There was never a decrease in expenditures. There was an increase in expenditures in 05, then back to normal spending levels in 06. Funny thing is, everyone involved was real reluctant to set the record straight. It has taken almost a month to get my letter printed. Why would a paper print something so misleading and then make me present exhibits with witnesses to state the facts? It’s as if they didn’t care that people were fed a line of crap from an elected official.

The Grass is Always Greener...

I was out of town the last few days. We took a little trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I noticed quite a few interesting things. The first thing I noticed was how all the asphalt roadways and parking lots are a blackish pink color. This is because the area is a pink granite treasure chest. It’s everywhere. In fact the only thing I didn’t see pink granite used for was side walks. The falls of the Sioux River was a gorgeous mix of pink granite and white fluffy foam that floated through the air and made it seem you were in some sort of fairy tale. The only thing missing was a mermaid.
The one thing that made me feel like I was at home was the local newspaper the Argus Leader. Their school funding problems and local community involvement issues were strikingly similar to our own. In the three days I was there, a local district joined a statewide lawsuit suing for school funding, the community is in an uproar over a behind closed door decision to close an elementary school and move the kids across town. Yet at the same time lauding the same school district for other boundary changes last year where parent groups were consulted, eight public forums were held, and made the decision based on public input seven months before they were to take effect.
Some of the concerns were that parents were notified of the decision with a three week time frame to voice concerns before a vote of the school board. Sound familiar? One parent said “that breaks all the rules when it comes to change and parental involvement.” I agree. The frustration of knowing something is a done deal before the public is made aware is maddening. It sure doesn’t gain support from tax payers to know their voice doesn’t matter.
One thing that occurred to me while reading about the funding problems all school districts seem to face. Most districts have a set of goals when it has become apparent to me that what we really need is a list of priorities. I hope our survey can help Cuyahoga Falls do that. Base our spending on what our priorities for our kids are.
Another oddity in Sioux Falls- they don’t have spring break. School’s out the middle of May. I’m not sure how that would fly here. Maybe a mid September start? Next year is the start of spring break moving to the middle of March. Brrrrr. I’m going to start calling it winter break II. Don’t yell at me, it wasn’t my idea. When I questioned this move I was told that spring break is about education not a vacation. Thank goodness indoor water park construction is on the rise in NE Ohio. Most of the northern United States is still frozen that time of year.
I hope everyone had a nice break. I know I needed it. Now it’s yo heave ho. Back to work we go.