Schedule of Audit Findings and Responses Seattle School District No. 1 King County June 21, 2010
State Auditors Report of the Seattle Public School District finds the Superintendent and Board (yet again - three years running now) woefully lacking in managing the assets and resources of the District responsibly... in many cases acting on the wrong side of the law...
And the Board wants to extend her contract until 2013?
In any other business, Maria Goodloe Johnson would have been fired for gross incompetence...
The Board apparently had discussed the possibility of firing MGJ, or buying out her contract at a cost of $750K, but had decided that in these tight budgetary times, that move would be seen as 'fiscally irresponsible'.
Well, in any business I consult to, KEEPING such an incompetent employee who has cost the firm so much money ($48M and counting) would be considered fiscally irresponsible...
There comes a time when one has to cut one's losses, and now is the time for the Board to free itself from the losses that are embodied by MGJ - loss of trust, loss of confidence, loss of competence, financial losses, educational losses, loss of the best possible future for many SPS children and their families...
Sent to the Board last night (sorry, no time to convert to live links):
Board members:
For your information, here are where things are at with the various no confidence in Dr Goodloe-Johnson votes:
1: So far, 12 school staffs (independently of the SEA) have voted no confidence in the Superintendent...
Those schools are: Ballard, Franklin, & West Seattle High Schools, Adams, Schmitz Park, Sanislo, Laurelhurst, Maple, Green Lake & John Rogers (signature #340 community declaration) Elemenatries, Orca K-8 and Ida B Wells.
2: The SEA has recommended to the Board that they not extend MGJ's contract; they are waiting till fall to decide on a union-endorsed vote of no confidence.
3: 78% of people voting on a straw poll conducted by the Queen Anne & Magnolia News Online think MGJ is doing a poor job... See here:
and see here for the comments on the survey from the SSS blog: http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2010/05/cpps-survey-results-in.html
5: 379 people from a good cross section of SPS schools have signed the Community Declaration of No Confidence... see here for their names, zip codes, school affiliations and comments:
6: And you could also go read the comments people posted to the recent (multiple) Seattle Times editorials praising MGJ's performance - hardly a kind word about either Lynn Varner's uninformed, error-filled formulaic writing or about MGJ's management "skill"... and there was an article by Linda Shaw in the Times yesterday, that also did the "rah, rah, rah for MGJ" chant, and it too drew a lot of negative comment.
Do you really want to ignore this widespread community dissatisfaction, to shrug it off as nothing major worth worrying about, considering, acting on?
7: And now we have: Schedule of Audit Findings and Responses, Seattle School District No. 1, King County June 21, 2010
The latest State Auditors Report of the Seattle Public School District finds the Superintendent and Board (yet again - three years running now) woefully lacking in managing the finances, assets and resources of the District responsibly... in many cases acting on the wrong side of the law...
see here: http://www.sao.wa.gov/findings/1003871.pdf (https://www.sao.wa.gov/EN/News/Subscriptions/Pages/RecentAuditReportSubscriptions.aspx?CID=70)
In any other business, Maria Goodloe Johnson would have been fired for gross incompetence...
According to a Board member I spoke with a month or so ago, the Board had discussed the possibility of firing MGJ, or buying out her contract at a cost of $750K, but had decided that in these tight budgetary times, that move would be seen as 'fiscally irresponsible'.
Well, in any business with which I consult, KEEPING such an incompetent employee (who, by the way, is paid more than the governor of this state) who has cost the firm so much money ($48M and counting) would be considered fiscally irresponsible...
There comes a time when one has to cut one's losses, and now is the time for you, the Board to listen to your constituents and free yourselves and us from the losses that are embodied by MGJ - loss of trust, loss of confidence, loss of competence, financial losses, educational losses, loss of the best possible future for many SPS children and their families...
Please fire her - we can and must do better for our children...
Imagine - each of the 500+ people (school staffs included and other poll voters) who have signed resolutions and voted their lack of confidence in Maria Goodloe Johnson is standing in front of you at the Board meeting tonight, giving testimony.
At three minutes of testimony each, that means you'll be sitting here for at least 1,500 minutes, or 25 hours, listening to your constituents express their dissatisfaction with the Superintendent, her performance and the effects of that performance on our children and our schools.
They've taken at least 3 minutes of their time to make their wishes known to you - you who have been elected by us (and not hired by the Broad/Gates Foundations et al), to do what we think is best for our children.
You have a clear duty here - at the very least do not extend the Superintendent's contract. Better yet, respond in the affirmative to your constituents' calls to fire her, with cause. With the latest State Audit findings, you have more than enough reason.
Schedule of Audit Findings and Responses
ReplyDeleteSeattle School District No. 1
King County
June 21, 2010
State Auditors Report of the Seattle Public School District finds the Superintendent and Board (yet again - three years running now) woefully lacking in managing the assets and resources of the District responsibly... in many cases acting on the wrong side of the law...
see here:
http://www.sao.wa.gov/findings/1003871.pdf
And the Board wants to extend her contract until 2013?
In any other business, Maria Goodloe Johnson would have been fired for gross incompetence...
The Board apparently had discussed the possibility of firing MGJ, or buying out her contract at a cost of $750K, but had decided that in these tight budgetary times, that move would be seen as 'fiscally irresponsible'.
Well, in any business I consult to, KEEPING such an incompetent employee who has cost the firm so much money ($48M and counting) would be considered fiscally irresponsible...
There comes a time when one has to cut one's losses, and now is the time for the Board to free itself from the losses that are embodied by MGJ - loss of trust, loss of confidence, loss of competence, financial losses, educational losses, loss of the best possible future for many SPS children and their families...
Wow, isn't the superintendent grand.
ReplyDeleteWho wrote this blurb? Eli Broad himself?
For more on our superintendent and the Broad and charter schools and high stakes testing, see:
http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/
The comments to the article are of greater interest than the article.
ReplyDeleteSent to the Board last night (sorry, no time to convert to live links):
ReplyDeleteBoard members:
For your information, here are where things are at with the various no confidence in Dr Goodloe-Johnson votes:
1: So far, 12 school staffs (independently of the SEA) have voted no confidence in the Superintendent...
Those schools are: Ballard, Franklin, & West Seattle High Schools, Adams, Schmitz Park, Sanislo, Laurelhurst, Maple, Green Lake & John Rogers (signature #340 community declaration) Elemenatries, Orca K-8 and Ida B Wells.
2: The SEA has recommended to the Board that they not extend MGJ's contract; they are waiting till fall to decide on a union-endorsed vote of no confidence.
3: 78% of people voting on a straw poll conducted by the Queen Anne & Magnolia News Online think MGJ is doing a poor job... See here:
http://www.queenannenews.com/index.asp?PollID=4&btnView=1#PollSection
4: The majority of the 627 respondents to the CPPS survey were critical of MGJ... see here:
http://www.cppsofseattle.org/News/May10/supt-surveyMay2010.pdf
and see here for the comments on the survey from the SSS blog:
http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2010/05/cpps-survey-results-in.html
5: 379 people from a good cross section of SPS schools have signed the Community Declaration of No Confidence... see here for their names, zip codes, school affiliations and comments:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?S3B62010&1
6: And you could also go read the comments people posted to the recent (multiple) Seattle Times editorials praising MGJ's performance - hardly a kind word about either Lynn Varner's uninformed, error-filled formulaic
writing or about MGJ's management "skill"... and there was an article by Linda Shaw in the Times yesterday, that also did the "rah, rah, rah for MGJ" chant, and it too drew a lot of negative comment.
Do you really want to ignore this widespread community dissatisfaction, to shrug it off as nothing major worth worrying about, considering, acting on?
7: And now we have:
Schedule of Audit Findings and Responses, Seattle School District No. 1, King County June 21, 2010
The latest State Auditors Report of the Seattle Public School District finds the Superintendent and Board
(yet again - three years running now) woefully lacking in managing the finances, assets and resources of the District responsibly... in many cases acting on the wrong side of the law...
see here:
http://www.sao.wa.gov/findings/1003871.pdf
(https://www.sao.wa.gov/EN/News/Subscriptions/Pages/RecentAuditReportSubscriptions.aspx?CID=70)
In any other business, Maria Goodloe Johnson would have been fired for gross incompetence...
According to a Board member I spoke with a month or so ago, the Board had discussed the possibility of firing MGJ, or buying out her contract at a cost of $750K, but had decided that in these tight budgetary times, that move would be seen as 'fiscally irresponsible'.
Well, in any business with which I consult, KEEPING such an incompetent employee (who, by the way, is paid more than the governor of this state) who has cost the firm so much money ($48M and counting) would be considered fiscally irresponsible...
There comes a time when one has to cut one's losses, and now is the time for you, the Board to listen to your constituents and free yourselves and us from the losses that are embodied by MGJ - loss of trust, loss of confidence, loss of competence, financial losses, educational losses, loss of the best possible future for many SPS children and their families...
Please fire her - we can and must do better for our children...
Directors:
ReplyDeleteImagine - each of the 500+ people (school staffs included and other poll voters) who have signed resolutions and voted their lack of confidence in Maria Goodloe Johnson is standing in front of you at the Board meeting tonight, giving testimony.
At three minutes of testimony each, that means you'll be sitting here for at least 1,500 minutes, or 25 hours, listening to your constituents express their dissatisfaction with the Superintendent, her performance and the effects of that performance on our children and our schools.
And that's exactly what each of the signees to the attached Declaration have done. http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?S3B62010
They've taken at least 3 minutes of their time to make their wishes known to you - you who have been elected by us (and not hired by the Broad/Gates Foundations et al), to do what we think is best for our children.
You have a clear duty here - at the very least do not extend the Superintendent's contract. Better yet, respond in the affirmative to your constituents' calls to fire her, with cause. With the latest State Audit findings, you have more than enough reason.
Respectfully,
Sahila ChangeBringer