Since posting the Children Evaluating Teachers post Sunday night, there have been several details to come to light that need your attention.

Despite a district representative’s claims to the contrary, I have been told that these evaluations from eight-year olds have indeed been used during the evaluation process of non-tenured teachers at the end of the year last year. In other words, the results from a non-scientific survey of eight-year olds has been used by the district to decide if a non-tenured teacher should be allowed to continue teaching another year.

The District “Exaggerates” the Truth

When the district representative wrote, “This information is not used to evaluate teachers,” this person was either completely misinformed or attempting to spin the truth of the situation to appease an upset parent. These surveys of children are absolutely used to evaluate teachers.

Furthermore, I’ve heard from several other concerned citizens and teachers since posting. The consensus is that the district is absolutely using the opinion of children to evaluate teachers. They are even using these opinions when, as this teacher shared, the students are clearly using the evaluation to work out their frustrations with the teacher:

Evaluating the Huntsville City Board

In response to the completely reasonable and accurate survey that the district had our eight-year olds filling out for their teachers, a friend of mine has created a similar survey asking for your opinion of the superintendent and the Huntsville City Schools Board of Education. This is your opportunity to share your opinions about the board’s and the superintendent’s responsiveness to the students, teachers and public.

The survey will be open from now until April 28, 2013, so please take a moment to go and offer your assessment of the board and the superintendent. There are a total of 28 questions, and your participation is completely anonymous. (On this matter, I give you my word. If you share honest opinions, no one will ever know that you were the one to share them.)

If you have a connection to Huntsville City Schools, please take a few minutes out of your time over the next two weeks to share with us your opinion of the board of education and the superintendent. When the survey is closed, I will share the results of the survey here.

You may access the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HCSBOESURVEY2013. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to complete. Please share the survey with everyone you know as well.

Thanks y’all. Together we can turn this ship around before it sinks. I’m convinced of this.

The post Evaluating the Huntsville BOE and Superintendent appeared first on Geek Palaver.

In August 2011, Dr. Wardynski was on the campaign trail pushing for the renewal of the 6.5 mil property tax. During this push, he met with many various groups across the city, and in particular with groups associated with Grissom High School. In particular, he met with the South Huntsville Civic Association, and assured them that Grissom would be rebuilt on its current site.

He’s always been quick to make promises when he believes it will work to his advantage.

Beginning in October, however, rumors began to surface that Grissom might actually be moved, but of course, these rumors were “unfounded.”

Unfounded rumors seem to always have a way of turning out to be true in this district, don’t they?

On September 28, 2012, the consultant firm hired to do the work of the district in planning for the new Grissom, TCU Consultant Services, sent a letter to potential architect firms concerning the building of the new Grissom High. Yes, we are contracting our contracting now, but don’t distract me.

This letter laid out for the bidders a few general specifications concerning the new building which looked something like this:

New Grissom High School Design for an enrollment, when fully developed, of 2200-2400 students. Initial design for approximately 330,000 sq ft with a construction budget of approximately $48,000,000.00.

Now, you’ll note that there is no discussion of a location in this description from September 28th, but there are a few points that raise several questions about where the new school might be located. When meeting with the public for the first time on January 14th, Dr. Wilson and Dr. Wardynski shared with the public a brief description of the two locations under consideration. According to Dr. Wilson there would be a dramatic difference in the size of the two schools depending on which location was chosen. If the new Grissom were rebuilt on its current site, that building would hold approximately 1,800 students.

If instead the new Grissom were relocated to the “Weatherly Road” site (behind Sam’s Club), this would result in a building with a capacity for 2,200.

Furthermore if the new Grissom were built on the current site, the square footage of the new Grissom would be comparable to the current Grissom of about 280,000. If the new Grissom were instead relocated to the “Weatherly Road” site, it would (wait for it) have a square footage of 330,000.

Approximately one month after Dr. Wardynski assured the South Huntsville Civic Association that he had a specific plan for rebuilding Grissom on its current site, the architects were being asked to bid on a completely different plan.

But wait, there’s more.

If you look further into the letters sent from TCU Consultant Services to the potential architect firms you’ll find a letter dated October 23, 2012 that contains a slightly more detailed project description that reads:

New Grissom High School — will be approximately an 2200-2400 student new school, built on a newly selected site to be determined. The project size is approximately 330,000 sqft and has an approximate construction budget of $48,000,000.00.

So you see, at least as early as September 28th (and likely earlier) and definitely as early as October 23rd, the district was seeking architectural bids for a new Grissom that could not fit on the current Grissom location.

This is how Dr. Wardynski operates. He freely tells “concerned citizens” what he believes that they want to hear, then proceeds to follow a different plan behind closed doors. And while doing so, he happily sends his cheerleaders, like say Dr. Jennie Robinson, to speak to the press (as she did on November 26, 2012 or two months after the request for bids was sent to the architects) to say the following:

School board member Jennie Robinson, whose district includes Grissom, said there should be concerns when the district is contemplating a $60 million investment like a new high school. Like Brown, Robinson said the biggest concern she’s heard is what will become of the old Grissom campus.

“What do you put there that builds value to the neighborhood?” Robinson said. “You don’t hurt a neighborhood in the process of trying to build a school in a different place.”

She said relocating the school is still just a possibility and that no specific site is outweighing the others.

“All of the sites have considerations,” Robinson said. “Some have more challenges than others. Some have more advantages than others.

“In the end, it comes down to which one makes the most sense,” she said.

No, Dr. Robinson, in the end, it comes down to which location Dr. Wardynski actually wants to use, not which one makes the most sense. Despite her willingness to voice concern on behalf of the existing neighborhoods, she knew, or as a board member should have known, when she said that “no specific site is outweighing the others” that one specific site, specifically the misleadingly named “Weatherly Road” site, was far better suited to meeting the specifications that the district had already published.

The decision to move Grissom High to a new location had been made at least as early as September 28, 2012.

When Dr. Wardynski was first hired by the district in July 2011, he posted a document on the website entitled, “Preliminary Draft 60 Day Entry Plan.” For obvious reasons, this document is no longer posted on the district’s site, but since I have a few hoarder-like tendencies, I just happen to have a copy of his entry plan, the second page of which shows the following:

If he truly wanted to be “Our Superintendent” rather than “The Superintendent,” wouldn’t it make it easier if he openly and clearly discussed his plans for our district with us rather than continually telling us that decisions haven’t been made when we know that they have?

Respectfully, Dr. Wardynski and Dr. Robinson, it isn’t that hard to earn the confidence of “All Members of the Huntsville Community.” All you really have to do is to be concerned about all of the community’s members rather than just the business members of the community.

The post New Grissom Broken Promises appeared first on Geek Palaver.

I often find myself at a loss for words after the board of education does something incredibly stupid like extending Dr. Wardynski’s contract by two years after he has had exactly one evaluation. When last they met, they were still spreading the completely illogical notion that extending his contract–a contract that is binding not on Dr. Wardynski (he can quit at anytime for any reason, even without notice) but rather is binding on the district–shows that he is “committed to the district.”

I pointed out to the board just how illogical this “reasoning” was back in November, and I asked them for an explanation, some, any justification that actually makes sense.

Of course, as is their practice (if not their officially stated policy), they ignored my question entirely and voted to extend his contract by two more years.

So, once again, we see that the rules that apply to teachers, aides, and other district employees, just do not apply to Dr. Wardynski and his friends. Teachers are evaluated for a minimum of three years before they receive any form of security. Most aides never receive any form of security at all.

But for Wardynski our board created an individualized evaluation tool, evaluated him exactly one time, and extended his contract by 67%.

In what industry does this happen? It seems that the only one where it happens is in football.

And so when I am at a loss for words, I spend time thinking about the situation, evaluating it, attempting to make sense out of the senselessness that is the Huntsville Board of Education. Want an example? Right before he voted to extend the contract, Mr. Blair had the following to say:

Blair: “This is really more of a one way contract, right. So, then you talk about good faith and all that, so, even with the current contract, Dr. Wardynski could leave tomorrow. There is no penalty for him leaving tomorrow. There’s only a penalty if we fire him tomorrow. So then we would have some type of buy out. So I think that’s really the good will nature that you’re talking about that you’re willing to sign a contract for a longer term even though you could opt out of it along the way. But I think that’s really kind of the point because everybody’s saying well, this is to keep him here. That’s not really . . . you could go anytime you want.”

Wardynski: “It’s really about the folks I work with everyday, knowing that I’m going to be here. The community, business leaders, firms that are looking to come into this city do they . . . they’re looking for consistency in execution and consistency in direction.”

Blair: “I’ve thought long and hard about it. And I’m a football, I like football, and we see this often with a head coach and assistant coaches, and the assistant coaches have contracts in place, and they want to know that their system is going to be in place because otherwise if the head coach leaves then they don’t have stability. So, I’ve thought about it, I’ve thought long and hard about this whole thing.”

So, the reason for the contract extension isn’t to ensure that Wardynski will be around cause this is “really more of a one way contract.” The reason is instead to make all of Wardynski’s friends feel secure and stable.

So, on the same night when the board approved the resignation of eight more people and the immediate retirement of four people with three more leaving at the end of the school year, Blair wants us to know that he’s really not concerned about Wardynski. No, he’s concerned about those “assistant coaches” who work under Wardynski.

From September 4th through December 20th (assuming that Dr. Wardynski’s summary of the HR report was correct) 134 teachers, aids, and other district employees have either resigned, retired, or announced their intention to retire at the end of the year.

134.

Yeah, Mr. Blair, we get that you’re really concerned about all those “assistant coaches” out there who are so deeply worried about Dr. Wardynski leaving town.

We’re so glad that you’ve thought “long and hard about this whole thing.”

I wonder how many more of our “assistant coaches” are planning to offer their resignations and retirements because the board extended Wardynski’s contract?

The post Wardynski’s Contract “For The Assistant Coaches” appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Ms. McCaulley, Mr. Birney, Mr. Blair, Dr. Robinson, and Mr. Culbreath:

In extending Dr. Wardynski’s contract tonight, the five of you, unanimously, voted to support the following:

• Teachers (and everyone else) should be run off in droves.
• Special education should fund the recovery from the debt that four of you created.
• Special education should receive more staffing cuts than any other group during a time of reduction in force.
• Testing should be should be used to evaluate teachers rather than students.
• Passing a standardized test is the ultimate and only goal of education.
• The superintendent should not be required to communicate with the public.
• That 81 arrests in a mere 53 days is a “sign of high standards.”
• Education should be privatized even when it costs more, and reduces the influence that the public has over it.
• The superintendent should be allowed to offer plum jobs to his friends and that some “teachers” should be treated differently because he likes them.
• Anyone with five weeks of training and no experience can teach better than someone who costs less and has four years (at least) of training.
• Computers are better teachers than people, and that anyone who disagrees should be called names by the superintendent.
• Schools should be merged and closed for no reason other than that the superintendent thinks it a good idea.
• The superintendent should blame the victim when one child (or group of children) abuses another.

These are just some of the things that you voted to continue tonight. These are the things that you were applauding. These are the things that you were patting yourselves on the back for.

You should be ashamed.

Just one simple fact clearly illustrates just how far off track the five of you actually are.

Seven days after 26 people were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary school you spent four minutes talking about the safety of our children. (And 90 seconds of that was spent with Dr. Robinson telling Dr. Wardynski just how amazing he is.)

By comparison, you spent 28 minutes talking about property management.

You should be ashamed.

Oh, and don’t worry about responding to me. I’ve learned that the board doesn’t actually “study any concerns” brought to it. Feel free to ignore any issue I’ve raised here. Four of you have been doing so for the past 18 months anyway.

I just wanted it to be clear that these are the things that you voted to support tonight.

I know it. You know it. The public knows it.

You should be ashamed.

Sincerely,

Russell Winn
Parent

The post Open Letter: BOE Extends Wardynski’s Contract to 2016 appeared first on Geek Palaver.

So tomorrow night the board of education, at the request of the superintendent, will be voting on extending Dr. Wardynski’s current three year contract for an additional three years. Yep, five days before Christmas, the board is voting on giving the Superintendent a great Christmas present simply because he wants to show the district and the city just how committed he is to staying in the district as our superintendent.

Nope, that reason doesn’t make any more sense today than it did a month ago, does it?

Two weeks ago, I stood and asked the board to please provide the community with some reasonable justification for extending the superintendent’s contract half way through the first one, but, of course, they offered no response.

Big surprise, right?

Well, since they’re silent on the question, I thought I would go ahead and offer you 13 reasons why Wardynski’s contract should be extended for 2013. Someone please let the Board of Education know that I’ve done their homework for them. I’m sure they will appreciate it.

So, here’s the list:

1. You think that teachers (and everyone else) should be run off in droves.
2. You agree that special education children should fund the district’s recovery.
3. You think it’s a great thing for special education to receive more staffing cuts than any other group.
4. You believe that testing should be used to evaluate teachers rather than students.
5. You think that passing a standardized test is the ultimate goal of education.
6. You think it’s a good thing for the superintendent to threaten to quit rather than communicate.
7. You think 81 arrests in a mere 53 days is a “sign of high standards.”
8. You think that all of education should be privatized because it costs more,  it allows us to have so much more influence over the education of our children (as we have now with The Pinnacle Schools.
9. You believe that the superintendent should be allowed to offer plum jobs to his friends and that some should be treated differently because he likes them.
10. You believe that anyone, even someone who costs more, with five weeks of training and no experience, can teach better than someone who costs less and has four years (at least) of training.
11. You think a computer is a better teacher than a person and that anyone who disagrees should be called names.
12. You think that schools should be merged and closed for no reason other than that the superintendent thinks it a good idea.
13. You believe that the victims should be blamed when someone abuses them.

There you go. Thirteen reasons why Dr. Wardynski should have three more years to ruin (just in case you were wondering, no, I didn’t mean to type “run” there) our schools. If his contract is extended, 2013 will be a very unlucky year indeed.

If you wish to let your board member know that you think they should vote no on extending his contract, you need to contact them via email or phone before the meeting begins at 5:30pm tomorrow night.

I know it’s Christmas. I know you’ve got a billion other things you’d rather do. But guess what? The superintendent and the board know that too. This is why they’re voting on this right before the Christmas break.

They’re counting on you being too busy to voice your opinion about this decision. (By the way, that’s also why they’re pushing so hard to make the decision to move Grissom from its present location right now as well.)

If you think the extension is a bad idea, please contact the board member at the information below.

• District 1: Laurie McCaulley: lamccaulley@gmail.com
• District 2: David Blair: david.blair.hcsboard@gmail.com
• District 3: Jennie Robinson: personalbest@knology.net (256) 527-1425 (W) (256) 882-0925 (H)
• District 4: Topper Birney: topperb@knology.net (256) 883-2982
• District 5: Mike Culbreath: mwculbreath@gmail.com

If you think it’s not worth the trouble, remember those thirteen reasons are things that you voted to continue in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.

The post Thirteen Reasons To Extend Wardynski’s Contract Tomorrow Night appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Remember last year when the Alabama State Legislature decided that giving a gift to a teacher was just the worst possible thing that any one could ever do?

Suddenly giving a teacher a small Christmas gift was on par with lobbyists attempting to purchase influence with our legislature. It was suddenly a Class B Felony for teachers to accept a gift that could possibly be resold from a five-year old. Any gift must have a “de minimis” value.

It was, just one more way for legislators to abuse our teachers.

De Minimis Undefined

And of course the legislature refused to define what “de minimis” might mean. The Ethics Commission stepped in and told us that de minimis meant that the gift could have no value at resell. So gift cards were out.

In response, Dr. Wardynski release a memo on December 7, 2011 that stated clearly that “gift cards with a specific monetary value are NOT permissible.”

So the district followed along, having no choice, and complaining about it loudly. Finally our board and superintendent had some bad news that they could blame on someone else.

The board and superintendent encouraged everyone to contact their representative and let them know that this law over reached and should be changed.

Guess what? The district (and it seems all the others across the state) listened, and did just that.

Legislature Response With A Clear Definition

In August 2012, the legislature passed an amendment (Act No. 2012-433) to the Ethics and Campaign Finance Law that finally offered a definition of de minims:

(11) DE MINIMIS: A value twenty-five dollars ($25) or less per occasion and an aggregate of fifty dollars ($50) or less in a calendar year from any single provider, or such other amounts as may be prescribed by the Ethics Commission from time to time by rule pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act or adjusted each four years from the date of the enactment of this amendatory act to reflect any increase in the cost of living as indicated by the United States Department of Labor Consumer Price Index or any succeeding equivalent index.

So it is finally crystal clear from the legislature what the meaning of “de minims” is: a single gift of $25 or less and a total of $50 or less in a calendar year. AL.com reported on this story back on December 5th.

It would seem that the legislature finally realized that giving a teacher a small gift card of $25 or less would not result in pandemonium.

Wardynski and the Board Ignore State Law: Bah Humbug

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Christmas Tree.

Suddenly our district leadership decided that the memo they released eight months before the passage of this Act took precedence over the legislature.

When the holiday season rolled around again this year, the district begin redistributing the superintendent’s memo from last year proclaiming that “gift cards with a specific monetary value are NOT permissible.”

Calls to the central office from parents, PTA members, and principals (in response to parental questions) have received verification that the memo stands.

Appeals to the board members have not been responded to (big surprise).

And so despite their complaints about the actions of the legislature a year ago, despite their encouragement of the public to have the law changed, despite the fact that the law was changed, Dr. Wardynski has not updated his memo from a year earlier.

Perhaps he prefers it this way? Perhaps taking away one of the few ways that a family can say thank you to a teacher serves his purposes of running off ever more teachers during his tenure as superintendent.

Or maybe he’s just being lazy. (I wouldn’t want to be accused of being a conspiracy theorist or anything.)

Either way, this year it is his turn to play the role of Scrooge in our ongoing game of abuse the teacher. He, along with the full support of the board of education, are the ones telling teachers that they cannot be trusted if they receive a small gift from a child wishing to say thanks this holiday.

Dr. Wardynski and the Huntsville City Schools Board of Education are the ones to blame for this abusive policy. And we need to hold them accountable.

Voting To Extend Wardynski’s Abuse of Teachers

The last board meeting of the year will be held Thursday, December 20th, at 5:30pm. The issue of gifts to teachers is not currently on the agenda, but guess what is?

Yep, the board will be voting on extending Dr. Wardynski three-year contract (which is half up) for another three years. They’ve offered no reasonable justification for this even being voted on at this time, but they will be voting on it anyway. If you, like I, think this is a bad idea given the fact that our district cannot afford to lose yet another 984 teachers over the next four and a half years (we’ve lost 246 in the first 18 months of Wardynski’s administration), then call or write your board member before Thursday night and ask them to vote against this ridiculous request for a 6 year contract from Dr. Wardynski.

Our schools will not survive if you don’t.

The post Huntsville City Schools to Teachers: Bah Humbug, Again appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Last night the board announced that they’ve been holding discussions with the superintendent about extending his contract which is due to expire on June 20, 2014, to June 30, 2017. He has requested to receive a three-year extension to his contract, an increase in his car allowance of $200 per month (from $600 to $800), and in return he is willing to give up his incentive bonus of up to $10,000 per year. Last year his incentive bonus was $9,920.

Contract Extension to Quell Rumors

Wardynski claims that he needs to receive this contract extension to put to rest “rumors about the superintendent interviewing for jobs in other districts.”

I often hear rumors about things occurring in the district. I heard about Spinelli’s resignation about 4 months before it occurred. I heard rumors about his harassment complaints before the superintendent discussed them at a board meeting in February.

I’ve heard rumors about Dr. Wardynski as well.

I don’t publish rumors. However, last night Mrs. McCaulley and Dr. Wardynski acknowledged the existence of rumors of his interviewing with other districts. So, one collection of rumors I had heard was that he was traveling for interviews in New York, Florida, and Maryland.

Illogical Reasoning . . . As Usual

Let’s look at the logic here:

• There have been rumors about Dr. Wardynski traveling for interviews in other districts in at least three separate states. Mrs. McCaulley and Dr. Wardynski confirmed the existence of the rumors last night. There was no discussion of whether or not the rumors were true or not.
• So instead of confirming or denying the rumors, Dr. Wardynski’s response was to request a three year contract extension from the board.
• He and the board concluded that such an extension would confirm his commitment to Huntsville.

There seems to be a problem here doesn’t there?

If Dr. Wardynski wishes to confirm his commitment to Huntsville, why is he asking for Huntsville to confirm our commitment to him?

Wouldn’t it make more sense, wouldn’t it be more logical for Dr. Wardynski to simply:

1. State that he isn’t interviewing with other districts?
2. State that he has interviewed with other districts, but that he has decided that Huntsville is far and away the best place for him?
3. Stop accepting interviews with other districts?
4. State that he isn’t interested in leaving?

Asking for a contract extension to prove your desire to stay is kinda like asking your wife for permission to cheat, so you can prove to her how committed you are to the marriage.

It just doesn’t work that way.

He wants us to tell him and the rest of the nation that we really  want him to stay. This will make a great bargaining tool when he’s negotiating and interviewing with other districts. Just as many companies will not hire someone who is unemployed, Wardynski looks better to other districts when his contract isn’t about to expire.

Extending his contract says absolutely nothing about his desire to stay here as the board claimed last night.

As Clause 13 of the contract states, the contract isn’t binding on him. It requests a three month notice, but if he doesn’t give one, all that will mean is that he won’t be paid the $43,749.99 for that time. In other words, all of the burden rests on the district. None rests on Wardynski. He can still interview with other districts. He can still accept another job. Giving him a three year extension doesn’t prove commitment to the district. The three year commitment proves the district’s commitment to him.

He can, despite the extension, leave at any time.

So if he actually wants to prove, as McCaulley claimed, that “he’s committed to Huntsville,” here are a few things he can do:

1. Say, “I am not interviewing with any other job.”
2. Refuse to accept the bonus he is receiving until teachers STEP raises are restored.
3. Refuse to discuss a contract extension.

If he’s really committed to Huntsville, he should be willing to work out his existing contract without requiring additional promises from the district. If anything, asking for an extension proves that he is not committed to our district.

There is no logical reason for the board of education to extend his contract at this point.

So, they will likely do just that.

If you believe that they should politely tell the superintendent where he can put his “suggestion” of a contract extension, please contact your board member and let them know what you think. You may reach them at the email/phone numbers below:

• District 1: Laurie McCaulley: lamccaulley@gmail.com
• District 2: David Blair: david.blair.hcsboard@gmail.com
• District 3: Jennie Robinson: personalbest@knology.net (256) 527-1425 (W) (256) 882-0925 (H)
• District 4: Topper Birney: topperb@knology.net (256) 883-2982
• District 5: Mike Culbreath: mwculbreath@gmail.com

Please contact them immediately and let them know what you think of their logic. It’s possible, just possible, that they might actually listen.

The post Wardynski Requests a Three Year Contract Extension appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Tuesday I spent my lunch hour being honored at the American Education Week Luncheon which was sponsored by the NEA and a local organizing committee under the direction of Dr. Roy E. Malcolm of Oakwood University. It was a nice luncheon, and being recognized as a Chancellor’s Award nominee from Drake State was quite nice. Frankly being in the room with a few of the Teachers of the Year in the Madison County area was the true honor. It was clear that I was among a group of educators who have committed their lives to improving our nation through education.

Honestly, I’m not at that level yet. I appreciated the nod, but I’m still learning this craft of education. Maybe when I’m 90, and I’ve been teaching for fifty or sixty years, I might be worthy of having my name called out with those teachers I had lunch with yesterday.

Maybe.

But I wasn’t the only one recognized at the luncheon.

You see, all of the area Superintendents were there and present to honor their teachers of the year. But unlike Dr. Copeland and Dr. Fowler, Dr. Wardynski was honored at the luncheon as well. The introduction and justification for his Special Award was long, and I didn’t capture it all between bites of carrot cake, but the gist of the award was for bringing technology into the district and “being an agent of change.”

An Agent of Change

Education is about change. When I was much younger and deciding where to attend seminary after college, I had a bunch of friends from church warn me about going off to Southern Seminary in Louisville. Their constant refrain was, “Don’t let it change you.”

I never understood that sentiment.

If education doesn’t change you, what good does it accomplish?

I sincerely hope that I am an agent of change in the lives of my students. God knows, they are an agent of change for me. That’s what education is: exposure to the new and unknown and allowing that to change your outlook on life.

And so, being known as an agent of change can be high praise. But in order for to evaluate this, we have to have some context to the changes he has brought to the district. Otherwise being an agent of change is just as nebulous as Atticus telling Mrs. Debose that she looks like a picture. He don’t say a picture of what.

Unless we place Dr. Wardynski’s change within context, there’s little way to know if his agency is good or bad.

Running Good Teachers Off

One contextual clue that we can use to evaluate Dr. Wardynski’s agency of change is the number of mid year retirement and resignations. As of November 1, 2012, or the 53rd day of school, we have seen a total of 52 district employees either resign or retire.

This number doesn’t include the 46 who stood in line on November 1st to sign up for the district’s new retirement incentive.

He has certainly been an agent of change in the makeup of our schools this year.

Some of you may be like a few of our board members when you read this number and think, great, lazy teachers who don’t want to teach are getting out. It’s about time.

Perhaps your opinion is similar to Mrs. Morrison’s and Mr. Blair’s opinions on September 20th when they claimed that the young TFAers were better able to “relate” to their students because they are so young themselves? Perhaps you agree with Mrs. Morrison at the last board meeting on the 1st when she proclaimed, “Teachers are children grown tall” to supposedly defend them against Dr. Robinson’s feigned outrage that we have to incentivize teachers to not take time off. (Yes, Dr. Robinson, even in the “real” world, people get time off.)

With friends like these on the board, is it any wonder that our teachers and staff are leaving in droves?

Honestly, the real question should be why more haven’t left.

The answer to that is simple, but sometimes the simple answers are the hardest to grasp: Our teachers stay and teach, BECAUSE THEY LOVE OUR KIDS.

What We Are Losing

TFAers get praised (usually by other TFAers) for being “involved in their students’ lives.” Mr. Blair certainly took up that argument when they invited him to attend a reception for the new TFAers we’ve hired here in Huntsville. His claim that their youth helps them relate to their students is regularly touted as one of the strengths of having a young teacher.

My experience is significantly different.

One of the 46 who stood in line on November 1st to retire was Mrs. Jerilyn Pang, a second grade teacher at Mt. Gap Elementary (oh, excuse me, just Mt. Gap now thanks to some other of the “change” Wardynski has enacted).

Mrs. Pang has been teaching for nearly 30+ years. She has raised a daughter who has followed in her footsteps as a teacher. She has sponsored the Math Club at Mt. Gap for years and is one of the primary reasons that Grissom has regularly produced a world class math team for so long. Mrs. Pang could have, and probably would have, retired years ago. Honestly, it would have made good financial sense for her to do so.

But she didn’t.

And do you know why?

Because she loves her students. She loves seeing them excel. She loves helping them fall in love with education.

Mrs. Pang is retiring at the end of the year.

She will be joined in retirement by one of the best second grade teachers I have ever known, Mrs. Gayle Dodson.

This is the change that the AEW Committee “honored” on Tuesday. A change that drives the best of our teachers out the door. A change that drives our teachers who give their own time, energy and love to their students out of the classroom. A change that replaces a teacher with the experience to be able to look at a child and know exactly the right thing to say to heal a broken heart because they’ve done it a thousand times.

That’s the change that the American Educator’s Week and the NEA were honoring on Tuesday when they honored Dr. Wardynski.

As I said, with “friends” like these, it’s a wonder that any of our teachers survive long enough to reach retirement age.

But that’s the goal of this change. To make sure that our schools are staffed with cheap, inexperienced test proctors. Teachers just aren’t worth it to Dr. Wardynski and his corporate backers any more.

And every day we lose another lifetime of experience and expertise to this man’s inept handling of our district.

The More Things Change . . .

At the board meeting tonight, the school board will be discussing some “modifications” to the superintendent’s contract. If I had to bet, I would put my money on an extension. After all, none of the three board members who voted to hire him will want to deal with his contract during an election year.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

There will be a board meeting tonight at 5:30. If you can’t come in person, please follow me on twitter @russwinn or on the GeekPalaver Facebook Page. You can also watch the meeting live on channels 17 (Comcast) or 99 (Knology) beginning at 5:30pm. The district also streams the meeting on the web on the district web site.

The post “An Agent Of Change” appeared first on Geek Palaver.

So last night’s meeting brought many wonderful insights. Perhaps the most interesting took place after the meeting when Dr. Wardynski was being interviewed by WAFF about the 81 arrests being made in Huntsville City Schools during the first nine weeks of the school year. According to Dr. Wardynski, having numbers that are twice as high as Birmingham is actually a good thing that the city should be grateful for as other cities “have a whole different approach to capturing statistics.”

Um, yeah. Birmingham and Mobile Police Departments and schools systems don’t track the number of arrests that occur in their schools. That’s why they’ve only tracked 39 of them in Birmingham this year. Because, you know, they’re not tracking them.

Uh, I didn’t do it.

Once again we see the Bart Simpson defense being employed: “Uh, I didn’t do it.”

No poorly planned change in the pedagogy of the system, no ethics violation, no statistic, no pleas from parents, no amount of money being returned to the federal government, no abuse of children is so egregious that our superintendent cannot spin it so he comes out smelling rosy: at least to himself and to the board of education. Just don’t catch him off guard. If you do, well, he just doesn’t have time to respond to ankle-biters.

Clearly the reason that there have been 81 arrests made in the district is because other cities don’t love their kids as much as we do.

Honestly, you couldn’t make this up if you tried.

Pay No Attention . . .

And once again the wizard implores us to forget what he said and claimed before about principals not having discipline problems anymore. When it suits his purposes to claim that there are no discipline issues as a result of the digital initiative, he’ll claim there are no discipline issues. When you show him statistics that he cannot change at will, well those statistics “prove” that Huntsville City has higher standards than anyone else.

Yes, logic and honesty have left the building and the district.

So what do these 81 Arrests show?

1. The superintendent’s claim that we’re not having discipline issues in the district anymore because of the digital initiative is not true. We are having discipline issues in the district. According to the Huntsville Police Department, these issues are happening at about the same level as they did last year.
2. The superintendent is manipulating the district’s student incident report statistics by changing the way student incidents are reported. Huh, where have I heard about that before? Oh yeah, Dr. Wardynski accused Birmingham and Mobile of changing the way they report incidents in his defense of our own numbers being twice as high.
3. The superintendent is ready and willing to blame anyone so that he doesn’t have to take responsibility for the results of his own actions.
4. They show that we have a problem in our school system that our superintendent and school board (who made no mention of these arrests last night during the board meeting, just as they’ve made no mention of the Pinnacle abuse stories since those broke) are completely unwilling to address.

This is what we see in this report. That’s what these numbers show. That we have a superintendent and a board that is willing to claim anything, no matter how illogical or hurtful, just as long as the blame doesn’t fall on him.

Another Arrest Added To The Mix

On Halloween, Huntsville Police Department arrested Julian Lorenzo Boykin for “torture and willful abuse of a child” in connection with the abuse of a thirteen year old child at the Pinnacle Schools on October 10th. Since that time, at least three families have filed complaints about this incident.

Neither the Superintendent nor the Board of Education has made any mention in the board meetings about the abuse taking place at The Pinnacle Schools over the past month. Not one single mention.

I guess they haven’t figured out a way to spin an adult torturing and abusing a child that they placed in his care yet.

Ultimately, the board and the superintendent are responsible for this torture and abuse. I’m sure that they will find a way to shirk their responsibility again.

The post 81 Arrests in 53 Days “A Sign of High Standards” appeared first on Geek Palaver.

A Huntsville City Schools spokesman said they didn’t have time in their schedule to comment about the disciplinary report numbers and arrest numbers.

In the past 51 days of school, Huntsville Police Department School Resource Officers have made a total of 81 arrests according to a report yesterday, and updated today, on WAFF. While HPD Sgt. Bates states that this number is “pretty consistent with the first few months of school,” this number is twice as high as the reported arrests in the Birmingham district over the same period of time. (Birmingham has about 2,000 more students than Huntsville and has had a total of 39 arrests of students in school over the same period. Perhaps we should have begged the state to take over our schools, too. They seem to be doing a better job in Birmingham than our board is here.)

Propagandizing Student Discipline Problems

On September 20, 2012, Dr. Wardynski had Judy Rushton, the director of Pupil Services offer a report in support of the new digital initiative claiming that principals were saying to him, “Dr. Wardynski, we don’t have any discipline problems, anymore.”

Ms. Rushton went on to claim that for the first 20 days of school that the district’s in school suspension and out of school suspension rate had been cut by approximately 56% when compared to last year. She made no mention of the number of arrests made during that time.

Dr. Wardynski then went on to explain:

And I asked the principals why that would be. Three of them volunteered, right off the bat, the students are engaged. They are now engaged, and uh, we don’t have discipline problems anymore. That’s what we expected to see. What drove us in this direction was Project RED study which was done nationally, 2,000 observations across schools, school systems. And the key findings are when you take this [digital conversion] approach, not just one to one technology, but content, professional development, leadership, uh, the key pieces have to be in place, uh, the things you’re going to see, uh, dramatic decrease in student discipline problems, dramatic increases in student achievement.

In other words, he was specifically using the “dramatic decrease in student discipline problems” to support his unplanned and poorly implemented digital initiative that even has the Secretary of Education talking.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

As I pointed out about a month ago, it’s fairly easy to show a dramatic decrease in student discipline problems when you control the reporting of incidents.

And that is exactly what Dr. Wardynski and the district have done.

• He has hired consultants (despite falsely claiming that he hadn’t), who train teachers on the importance of reducing discipline referrals.
• He has engaged in a systematic attempt to blame the victim when someone is attacked and bullied while at school.
• He denies any responsibility, and the board ignores physical abuse of at least 5 Huntsville City School middle school students whom he placed at The Pinnacle Schools.
• And he has, as has been reported here and now on WAFF, ”told all principals and teachers to change the way they report incidents to the district to manipulate  discipline numbers.”

Putting Children At Risk

This man is systematically putting our children, your children, at risk so that he can brag that his digital conversion has resulted in a “dramatic decrease in student discipline problems.”

While he may control the teachers and principals in his schools through fear and intimidation, he does not control the Huntsville Police Department. He does not control their data and actions.

And their data unequivocally shows that there has not be a reduction in the number of student discipline problems as a result of the digital initiative. As Sargent Bates told WAFF, the 81 arrests is average:

“It’s pretty consistent with the first few months of school,” he said.  ”They haven’t spiked, they haven’t dropped. It’s right where we expected it to be.”

Arrests have not gone up. Arrests have not gone down. And they certainly haven’t been reduced by “nearly 60%” as Wardynski likes to claim.

So now we know that Dr. Wardynski has been manipulating the data to serve two purposes: to make himself look good and to make teachers jobs even harder so that record numbers of them quit or retire.

And The Board Ignores The Issues . . . Again

And still the board of education does nothing to address this problem. They do nothing, absolutely nothing (there has been no mention of the abuse at Pinnacle by the board at all), to hold Dr. Wardynski accountable. (Funny, over a year ago, I wrote a post asking for the same board to hold Dr. Moore accountable for her illegal plan to segregate special education children across our district. They didn’t hold her accountable for her actions. They’re not holding Wardynski accountable for his actions. I think we’ve found the problem.)

A Paucity of Leadership

Dr. Wardynski likes to call himself a strong leader.

Strong leaders don’t blame the victim.

Strong leaders don’t use fear and intimidation to run off amazing teachers.

Strong leaders don’t manipulate data to make themselves look better.

What a shame that he has no idea what leadership actually is.

Maybe then we would have someone who wouldn’t run from the press and parents who ask questions by claiming we don’t “have time in [our] schedule to comment.”

Strong leaders don’t run and hide like a frightened bully when those he has been abusing stand up to him and say, “Enough.” 

__________

If you want to be a part of a group that is working hard to stand up to bullying in our schools, please go like S.O.S. – Support Our Students and volunteer to help get the word out. When we work together, we can change the world. Changing this school system is easy by comparison. Especially when it’s being led by someone who is scared to answer questions. But then I guess tonight is Halloween.

Hey, Dr. Wardynski?

Boo.

The post District “Doesn’t Have Time” To Discuss Student Discipline appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Update: If you want to read much, much more about Pinnacle and Planking as a form of restraint (many states have outlawed its use), go read the Merts Center Monitor’s “The Pinnacle Schools: What Are We Waiting For?” Redeye has also written about the use of this school on several occasions.

When a school system closes public schools and replaces them by funding private organizations like The Pinnacle Schools, the people, the community, and especially the students, lose. The district, the people, lose their ability to oversee and question even extreme examples of child abuse as seen in these pictures.

Last night, WAFF reported that a 13 year old student at The Pinnacle Schools has been abused by security personnel of the “school.”

On January 19th, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent, the Huntsville Board of Education voted to approve a $1,596,000, 19 month contract with The Pinnacle Schools to replace the much maligned Seldon Center to provide alternative school services to students who commit an expulsion worthy offense in Huntsville City Schools.

This contract has an auto-renewal clause that will kick into effect unless the superintendent provides The Pinnacle Schools written notification at least 60 days prior to the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year. They accept students from Huntsville City as young as 12 years old.

Child Abuse

On Wednesday, October 10, 2012, while attending The Pinnacle Schools, a 13-year-old boy was ordered by a security officer at the school to leave class for talking. This child was then taken into a separate room and ordered to lie down on the floor, face down in a “planking” position.

Take a moment right now, and go lie face down on the floor with your nose pressed into the floor. I suspect that you will find that position is a difficult one to maintain for an extended period. If for no other reason, breathing becomes difficult without turning your head.

Now, imagine that every time you do turn your head, an adult security guard strikes you on your sides with enough force to cause the marks, broken skin and bruising that you see evidenced in the photographs seen above.

All this for talking in class.

Now, instead of imagining this is being done to you, imagine instead that it is happening to your 13 year old grandson. This is the hell that Harold Wesley has been living through for the past week as he attempts to get answers from The Pinnacle Schools and the district about this incident.

This is child abuse. Thankfully, the Huntsville Police Department is investigating this as such.

HCS: No Corporal Punishment

One of the first things that Dr. Wardynski did upon arriving, well, after hiring his friends Frank Spinelli, Aaron King, and several other aides for himself, was to eliminate the use of corporal punishment in Huntsville City Schools. This was one of the few things that Dr. Wardynski has done since arriving at Huntsville City Schools that I completely support.

Teachers and administrators should not be placed in a position of meting out physical punishment to students. There are too many risks involved for both the student and the teacher. It’s not effective and the risks are not worth the potential benefits.

But when a district gives over control of its schools and student population to a private company, the rules that are established for public schools may or may not apply for the private organization.

The contract alone determines what policies that the private contractor will follow.

Pinnacle Schools Makes No Promise Concerning Corporal Punishment

In this instance, the Pinnacle Schools contract is far less than clear. At no point does the contract ensure that The Pinnacle Schools will follow Huntsville City School policies such as the elimination of corporal punishment.

It does say, under a section entitled, “Staff and Security”:

TPS RAISE Program will provide security personnel who are trained in SAMA (Satori Alternatives to Manage Aggression) techniques which include the assisting process for de-escalating possible aggression. Additional security measures which include a closed circuit video monitoring system and identification system for student and visitor check ins and outs.

I find it difficult to believe that anyone would consider the above abuse a de-escalation from the simple mistake of talking in class.

Huntsville City Schools Promotes The Pinnacle Schools’ Child Abuse Therapy Programs

On May 17th, Mr. Aaron King offered a report concerning the number and amount of private contractors the district has hired. In this report he claimed that The Pinnacle Schools will provide a “70% Return on Investment in FY 2013.” I’d imagine with the legal issues that TPS is causing the district that Mr. King would need to reduce that estimate downwards these days.

But most interesting, Mr. King claimed that TPS offered both drug and “abused child therapy programs.”

Like much of the rest of that report that night (which substantially underestimated the number of contractors and their costs), this “benefit” has simply not panned out.

After the increased costs of this contract, the shameless hypocrisy surrounding this contract, and now the actual abuse of children, there is simply no justification for keeping this contract active.

But here’s the two-fold problem: since closing the Seldon Center, the district no longer has an alternative, and this contract has a one-sided breach of contract clause that allows them to defer any resolution for nearly an indefinite period.

The clause reads:

In the event of a serious breach of an obligation or covenant under this Agreement, the non-breaching party may give the breaching party written notice of the specifics of the breach, and the breaching party shall have 60 days in which to cure the breach. Only if the breach is not cured within such period shall the non-breaching party be entitled to pursue any remedies it may have by reason of the breach, including termination of this Agreement. In the event any provision contained in this Agreement shall be breached by either party and thereafter waived by either party, such waiver shall be limited to the particular breach so waived and shall not be deemed to waive any other breach.

This allows TPS to delay the cancellation of the contract, for all practical purposes, until the end of the contract on July 31, 2013.

In other words, our children are going to likely be at risk for an additional nine months.

This is a travesty. Perhaps our newest, but as yet unseated, board member Mr. Culbreath would like to take this issue on next now that’s he has finished dealing with the Spinelli contract. Our children can’t wait until next year.

__________

Tomorrow night will be yet another board meeting. They will be discussing several programs on bullying that they have “borrowed” from my good friend Mr. James Robinson of the GLBT Advocacy and Youth Services. I suspect that there will be a significant number of parents and other concerned citizens present to make their concerns known to the board.

If you care about making sure that things like this abuse of a child are brought to an end, please come out to the board meeting at the Merts Center, 200 White Street, N. at 5:30pm tonight.

If you can’t make the meeting, at least log onto Facebook and “like” S.O.S – SupportOurStudents. All the latest news and information on safety issues in our schools can be found there.

Finally, if you can’t make it, please follow me on twitter @russwinn or on the GeekPalaver Facebook Page. You can also watch the meeting live on channels 17 (Comcast) or 99 (Knology) beginning at 5:30pm. The district also streams the meeting on the web on the district web site.

Our students need your help and protection. It’s time to stop the violence and end the silence.

Come speak.

The post Updated: Privatizing Alleged Child Abuse At The Pinnacle Schools appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Sixteen months ago, I wrote an open letter to Mr. David Blair explaining to him in great detail that he and the board of education had placed too heavy of a burden on Special Education in their efforts to cut our system’s budget. I told him, “We are placing at a minimum 41% of the budget cuts on just over 12% of the student population. These cuts have not been applied fairly and equitably.”

On July 16th, two weeks after Dr. Wardynski had been hired, I wrote him and the board of education to inform them that the RIF cuts had been unfairly applied to Special Education personnel. I again explained how SPED was responsible for 41% of the cuts.

Neither Dr. Wardynski, nor the board chose to respond to the data I shared with them.

SPED Unfairly Cut

But it seems now that the state is forcing the board to face up to the decisions that they approved without consideration. The state is also forcing Dr. Wardynski to face up to the decisions that he continued from the moment he arrived in July 2011 of balancing the budget on the backs of the neediest children in our district.

I made these facts clear to Dr. Wardynski and the board repeatedly. The only response he ever offered, aside from having district security threaten me, was to say, “The short and sweet answer is free, appropriate education in the least restrictive environment as I’ve explained to you before. We are not required to meet any specific funding level. We are only required to meet the requirements of the IEPs.”

When I pointed out to him that IEPs were not being met, Dr. Wardynski responded:

“Then su . . . then you have recourse.”

This callous approach toward Special Education children continued and worsened during his tenure.

Wardynski Deepens The Cuts

The first budget for 2012 called for a seven million dollar cut in the special education budget. In other words, SPED was being asked to shoulder 61% of the projected savings for the year.

Only after extensive complaints from me and others did Dr. Wardynski return the seven million that he cut from special education back to the budget. But not until the end of the fourth quarter of the 2012 fiscal year, did he actually attempt to spend those funds. Up until that point he was on a pace to spend just $20 million of the $27 million budgeted.

Then, miraculously, at the close of the second budget hearing in September he announced that the district would spend the total special education budget. At the end of the third quarter, the district had spent $16,135,493.12 of a budgeted $27,376,209.04. In other words, they had $11,240,715.92 left to spend in the fourth quarter of 2012. Here is the Special Education expenditures for three quarters of 2012. It shows that they had 41% of their budget left unspent at the conclusion of the third quarter.

This was why on Saturday, September 29, 2012, (or two days before the end of FY2012) my son’s special education resource room looked like this:

It was filled with all brand new furniture, teaching tools and supplies. While I certainly appreciate this material, it should have been purchased before school started so that its arrival wouldn’t interfere with instruction time (as it did on Friday, September 28th).

This was why on September 20th, the board voted to give Mrs. Amy Sledge, the Director of Special Education a substantial raise from Grade 3/Step 14 to Grade 2/Step 12.

The district had an extra $6 million that it was holding back until they had been forced–at the last minute, and upon threat from the state and the federal government–to meet the needs of our kids.

Breaking the Law is Neither “Efficient” Nor “Effective”

In response to the Times‘ report today, Dr. Wardynski typically stated:

“This is why the United States is going bankrupt. There is no room for being efficient and effective.”

It is neither efficient nor effective to balance your budget on the backs of the most needy children in our schools. The board’s decisions before Dr. Wardynski arrived led us to this place. Dr. Wardynski’s decisions since arriving will lead to the state applying additional penalties for the FY2012 SPED budget cuts. Stephens’ report hints at exactly this when he writes, “Huntsville may also owe about $1 million for reduced spending in 2012.”

This is not an oversight. This is not the result of being “efficient and effective.” This is the intentional result, despite a year and a half of warning from me and others, of a superintendent and a board that are more concerned about their own aides, their own salaries, and their own well being, than they are about the well-being of our children.

This has been evident since nearly the day Dr. Wardynski was hired. This is evident in his name-calling of parents who ask questions. This is evident in his disregard of wrong-doing at The Pinnacle Schools. This is evident in his disregard of student safety so that he can brag about how awesome his decisions are. This is evident in his blaming of the victim, the family of the victim, and even the entire community for problems and issues that his decisions and un-written policies have created.

Board Ignores Wake-Up Calls

This $2.6 million dollars wake-up call to the board should draw their attention to the fundamentally unfair and illegal approach that the superintendent has taken in the leadership of our schools. But I’m sure it won’t.

The Huntsville City Schools Board of Education will, I am certain, continue to claim that they didn’t know they were breaking the law. They will pretend that they don’t hear the disdain with which he speaks to them, to our teachers, to our parents, and most importantly to our students.

TECHNOLOGY CANNOT REPLACE TEACHERS AND AIDES

They will, I am sure, go right on believing his ridiculous claims that it’s far better for our students to receive “new technology and equipment” rather than personnel.

My son is autistic. He’s one of the reasons that I’ve been fighting so hard for the past two years to shed light on the actions of this superintendent and board. He LOVES his iPad.

But here’s the thing: My son doesn’t need another iPad. What he needs are teachers and aides who love him, who are fairly paid for their work, and who pound away at the fog of autism despite the total lack of concern and support they receive from Dr. Wardynski and the board of education.

Despite the joy his technology brings him, nothing but great teachers have ever brought out the joy and happiness seen below:

Dr. Wardynski wants to continue to run off great teachers and aides and replace them with computers because he believes them to be cheaper.

His destruction of our school system must be brought to an end, immediately.

The post Wardynski and Board Knew SPED Was Unfairly Targeted in RIF Cuts appeared first on Geek Palaver.

On September 20, 2012, Dr. Wardynski announced that with the board’s unanimous approval of the Human Resources report, Mr. Frank Spinelli had resigned as the CSFO for the district. He would be leaving the district immediately due to family situations in New York City. There was some speculation, much of it started by Dr. Wardynski himself, about why Mr. Spinelli would resign after just 13 months on the job. Now we know.

Spinelli Receives a 180% Hourly Raise for Four Years

Mr. Spinelli resigned on September 20th, at least in part so that his company, Cadre Consulting, Inc., could be hired on September 21, 2012. Assuming that Mr. Spinelli is the one offering the consulting to the system, he could earn up to $175.00 per hour offering advice to Mr. Jason Taylor, the district’s Finance Director and acting CSFO upon Mr. Spinelli’s departure on the 20th. That hourly rate represents a 180% raise over his hourly rate of $62.5 while he was the district’s number three employee in terms of salary.

Here’s a copy of page two of the Temporary Agreements that were unanimously approved on September 20th, by the board without discussion.

As you can see, line 13 shows that a consulting service, here spelled, Cadri Consultant would “provide consulting services to the Chief School Financial Officer beginning on September 21st and running for the next four years. These services would be paid for out of the General Fund at a rate of up to $175.00 per hour, and this company would report to the Superintendent.

At first, this seems innocuous enough. Just one more consultant group hired by the Superintendent to do the work of district employees. It seemed fairly typical until I reviewed what Dr. Wardynski had to say about Mr. Spinelli when he was praising his incredibly short tenure as CSFO.

Here is a transcript of what Dr. Wardynski had to say:

When I arrived in this school system, we were 19 million dollars in deficit. And uh, today we are 9 million dollars in surplus. The majority of that distance that has been covered is due to our chief financial officer Mr. Frank Spinelli. Uh, tonight the board as accepted his resignation. Uh, in June, Mr. Spinelli notified me that he would need to be spending a considerable amount of time away from Huntsville City Schools due to situations involving family members in situations in New York. And I asked him to help us get through the remainder of the summer. And to bring on a new leader, which is here before me, Jason Taylor, whose run finances, uh chief of finances since June. Frank, uh, spent several days each month back here helping us. Burned up a lot of leave and came back and helped us, uh, get the folks trained, to do the budget, and get ready for end of year. And so Frank will be missed as well. He’ll be at Mr. Taylor’s disposal going forward. So as of yesterday we announced the position of Chief Financial Officer. And in the interim, Mr. Taylor will be our chief of finance. Of course if he seeks to stay in that position he’ll be chief of finance if he seeks to compete for chief financial officer, uh, he’s welcome to do that as well. So two losses to our district. Two people who made us stronger, but two people who importantly laid a foundation. And when you’re a leader, you see yourself as a transitory person. And your job is to prepare the way for the next set of leaders. And both of these individuals have done that. So they’ve laid a foundation so that we don’t go back. We build on that, and we go forward.

Two points caught my attention in Dr. Wardynski’s comments: first, he claimed that Mr. Spinelli “burned up” a lot of leave from June until September traveling back and forth between Huntsville and New York City.

Burning Through A Lot of Leave

Assuming that his leave package is similar to other education administrators in the state, at the most he would have earned approximately one day a month of sick leave and up to five days per year of personal leave. Thus he shouldn’t have had more than 13-18 days of sick leave (5 days of personal leave would have converted to sick leave on his anniversary, and an additional 5 days of personal leave. Being out regularly from June to September would have burnt through a lot of leave considering he would have likely accumulated just 23 days in the 13 months he was employed. But the second point was more interesting.

Spinelli to be at Taylor’s “Disposal Going Forward”

Wait a second. If Spinelli has resigned, how exactly is he supposed to be “at Mr. Taylor’s disposal going forward?” That seemed, at the time, an extremely strange comment to have made. Surely if Mr. Spinelli is leaving due to family concerns as Dr. Wardynski claimed, he wouldn’t want to be at Mr. Taylor’s beck and call “going forward.”

But when I saw the Temporary Agreements report from that night, and noticed the four-year contract offered for Consulting Services for the CSFO, I began to wonder.

Spinelli Currently Consultant with Cadre Consulting

Here’s a screen capture of Mr. Spinelli’s LinkedIn Wall from October 2nd. As you can see, he’s recently updated his employment information to show that he was previously employed by Huntsville City Schools, and that he is currently employed by Cadre Consulting, and (interestingly enough) United Cerebral Palsy of Huntsville & Tennessee Valley, Inc.

UPDATE: For the record, he is listed as a Board Member for UCP of Huntsville rather than an employee as it is listed on his LinkedIn page.

UPDATE: I have received the following information Tracy Cleniewicz, the Development Director of UCP who writes: 

Mr. Frank Spinelli was an unpaid, volunteer member of the Board of Directors for United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) of Huntsville & Tennessee Valley, Inc. Mr. Spinelli requested a temporary hiatus from his board duties in June for personal reasons and, as a result, became a non-voting member and was not required to attend bi-monthly board meetings. Mr. Spinelli submitted his official resignation from the board in early September, which was reviewed and approved by the UCP Board of Directors at the Sept. 24 meeting.

I wish to clearly state that it was my intention to neither be critical of UCP or Mr. Spinelli for his involvement in UCP. I was merely pointing out that according to his LinkedIn page he was still affiliated with this local organization. As that has been shown to be incorrect, I will remove any reference to his being currently affiliated with UCP of Huntsville from the post. I believe that Dr. Wardynski’s statement that he would be available to the future CSFO is sufficient to demonstrate that he is the representative of Cadre Consulting for the district at a rate ranging from $85-$175/hour in either case.

[By the way, one of the better definitions of Cadre is: "a cell of indoctrinated leaders active in promoting the interests of a revolutionary party." So, Spinelli is moving from one Cadre, to another, and then back again. Apt, isn't it?]

That’s strange. Mr. Spinelli, who needed to “burn through his leave time” traveling to New York City over the summer to handle a “family situation” was evidently going to have enough time to continue his work as a board member with the HCP of Huntsville & Tennessee Valley.

And then I noticed it.

Cadri Consultant/Cadre Consulting: Separated At Birth?

Mr. Spinelli is a “Consultant” with Cadre Consulting, and for some unusual reason he has been since 2009 – Present (3 years).

Really, you’ve got to wait a second. I thought that Mr. Spinelli was an employee of Huntsville City Schools for at least 13 months of those three years? Was he moonlighting? Did he have the Superintendent’s permission to continue his employment with an outside consulting firm while working for the district?

And what about that name? Cadre Consulting is remarkably similar to Cadri Consultant, isn’t it? And since Dr. Wardynski clearly stated during his remarks on the 20th that Mr. Spinelli would be at Mr. Taylor’s “disposal going forward,” and since Mr. Spinelli is still on a board of directors here in Huntsville, well then it seems reasonable to assume that the spelling issue on the Temporary Agreements for September 20th is just a typo, right?

An Honest Mistake

Surely that wasn’t an attempt to hide the fact that Mr. Spinelli is still being paid by the district despite his resignation, and not only still being paid, but at a minimum he (or someone in his company) is receiving a 36% increase in hourly salary. At the most, that hourly salary increase jumps to 180%.

And it would further seem that the “going forward” part of that deal is expected to last for four years.

Oh yeah, Mr. Spinelli’s original contract with the district was for three years. In other words, not only is he receiving a raise, but he’s also receiving a two-year contract extension.

So now our district, which supposedly cannot afford to even consider reinstating our teachers’ STEP raises that have been frozen since 2011, can suddenly afford not one but two CSFOs.

Friends Of Casey

It truly is good to be friends with Dr. Wardynski, isn’t it. He’s quite generous with taxpayer monies where his friends and supporters are concerned.

It’s a shame that he doesn’t consider teachers and students who are struggling in ever increasing class sizes because “we just cannot afford to pay for teachers” to be his friends.

Please keep this in mind the next time someone tells you that we just simply cannot afford to give our teachers even a 1% raise every four years. Our district can certainly afford to give raises; they’re just picky about who they give them to.

And teachers don’t count.

I wonder if Spinelli went ahead and factored his new raise into the district’s 2013 budget that the board approved on September 4th? I wouldn’t bet against it.

The post Spinelli Resigns Receives up to 180% Raise appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Today, in response to our rally in the rain, Dr. Wardynski granted the Huntsville Times an interview concerning the Butler incident on September 17th. In this interview, Dr. Wardynski once again, “told The Times . . . that the girl has been granted a transfer to Xxxxxx High while the school investigates the allegations . . . .”

He has again, again, announced to the city where this child was being transferred to. In the words of Joseph N. Welch, “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you no sense of decency?”

Clearly, this man, whom three of the five current board members voted to hire last July, has none.

None, whatsoever.

Wardynski Shamelessly Reveals the Placement of the Victim Again

Some have claimed both here and on other news media outlets and blogs across the city that the mother of the victim was the first to reveal the name of the school to which her daughter was being transferred.

This could not be further from the truth.

I have met the mom. She is suffering attempting to know what to do for her daughter at this point, as any mother–or parent–would be. She has not revealed to the community where her daughter was transferred to.

No, Dr. Wardynski alone and through a “district spokesperson” has been the one responsible for revealing to the entire city.

While it is possible that he is within the letter of the law to reveal this information on such a consistent and regular basis, he certainly is not within the bounds of human decency for doing so.

Once again, he is going out of his way to blame the victim and to victimize her yet again for being involved in, as he described it to The Times, “horseplay.”

He is, in other words, taking his standard approach to problems and issues raised by parents about the district of blaming and accusing the parents for these problems. He is, as he said once to a close friend, telling all of us, “Don’t tell me how to do my job.”

Well, sir, it seems that someone needs to.

It would be nice to have a superintendent who didn’t accuse the victim of being involved in “horseplay.”

It would be nice to have a superintendent who didn’t implicitly blame the mother for not “disenrolling” her daughter Thursday night after he granted her a temporary transfer once the central office had closed.

It would be nice, in other words, to have a superintendent who could actually empathize with a young girl who was beaten, stripped and embarrassed in front of her classmates.

But no.

The Superintendent We Deserve

Instead we have one who believes that he knows more about education than those who have dedicated their entire lives to the calling.

Instead we have one who believes that he knows more about meeting the needs of special education students than either trained professionals, experienced aides or their parents.

Instead we have one who has the gall to believe that he knows more about parenting your children than you do, and he certainly believes he knows more about it than the victim’s mother.

What Not to Say to a Parent

Twice in my short life as a parent I’ve had other adults say to me, “We love your children almost as much as you . . . .”

Most parents cannot even begin to imagine saying that to another parent because we know, absolutely know, that no matter how much we care for the children of our friends, there’s simply no way that we can love them anywhere near as much as their parents do. It’s simply not possible.

And yet, twice now I’ve been told this by two people.

Strangely enough, both of these people are currently in the upper echelons of the senior administration for Huntsville City Schools. One is a fairly new employee to the district who said a couple of years ago before starting work with the district.

The other, I’m sure will come as no surprise, was Dr. Casey Wardynski via an email on April 11, 2012.

The man truly believes that he, and he alone, knows how to raise your children.

It’s a shame he’s incapable of showing it during the aftermath of his actions and decisions at Butler High.

__________

Just so there’s no misunderstanding: despite the fact that the district has chosen to regularly and consistently reveal the schools that they have temporarily transferred this young girl to, and despite the fact that other media outlets continue to report the location openly, I will not do so here out of respect for this young girl and her family.

I will also ask any of my commenters on the blog to also refrain from using the name of the school. I will edit any comment that specifically refers to the name of the student or where she is or is not transferred in the future. I’m not doing this to silence anyone’s opinion or comments; I’m doing this out of respect for the family.

I call on all the major media outlets in Huntsville to do the same. I don’t care if it’s legal (I don’t believe it is); it isn’t right.

The post Wardynski Has No Decency appeared first on Geek Palaver.

There will be a peaceful demonstration tomorrow (Monday, October 1, 2012) from 11:00am – 1:00pm outside of the Merts building at 200 White Street, N. to end the superintendent’s and the board of education’s disregard of student safety issues in our schools. On Thursday, September 20th, three days after a 15 year old girl was assaulted in a bathroom at Butler High School, Dr. Wardynski claimed that principals were telling him that they “don’t have any discipline problems” as a result of his decision to incorporate laptops into the classrooms. As I pointed out on Friday, it’s amazingly easy to reduce both in school and out of school suspensions when you refuse to allow incidents to be reported.

Teachers’ Reports on Student Safety Aren’t Being Submitted

Just today I had a conversation with a former employee of the district who reported to the office nearly 200 separate Class I, II, and III to his principal’s office last year. At the end of the year when he checked on the status of those reports basically 10% of the referrals had actually been reported to the central office.

This year they’re reporting even less.

Please don’t misunderstand: there are times when things get reported because the teacher and the administration are following the letter of the law. Most of us find the suspension of a six-year old for sexual harassment for singing “Sexy and I Know It,” (which occurred in Wardynski’s (and Cooper’s and Spinelli’s) old stomping ground of Aurora, Colorado) to be an extreme example of a school following the letter of the law unnecessarily.

But when a teacher is punched in the mouth by a student, and nothing happens to that student, then we know we have a problem.

Following The Broad Academy Playbook

In this area, Dr. Wardynski seems to be following standard Broad Academy procedures of creating a hostile working environment for teachers. Another Broad Academy Superintendent was accused of creating an atmosphere that lacked discipline. “Administrators were reluctant to suspend or expel disruptive students.”

It would be extremely interesting to compare incidents reported by teachers to those actually submitted to the district’s Pupil Services office, wouldn’t it?

I’d bet, however, that like times when I’ve asked for a report on how many TFAers were being hired this year and where they were being placed that a report showing incidents reported by teachers and those passed on by principals would be somewhere around the 10% average. Anyone want to take that bet?

Didn’t think so.

And this year they’re reporting about 50% less.

Putting Kids At Risk For PR

It makes for nice propaganda for the corporate (Pearson) handlers to put on their website, and for “research” like Project RED to report in their non-peer reviewed “studies” that show how computers are the new cure-all.

The superintendent is regularly putting all of our students at risk in order to promote his political/corporate agenda.

Think it won’t happen to your child? I certainly hope it won’t but if it happens to one child, it can happen to any child. He put Special Education children at risk a year ago, and then again this year.

Now he’s doing it to every child.

Breaking Alabama Administrative Code

Because safety doesn’t matter to him. If it did, he would have granted the transfer of the student from Butler immediately. If it did, once he did grant the transfer he wouldn’t have revealed which school she was being moved to in violation of Alabama Administrative Code 290-3-1-.02 (1) (e) 2 which reads:

A student who becomes a victim of a violent criminal offense committed on school property during school hours or at school-sponsored activities shall be given an opportunity to transfer to a safe public school within the LEA. The LEA shall notify the student’s parent/guardian of the right to transfer as soon as practicable, not to exceed ten (10) calendar days from the date of a final determination by the school board or its designee that a violent criminal offense has occurred.

The incident at Butler occurred on September 17th. The transfer was held up until September 28th or two days past the requirement of this code.

Again, if you think this can’t happen to your child at your school, take a look at the Student Incident Report from 2011-2012. This questionable report shows that incidents occurred at every school in the district except four.

In an environment where teachers are demoralized, overworked and exhausted; in an environment where principals are facing constant changes in staff and responsibilities; in an environment where the Superintendent is willing to put children at risk simply to make a public relations point:

EVERY CHILD IS AT RISK.

Peaceful Demonstrations

Tomorrow and Thursday are your opportunities to let the superintendent and the school board that you’re watching and that you’re not going to take it anymore.

Tomorrow a group of concerned parents and citizens are meeting at the Merts Building 200 White Street, N., Huntsville, AL. from 11:00am to 1:00pm come rain or shine.

Then on Thursday, October 4th at 5:30pm, we will be joined by students as we attend the school board meeting and speaking to the board directly.

If you would like to be placed on the list to speak, you must sign up to speak before the meeting starts. You may do so in two ways either by contacting the office of the Superintendent at 256-428-6810 and being asked to be placed on the Citizens’ Comments list. (Has anyone else noticed just how hard it is to get any actual contact information off the district’s website lately? Guess they don’t want you to call.) You will be asked your Name, the Group you represent, and the Purpose of your comments.

Alternately, you may simply show up for the meeting early (the doors typically open around 5:00pm), and sign in on the Citizens’ Comments sheet. That sheet is usually available in the hallway until about 5:15pm.

If there is any way you can join us tomorrow or Thursday, I would love to see you there as we stand up for our kids.

The post Student Safety Demonstration Tomorrow and Thursday at Merts appeared first on Geek Palaver.

There will be a planning meeting for a protest of Huntsville City Schools’ refusal to make our schools safe today at 3:00 pm in the gazebo at Big Spring park. This meeting is open to anyone who is concerned about the Superintendent’s approach to using our children’s safety as a propaganda device to support his anti-school agenda.

For all those who believe that our children’s safety in school should not be put at risk for the superintendent’s political gain, this is one opportunity to let your voice be heard.

For all those who believe that our school board is more concerned about building projects and their own political futures than they are about education and our kids, this is one opportunity to let your voice be heard.

For all those who believe that the role of the district is to support our teachers and not threaten them, this is one opportunity to let your voice be heard.

For all those who are tired of parents being ignored and marginalized in the education of our kids, this is one opportunity to let your voice be heard.

You may find out more about the meeting and the planned protest of the central office on Facebook at an event sponsored by Terri Rector Michal. Please come to the planning meeting today to find out more about the protest of the abuse that Dr. Wardynski is heaping on our teachers and now even our students.

It’s past time to turn this ship around.

The post Student Safety Protest Meeting Today at 3:00pm Big Spring appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Since Dr. Wardynski arrived, the district has operated under two sets of rules and according to two standards. Hypocrisy had been normalized here.

• We’ve seen it in response to the rules applied to The Pinnacle Schools with regards to their staff.
• We’ve seen this double standard when we see that the superintendent’s evaluation is written specifically for him while everyone else has to take a standardized test.
• We’ve seen double standards about sexual harassment complaints that are brought against former CSFOs. (Maybe that’s why he resigned? Who knows.)
• We’ve seen double standards concerning filing a grievance against the Superintendent and the Board; they’ll happily receive and address complaints raised about teachers, but complaints raised about the superintendent are summarily dismissed.
• We’ve seen double standards in the hiring policies of senior administrators and teachers where teachers are hired for the state minimum, while superintendents, deputy superintendents and former CSFOs are allowed to set their own salaries.

Double Standards/Hypocrisy Continues

Last Thursday, the double standards continued with the revelation from Ms. Alta Morrison that the Teach for America recruits (TFAers), of which there are approximately forty currently working in the district, received the benefit of a “wonderful reception” at some undisclosed location last Wednesday, September 19th. It seems that Ms. Morrison, Dr. Robinson, and Mr. Blair at least were in attendance. Mr. Birney was not present at the board meeting on the 20th, so we do not know if he attended the reception, and Mrs. McCaulley made no mention of the reception in her comments.

Maybe these receptions are the reason that TFA is so busy asking for your dimes in JC Penney’s?

So what was said about this “reception?”

Ms. Morrison began her comments by telling the community how she was expecting a room full of old, tired teachers, and what she instead saw were “fresh, young teachers who were excited about teaching.”

Honestly, when the one board member who voted against bringing in TFAers is saying how impressed she is with how “young” and “fresh” they are, all hope for our current teachers really is lost.

To her credit, later in the citizens’ comments time, Ms. Morrison revised her comments to say that she didn’t mean to imply that our current teachers weren’t “fresh,” but the damage was long since done.

Dr. Robinson next picked up the TFA banner and ran with it claiming that the TFAers are doing “great things with this new technology!” Implying of course that anyone who claims that there are problems with the system that are completely beyond their control are just “ankle-biters” who don’t really understand teaching.

Once she finished her beatification of the “young, fresh TFAers,” Mr. Blair decided it was time for him to continue the praise of the reception and the TFAers as well.

Seems all you need to do to win a majority of the board’s support is to feed them at a reception.

Shoulda thought of that years ago.

Normalizing The Extreme

Later, Dr. Wardynski added his two cents by claiming that the TFAers aren’t really TFAers anymore. Now, they’re just “our teachers.”

This is an intentional attempt to normalize the use of “teachers” who are not actually trained to be teachers. It’s an attempt to show the district that anyone can teach.

It’s not a gift; it’s not an art; it’s not even a skill that needs to be taught.

In Wardynski’s world, all that’s required to be a teacher is a warm body that doesn’t cost much to keep in the classroom. Teaching can be done by machine; all that’s needed in his system is someone to tell students to push play on their computers screens.

Wardynski Repeats Himself

Dr. Wardynski does not, no matter what he says in emails or editorials, does not appreciate the work of teachers. He doesn’t understand teaching. He doesn’t believe teaching matters. And that’s simple to see when you listen to his goals for the district. He claims that:

Schools are long overdue for that transformation. The American education system, for the most part, is still run the way it was more than 100 years ago, before mankind even flew in an airplane much less in space.

You know, Dr. Wardynski, since you’re sitting at a computer, creating your editorials and emailing them to the paper to publish without comment, don’t you think you could take a minute to google the Wright Brothers first flight? If you did, you would see that “mankind” (nice sexist language there supes) first flew on December 17, 1903, or just shy of 109 years ago.

American Educational Reforms: Full of Sound and Fury

His estimate that education still happens the same way it did 100 years ago is even more inaccurate. If he would bother himself (you know, since he cares so much about education) and take just a few minutes to read any history of education in America, he would find that the only constant in American education over the last century is a maddening race after the Next Big Thing.

But again, Dr. Wardynski’s only real concern is power and control, not education or even being historically accurate.

One final question, Dr. Wardynski: If the TFAers are just “teachers” now, if there isn’t a difference between TFAers and actual teachers, then it should be easy to tell me the last time the district hosted or participated in a formal reception for all of our actual teachers.

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Dr. Wardynski concluded his evidence-free editorial with the statement: “The countdown has begun.” Funny how a launch and a time bomb both have countdowns, isn’t it?

The post Double Standards Continue For Teach For America appeared first on Geek Palaver.

A reader of this blog (Concerned Parent) has posted a series of good questions that I thought worth of a separate post as we seek a way to move forward.

Please read the questions and respond to them if you wish. You may, of course, respond anonymously.

Here are the questions:

1. How many Huntsville residents who have a vested interest in student(s) attending HCS have written letters to the HT in the last four weeks concerning issues they have with HCS 1:1 initiative?
2. Of those answering #1 who have, how many had their letters published?
3. How many Huntsville residents with a vested interest in student(s) attending HCS have corresponded with their HCS Board member(s) during the last three to four weeks have been told “I have been staying in contact with Principals in the district as well as the Superintendent. As a Board member, my role is to not be involved in day-to-day operations…that is the job of the Superintendent and his staff (which includes all employees of the system). Because I want to stay abreast of what is going on, I do talk with the leaders in the various areas to be aware of any brewing issues?”
4. How many who have corresponded with their HCS School Board member(s) and received a similar response to that in question #3 are satisfied with Board member(s) response?
5. How many Huntsville City residents with a vested interest in a student attending HCS have communicated same concerns to their State School Board representative in the last 4 weeks?
6. Of those who have expressed their concerns to their State School Board representative, how many have received a response to date?
7. How many of those who have received a response from their State School Board representative are satisfied with response?
8. How many Huntsville City residents with a vested interest in student(s) are willing to privately gather and devise a strategy (vetting process TBD)?

Thanks for reading and for your responses.

Russell

The post Who’s Out There: Move Forward appeared first on Geek Palaver.

So the Citizens’ Comments tonight were dominated by two dads from Goldsmith Schiffman, a retired Huntsville High Principal from the 70s, and an executive from Cisco who claimed not to know that the district was using Cisco products. Parents wanting to stand up for our teachers were sent up first while the Superintendent’s supporters were saved till the end allowing the meeting to end on a glorified note.

There was a teacher, along with a few parents and grandparents who came to ask questions tonight, but Mr. Blair, who is in charge of calling citizens up, made sure that all of the potentially negative comments were dealt with first, saving the glowing praise for the end. (I was, when I signed in at 5:12pm, the last person on the list of people wishing to speak; however, I was the fourth out of twelve people called to speak tonight.)

First up was Pam Hill a teacher in the district who passionately told the disinterested board and superintendent that teachers are losing hope.

Next came two grandparents of a special education child who is new to the district and is having, from what I could gather from their comments, difficulties obtaining services. Their pain and suffering was palatable, and the board’s refusal to show any human decency and compassion was, sadly, typical. I wish them well with their journey. It doesn’t sound as if it is beginning well for them.

Then I was called up to speak.

A Call for the Superintendent to Resign

If you’re interested, here were my comments. They were, atypically, brief, but to the point:

There has been a lot said tonight and over the past month about the digital transition, but I’ve noticed one thing that hasn’t really been pointed out.

Because of the actions of this superintendent and this board of education, our teachers are afraid to speak up, both privately and publicly, when something is interfering with the educational environment of their classrooms.

They are afraid to ask questions. They are afraid to point out deficiencies. They are afraid to say anything other than “Everything is great in Huntsville City Schools.”

Those who are both parents of school aged children and teachers are afraid to even ask questions of their board members for fear of being harassed for not being a team player.

In other words, the climate of fear and intimidation that the superintendent has created over the past 14 months has succeeded in silencing legitimate questions and concerns about the quality of education occurring in our schools. Education is a process of asking questions and seeking answers. If teachers are afraid to do those things, education is no longer possible.

In light of this, Dr. Wardynski, I am here tonight to respectfully ask you to tender your resignation as superintendent of Huntsville City Schools. It is time for you to move on. We wish you well.

A Smirking Response

When I finished my comments, Dr. Wardynski smirked at me, knowingly. I should have known that he had an ace up his sleeve at that point.

I was followed by Laura Lively who also passionately spoke on behalf of our teachers reminding the board that technology cannot teach kids. While they were slightly more sympathetic to her than they were to the grandparents, Wardynski made a point of discounting her main point in his concluding comments when he claimed that artificial intelligence would free teachers up from evaluating student’s work.

The Glorification of Wardynski

Next up were two dads from Goldsmith Schiffman who pointedly shared with the board and superintendent just how much they love the computers. One of them, Mr. Ron Jones, made a point to share with the board that his child’s teacher was doing amazing work with the computers, and perhaps some of the other teachers who weren’t doing as well merely needed more training.

They were followed by Reggie Hill, one of the candidates for the district 1 school board seat this past month. He wanted the district to promote human interaction rather than working through computers.

Then in fairly quick succession, all covering the same basic territory were Bill Smith praising the Kahn Academy, technology, and flipping classrooms; Joe Anglin former principal of Huntsville High School who said that the district is “on the way back” as he praised Wardynski and the board claiming that students will have an “edge” when they leave school; another dad who read from his daughter’s Facebook page where she complained about being given a textbook, and finally, Mr. Scott Kirby of Cisco.

Mr. Kirby claimed that he didn’t actually know until tonight that the district was using Cisco equipment, and he sung the praises of the Kahn Academy and Bill Gates. He says that the schools “are always going to have problems” and that it would be better if the press didn’t always try to make such a big deal about them.

By the way, if Mr. Kirby would use some of his technology occasionally, he would see that the press has been praising the digital conversion basically nonstop since it was announced in June. There has been, in the Huntsville Times, exactly two articles asking questions about problems that the district was having.

Problems that, according to Wardynski, have now been resolved and improved up to “105%.”

Which is, of course, impossible.

Command and Control of Citizens’ Comments

So my thought that citizens’ comments might be our one chance to ask un-vetted questions was wildly optimistic on my part it seems.

Dr. Wardynski has gotten better at controlling the school board meetings to suit his own purposes. With a little help from Mr. Blair in shuffling the speakers around, he’s even attempting to control the message coming out of the citizens’ comments section of the board meeting. I suppose having on average two hours to say and push any message that he wants isn’t enough. He needs those few three minute blocks at the end as well.

So it was easy to smirk at my suggestion that it was time for him to resign for what he’s done to our teachers. First, he doesn’t care about them or about parents. This isn’t about education; it’s about control.

And second, he knew he had stacked the deck tonight. And it’s a lot easier to win when you’re playing footsie with the dealer.

Perhaps I didn’t go far enough tonight in my call for his resignation. I should have called for all six of them to step down.

The post Stacking the Citizens’ Comments Deck appeared first on Geek Palaver.

The Huntsville City school board meeting will be tonight at 5:30pm at the Merts Center, 200 White Street, Huntsville. They will allow citizens’ comments.

Citizens’ comments are nearly the only time that a citizen can address the board and the superintendent on matters that concern them without interruption and without being censored, so long as you keep it under three minutes, don’t become repetitive, and don’t call into question the good name and character of anyone. (That rule doesn’t apply to the superintendent or the employees of the district by the way. Some employees think it their duty to call into question the good name and character of those who dare to question the Superintendent and his policies.)

But don’t let that dissuade you. It doesn’t hurt at all to be called names when you’re standing up for your children and their teachers. In fact, it’s kinda nice. It’s confirmation that they actually heard you.

While they will let you speak, they will typically not offer any response to your questions or comments.

Yes, I know that Mr. Blair’s “Preamble to Citizens’ Comments” claims that they will “study any issue raised” and get back to you, but they don’t really mean it. Not once have they ever gotten back to me on any issue I’ve raised during Citizens’ Comments.

However, there is no better way to make the board hear you. At least then the board members won’t be able to claim (as at least one was still doing yesterday) that they haven’t heard of any problems.

Astonishing, aren’t they?

If you would like to be placed on the list to speak, you must sign up to speak before the meeting starts. You may do so in two ways either by contacting the office of the Superintendent at 256-428-6810 and being asked to be placed on the Citizens’ Comments list. (Has anyone else noticed just how hard it is to get any actual contact information off the district’s website lately? Guess they don’t want you to call.) You will be asked your Name, the Group you represent, and the Purpose of your comments.

Alternately, you may simply show up for the meeting early (the doors typically open around 5:00pm), and sign in on the Citizens’ Comments sheet. That sheet is usually available in the hallway until about 5:15pm.

Oh, it is certainly possible that the superintendent will break out the metal detectors again. They brought them to the meetings back in May and June for a little while, and then decided that they weren’t necessary after all.

Just remember that the board and the district really appreciates hearing from you when you’re emptying your pockets for them.

It would be great to see a huge crowd there tomorrow night. If you see me (and yeah, I’ll be there barring an emergency), come up and say hi. I’ll be the guy sitting quietly, doing his best to intimidate no one, but tweeting away a record of the meeting. You may follow me on Twitter @russwinn or on the Geek Palaver Facebook Page.

If you can’t make it, you may watch on ETV on channels 17 (Comcast) or 99 (Knology) beginning at 5:30pm. The district often also streams the meeting on the web at on the district web site.

Come out and have fun with us as we listen to just how smashingly the digital initiative is clicking along now. I bet that by tomorrow night the network is operating at 150%.

The post School Board Meeting Thursday, 9/20 at 5:30pm appeared first on Geek Palaver.

So it’s been a busy weekend for the Superintendent and his cheerleaders. Having that many phone calls to ignore from the “ankle biters” must have made the weekend difficult for the poor guy.

It seems that he didn’t actually ignore the Huntsville Times, but his emailed response were not received by the Times ”possibly due to a technical problem.”

God does love irony. Bet Wardynski doesn’t.

So after a busy weekend, you’d think their response might be something like that of Dr. David Copeland, Madison County Superintendent who is holding a series of meetings “seeking parental feedback” on their school system, its finances and plans. He’s so interested in hearing from parents that he’s actually scheduling multiple meetings from September 2012 through April 2013. The county’s superintendent actually wants to hear from parents.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a superintendent that actually gives a damn what parents think? Nah, Dr. Wardynski just doesn’t operate that way.

Instead, he schedules meetings at schools, like one that had been scheduled at Blossomwood Elementary for tomorrow night, and then with barely 24 hours notice, he cancels them and moves them to Huntsville High instead.

We’re Going To Meet, eh, Sometime

The district has been talking about having meetings with parents since they voted to start the digital conversion on June 21st, but for whatever reason, they just couldn’t manage to get them scheduled until tonight.

So here’s the schedule. All meetings will begin at 6:30pm.:

• Tuesday, September 18th — Huntsville High School (and feeders)
• Wednesday, September 19th — Grissom High School (and feeders)
• Monday, September 24th — Columbia High School (and feeders)
• Tuesday, September 25th — Lee/New Century High Schools (and feeders)
• Wednesday, September 26th — Butler High School (and feeders)
• Wednesday, October 3rd — Johnson High School (and feeders)

That’s right. Six meetings and out. And they finally managed to schedule them on Monday, September 17th.

The superintendent really understands planning, doesn’t he?

I suppose that all depends on what you think his actual goal for these meetings really is.

If you think that the superintendent wishes to help parents understand this digital transition, well then, you’d be right to assume that this lack of planning on the part of the district was unfortunate.

But if you believe that our superintendent actually cares what parents think, well honestly, you’re just not paying attention.

If the district actually wanted parents to attend, they would have planned these meetings long ago.

But they didn’t.

They failed to plan. They failed to organize. They changed the meeting times and locations at the last minute. The superintendent insulted parents who actually do bother to show up with questions and concerns, and then Mr. Ward and the district cheerleaders had the temerity to actually act surprised when the meetings “had scant attendance?”

Unmitigated gail.

Parental Input Into The Process? Nope. But Groups Making $30 Million Off Transition? You Betcha.

I read somewhere today from someone not directly associated with the district believes that parents should please stop saying that they “did not have any input.” He suggested that parents should contact the district by email, phone and at board meetings.

Here’s the thing: I have emailed, phoned, met with and spoken at nearly every public meeting of the district officials since June 21st, and I know for a fact that neither parents nor teachers had any input into this digital transition at all. So, respectfully, no I won’t stop saying that parents did not have any input. They didn’t. And they still haven’t.

The only people who had any input into this decision are people who directly benefit from the transition happening:

• Pearson making $21,902,845 over six years.
• HP making an as yet still unofficial amount of $6.9 million. (This is unofficial because as you can see the published contract does not contain any hard numbers. I have asked about this, but of course I’ve received no answer.)
• PPT Solutions (the IT Consultants headed by Laquita Nelson in charge of the updated network) making from November 2011 thru July 2012 $438,216.00

The rest of the list includes Dr. Wardynski, about five people in the inner circle, and the board by proxy.

That’s it.

So, three paid groups making nearly $30,000,000 and the Superintendent’s inner circle.

There were no active classroom teachers involved in the decision.

There were no parents who were not employees of the district involved in the decision.

This decision was forced upon us all.

Real Purpose of the Parents’ Workshops

The purpose of these Parents’ Workshops isn’t to actually involve and help parents. The purpose is to tell them, once again, how great this is going to be for their kids. As Keith Ward said, “There are really two components to it, first to show a bit about what the curriculum and resources are like. They’re also to help with problems the parents might have.”

So the meetings will begin with more propaganda from the district, more district produced films of a teacher and a student working together from a tightly controlled script, showing how wonderful the change is.

If there are any parents who can’t figure out the computers, well, we’ll help them out a bit on the side. If they ask nicely.

Oh, and if past public meetings with the Superintendent are any indication, be ready for the superintendent to openly mock and/or insult any parent who dares to ask a substantive question. Don’t believe me? Just as Carol Claflin whose daughter attends Hampton Cove Elementary. She had this to say in the Times on Sunday:

Carol Claflin, parent of a third-grader at Hampton Cove Elementary, said she found Wardynski argumentative at the meeting held at that school on Aug. 12 and that few of her questions were answered effectively. She added that a “false dilemma” is being created by the district.

“Parents are either supportive of this initiative or we are anti-technology, anti-progress, anti-anything good for our kids,” Claflin said. “This is ridiculous and I am tired of being vilified so that the district office and Wardynski can distract everyone from the fact this digital initiative has been a negligent disaster at best.”

These meetings aren’t designed to help parents. They’re designed to put us (along with teachers) in our places. They’re designed to shut us up.

Calling All Ankle Biters

So don’t let the superintendent succeed in silencing your voice.

Despite his best efforts to keep attendance low by scheduling the meetings with the two largest high schools with less than 24 hours notice, despite his attempts to bore parents into silent acquiescence by showing propaganda after propaganda, despite his rude dismissal of any idea, suggestion or question raised by a parent about how this is supposed to be helping our children learn, don’t let him win.

Show up at the meetings. Ask questions. Get your neighbors to do so, too. Yes, you’ll likely be insulted by the superintendent. So what? HE WORKS FOR YOU.

It’s time for the ankle biters, as Wardynski calls those of us who dare to care more about children and education than his inept plans, to stand and let the superintendent know that he doesn’t control us. He doesn’t rule over us. And he won’t silence us with his insults.

We care about our schools, our teachers, and our children even if he doesn’t. And it’s past time he understood this.

The post Calling All Ankle Biters! appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Why is it when a public teacher does something wrong, everyone immediately calls for her (or his) head, but when a private company does the same thing, or usually something far worse, everyone rushes to defend it? This is indeed The Pinnacle of Hypocrisy.

The History

According to Karen Lee, CEO of The Pinnacle Schools, Dr. Wardynski and the Huntsville City Schools Board of Education knew that her sons had been arrested for drug trafficking in December. As reported by WAFF’s Nick Lough, Lee said, “When my sons were arrested I let them [Superintendent/BOE] know and that was before the board vote took place. I let them know immediately what was going on and that this was the situation.” The Board and Superintendent knew and yet yesterday they chose to defend The Pinnacle Schools’ actions.

If you’d like to read the background on how all of this information came to light, please read the excellent Merts Center Monitor blogs on the issue beginning on September 11, 2012: (“The Pinnacle of Hypocrisy,” ”Why Didn’t The Huntsville Times Report That 24 Pounds of Marijuana Were Confiscated December 9, 2011,” “The Pinnacle Debacle: Who Knew What When,” and “Thank You Crystal Bonvillian. Innocent Until Proven Guilty. Nepotism.” If not for this blogger’s work, none of this would have ever come to light, and Eric Lee would still be working as a counselor with Huntsville City Schools students staying at the Elk River facility. I would also recommend reading The Huntsville Times article published yesterday: “Huntsville school officials defend alternative school after owners’ sons face drug charges.”

The arrests occurred on December 9, 2012 a week after Karen Lee made her sales presentation to the board of education on December 1st. (The Times got the date wrong). According to her statement to WAFF, the board of education knew of the arrest “when my sons were arrested.” In other words, they had just under one month between being informed and their next discussion of The Pinnacle Schools agreement to think about the implications of contracting out the district’s students to a private organization. And they did it anyway.

This is a dereliction of duty.

During the board work session on January 5, 2012 concerning the contract with The Pinnacle Schools, the board spent about thirty minutes discussing at length how HCS students would be better served, for less money (even though it actually costs twice as much), by The Pinnacle Schools as opposed to The Seldon Center.

Anyone care to guess what not one person in the board room discussed during the January 5th meeting? That’s right. There was not one mention of the arrests of Lee’s sons, despite the fact that during her presentation she used her son’s troubled youth to sell her services.

The Board and Superintendent’s Response

Mr. Blair is right: It’s often unfair to judge a parent for the actions of her children; however, when the parent sells the district a $1.2 million dollar contract by referring to her sons, well, it seems to me that she is pointedly upholding their actions as a model to follow.

But no one in the boardroom mentioned it.

As Merts Center Monitor points out, either they believed this information “unimportant,” or they “banked on the public not finding out or not caring.” Neither option is good for our schools or our students, is it?

On January 19th, the board met to vote on the contract and spent about another 10 minutes discussing it. Evidently the district added language to the contract that required The Pinnacle Schools to hire “a diverse staff and will be purposeful in recruiting and retaining staff from diverse backgrounds.” I doubt that addition was made to include those with a recent, and as yet unsettled, arrest for drug trafficking, but I could be wrong.

It’s clear that the board and superintendent knew things that I didn’t.

The contract was unanimously approved.

This is the same contract that Blair said was, “carefully” examined by the board. It seems that careful examination doesn’t include the public’s right to know, does it?

The Board And Superintendent Defend Pinnacle

During the months that followed, Eric Lee served as a counselor at the Elk River facility until Thursday afternoon, yes Thursday afternoon. An individual with an unresolved drug trafficking and weapons possessions case was serving as a counselor at a facility designed as the last stop to help students who might themselves have drug abuse, trafficking, or weapons possessions issues (as detailed in Class III – MAJOR OFFENSES in the 2012-2013 Official Student-Parent Handbook).

Perhaps the board thought no one could be better suited to work with “those” kids than someone with an open arrest case?

While I do not know that the board knew that Eric Lee was a counselor working at Elk River, we do now know that they knew he was an employee with The Pinnacle Schools.

They knew, they did nothing to stop it, and they defended it.

This. Is. Wrong.

Why It Matters

So why would any of this matter? The contract is signed. Why should anyone care at this point? Haven’t all of our children done things to embarrass us? Surely, Mr. Blair was right when he said that parents shouldn’t be judged by their kids, right? (And my all time favorite:) This is old news.

Here are a few reasons why this matters, today:

Corporatized Education means that the public, and in particular parents, no longer have any voice in our schools.

From February until Thursday, September 13th, a person with an unresolved felony arrest was actively working as a counselor with Huntsville City Schools students. As Lee told the Times on the 13th, “her son would remain an employee, just as any employee would if they were charged with a crime but had not been convicted.” Perhaps she should have made it a bit clearer by saying, “but had not yet been convicted,” but either way this represents a radical departure from the standards applied to all of our other teachers and counselors in Huntsville City Schools. And that’s the problem.

As I was told on a Facebook discussion yesterday, “Outside groups cannot tell any business how to handle internal issues.” Exactly. Once we subcontract our public education funds to a private business, we no longer have any say over the quality of the education that occurs there. We no longer have any say over the hiring practices/employment policies that occur there. We no longer have any say over what happens in those schools.

And that’s the problem.

These are our children that we’re subjecting to the whims and fancies of a private corporation that seemingly has two concerns: 1. To make a profit, and 2. To make sure her own children have a job.

This matters because the public no longer has a voice in public education.

Eric Lee was actively dealing with his own drug/criminal activity while attempting to “counsel” children.

While it is true that an effective counselor is one who can identify with those whom he/she is counseling, no one is capable of counseling others out of a situation they are in themselves. That’s like trying to tell your neighbor living in a hole how to climb out while you’re stuck yourself.

The Pinnacle Schools claims under their values, “We will never violate the trust placed in us.”

Public School Teachers are held to a higher standard.  

Do you remember Coach Keith Henderson? Coach Henderson was arrested for DUI on August 14, 2011. According to Coach Henderson, he made repeated requests to meet with Dr. Wardynski, and all of those requests were refused. Coach Henderson was fired four days later by the superintendent.

I apologize to Coach Henderson for bringing up this painful time in his life; I’m pleased that he is currently employed by Arab City Schools.

For the record, Coach Henderson was never convicted of the DUI charge.

Why is it okay for our students to be counseled in a private setting by someone with an outstanding drug trafficking charges against him, but if a Huntsville City School employee were facing the same charges, they would be fired nearly immediately?

Why is the Huntsville City Schools Board of Education, which voted unanimously to fire Coach Henderson, now defending The Pinnacle Schools’ decision to keep Eric Lee in the classroom?

This is what having money and connections will buy you in this town: more money and an active and vocal defense when you or your employees do something wrong.

Corporatized education can evidently do no wrong in this town. And it seems from the point of view of our board and superintendent that public teachers can do no right.

What Coach Henderson did was wrong. But if the board and superintendent can defend Eric Lee and The Pinnacle Schools, then they owe Coach Henderson and his family an apology.

Mr. Blair, and the rest of the board of education for whom he spoke on Thursday, should be ashamed.

I don’t believe that Dr. Wardynski has it in him.

And finally, the main reason that this matters:

Because ALL of our students, even those who make mistakes, MATTER.

Dr. Wardynski likes to claim that every student in our district deserves a high-quality education. This incident proves that neither he nor the board actually believe that.

It’s far past time to rid our public schools of those who hate public education. We need to start with the Superintendent and the Board of Education.

The post Why The Pinnacle of Hypocrisy Matters appeared first on Geek Palaver.

During an interview last night on WHNT, the Superintendent finally let teachers teach, temporarily at least. Yep, WHNT, the first mainstream news outlet to address the issues with computer usage in the district, got Dr. Wardynski on the record saying that teachers were allowed to use the resources available to them to meet the needs of their students. I’d be excited if we weren’t a month into the school year already.

Here’s the story if you haven’t seen it already.

Paper Allowed In Classrooms Again

When asked about teachers being told that they cannot use paper in the classroom, Dr. Wardynski responded:

First of all, I’m telling you that never happened. But even if it did, they’re not obeying cause I see plenty of worksheets. And I see plenty of printing and when I see it, I don’t say a word, so wouldn’t you think if I’d given an order like that and I see it going out I’d say something about it? My main comment is, do what it takes to navigate the distance from where we were to where we need to be. Use the resources you need to do and if that involves using something from last year, do it.

Before we move on, lets pause and consider the superintendent’s terminology here for a moment. “They’re not obeying . . . .” That’s an interesting choice of words, isn’t it? Sounds an awful lot like a parent whining about a disobedient child, doesn’t it. (And this from the man who made a point of calling out teachers for whining back in February.)

I’m sorry, sir, but we’re not in the Army, and neither are you, anymore. Please learn how to speak and address adults. When you do, then we can talk.

Setting that aside for a moment, this interview was broadcast at 10:00pm last night (2200 for the Superintendent). If you look closely at the window in Dr. Wardynski’s office, you can see that it appears to still be daylight outside when the interview was being recorded.

Betcha can’t guess what happened around 1200 yesterday afternoon?

Teachers Get Permission To Use Books Hours Before Interview Airs

If you guessed, “Teachers were told for the first time that they could use actual, real textbooks in their classrooms to teach their students and meet their educational needs,” well, congrats. You’ve won the prize.

For the first time since the start of school three and a half weeks earlier, the district is officially allowing teachers to distribute and use textbooks (which have only recently arrived in many schools) in their classrooms to meet the needs of our students.

So much for making every day count and making sure that students progress at their own pace. It’s kinda difficult to do that when the network goes down every 15 minutes and there are no books allowed in the classroom. And it doesn’t help that the superintendent is still watching which classrooms are logged on and which aren’t.

Is Big Brother Watching?

In reference to the “heat mapping” of classrooms Jerry Hayes ask with a I-know-this-is-a-stupid-question-but-I’ve-got-to-ask-anyway smile if this was “Big Brother watching?” Dr. Wardynski had this to say:

Well, this a world of technology. In order to manage a system like that, you’ve got to be able to respond to who needs help and this is our work place, and if you’re in the work place and you’re trying to use the technology, it would be pretty hard for us to help you what antennae, what classroom and that sort of information so this is part of your work place. This is part of the work place at the Arsenal. This is part of the workplace at Cisco, any big firm that’s got a wireless system, this is the way it’s managed.

So the answer to the question that he was asked is yes. Despite the jocular approach Mr. Hayes chose to take in asking, the answer is yes, Big Brother is watching. Big Brother was watching before. Big Brother is watching still.

But teachers should feel free to use those old-fashioned, ineffective, irrelevant, absurd, ludicrous, stone-aged textbooks if they want. Of course there will be no repercussions from the superintendent whose orders are always followed . . .

Risking It All To Teach

He’s right about being “disobeyed.” Thankfully many of our adaptable teachers had gone ahead and found ways to make the first month of school productive.

They were willing to risk reprimand (which many received during the first few weeks for not being “on-line” enough). They were willing to risk their jobs and their families’ well-being to ensure that the first month of school wasn’t lost.

If you want to see a true hero today, go visit your child’s classroom. The people you see in there are underpaid, over worked, stressed, worried, fearful, beaten down, disappointed, and discouraged. Many of their peers and friends have quit. Many more are looking for ways that they can. And yet despite that, despite being called “ankle-biters” by their boss, they teach on.

And do you know why they teach? It isn’t for the money: they haven’t had a raise in years, and the Superintendent definitively stated on September 4th that he would not support reinstating the cost of living raise (despite the fact that he received a bonus of $9,220.00 last year and is eligible for another $10,000 bonus this year). It isn’t for the time off: their summer vacations were constantly interrupted this year so that they could improve their teaching skills and for the Pearson “training” fiasco.

They teach because they love kids. They teach because they believe that education improves everyone’s lives. They teach because they can.

For this, every parent in the district should stand up and cheer for our teachers. It’s past time we did that for them anyway. We should let teachers teach.

Persistent Questions: Why Are Teachers Afraid?

I am, by the way, grateful to WHNT for being the first of our local media to pick up on the story that everything might not be perfect in the “New Frontier” as the district’s cheerleaders like to call this shift. However, one central question kept flashing in my mind’s eye during the interview with the superintendent in which Mr. Hayes had to hold up a single, anonymous letter from one teacher brave enough to raise issues and questions.

Why is it okay that the superintendent has created an environment in our schools where teachers are afraid to raise questions about the pedagogical methods being forced upon their classrooms?

Why, in other words, were teachers scared to speak on the record about the educational environment of our schools? Could it be that Dr. Wardynski doesn’t actually care that much about technology in the classrooms? Could it be that the primary goal of all the inept changes being forced on our teachers this year is actually intended to simply get teachers to quit?

When you consider that a plan that even the superintendent claims should take twice as long, “We’re doing the work of six months in three,” it’s difficult to come up a good justification for making such a shift in such a hurry, isn’t it?

That story, frankly, is far more worrisome than nearly anything else discussed in this news story.

But that question wasn’t asked.

The post Let Teachers Teach appeared first on Geek Palaver.

By going so far as to produce talking points, it seems that the district really wants the public to support the idea of their one to one technology plan. They’re going so far to even distribute these  to teachers. Honestly it has much more of a political campaign feel than it does an educational decision made in the best interests of the children.

A Political Campaign

Compare this political campaign, for example, to their nearly silent support for the 6.5 mil ad valorem tax renewal, which actually was a political campaign. They held one joint press conference with the Mayor and City Council that lasted about 10 minutes, and then the superintendent mentioned it a few times at the end of a couple of board meetings.

They didn’t develop a FAQ.

They didn’t develop a thirty-minute video about it. (I wonder if they actually had parental permission to use the kids faces in that video from last Tuesday?)

They didn’t take children out of school on a “brief” bus ride on the third day of school as a testimony to how badly the tax renewal would be needed. (I’m hearing, regularly and often, that the superintendent did not get parental permission to take the kids out of school and off the Chapman campus for this bus ride photo-op. If any parents would like to provide some information about this, I would appreciate it.)

Talking Points Campaign

And they didn’t, absolutely didn’t, develop two pages of talking points that would later be shared with teachers so they would know what they could, and could not, say about the ad valorem tax.

Called “Key facts/discussion points regarding the Digital 1:1 Initiative,” the document contains 21 district approved talking points about the digital conversion.

In case the document is taken down soon, I thought it might be helpful to browse through the highlights of the talking points to see just how accurate they are. Surely, a document so important that teachers are being told it contains all the information that they need to share with parents about the conversion will be completely accurate, fair and balanced. Right?

The Agreement with Pearson 1:1 Learning will cover work at all 40 schools.

And right off the bat, we have a problem. There are actually 42 schools in the district according to the district’s own web site. And this list doesn’t include The Pinnacle Schools (thank goodness). An inattention to detail is one of the biggest problems that we’re facing in this digital conversion. I wonder which of the two schools are being left out? Is it possible to move my kids to those schools?

Perhaps the second talking point will provide more substance.

The date of school board approval of this initiative happens to also be the eighth anniversary of the day the first civilian spacecraft was piloted into space. It was on June 21, 2004 that SpaceShipOne, financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, flew to space with Mike Melvill as the pilot. Now, on June 21, 2012, the Huntsville City Schools will launch to a new frontier for learning for our students.

Okay, even I’m speechless here.

Someone, some cheerleader, in our district believes that a crucial point to understand the need to convert our district over to the Pearson way of doing education is to mention that the board approved the decision on the eighth anniversary of the first successful private journey into space. (Just curious, how many of my readers knew that the first private pilot was Mike Melvill? Okay, how many knew the first American in space on the public’s dime was Alan Shepard? Or that the first man on the moon was the late, and amazingly great, Neil Armstrong? Seems that the public venture was a bit more, um, historic?)

I wonder what else this foolish decision by our board commemorates? Just a few of the more relevant events might include:

• In 1527, Niccolo Machiavelli, author of The Prince, and hero to dictators everywhere, died.
• In 1964, Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner were murdered in Mississippi fighting for civil rights.
• In 1970, Penn Central declares bankruptcy, the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history up until that time.

Clearly these events are just as important to commemorate, right?

On to the third:

The Wi-Fi will be operational but the district will not have all of the bandwidth in place at the start of school to provide the full access to the digital resources in every school. This is the transition year for the program.

Well, this is news isn’t it? When Wardynski was presenting the transition to the board in June, he told them that the bandwidth would actually be available at the start of the school year. On June 21st, Wardynski said:

So inside our schools we’ll have gigabit rate bandwidth to transfer data between kids and the data sources, this is the curriculum sources and so forth. Uh, the key question is will we have do we have the bandwidth coming into our schools. And so, LaQuita has been working that very hard with our consultants from PPT and we’re going to be moving from I think it was, correct me if I’m wrong, I think about 10 Megabits per elementary? . . . And now we’re up to 50 for the elementary and a 130 for the high schools? So we think that will be adequate. And if it’s not, we’ll adjust. And a good bit of that is coming from Alabama SuperComputer. And is under their e-rate provisions. Uh, a portion of it is under our e-rate provisions. And that should all be online as well now, in time for school’s start.

It wasn’t. It still isn’t. When the board made their propaganda presentation last week, they made no mention of the bandwidth issues. They were trying to cover it up. During the presentation, the only problem they would admit to knowing was that Huntsville Center for Technology was still having bandwidth issues.

Quick question: if the district knew it wouldn’t have the bandwidth available, why are they still insisting that every classroom be online the entire day?

Let’s leave that and move on to the next few questions.

Pearson is imbedding a team on the ground in Huntsville for two years, with other support rotating in and out. Pearson’s goal is to help HCS develop the capacity internally to support the initiative.

This partnership will move Huntsville’s entire curriculum to digital. Pearson will provide Huntsville schools hardback textbooks for the classrooms to make sure each room has a hard-copy of the digital curriculum while the district is transitioning to digital. This will help make sure that every student learns every day during the transition. This is important because this shift to digital is being phased in during the 2012-13 school year, and not every student will have access to all the digital resources at the start of the year.

Again, this is the first time they’ve admitted this little issue. Oh, and the imbedded Pearson teams are less helpful than they’ve claimed.

Just as the superintendent underestimated the cost of going digital, just as he overestimated the bandwidth, he has underestimated the impact this transition has had on student learning particularly since teachers are being threatened for not using the computers in the classrooms enough.

Moving on to point number six:

This effort gives Huntsville schools a common standard across the district, and educators will be able to make sure that students are progressing at their own pace.

The simple fact is that the transition was not necessary to bring standards across the district. Neither is it necessary to enable educators to allow students to progress at their own pace.

In fact, the laptops are actually taking time away from instruction as they are implemented now. Imagine that you want your students to read a certain passage before you discuss it in class. If you have a classroom of textbooks, you have your students take out a book, turn to a page and begin reading. The entire process takes less than a minute.

With the laptops, they have to boot, log-in, connect to the Pearson web site (making sure you’re going to the right one–there are multiple sites for every class), log-in to the Pearson site, find the reading, slowly advance the text to the right section, and then begin reading.

Suddenly, what once took about 60 seconds is now taking 10-15 minutes before reading can even begin depending on the technical skills for the students, the availability of the network, and the speed of the computers.

Talking point number six claims that computers will allow for individualized instruction. What it actually does is limit the amount of time available for individualization.

Point seven is perhaps the most honest of all the points made in the document:

This is part of the effort to bring a business-like approach to education.

I realize that people differ on their opinions here, but the simple fact is that Education is not a Business. A business has one goal: to improve the financial standing of the organization. Education has one goal: to prepare students for life. Those two goals are not the same, nor should they be. Those who wish to make them the same are simply demonstrating their complete lack of understanding of either paradigm.

This isn’t an attempt to excuse educators or schools from working hard; I would argue that few careers work harder than teachers. This isn’t an attempt to free educators from accountability. This is the realization that education’s purpose is not simply to allow students to get a job. Education’s purpose is to enhance the width and breadth of the human experience. It is designed to open us to new experiences, new ideas, new worlds in a safe environment where children, youth, young adults and adults can explore. As Dr. Gutting explained in the New York Times:

In our capitalist society, education must not be primarily for training workers or consumers (both tools of capitalism as Marxist might say). Rather, schools should aim to produce self-determining agents who can see through the blandishments of the market and insist that the market provide what they themselves have decided they need to lead fulfilling lives. Capitalism, with its devotion to profit, is not in itself evil. But it becomes evil when it controls  our choices for the sake of profit.

This move to convert schools into businesses is a move by businesses to control the American consumer. Those who are uneducated are far more likely to be swayed by advertisements and propaganda than those who are. The ideal American consumer is one who is therefore un-educated at best and under-educated at least.

Undoing education is the ultimate goal of those who wish for education to take on a “business-like approach.”

This partnership will give teachers and staff the resources and the training to make this adjustment to a digital learning environment to more effectively teach children.

The partnership with Pearson hasn’t accomplished this yet, and they’ve been working in the district for the past five weeks dropping in on classrooms for a few moments at a time to address emergency situations. They are not helping teachers teach more effectively. Often teachers are being told that Pearson cannot help, or that they will have to email them about a problem. On one occasion a teacher was told by Pearson, “I can’t help you. You’re special education.”

The Pearson assistance certainly isn’t worth the millions we’re paying for it.

One-to-One learning has been around a long time. A number of school districts around the country have made the shift to digital. The Huntsville district will be one of the largest to make the shift to digital district wide. In the past, traditional school structures and tools have forced teachers to teach to the middle. This will let teachers personalize the instruction much more.

You know, the cheerleaders are right on this point. One-to-one learning has been around a long time. It basically began the first time that one human attempted to teach another human how to do something. One-to-one is the best method of teaching as it allows for education to be perfectly suited to the student and the student’s needs.

The digital conversion is not one-to-one instruction. One-to-one instruction is one teacher and one student, not one student one computer.

In other words, this is an attempt by a district that has dramatically increased class sizes over the past two years to cover up that simple fact. They are lying to us.

How individualized can a computer make the educational experience of a student who doesn’t need assistance working with a computer, but rather needs assistance interacting with other human beings? This new, “personalized” instruction doesn’t meet that person’s needs at all.

Computers aren’t teachers. They are tools, and they can be effective tools of teachers, but they are tools. Plain and simple.

And All Semblance of Reason Leaves the Building

Huntsville led the way in the rocket age with the Redstone Rocket. Huntsville led the way to space with Wernher von Braun and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. Huntsville helped put Sky Lab, the Space Shuttle, and the International Space Station into orbit. Huntsville has been the world leader in science, and now the children of Huntsville will fly into the digital age in the classrooms of schools across the city.

There is no better place in America than Huntsville, Alabama to launch this new digital learning environment in schools.

How dare they compare this fiasco to the work that took us to the moon.

There was no greater example of human initiative, human planning, and human organization than our space program. Comparing the district’s ineptitude of simply distributing computers to students to the Moon program is offensive.

This effort is about preparing our students for success in college and the workforce.

The purpose of education is not to prepare our students for success in college or the workforce. It’s to prepare our students for life. Those are two completely different goals. It’s a shame that our district’s leadership cannot see that.

This effort is about creating a learning environment that is relevant to today’s students.

Computers don’t make a learning environment relevant. Teachers do. And a teacher with no technology other than his or her mind is capable of making the student’s environment relevant. Adding computers to that mix doesn’t do it. Adding good teachers does.

The American education system, for the most part, is run the way it was over a hundred years ago, before mankind even flew in an airplane, much less flew in space.

So?

As new technology becomes available, teachers should and do adopt it for the classroom. But they should adopt it if and only if it improves the educational experience.

Forcing teachers to throw away pedagogical methods that have been successful for hundreds of years simply because HP is kinda-sorta giving us a deal is risky, foolish and stupid.

The decision to adopt new technology in a classroom should be made by the teacher as she seeks to meet the educational needs of her students.

The district exists to support the teacher. It doesn’t exist to rule over her.

Today, our kids live in a digital environment at home and out in the community, but when they come to school they are expected to unplug and logoff, and then study and learn the same old way their grandparents did.

Our students are, in fact, too wired in, plugged up, and logged on for their own good. As Claudia Wallis wrote for Time in 2006:

Generation M has a lot to teach parents and teachers about what new technology can do. But it’s up to grownups to show them what it can’t do, and that there’s life beyond the screen.

Our students need a variety of learning environments, both “plugged” and “unplugged.” One would hope that the top educators in a district already knew this. It seems they don’t since they are forcing teachers and students alike to adjust to the single method that they’re prescribing for everyone.

And that’s the real problem here. Their rhetoric sounds good, but once you scratch beneath the surface, you see that this has much more to do with Dr. Wardynski’s desires and needs than it does with meeting student’s needs.

He seems to want to push this through so he can add it to his resumé.

Dr. Wardynski isn’t involved with students on a daily basis. He doesn’t understand, for example, when he walks into a kindergarten class and sees children playing together that they are actually developing much needed social skills, or that they are developing their hand/eye coordination.

By forcing one single teaching method on the district as a whole, he is making a mockery of the very reasons why he claims he’s doing this transition in the first place.

The cheerleading continues with the following talking points:

This shift to digital learning in Huntsville schools is nothing less than a journey to a new frontier in education.

The students of Huntsville deserve to have the most relevant learning environment and be the most college-ready students there are anywhere.

This new digital frontier means students and teachers will use a high-quality digital curriculum that is aligned to the standards.

Will someone please cue Alexander Courage and William Shatner? We really need a sound track accompanying these points.

Of course the students of Huntsville deserve to have a “relevant learning environment.” They also deserve to be “college-ready students.” Where, oh where is the actual, peer-reviewed evidence that forcing computers into a classroom will accomplish this?

Oh, that’s right, there isn’t any.

The new digital learning environment will allow Huntsville schools to provide 24/7 access for students and teachers, at last doing away with the traditional boundaries of time and space that hamper old-style schools.

We should let Einstein know that the cheerleaders have re-written his theories. Do we really need 24/7 access for students and teachers? Doesn’t there need to be at least a few moments of sleep? Recreation? Play? Exploration? Reading an actual book? Going to a party? Talking to other actual human beings, face to face?

And again, where’s the evidence?

And My Head Explodes

The next to the last talking point wins the prize:

The difference in learning will be enormous. For example, students will be able to learn more about writing and effective communication because the new digital curriculum will allow teachers to assess 20,000 written compositions in the time it would have taken them to assess one composition. So teachers will be able to actually get back to teaching children how to write and effectively communicate.

What the cheerleaders are talking about here is Automatic Writing Evaluation, and frankly there is so much wrong with this talking point, it’s a wonder they saved it for next to last. First, the new digital curriculum doesn’t “allow teachers to assess 20,000 written composition in the time it would have taken them to assess one composition.” The new digital curriculum has a feature known as automatic writing evaluation (Pearson calls it, Knowledge Technologies or KT) that evaluates student writing via computer.

These compositions are not evaluated by teachers. They are evaluated by a computer program. It seems to be a fairly sophisticated computer program, but it is still a computer program. This technology has been in development since the 1960s, and to this day, the best that can be said about it by anyone other than the companies developing it is that we’re just now beginning to understand how best to evaluate it. 

In other words, would you like your child’s writing ability evaluated by an untested computer program, or your child’s teacher?

I write on a computer every day, nearly all day. It’s how I write. But no computer ever inspired me to write. That was done by a small group of writing teachers at Georgia Southern University and at Statesboro High School. There names are Dr. Curtis Ricker, Mrs. Sandra Rabitsch, Dr. Patricia Gillis, Dr. Fred Richter, Mrs. Elizabeth Brannen, and Ms. Shirley Hemsley.

Each one of them helped me to develop a love of writing. Dr. Ricker was the first teacher to push me to learn to create on the computer. But the reason they helped me learn to love to write was simple: they read my work. Dr. Wardynski and his cheerleaders are stripping away the best part of writing: being read.

Stupid.

And finally:

2012-13 will be the year of conversion to digital the digital learning environment. This is not an event, it’s a process. It will take time before every student can fully access all of the digital assets.

Should it take time for every student to be able to access their textbooks? How much time? A few weeks? A few months? A few years? How exactly is this benefiting our students and promoting student learning?

And those are the district’s talking points in support of the digital transition. Can someone please remind me of why the district felt it was necessary to publish these points? Could it be that they know they’re promoting snake oil?

Let Your Voice Be Heard

Tonight Dr. Wardynski was interviewed on WHNT by Jerry Hayes in a story called, “Taking Action Special Report: Tech Trouble.”

I wonder why Mr. Hayes never thought to ask the superintendent why not one teacher was willing to speak on the record about these issues. It seems that people are afraid to ask the superintendent questions, particularly if they work for him. Intimidation indeed.

The Huntsville Times is asking for comments on the question of “How is the Huntsville schools district’s digital transition working for you?”

Please contact Ms. Bonvillian and let her know your thoughts and opinions.

The post Talking Points For Digital Conversion appeared first on Geek Palaver.

There’s an excellent conversation happening on yesterday’s post Caveat Emptor Computers in the Classroom. If you care to know what your children’s teachers really think about the digital conversion, give it a look. In addition to those details, there was one question in particular that stood out to me.

What else should we be doing?

This really is the central question in the face of overwhelming financial support and an army of advisors. What can we do when our superintendent thinks he’s the only person of intelligence in the city? What can we do when our elected board, who were hired to represent us, ignore their constituencies and tell the superintendent that he should feel free to ignore us as well?

What can we do when Eli Broad, the mayor, the city council, the Arsenal, the committee of 100, the Huntsville Council of PTAs, and even the Huntsville Education Association are all drinking the same Kool Aid as they march to the beat of the Wardynski drum?

How can just one parent who is scared about the quality of education our children are receiving possibly hope to make a difference?

How can you make a difference?

What else should we be doing?

Here are a few suggestions.

1. Talk with your children every day about what they are doing in their classrooms and how they feel about it. I realize that this is like saying you should open your eyes before you try crossing the parkway during rush hour, but it is the first step. Your kids are your best source of information concerning the quality of education they are receiving. Of course, their first response will typically be, “It was fine,” as they put their earbuds into their ears, but you need to draw more information out of them. Ask them about what they studied in English. Ask them about what they’re reading. Ask them about their math, science, social studies, and language studies. Ask them about their art and music classes. Ask them about PE. Ask them how many other kids are in their class. Ask them how they feel about their teacher. No one else (especially not the superintendent) can evaluate your child’s education better than you. But it will take time and effort for you to do so. Take that time. Every single day.
2. Talk to other parents in your child’s classroom. Get to know them. Form a FaceBook group for the class so that y’all can talk with each other quickly and easily. Ask them what their children are saying about school and the classroom. Often times, despite our best efforts, our kids just simply don’t want to talk to us about what happened during school that day. If you’re friends with other parents in the classroom, you can glean information from them on the days when your kids clam up.
3. Talk to your teachers (and anyone else working in the classroom). How often do you have a conversation with your kid’s teacher? At the teacher conference at the beginning of the year? When there’s a problem? Make a point of talking to your teachers at least once a week. This doesn’t have to be an extensive conversation/meeting. It could be as easy as a quick email to them to say thanks. But get in touch with them. Make sure that they know you’re interested, engaged, and that they can call on you at any moment. Yes, our teachers are overworked and buried under a ton of red tape these days; however, unlike the superintendent, I have never heard a single teacher say she (or he) doesn’t have time to talk to a parent. They want your help.
4. Support your teachers (and anyone else working in the classroom). They’re human, and they’re overworked, underpaid, stressed, frustrated by a lack of support from their supervisors, and often have to deal with irrational people with irrational fears. They need to know that you appreciate the miracle they are working to produce for your kids. You would be amazed at the difference a simple thank you note makes, which is truly a sad commentary on our world, but yes, simply saying thanks to your teacher (and reminding your child to do so as well) makes everything go much more smoothly.
5. Get to know and support your principals (and everyone else working in the building). Again, our schools are under an extraordinary amount of stress these days. Everyone is attacking them. Having a person simply say thank you makes a difference.

Those are the basics. Every single parent with a kid in a school should be doing these things already. But you’re probably thinking, “Thanks Russ, for reminding us that water is wet.”

And you’d be right to do so.

So, what else should we be doing?

1. Join your PTA. Just because the Huntsville Council of PTAs thinks he’s the superintendent of the year doesn’t mean that everyone who is a member of the PTA agrees. Volunteer. And then be vocal about your opinions. If you think a decision by the superintendent is a good one, say so, and say why. If you think a decision by the superintendent is a bad one, say so, and say why.
2. Talk to your friends and associates about your opinions. Again, as my dad used to say, opinions are like butt-holes: everyone has one and most of them stink. Make sure your opinions don’t stink by backing them up with a justification and research. Don’t be afraid to stand up for what you believe in.
3. Talk to your board member. Yes, they will listen to you, at least at first. Depending on the issue you raise with them, they may even do what ask them to do. When you see for yourself that there are a lot of issues that they ignore you on, then you can move on to step four.
4. Vote them out of office. This Tuesday, August 28th, the District One seat (currently held by Laurie McCaulley) and the District Five seat (currently held by Alta Morrison) are both on the ballot in those districts. Ms. McCaulley is running for re-election. Ms. Morrison is not. Because of a complete lack of responsiveness from Ms. McCaulley on issues I’ve raised with her in the past, I cannot support her for reelection. As I have written before, I support Ms. Pat King for District One, and Mr. Carlos Matthews for District Five. I believe both will be far more responsive to the public than anyone on our current board has proven themselves to be.
5. Talk to Dr. Wardynski. Again, see for yourself the traits I’ve described countless times on this blog. Once you see for yourself, make it a point to hold him accountable. Ask questions and insist that he engage in a discussion with you. He works for you.
6. Attend the Board Meetings. The board typically meets the first and third Thursday of each month in the Merts building, 200 White Street, at 5:30pm. When attendance is low, the board members assume that means that everyone loves them not that we’re just so disgusted that we can’t stomach to listen to their sycophantic support of a non-educator’s bad ideas.
7. Speak at the Board Meetings. Silence is assent for our board. Speak out. Even if it means that the superintendent calls you names, has you escorted out, and has his minions spread lies about you in the press, SPEAK OUT. Your children are worth it.
8. Call every elected official you know and tell them what you think. I doubt that most of the officials in our city have any idea how completely Dr. Wardynski disregards his employers: Parents. Tell them.
9. Study. There is not a single idea that Dr. Wardynski has enacted in his 14 months that hasn’t been tried somewhere else and shown to be a failure. These “reforms” he’s enacting are not new. They have been tried in other districts, and they’ve failed. I regularly hear that “we’ve got to do something” and I agree. We do. But do we really have to do things that have already failed elsewhere? Please get a copy of Dr. Diane Ravitch’s book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. Dr. Ravitch is a school historian. She, at one point, supported many of the efforts that Dr. Wardynski is putting into play here in Huntsville, but as she studied them, she changed her mind. Read her book, read her blog, and find out why.

Finally, what else should we be doing?

We should be standing up for our children and for what we believe in. Dr. Wardynski is putting forth and enacting a political agenda that has been developed for him by the Broad Foundation. He is not acting in the best interests of our kids. He’s acting in his own best interests. And his best interests are not what is best for your children.

He is using his power, budget and influence to silence critics. He is using every political tool he has to enact his agenda of privatizing public schools, of ending public education in America.

He is a part of a well-organized, well-funded movement that is seeking to destroy public education in America.

And the only thing that is standing in his way are parents who are willing to stand up, ask questions, and insist on answers for their children.

So long as we have the conviction of our beliefs supporting us, it doesn’t matter how wealthy the opposition is. It doesn’t matter how well-organized they are. It doesn’t matter how rude they are. If we stand by our convictions, if we stand for what is right, if we stand for our teachers, and most importantly, if we stand for our kids, we will make a difference. We will turn this ship around.

We can save our schools and make sure that they remain ours.

The post What Else Should We Be Doing To Save Public Education? appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Two weeks ago, the superintendent boldly proclaimed that he was simply not going to communicate with people who are “a complete waste of [his] time.”  During a discussion of the superintendent’s goals for 2012-2013, some on the board suggested that the superintendent should be evaluated on his ability and willingness to communicate with the public. He told them that he wasn’t going to do that.

Here’s what he said:

I freely admit that there is people who I will not talk to anymore. They’re a complete waste of my time. I’ve talked to them until I’m blue in the face. I’ve got a lot to accomplish. I’m working seven days a week. Most time at night till ten o’clock. Uh, if my requirement is to answer every phone call, and everybody who calls me and emails me, no matter how many times and how ridiculous, uh, we’re gonna be in a job hunt.

The superintendent was quite specific: If the board requires him to communicate with the public, he is going to quit. His ultimatum was clear, and it was up to the board to decide what they would or would not do about it.

Thursday night, Ms. McCaulley, Ms. Morrison, Mr. Birney, and Dr. Robinson decided that the superintendent should be free to ignore any question that he doesn’t wish to answer.

While developing the goals for 2012-2013, someone on the board thought that the superintendent should improve his communication skills with the public. It’s hard to imagine what problems he might have with communication, isn’t it? Here was the draft of the goals that led to the superintendent insisting that he will not answer questions, that he will not respond to emails.

Here’s a copy of the superintendent’s evaluation that was approved on Thursday night.

I’m sure you’ll notice the sixth goal that has gone missing. Even at a mere 5% of his evaluation, the superintendent decided to threaten his supervisors with his leaving. (You know, even if he had just decided on his own to ignore the communication goal, it would have cost him only $500 of his probable $10,000 bonus.) As I’ve pointed out before, there are many in the board room during meetings who are threatening others. However, I’m not one of them.

The Huntsville Board of Education (minus Mr. Blair who was at the beach), decided on Thursday to allow the superintendent to determine exactly how he will be evaluated for his job performance this year. He’s getting to design his own test to suit his own purposes. He’s giving his supervisors ultimatums about what he will and what he will not do. He’s specifically and intentionally ignoring his bosses, the public, and the board is rewarding him for doing so.

I’m regularly referred to in the press as one of the superintendent’s biggest critics. I don’t see myself that way, but let’s suppose that I am. Let’s suppose that out of the 180,105 citizens of Huntsville, Alabama, that I’m the superintendent’s biggest critic and that I’m the one who he was referring to when he said that he’s “talked to them until I’m blue in the face.” Let’s suppose that I’m the one who makes him so frustrated that he changes color. (Wow, perhaps I’m more intimidating than I thought.)

Supposing all of that, is Dr. Wardynski correct that I’m a complete waste of his time? Is he correct that he’s talked to me so much that I’m interfering with the operation of the district?

If so, perhaps we really do need to hire hundreds of consultants to do his job because he has, over the past 13 months answered exactly two questions that I’ve asked him.

Two.

One answer was “I don’t know.” The second answer was, “Then su . . . then you have recourse.”

If two answers of a total of nine words is enough to overwhelm him and to cause him to offer the board his ultimatum, then he is truly in over his head.

Of course since we no longer have a school board to provide any oversight of the direction of the district, well, he is doing the work of six people now.

Dr. Wardynski, who insists that those beneath him (which in his mind is basically everyone) show him the proper respect, cautions teachers to speak to the board “as your employers,” and tells parents who ask questions “don’t tell me how to do my job,” has effectively told the board of education that they are irrelevant in his eyes, and that he will not allow them to tell him how he should do his job either.

Arrogance is insufficient to describe him any longer. Insubordination comes much closer.

But the real problem here is that we have a board that has decided to abdicate their responsibility to supervise the superintendent.

The district is Wardynski’s, and he’s turning it over to Eli Broad and his corporate minders.

The superintendent allows no input from students, teachers or parents as to how students will be evaluated. Imagine a student telling her teacher, “I freely admit that I won’t learn to read.” The superintendent allows no input from teachers as to how teachers will be evaluated. Imagine a teacher telling Dr. Wardynski, “I freely admit that I will not teach certain kids.”

The only person in the district who gets to determine how he will be evaluated is Dr. Wardynski. His opinion is the only one that matters.

Keep this in mind when you have a question about the direction of your children’s schools. The single person making the decisions doesn’t give a damn what you think.

Education is Communication. If he doesn’t want to communicate, he should get out of education.

The post Super Threatens to Quit Rather Than Communicate appeared first on Geek Palaver.

So there was a Special Called meeting of the Huntsville City Schools Board of Education today to expand, yet again, the central office, but still no hiring of SPED Instructional Assistants required to create safe classrooms for special needs children. Once again, Dr. Wardynski proves that he cares more about technology than children by spending his and the board’s limited time before school starts to hire a coordinator for educational technology from Madison City Schools, Julie Finley. Once again, the central office expands while children are left in unsafe, understaffed classrooms.

Once again, Dr. Wardynski and the school board (McCaulley, Blair, Robinson, Birney, and Morrison) demonstrate that they just simply don’t care about the neediest children in our district.

The Special Called meeting was not announced on eBoards or the district’s website last night at about 9:00pm when I went to go look if there might be a meeting to address the hiring of Instructional Assistants. The meeting was evidently announced to the press. I’m grateful that they were able to attend (otherwise, the public would never know about this meeting). Keep this in mind when you read editorials from Mr. Peck that claim “No schools were closed.” I wonder if the parents of students at Providence Middle, The Huntsville Center for Technology, or the Seldon Center would agree with Mr. Peck’s claim? As my child’s schools has been merged with the middle school, I think I could make a claim that her school was closed. Mt. Gap Elementary no longer exists. It would be helpful if the editor, while he’s berating critics of “going digital” that they should “consider what their children are getting in return,” would check his facts. Editorials still need to be factually correct. Despite this, I still recommend supporting the Huntsville Times. We need a free press in this town.

As Wardynski stated on Thursday, August 2, 2012, he is convinced that questions from some (like me) about the safety and education of special needs kids is a “complete waste of [his] time.” He is more concerned about signing contracts with HP, Microsoft, Pearson, Teach for America (and other Broad funded organizations), and, frankly, hiring the wives of mayors than he is about making certain that those who work directly with our kids are hired, trained and prepared to meet their needs.

And if he’s willing to ignore special education kid’s needs, he is willing to ignore every kid’s needs regardless of the federal laws protecting them.

If this kind of crap is what Eli Broad “teaches” his superintendent’s, remind me again how he’s helping to improve education in our nation?

The post Hiring Technology Coordinators But No SPED Aides appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Remember a year ago when I met with Dr. Wardynski and asked him if the district would be ready to meet IEPs on the first day of school? Remember when his response to that question was, “I don’t know.” Of course, this was back when Dr. Wardynski was still new and concerned about actually answering questions from the public.

Tonight he let the public and the school board know that there are people in the district whom he simply will not talk to. He said:

I freely admit that there is people who I will not talk to anymore. They’re a complete waste of my time. I’ve talked to them until I’m blue in the face. I’ve got a lot to accomplish. I’m working seven days a week. Most time at night till ten o’clock. Uh, if my requirement is to answer every phone call, and everybody who calls me and emails me, no matter how many times and how ridiculous, uh, we’re gonna be in a job hunt.

I suppose this is why he never responds to any of my questions anymore. Nice of him to let me know. Just in case you’re wondering, Dr. Wardynski has responded to basically two questions that I’ve asked him in a year’s time. The first response was “I don’t know.” The second was, “Then su . . . then you have recourse.” That’s it. Hard to imagine those responses causing him to go “blue in the face,” isn’t it?

But then maybe he wasn’t talking about me during his tirade. Maybe others in the city have been bothering him more during his seven days a week work schedule.

Just imagine if a teacher said this to Dr. Wardynski. I am certain that he would attempt to fire such a teacher for insubordination, aren’t you?

Honestly, even Dr. Robinson, who normally goes out of her way to support everything the superintendent has to say, seemed caught off guard. She quickly changed the subject.

Once Again IEPs Won’t Be Met

As I shared with the board in my comments last night, the more things change, the more they stay exactly the same.

Once again, we are facing the beginning of a school year, albeit two weeks later than we expected, and once again the district is not prepared to meet the requirements of the IEPs of special needs students.

This past Tuesday, on EPSCO’s Facebook wall, they posted:

The board and superintendent in their infinite wisdom have decided to wait until the Friday before school starts to let people know who will be employing our Instructional Assistants this year.

As I’ve mentioned many times both here on the blog and at the board meetings, much of the disruption that my son had to endure came from the way the district hires the Instructional Aides who assist the teacher in teaching him. I’ve begged the board and the superintendent to please review and revise the way they handle these hirings. Their response to this request is to postpone the hiring of Instructional Assistants until the last business day before school starts.

It’s so nice when public officials are responsive to the public, isn’t it?

As I said to them last night, waiting until August 17th to make a decision about this is putting our children, once again, at risk. The likely scenario here is that once again our classrooms will be understaffed on the first day of school. Once again our children will not have the resources that they need to even be safe in the classrooms. Once again because of the decisions of this superintendent and this board, our children’s lives will be disrupted simply because they have failed to do their job in a timely manner.

They seem to have no problem working and approving contracts with Teach for America, Pearson, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and hundreds of contractors and developers in this town. But once again special education students are being left out in the cold.

Training For Everyone But Instructional Assistants

My son’s IEP requires that the district provide ninety minutes of training in how to appropriately work with students on the spectrum twice a year. This training will cost next to nothing as it will likely be provided by people who are already employed by the district as Autism Coordinators. In other words, all I’ve requested is that the district use the money they’ve already spent to help improve my son’s classroom experience just a little bit.

But even that small and insignificant request is too much.

It seems that no request is too small when it comes to educating children on the spectrum.

On the other hand, last night the superintendent and the board were bragging about how their new teachers are receiving five days of training before school starts. They were bragging about how Pearson is about to send fifty people into the district to train teachers how to teach using their software at a cost of $1,107,463 this year alone.

All I’m asking the district to do is make a decision about which company they want to use in a timely fashion.

Even a request as small as, “Could you please just do your job?,” seems to make Dr. Wardynski go blue in the face.

I know how you feel, sir. I know how you feel.

The post Once Again The District Isn’t Prepared To Meet IEPs appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Let’s play pretend for a few minutes. Let’s suppose that the state or some state agency actually ordered the Huntsville City School Board of Education to include the ridiculous nepotism policy that family members of board members who work for the district must resign. Let’s suppose that those local (and national) individuals who benefit from the inclusion of such a draconian approach were actually required to include it.

Who would have recommended this policy’s inclusion?

The Process

It helps that they’ve listed several groups in their presentation on the matter, so let’s look there for some possibilities.

Belinda Williams, the Human Resources Director, reported on June 7, 2012 that the district had taken the following steps in their process of revising the manual.

• Retained an expert on school district polices to begin a review of the policy manual. (This unnamed expert is, yes, yet another consultant hired by the administration without explicit approval of the board of education. There was no board action approving this retainer. As Wardynski took pains to point out during the eight minute presentation and discussion, this expert also compared the policy manual “to statute.” Williams states later in her presentation that this “expert” was from a law firm in Birmingham. Dr. Wardynski also said that the consultant was from the “school board association” later during the meeting. I assume that he is referring to the Alabama Association of School Boards. If so, perhaps one of these attorneys was the “expert” involved.)
• A committee was convened to review the proposed policy manual change recommendations. (Again, this committee was unnamed, but was under the direction of Frank Spinelli the CSFO and one could assume that Ms. Williams was also a member as she spoke in first person when describing approximately four months of work this committee engaged in. They compared the previous policy with the new policy. I assume that the working document of this committee was the March 2012 version that did not include the new nepotism restriction.)
• Superintendent’s Leadership Team reviewed drafts of the policies. (And again the public does not know who was on the Superintendent’s Leadership Team, but one assumes that the superintendent was at least one of the members.)
• Department heads conducted a review of the policies and provided edits. (Ms. Williams provided no additional information about this point when she read it on the June 7th.)
• An offsite meeting was held to do a comprehensive review of all policy change recommendations. (Notice the use of the passive voice here? Kinda makes you wonder what is being covered up, doesn’t it? Ms. Williams seems to be going to great lengths to say as little as possible about the process of review. She did mention that the Board attorney, J. R. Brooks, and the “policy expert” were present at this “all day session.” Wardynski claimed that everyone at the “leadership level,” or “everybody” was present at this offsite meeting.)
• Final changes to the policies were incorporated.
• The Policy Advisory Committee reviewed the policy manual. (This meeting took place during the middle of May. They reviewed the final changes and made a presentation to the superintendent on the changes. Ms. Williams described the final changes as minor during their “good meeting.”)

Dr. Robinson also stated at the conclusion of the discussion that the AASB provided the consultant. So with the exception of Mr. Brooks (the school board attorney), the only outside individual who reviewed the policy manual was the unnamed lawyer from AASB.

Thus, what if this lawyer, “expert,” and AASB consultant suggested the inclusion of the Nepotism policy?

Alabama Association of School Boards’ Recommendations

Does the AASB have a standing recommendation on nepotism that they’ve published to help school boards with the difficult job of staying legal?

Why yes, yes they do.

If you google the AASB site, you’ll see that there are basically three references on their website to nepotism. The first is the case that I mentioned my first posting on Saturday. This was the Rep. Buskey opinion which read:

to avoid running afoul of the nepotism statute when recommending a relative: (1) recommend at least one other equally qualified person for the position, and (2) refrain from participating in the board’s decision-making process. This would give the board the option to select either of the qualified applicants.

As I posted on Saturday, this 2008 opinion accepts as a given that the board could in fact hire a family member, so long as the recommendation met certain standards.

The second one can be found in the summer 2009 edition of the Alabama School Boards magazine. If you download a copy, you will want to look at a piece written by Denise L. Berkhalter called “Help.” This is a Q & A posting that asks, “What is the law requiring the hiring of relatives of the superintendent or board members?”

Ms. Berkhalter’s response was:

A May 19, 2008, attorney general’s opinion found that the state’s anti-nepotism law under section 41-1-5 of the Alabama Code does not prohibit employment of a board member’s relative within the fourth degree as long as the related board member doesn’t participate in the decision-making proceedings.
The attorney general also explains a superintendent, who refrains from the board’s decision-making proceedings, may recommend a relative within the prohibited degree along with at least one other equally qualified person. This allows the board to choose among equally qualified job candidates.
Appointments that violate the anti-nepotism statute are void, and violators face a misdemeanor punishable by up to $500 in fines and/or up to a year behind bars. Because this process conflicts with the ethics law, confer with your school board attorney.

Clearly in 2009, the AASB believed that even the hiring of relatives of board member was consistent with the law.

AASB 2012 Nepotism Resolutions

But what about in 2012? After all, a lot has changed in the past three years in the state’s education laws.

It just so happens that the AASB has issued a collection of Resolutions for 2012. While it isn’t clear what the purpose of these resolutions are, they are quite detailed. (In fact, given how often, Dr. Robinson refers to the AASB during board meetings, a closer review of these “Resolutions” would certainly be in order.)

There are two references to Nepotism in this collection of Resolutions. The first one reads:

G-17 School Board Member Ethics
AASB encourages school boards to adopt a code of ethics in agreement with the National School Boards Association code. AASB encourages reasonable measures concerning nepotism.

Nepotism is mentioned a second time as well:

P-26 Nepotism
AASB encourages school boards to adopt policies prohibiting assignment of employees to supervise members of their immediate family. AASB supports reasonable restrictions on the new employment and promotion of sitting local board and superintendent family members within a school system.

As you can see, neither of these resolutions recommends that a school board require family members to resign. Now let me ask you, would a lawyer from an organization that is currently and clearly calling for reasonable restrictions on the new employment and promotion likely going to suggest to a school board that they should require family members of board members to resign? Somehow, I doubt it.

AASB has not recommended a policy requiring family members’ resignations in their public documents.

But even if such a lawyer were to suggest this as a course of action, why would a school board enact a policy that so clearly goes beyond the requirements of state code?

Alabama State Code

By the way, Alabama Code Section 41.1.5 reads:

Nepotism in state service prohibited.

No officer or employee of the state or of any state department, board, bureau, committee, commission, institution, corporation, authority or other agency of the state shall appoint any person related to him within the fourth degree of affinity or consanguinity to any job, position or office of profit with the state or with any of its agencies. Any person related to the appointing authority within the prohibited degree shall be ineligible to serve in any capacity with the state under authority of such an appointment, and any appointment so attempted shall be void. Whoever violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine not to exceed $500.00 or by imprisonment not to exceed one year, or both. This section shall not apply, however, in the case of an appointment of a person to a position in the classified service of the state made from the register of persons eligible as certified by the State Director of Personnel.

The provisions of this section shall not apply to any individual or individuals employed as of September 16, 1963, in any branch, department or bureau of the state or the reappointment of any individuals employed on September 16, 1963.

(Acts 1963, No. 588, p. 1285.)

Alabama State Code does not require family member to resign. Why would the school board establish policy that so far exceeds the requirements of the law?

There will be another school board meeting tomorrow night. If board members should decide to respond to these questions from the public, they will likely respond by saying that the “expert” from the Alabama Association of School Boards recommended the inclusion of this policy.

If they do, make sure you ask for that expert’s name. Make sure that they back their claims with specific evidence.

And make sure that any board member who tries to disavow their responsibility for this policy knows that we know that it wasn’t the AASB who voted this excessive policy into existence.

Make sure they know that we know who benefits from such an extreme policy.

Make sure they know that we know how to vote.

There is no reasonable justification for the inclusion of this nepotism policy. The election will be held August 28th.

The post Any Possible Justifications for the Nepotism Policy? appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Yesterday I wrote about the decision of the Huntsville City School’s Board of Education to subvert the democratic process by restricting who can and cannot run for school board seats. In short, if you’re an employee of the district, no one in your family may run for a school board seat. If they do, and if they are elected, you must resign your position with the district in order to avoid even the hint of nepotism.

In passing, with eight minutes of discussion, a policy manual that requires family members to resign, the current board members are telling the public that family members of teachers, principals, aides, custodians, and even administration are not worthy of our trust to lead our schools as board members. Because clearly a family member of a district employee would find it impossible to recuse him or herself from the rare discussions about their family.

No Family Connections Allowed?

Honestly, if this were actually an issue, then shouldn’t it also be against policy for a board member to represent a school where his or her children attend? Couldn’t a board member use his or her influence to get extra services for his or her child? After all I think most parents would tell you that while they love their spouse, there isn’t anything they wouldn’t do to protect their child. The board should pass a policy requiring children of board members to be bused to neighboring districts so as to avoid even the hint of favoritism.

Of course, such a policy would be considered ridiculous. Having a vested interest in the schools they represent improves the work of the school board. In fact, I tend to think that people without a personal connection to the district they represent should not be allowed to run for a seat in that district. If, for example, you live in the district but pointed send your children to a private school, you shouldn’t be allowed to run for that seat. (But that’s a post for another day.)

On the current board both Dr. Robinson and Mr. Blair have had children in the schools in their districts during their times of service. And yet one of the more common complaints voiced about Dr. Robinson at least is that she doesn’t do enough for the schools in her district. Grissom, in particular, has lagged behind others in the district in terms of renovations until quite recently.

In other words, having a personal connection to your schools doesn’t seem to result in favoritism for that school at all among our current board members.

The policy of requiring the family of board members to resign is a solution in need of a problem.

Nepotism and Favoritism By Any Other Name

Given that nepotism abuse that has occurred in the past, I completely understand and support having a policy that prohibits it. No one, no matter how well you know them, should have the inside track when it comes to jobs in our schools. Our kids need and deserve to have the best people working for them regardless of “who they know.”

In many ways the policy isn’t broad enough. There does seem to need to be some protects against favoritism at least. If anyone uses their position to give their friends, associates, or even service members the inside track on jobs, there’s a problem there. For example:

It shouldn’t matter if you worked in Aurora, Colorado with Dr. Wardynski, or served in the Army with him or his friends. It shouldn’t matter if you lived in Fairfax, Virginia or not. If you’re the best person for the job, you should be the person hired, regardless of your connections.

So in many ways, I believe the protections against favoritism should be stronger than they currently are.

McCaulley Benefits

I pointed out that the board president, Mrs. Laurie McCaulley, may benefit from this new policy as it directly impacts one of the people running against her in the coming election, Mrs. Pat King. (Mrs. King’s husband is a tenured assistant principal at Huntsville Middle School.)

If Mrs. King should happen to win the election, under the current policy her husband would be required to resign his position in October when Mrs. King would take her seat. Most people would never be in a position to take such a risk. (School board members make $15,564 per year. It isn’t intended to be a livable salary, and most school board members are either retired or have other careers.)

However, Mrs. McCaulley isn’t the only person who is likely to benefit from this new policy.

Wardynski Benefits

Another benefactor of this policy is anyone who wishes to keep family members of teachers and educators off the school board. Who might benefit from not being supervised by a family member of a teacher? Perhaps a superintendent who is unconcerned about forcing a teacher to move to a new school against her will, or one who conducts a national search to hire someone who “has a long history of infuriating parents“? It certainly makes it easier to score a 92 on your personalized evaluation when you don’t have to take teacher’s opinions and evaluations into account.

Dr. Wardynski certainly benefits from having board members who have no personal connection to the teachers and schools he’s destroying.

As someone without an education background, he tends to see those with education backgrounds as the single biggest impediment to his brand of “reform.” Making unsubstantiated claims like “Nothing about the kids (in our system was positive,” would be much easier if those on the board don’t know the truth for themselves. Ridiculous claims like “26 percent of the district’s leaders were strong” when he arrived are harder to make when a board member is related to one of those district leaders.

The superintendent doesn’t like questions. Having board members who will ask some because they have a personal connection to the people he is degrading is likely to lead to some questions.

Mrs. McCaulley isn’t the only one who benefits from this new policy.

But then neither is Dr. Wardynski the only one who benefits from the new policy.

Eli Broad Benefits

The Broad Foundation, Dr. Wardynski’s true boss, has a vested interest in keeping people who care about teachers off of school boards.

Public education and teachers are under attack in our city and in our nation today. In fact, this is one of the few areas where there is true bi-partianship. Both sides of the aisle are seeking to blame “failing schools” on teachers and no one else. Even teacher associations are often quiet in the face of attacks on teachers. (Or they’re supportive of the person bringing the attack.)

In short it is often left to those who are related to teachers to actually defend them.

If you’d like to read more about the Broad Foundation, please take a look at the Parents Across America guide to The Broad Foundation’s Programs and Policies.

Eli Broad also benefits from keeping family members of teachers off of school boards.

It’s All About Control

There are countless groups and people in this city and nation who are working to take control of our schools. The inclusion of this policy makes it much easier for them to do so. We may never know who included it. We may never find everyone who benefits from it, but this much we know. It’s purpose, as with nearly everything Dr. Wardynski has done in our school system, is to exert control through intimidation of the public and his teachers.

This policy is an attack on our teachers and their families, and if the Huntsville City Board of Education believes in the democratic process, they will remove it immediately.

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