Superintendent Goals
In the past I have advocated for the board to meet and set measurable goals regarding student and district achievement. And one year we actually set a couple of measurable goals–one around career and college readiness, for example.
But this year, we have these “goals.”
Of course, they aren’t actually goals — they aren’t measurable or specific, for starters. As I said at the meeting, if a teacher turned in something like this as their Student Learning Objective goals, they would be told to rewrite them.
Please listen to our discussion at the 01:07:30 mark (click here). Take the second “goal,” for example. This statement is totally meaningless. Of course, every school district will say it’s doing this. But how are we as the board going to measure success at the end of this year? We aren’t. And maybe that’s the point. I think this board has wasted another opportunity to provide some semblance of leadership and oversight.
Teacher Payroll Issues
Shortly before the last school board meeting, teachers began to reach out with concerns about their payroll. Here’s the short version. The administration devised a salary schedule and posted it online. Then it paid teachers. Then it decided that the salary schedule was incorrect. Then it posted a new salary schedule that reduced teacher pay. And then it told teachers it would be taking money out of their remaining paychecks to recoup the mistakenly-paid money.
There is a lot of frustration among teachers that this happened in the first place, and I share that frustration. But what was even worse was the district’s response. First, as teachers pointed out, there didn’t seem to be any genuine sympathy for how this impacted teachers. Remember, teachers had to sign their contracts before they knew what their salary would be. They patiently waited until the administration posted the schedule online. And then were told that was incorrect.
And when I tried to point out what many teachers were telling me — that the difference between the salary schedules was significant, I was told I was comparing “apples to oranges.” (Click here for the video and skip to the 27:30-minute mark) Since the meeting, the district has acknowledged the very salary difference I was trying to address. Why in the world would they not just be transparent at the board meeting? The failure in this regard has only made matters worse. Also, why did the administration think it was a good idea to recoup the money it says was mistakenly included in the first paycheck?
Mistakes happen. And I do think teachers are willing to give us a break. But our responses often seem disconnected from the very people our mistakes impact.
Internal Auditor
The board has repeatedly bragged about having an internal auditor. And we should brag about it. It’s a big deal and a lot of districts do not have one.
But here’s the problem, the board and administration have made decisions that give the appearance of sidelining the internal auditor. First, the internal auditor was instructed — by one single board member — to stop attending executive sessions. Then the internal auditor reported that he had been instructed to stop producing written reports. And now we have learned that the district hotline has been removed from his purview and handed over to the ombudsman. I have concerns about this. First, the board wasn’t consulted about this change. The internal auditor is one of three employees who reports directly to the board. That’s a big deal and provides some independence that other employees do not have. Second, it’s this very independence that, I believe, puts the internal auditor in the best position to receive the hotline calls, which often report financial or operational concerns within the district.