30 years of professional employment doesn't excuse any sins of poor performance. Likewise, 30 years does not mean that a person who was perhaps a great teacher is by definition a great superintendent. The required skill sets are quite divergent, in fact.
Wasn't Super. Johnson a member of those self-same teacher's unions for most her career? Doesn't that make her part of the problem, not the solution, by your own arguments?
I'm sure the Memphis board certainly THINKS her resume is impressive, but looking good and actually being good are often quite divergent in the political and executive worlds. I'll bet some of the c. vitae of those guys at Enron, Worldcom and ADM who broke laws, cheated investors and so forth look impressive, too. I doubt there's a resume in existence that is truly awe inspiring, though. People that great don't write resumes.
Chris Johnson Fulton
WizardMarks wrote:
There is no call to savage a woman who has given 30 years of her professional life to the children of Minneapolis, first as a teacher, then a principal, then assistant super, and finally, super. As Terrell Brown noted, what she made as superintendent was not excessive considering the responsibility. Too, she turned down the raise, so beating that dead horse is pointless.
The poor graduation rate cannot be cured easily, if at all. To change that would require moving at least three entities off the dime--the feds, the leggie, and the teacher's unions. Our state has been jacking the kids around for several years now, profile of learning/no profile being one of the problems the legislature brings us on a regular basis. Short-changing schools rather than arranging the tax laws to support them is another. Presuming that we can afford to waste the talents of any child as a future adult is a third, though maybe first in line.
Too, perhaps only here and in St. Paul does the school district have to deal with massive numbers of immigrants from several different language and cultural groups as well as those who have been poorly served in education and are born here (Indians, African Americans, poor whites).
I can hear the snippiness in "her majesty," but Johnson doesn't deserve that. This is an opportunity for a school superintendent. I feel quite satisfied that our school board chose so well. After all, Tennessee wouldn't want her if she were just any-old-body. The particulars of her c. vitae must be awesome.
WizardMarks, Central
j c harmon wrote:
Nothing to keep a superintendent here? The salary bump served up by the school board last year during their budget crisis to keep her majesty here seemed to do it. Doesn't her dedication to the students of Minneapolis suffering a pathetic 40% graduation rate garner SOME reason to stay and FIX it?
I'm sure Steve Belton isn't the only one with a $400 per month car allowance - with perks like that I'm surprised she doesn't stay.
Jill Harmon
Cleveland
From: Jason C Stone <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I have a hard time believing that it takes salaries at those levels to attract qualified
candidates. Methinks that needs be rethunk.
Jason Stone | Hale
TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.)
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