April Treece and Dick Allen bravely faced a room full of concerned, if not angry, parents and teachers Saturday morning at Roccos. The discussion clearly centered on the Superintendent and what some believe is the blind support placed in him by the majority of the School Board. Andre Gensburger at Misterwriter.com has an excellent article that really gets to the root of the issues facing this school district. In summary, can the Superintendent ever win back the confidence and support of his stakeholders in order to lead us forward and will the majority of the Board be willing to re-examine their position if it is determined that the will of their constituents is that the Superintendent go. Yesterday Ms. Treece referenced letters of support she has received regarding the Superintendent, MAYBE the majority of parents and teachers support him and view him as the leader this district needs.
MDUSD has a divided board, the Superintendent's job is hanging by the vote of just one Board member, new Principal candidates are being interviewed for Northgate, a very large group of parents in the Northgate community want out of this district, there has never been a better opportunity for change then right now.
Do you have an opinion? Do you voice your opinion? If you believe this district needs to change, if you believe Northgate needs to once again be valued as a great high school, if you believe the students in this district deserve better, then you have never had a better opportunity for change or a greater responsibility to speak up.
I will start this discussion with the questions I would like answered:
We heard back from members of the interview panels that there were three excellent Principal candidates for Northgate that were unanimously sent through to the District. Now we hear that the process is starting completely over and that the candidates "did not fit the total picture of what the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent thought was a good fit for Northgate." When Mr. Young was asked where additional candidates would be found he first responded that the district would go back out to the same publications. When pushed further he admitted, "We are going to rely on our contacts." These panel members include members of our faculty and parent body. Is this panel legitimate? Do they really have an opportunity to represent our school? Is the process a bit of a set-up? Will the District be picking our new Principal from their "contacts"? Do we want that?
I would like to know why this district claims to be so data driven and then when confronted with data showing that almost 90% of the district schools are performing below average, when compared to similar schools, they dismiss this data? They claim to not understand the data, to not believe the data and yesterday Ms. Treece suggested it was the fault and responsibility of the school site. Please note that nine years ago all Northgate feeder pattern schools were above average or well above average. Today all of these same schools are below average or well-below average when compared with similar schools.
Teacher morale is at an all-time low, MDUSD teacher experience levels are the lowest in the county (they are approaching an average of 6 years), in last three years Northgate has turned over almost half of it's teachers and the new teacher support is just not adequate. What is the District doing to attract the best and the brightest? What is the District doing to insure new teachers are properly mentored? Who is monitoring the progress of these new teachers to make sure they are up to the task? Many teacher issues come down to a lack of a contract and specifically the lack of an adequate compensation package. The district negotiators have only made three offers in the last 18 months, how can a contract get settled when the process moves so slowly? How high of a priority is this? Be careful about making it all about our budget woes when the district recently spent $10,000,000 on new technology and cut $1.8 million of funds set aside for teacher benefits months before it was necessary.
These question are derived from questions asked from the first 45 minute tape of the meeting at Roccos, please add your questions to this post. I welcome members of the Superintendent's staff and Board members to address the issues posted here. I hope teachers and parents will voice their opinions. The District will never have a mandate one way or another without hearing from their constituents.
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10 comments:
As a Northgate parent I would also like to hear the answers to these question?
I have forwarded this post to the MDUSD board, administration, and staff. I am hopeful that we will receive some answers. Please check back and feel free to add your questions as well.
I'm glad people are getting brave enough to post an opinion... so many were quiet, for so long. I hope to hear from others and I hope that others will write to and contact the board members.
Well it appears these questions will go unanswered.
They won't go unanswered if we dont' let them. Don't let them go unanswered! Complacency is our enemy. Don't let them get away with not answering. If someone were really interested, they could listen to the podcast of the meeting and type up every question that went unanswered... then let's submit it at a board meeting.
If I take the time to go through every tape and outline the questions, will the readers of this blog commit to putting pressure on the Board? Will you email the questions to the Administration and to the Board? Will you send them the blog link so they see the results of the polls and will you submit your vote? Will you have your friends, neighbors, parents, and teachers do the same?
I have already started a response, but you have asked questions that deserve a full answer and are not necessarily easy to answer. I am working to fit finishing the response into my schedule. To be fair, I have responded often to the questions you have posed, but responding to a string of questions just takes more time.
I will do what I can to bring attention to the questions. They certainly do deserve answers.
Paul,
Thank you. We appreciate your willingness to answer these questions and others in the past. We will be patient in anticipation of your answers.
I call upon EVERY parent, EVERY teacher, EVERY student to direct mail, telephone calls and emails to APRIL TREECE (on the board of education), GARY McHENRY, the Superintendent, and the Editor of the CCTimes to have Gary McHenry resign, April Treece back Paul Strange and Gary Eberhart and make the changes needed in MDUSD to move forward. Teachers are counting on you. Parents and Students are counting on you. It is time for Gary McHenry to move on. Email addresses are available at mdusd.k12.ca.us (select the tab for the Board of education).
BE VOCAL. SHOUT. If you wimp out, nothing will happen and you will have no one to blame but apathy.
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