School Board To Give Mixed Review to Supe
Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson will hear the school board's evaluation of her this afternoon at a closed executive session of the board. Last year, the new superintendent got a glowing report and a hefty raise that brought her salary up to $264,000—more than the governor's, by a long shot. But this year, says school board president Michael DeBell, the evaluation "will probably be more mixed. We're out of the honeymoon."
DeBell wouldn't provide any more specifics in advance of the meeting. But the superintendent's handling of a number of difficult issues—from school closures to teacher layoffs—is drawing some criticism from the public. As I mentioned on KUOW last week, and Seattle Times columnist Lynne Varner wrote about today, it doesn't help that Goodloe-Johnson often seems imperious and brusque—a marked contrast from former Superintendent Raj Manhas. Disenchanted parents are pointing to a recent survey of teachers in Goodloe-Johnson's previous district, Charleston County, S.C. Seventy-three percent of the teachers surveyed said the current superintendent there is an effective leader, compared to 48 percent who said the same of Goodloe-Johnson.
Goodloe-Johnson will hear today from former Boston superintendent Tom Payzant, now at Harvard University, who has been hired by the Seattle school board to prepare its evaluation.
Also today, the district will present the outline of its new assignment plan, which determines which students go to which schools. This is a big deal. In brief, the district will assign students to their neighborhood schools but families can request different schools. Whether they get in or not will now largely be determined by lottery, rather than by how close a family lives to any given school. "That seemed more democratic," DeBell says. Expect to hear lots more about it.
4 comment(s)
gavroche says:
Nina Shapiro reports that Supt. Goodloe-Johnson's annual evaluation today was "prepared" by Tom Payzant.
Isn't that convenient.
Payzant is a former Supt. of Boston School District, and is connected to the Broad Foundation -- as is Goodloe-Johnson, who is on the Broad board and a former graduate of their "Superintendents' Academy."
(http://www.broadcenter.org/about/board.html)
(http://broadacademy.org/)
Payzant is also a former graduate of their Academy and now a coach there (http://www.broadacademy.org/news/press/2002-0204.html) and I believe he won a "Broad Award."
"Dr. Tom Payzant and Dr. John Simpson named Broad Superintendents Academy coaches: http://broadacademy.org/new...3:34 PM May 4th from web"
So we have a Broad Foundation person overseeing the evaluation of another Broad Foundation board member/graduate.
How likely is it that Mr. Payzant will be objective and genuinely critical of his fellow alum Broad board member Goodloe-Johnson?
Isn't this a conflict of interest?
Who arranged to have him come in to do this?
Posted On: Wednesday, Jun. 3 2009 @ 2:05PM
Charlie Mas says:
Nina writes: "Last year, the new superintendent got a glowing report", but actually she didn't. There was no evaluation done last year. You can try to request it from the District. They will tell you that no such document exists.
Posted On: Wednesday, Jun. 3 2009 @ 2:54PM
Concerned Parent says:
Conflict of interest:
Look whose photo is on the front page of the Broad Academy web site
http://broadacademy.org/
Posted On: Wednesday, Jun. 3 2009 @ 4:23PM
Concerned SE Seattle Mom says:
Dear Seattle,
With our public school district under the control of Dr.MGJ, I am very concerned, she has done nothing but cause uproar within our communities. She is a pawn, in a "higher" org., with BAD INTENSIONS. Everything that the BROAD foundation is about, does not reflect the value of us Seattleites. It is also, very interesting how she seems to manipulate her data, reviews and opinions with her FELLOW BROADS, whom she is bringing into our district LEFT & RIGHT. God please help our public school system in Seattle, before it is too late..or is it already?
Posted On: Thursday, Jun. 4 2009 @ 12:12PM