Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Board keeps principals - The New Britain Herald (newbritainherald.com)

By JAMES CRAVEN
Staff Writer
Posted by Frank Smith at 3.3.10

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
With regard to this BOE decision of keeping principals, etc., in failing NB schools, some have written these comments as to what they see as the root causes of failure:
The issues: (a) Dr. Kurtz' competence
(b) competence of the two principals (c) teacher competence (d) BOE Pres., Beloin-Saavedra's conflict of interest, and BOE competence,
are all real issues but only peripherally related to whether to accept a grant.
The grant itself already carries, with acceptance, the fact that the grantors feel/question that a major issue re failing schools may be the competence of the educational leader (principal) and teachers at the schools. Of course the grantors know that lack of parent involvement, etc., are factors however there is little that they can do about those. The grantors can and must question what they can about failing schools so they write grants that might help alleviate the problems. If that means staff and leadership changes, so be it.
Just because the school system hires a principal and teachers, doesn't guarantee that they will be effective at doing the job. There is too little effective and meaningful classroom (teacher) and building (principal) supervision in schools. If there were adequate supervision many of the problems in education might be alleviated.
If people want to get rid of Kurtz, then concentrate on that. If you want to blame incompetent teachers, then get rid of them. Or you can blame those that hired the incompetents and get rid of them. But don't blame just one person. That attitude just obfuscates the real problems and these problems will stay.
So what did the BOE's action solve? NOTHING! The principals and the teachers will remain and the test scores won't get any better!! The BOE will feel good about themselves and the complaining shall continue.
Neither I nor anybody else has asked our state and federal legislators for help or advice as to what course of action to follow regarding this grant; and, these legislators have not offered anything. Then again this may have been a good thing!
All our BOE says is, we need more money. When some money is offered - with strings attached of course - our BOE prefers to turn it down and instead people blame Dr. Kurtz. Does she deserve part of the blame? Yes. All of it? NO.

March 3, 2010 at 4:01 PM
Anonymous said...

In the private sector, if a CEO fails to make money for and/or improve company performance, they get the axe. Not so easy in education but it can be done. NB's BOE is simply backing off on its responsibilities to taxpayers.

March 3, 2010 at 4:10 PM
Anonymous said...

There is a great deal of responsibility placed on BOE members. Unfortunately, the Democratic Town Committee consistently nominates people who have no experience in educational or financial matters. These are the people placed on negotiating teams to decide on union raises on all five committees.

Since there are four times as many Democrats as Republicans in the city, we end up with people who are oblivious to what they are voting for and go for the unions. That is probably what John McNamara wants, puppets whose strings he can pull! Who is looking out for the students and the tax payer? A few Republicans with no majority vote.

This system should be changed. Rather than care about the ethnic, partisan and racial divide, which has not worked, we need to concentrate on business people to be on the BOE. The RTC embarrassed themselves by folding into a Democratic candidate. Don't they have a list of people who want to serve?

As a Republican, I will not vote their way for a slate full of candidates who are not Republican in the future. They promoted it as a diversity movement. I saw it as the same old tired leadership not doing their job! Please, new people are needed. Stewart is doing a great job and almost lost. Would that have something to do with the same old tired leadership? We need new, young blood.

March 3, 2010 at 5:50 PM
Anonymous said...

These people know nothing with regard to grants and this one in particular. The principals were not being terminated they were going to the administration building for $125,000 each to allow Kurtz to do absolutely nothing. Two new principals would have to be hired for $125,000 Teachers that are removed would "bump" other teachers It would be a zooooooo.


In three years when the $18,000,000grant ended that money would have to be added to the local budget.

In three years Can the city afford to have automatic increase plus normal cost of leaving??????

Before people go off half cocked ask questions and read. It is much better than looking like a FOOL to the rest of the world.

And there is more but I will not waste my time with you.

March 3, 2010 at 6:09 PM
Anonymous said...

What might be interesting is for the public to request disclosure of the most recent evaluations of the principals and staff of the three schools in question; also, who completed the evaluations?
Certainly, BOE members do not do these evaluations. The BOE abdicates its responsibility each time it votes an extension of the contract of Dr. Kurtz. Are any BOE members involved in more than just seemingly innocuous conflicts of interest? Are school principals protected by CT's tenure laws? Don't think so. How about Central Administration Officials like Pianka, Stacy, Yacobelli, Jakubowski, Carabillo? What are their responsibilities in this educational nightmare? What is to be expected of CCSU professor, Aram "Flash In The Pan" Ayalon? Have you heard his ridiculous suggestions? He needs another sabbatical in Israel, a permanent one.
What of the New Britain Common Council? How will it handle this problem when voting on the 2010-2011 school budget? Will the Council cave to the pressures of unfunded state mandates?
What of our clueless, "illustrious" state legislators? Oh, I forgot, they're too busy building their war chests to run for reelection next November and campaigning for reinstatement of public financing for state offices.
In all of this mess, who's to blame?

March 3, 2010 at 10:55 PM

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