Sunday, December 21, 2008
Education / Woods Time to Put the School Board Out of Its Misery
Posted by Jeff Woods on Sun, Dec 21, 2008 at 7:47 AM
The school board gave a public demonstration Saturday for why we should disband it. The board was divided over who to pick as our new superintendent, or even whether to pick anyone at all. The voting revealed four of the nine members favored Doris McEwen, an education professor in Washington state. Yet after haggling over whether they should try to find new (hopefully better qualified) candidates, they eventually voted 7-2 out of desperation to hire the old white dude in the picture, former Chattanooga superintendent Jesse Register. See The Tennessean and the City Paper.
So Register, who beat out a field of utterly forgettable applicants and won his job in a political compromise, will take over without anyone's enthusiastic backing.
Is this any way to run our schools? It's not really the fault of these board members. A dysfunctional process is almost guaranteed when nine elected officials are making decisions. This school district needs a bold superintendent who's unafraid to upset teachers, principals and even parents. A superintendent can enjoy the freedom to operate that way only if he's answering to only one elected leader (i.e., the mayor).
Look at Michelle Rhee in Washington, D.C. She couldn't do what she's doing if Mayor Adrian Fenty weren't her only boss and giving her unqualified support. Wait, back up. She never would have gotten the job at all if an elected school board, and not Fenty alone, had been making the hire.
Register will have to hedge his bets to try to keep all his bosses happy. His first order of business isn't surprising, therefore. He says he'll ask the state Education Department for flexibility in meeting student achievement standards. That won't help students, but it would keep board members in power and save Register's job. The way things stand now, if the district fails for the sixth straight year, the state can give control to Mayor Karl Dean.
"We've got to do something to take the gun away from everyone's head," Register told board members. No, actually, we like the gun exactly where it is. In fact, it's time to pull the trigger.
Update: Council member Emily Evans says we don't need someone like Michelle Rhee. Evans wants to "ease along" with the old white dude from Chattanooga. Now that's what I call reaching for the stars! The City Paper calls for putting Register on a short leash.
Comments (16)
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Interesting. So you want the guy whose leadership you continually question in these pages--including on difficult issues facing the school system--to be the boss of the schools.
It was nice to see you actually patiently observing the board's complicated deliberations yesterday. Oh, wait. I didn't.
I feel so much better knowing that your coverage consistently puts children first!
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Freddie, we've both praised and criticized Dean. It all depends on what he's doing. Mostly, we've supported him on schools.
http://blogs.nashvillescene.com/pitw/2008/12/karl_deans_transformation.php
Bravo! This decision involves the EDUCATION of our children. The future of our community. So please, please, someone....hopefully Mayor Dean.....take notice, take charge, take over!
We must stop the cycle of apathy, ignorance, and mediocrity that now permeates our eduation system. We are in State Corrective Action! We do not need more of the same. We need drastic,tough, change. That will require guts and that will not be pretty. This person will need to make extreme changes to build a progressive, innovative, and smart administration, and disband the School Board. But alas, it may impact the lives of our children for generations to come. Oh yeah, now that's a novel idea!!
Here's another thing. Remember the mayoral campaign? These guys were all yapping about education as if they would be in charge of the schools. Education was far and away the No. 1 issue. Well, wouldn't it make sense to actually put the mayor in charge? Then these election campaigns might mean something.
It's disheartening to see that the Scene's education coverage continues to be total crap instead of substantive analysis. What used to be a good paper now just looks for a zinger of a headline and writes the story to fit.
Mayor in charge? That'll work nicely the next time Nashville elects an idiot for mayor. I voted for Dean and am supportive of him. But he has ZERO expertise in running a school district. It's also interesting that after blistering Dean for not taking a stand against school rezoning, which he apparently supported but decided to the let the Board take the political heat for (and avoiding the heat himself - clever move), Dean is your man to run the system. An aside - wasn't one of the chief criticisms of the rezoning that it was distracting the Board from it's urgent mission to find a new director and fill the leadership void? Then when the Board proceeds to hire a director, that's a move only the Keystone Cops would have taken?
Jessie Register has the support of and a good relationship with state education officials, and a history of improving test scores in struggling schools. He has good credentials and does not appear to be an egotistical ass like Garcia. I have yet to hear why putting him at the helm of the schools is such a bad idea. I've heard 3 criticisms:
1. The stupid nickname "Cash Register" which is never explained, and I can only assume means he made expensive investments in Hamilton County schools.
2. The special education issue, which I am not well versed enough to speak to, but is not the only issue the board has to consider.
3. Some Hamilton County residents I know believe that Register "ruined" their suburban schools by consolidating the city and county schools and instituting busing to desegregate. I give no weight to the opinions of these folks. Given the Scene's position and coverage of the move away from busing in Nashville, I would have thought you would find this to be an interesting angle to cover about our new director of schools. But not a peep... just more of the same cheat shots at the Board.
Anyone who starts their administration by asking to have standards relaxed is a questionable choice. Nashville's schools are in trouble now and have been for a long time. Begging to be allowed not to improve them for a while is hardly the way out of the mess. Or maybe not. Another year and the mayor can take over and hire a super who will kick ass and take names.
Mayor in charge? That'll work nicely the next time Nashville elects an idiot for mayor.
Good point, Parent. But I'll take one idiot over nine of them any time.
Anyone who starts their administration by asking to have standards relaxed is a questionable choice.
Right on, Stella! If Register does this, parents ought to show up on Bransford Avenue with pitchforks and torches.
I'm no Scene-iac but I take umbrage with the claim that the Scene's education coverage has been "total crap." There's plenty of evidence of total crap within the Scene's pages, week in and week out, but schools reporting isn't among the examples. The Scene has stepped in ably where the Tennessean has, as usual, executed one feckless maneuver after another. Glad someone is paying attention.
I'm no Scene-iac but I take umbrage with the claim that the Scene's education coverage has been "total crap." There's plenty of evidence of total crap within the Scene's pages, week in and week out, but schools reporting isn't among the examples. The Scene has stepped in ably where the Tennessean has, as usual, executed one feckless maneuver after another. Glad someone is paying attention.
Way to Go School Board for making a decision with a 7-2 vote. People will complain either way it goes. The Mayor does not need to run our schools. I like it just the way it is and the taxpayers who voted in the school board members like it too. We elected them to do this job and they did it. Enough said. I wish the new Director success and I personally like that he has the ability to negotiate with the State over the unreasonable NCLB no child left behind regs that will be changed anyway. Way to Go New School Board. I like the direction things are going. It's about time.
Emily Evans can't even spell "butt" as in kicking ass and taking names. And apparently doesn't relish the idea of comments on her blog, either. That might not promote civil consensus building.
Easing along, or as Ned McWherter used to say, not getting our gowns up over our heads, is all very well in an era of gradual steady progress. It's time for more strenuous effort now though, time to wake up and rip our nightgowns right off (over your heads, if that's your practice) and put up a fight for better schools.
I just saw on the Channel 5 news that this guy is requesting a salary of $285,000. That's an increase of about $69,000 from Pedro Garcia's already absurd salary and he wasn't mishandling our schools in the middle of an economic crisis. If that isn't arrogance, I don't know what is.
I wonder, if the school board accepts his contract terms, what programs they'll have to cut or which teachers they'll fire to make up the difference.
Way to Go School Board says anonymous. Not so fast. The 7-2 vote was after the last candidate was standing. The 7-2 vote was not between two candidates. The 7-2 vote was for the contract to begin. The vote actually was 5-4 again. 5-4 to eliminate McEwen. Then 5-4 for Register, so how have things changed? This school board is a joke. The racial divide is still there. Hopefully the new director can move them all forward for all of our sake.
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