Education Dollars Fund Club for Superintendents

If dollars are spent on "education" does that mean that the money goes to classrooms?

Absolutely not. 

Did you know that Superintendents and Board of Education members belong to many clubs?  The clubs involve paying dues, plus expenses for meetings, travel, and conferences.  Dollars spent on these clubs are dollars that do not go to teacher salaries, school supplies or school buildings.

Here's today's example of how "education" dollars are actually spent. It's AASA and every superintendent needs to join!  Why? Well, watch the promotional video below.  Basic membership is $447 per superintendent.  Add the conferences, travel, etc... on top of that.

There are 13,588 school districts in the USA.  This club is looking at membership fees that could divert upwards of $6 million dollars from public school classrooms.

Watch the video.  You will see a former MCPS administrator, Stacy Scott, is one of the salespeople for this club.

On the road again...

Stacy L. ScottThe 8,000-student Framingham, Mass., Public Schools have named Stacy Scott as its new superintendent. Scott joins the district from nearby Dracut, Mass., where he held the top spot for two years after serving as associate superintendent in Montgomery County, Md...

http://www.aasa.org/content.aspx?id=24066

Administrators on the move! Do we need to keep their positions?

Here's hoping there hasn't been a lot of work to do in the MCPS Office of Shared Accountability.  The Director of that office is interviewing for a Superintendent position in Dracut, Massachusetts.  


This is the third time that the Director of the Office of Shared Accountability has had his name made public for a Superintendent position in the last six months. He was also a candidate for positions in Newton, Massachusetts and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.


Other MCPS administrative positions being vacated:


March 2010: TheMCPS Associate Superintendent for Human Resources took a job in Newton, Massachusetts.


April 2010: The MCPS Director of Communications took a job in Houston, Texas.


May 2010: A MCPS Consulting Principal took a job in Alexandria, Virginia.  


Question: Considering the current budget issues in Montgomery County, when these MCPS administrators leave do their positions need to be filled, or can these positions be eliminated in favor of keeping teachers in classrooms? 


Note that Stacy Scott has reported his total compensation as $250,000 and Susan Marks has reported her total compensation as $200,000, therefore eliminating one of these administrative positions could put 2-3 teachers back in classrooms. 


If all of the above MCPS administrative positions that are being vacated were eliminated, and the funding was shifted to teacher salaries, that could put 8 -12 teachers back in classroom for the 2010-11 school year.

Another MCPS administrator leaves

In this tight budget year do all of the MCPS administrators that are leaving MCPS need to be replaced? 


Suzanne Maxey is currently in the MCPS "Leadership Development Team" office. She is leaving for Alexandria's Public School system. Does her position need to be replaced in MCPS? Not replacing her position could keep 2-3 teachers in classrooms for the 2010-11 school year.

The Washington Post: Alexandria names Suzanne Maxey principal of T.C. Williams

...Suzanne Maxey has more than three decades of experience in Washington area schools. In the past 10 years, she was principal at Bowie High School in Prince George's County and Seneca Valley High School in Montgomery County. Since 2008, she has worked as a mentor to middle school and high school principals in Montgomery County...

Newton MA reports MCPS Assoc Sup salary at $250,000

Three finalists vie for Newton superintendent job - Newton, Massachusetts - Newton TAB

...Scott [MCPS Associate Superintendent, Office of Shared Accountability] has been in his current job since March 2008, earning about $250,000 a year...

and Susan Marks, currently MCPS Associate Superintendent for Human Resources salary is also revealed:

...She’s held her current job since July 2006 and now earns about $200,000 a year...

***

According to MCPS salary information obtained by the DC Examiner in 2006, Susan Marks was listed as making $146,354.

In 2006, Associate Superintendents were paid $146,354. However, according to the information obtained by this Newton, MA news service, current MCPS Associate Superintendent Stacy Scott is paid $250,000.  

MCPS' Susan Marks and Stacy Scott vie for MA Superintendent position

Two out of the three finalists for the position of Superintendent of Newton, Massachusetts schools are MCPS administrators. Readers of this blog may recall that Stacy Scott was also a recent finalist for the position of Superintendent in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

3 finalists named to lead Newton schools - Newton - Your Town - Boston.com

Three finalists to become Newton's next superintendent of schools were named by the search committee today. They are David Fleishman, superintendent of schools in Chappaqua, N.Y.; and Susan Marks and Stacy Scott, both associate superintendents for the Montgomery County Public Schools in Rockville, Md...

...Consultants Debbie Raizes and John Connolly from the firm Hazard, Young and Attea assisted with the search...

...Dr. Susan Marks—Dr. Marks is currently the Associate Superintendent for Human Resources in the Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville, MD. Before that, she was a Community Superintendent for five years in Montgomery County where she led the instructional programs in 30 schools. She has also served the Montgomery County Public Schools as Chief Information Officer, and as Principal of two elementary schools. Dr. Marks received her Ed.D from the University of Maryland. Dr. Marks will be visiting the district on February 24, 2010.

Dr. Stacy Scott—Dr. Scott is currently the Associate Superintendent for the Office of Shared Accountability in the Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville, MD. Prior to that, he was the founder and President of the Center for Understanding Equity, an organization that coaches school districts on data management, accountability and equity. Earlier in his career, Dr. Scott was a middle school Math and Spanish teacher. Dr. Scott holds an Ed.D from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Dr. Scott will be visiting the district on February 23, 2010.

Each of the candidates will spend an entire day in Newton. The School Committee will convene in open session at 8:30 am on February 26th to deliberate on a finalist for the position. All sessions will be televised on NewTV and open to the public...

MCPS "Checkered pasts" uncovered by Milwaukee reporter

MPS finalists have checkered pasts
By Erin Richards of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Jan. 21, 2010

...Property records obtained by the Journal Sentinel show that Thornton, who is the superintendent of the 7,800-student Chester Upland School District in Chester, Pa., filed for individual bankruptcy in 1997 when he was living at a Silver Spring, Md., address....

...According to Maryland Circuit Court records, two federal tax liens were filed against Scott in July and October 2008, for $50,444 and $13,591, respectively...

...Scott is an associate superintendent for Montgomery County Public Schools and heads the district's Office of Shared Accountability...

...Maryland was criticized by the U.S. Department of Education for having one of the "worst overall records" in terms of compliance with federal special education mandates, according to a report that came out of Scott's office in 2009... 

Scott said his office is working to improve the situation.

1/22/2010 UPDATE: Checkered histories of superintendent finalists draw attention

Picking a new superintendent

It's time for Montgomery County citizens to start learning about the process for picking a new public schools superintendent. Our current superintendent, Jerry Weast, has said he will not stay on when his current contract is up on June 30, 2011.

Milwaukee Public Schools is currently selecting their next Superintendent and two of the finalists have MCPS connections, one current and one past.

We can start educating ourselves about selecting a new Superintendent by following the Milwaukee Public Schools' process.

In two December 31st articles from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel we learn that; the Milwaukee press is interested in pursuing candidate selection information that should be public under the open records law, and that disability groups are not represented on the stakeholder panel that will interview the candidates for superintendent. 

Journal Sentinel sues MPS for release of candidates' names

...The Journal Sentinel is suing Milwaukee Public Schools under the state's open records law, seeking to force the district to reveal the names of the six final candidates in the search for the next MPS superintendent...

Who's in, who's out of MPS superintendent stakeholder group

...Then there's the issue of people who wanted to be included on the list, but weren't. Several disability rights advocates expressed concern that while the stakeholders Bonds recommended were racially diverse, nobody on the list represented people with disabilities.

Karen Avery, associate director of IndpendenceFirst, said that surprised her, given the high percentage of students in MPS that receive special education services.

"We want to know what (the potential superintendents') experience and expertise is in dealing with special education issues, and what sorts of skills they have to deal with the current situation," Avery said, referring to an ongoing and complex lawsuit MPS is embroiled in, regarding its ability to adequately provide special education services to students...

2/3 of candidates for Milwaukee Sup job have MCPS connection

The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reports on a current MCPS associate superintendent and a former MCPS deputy superintendent vying for the job of Milwaukee Public School superintendent.

The Milwaukee School Board has narrowed its list of candidates for Milwaukee Public Schools' next superintendent to three, the school district announced in a news release Thursday night.

The three finalists are:

• Robert Alfaro, area superintendent of the Clark County School District, Las Vegas, Nev.

• Stacy Scott, associate superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville, Md.

• Gregory Thornton, superintendent, Chester Upland Public Schools, Chester, Pa.

And here is a Seattle Times article from 2007 when Gregory Thornton was also applying to be the Superintendent of the Seattle school system.   

The Philadelphia Inquirer revealed that Thornton was one of two district officials who signed off on a $926,000 no-bid contract with Plato Learning five months after the education-software company subsidized their trip to South Africa. According to the paper, the district acknowledged the ethics violation last year and promised disciplinary action against Thornton and the other official.


In an interview today, Philidelphia School District Chief Executive Paul Vallas said the district formally investigated the matter and found Thornton had already planned the Africa trip before taking the job with the Philidelphia district.

Read this article closely. It says that a trip to Africa that was partially paid for by an education vendor was planned before Mr. Thornton started at the Philadephia position.

In June of 2004, the month of the Africa trip that was partially paid for by an education vendor according to The Philadephia Inquirer, Mr. Thornton was still employed by MCPS (see bottom of page 23).