"Superintendent Patricia Green declined to comment last week on what solutions the district is considering. She stated the administration will work these issues out with parents."Check out last week's article in annarbor.com by Danielle Arndt about the search for a permanent Pioneer principal. What does Superintendent Pat Green have to say about this?
"Following Wednesday’s school board meeting, Green declined to provide a status update and would not confirm how close the administration is to hiring a new principal. She said the position is “still in process” and when a decision has been finalized, it will be communicated to Pioneer parents."What about the decision that information from the school district needs to be FOIA'd even when it is readily available? (Look for a specific example of this on the blog later this week.)
Back in May, annarbor.com reported that:
"Later in the meeting, Trustee Simon Lightfoot asked Superintendent Patricia Green about the process community members should employ to obtain information such as how much busing to AAO costs. Green said parents should use the Freedom of Information Act for these requests.
Trustee Susan Baskett said FOIAs cost money and are 'not equitable to all.'"Sense a pattern here? I do. And I don't like it. Superintendent Green, your responsibility is not just to the parents, but to the entire community. We are all taxpayers. We all understand there are budget issues. But--if you think that by failing to disclose a timeline for hiring a permanent Pioneer principal, or failing to explain how you will address overly full classes, that you will alleviate parent anxiety, you are completely wrong. What alleviates parent (and taxpayer) anxiety is open communication. Right now, we don't have that.
I find it completely ironic that the school board identified as its number one issue at the board retreat "trust and relationship building" within the board, while Pat Green appears to be completely unaware of how her actions affect "trust and relationship building" within the broader schools community.
Andy Thomas, school board member, has had a great idea of having monthly coffee hours. The first one is tomorrow, September 11th,
I personally am getting a little resentful about the Pioneer argument being played out on Ann Arbor.com.
ReplyDeleteI get that Kevin Hudson wants the job and that it's not being given to him. I wonder if it all has to do with the positive behavior/suspension expulsion thing that Pat Green is working on. If he's not on board with reducing suspensions and expulsions using PBIS and won't work with her on it, then she's well within bounds to find someone who sees things her way, because the suspension/expulsion of minority/special ed and low income kids is just out of control. That's far more important than if he gets a plum job because he feels he deserves it.
I think the flip side for Pat Green is that it's hard to get people to understand how to do behavior, because it's so counterintuitive, but even if someone knows how to manage discipline using positive reinforcement, it's a hard, taxing thing to do in and of itself. Not to mention the ongoing mischief Linda Carter is causing with her dollops of good will in aa.com. It's too much.
Anon, I don't know anything about Kevin Hudson wanting the job of Pioneer principal, nor do I know anything about him. I also have not heard of the issues with complying with PBIS (although that sounds like an interesting thing to discuss). And I'm definitely not asking for personnel decisions to be made in public.
ReplyDeleteWhat I am asking for is some basic decency around communication. How difficult would it be for Pat Green to say, "We're on a timeline to have a decision by December, if not before, and we have several good candidates?" Instead, it makes it seem like she is hiding many things. Which maybe she is.
I think people are playing games with her weakness, which is she clams up in public. You're dissatisfied that she doesn't answer you to your satisfaction.Why does someone demand a timeline from her in the first place? Think about it,Jazz Parks was at Tappan a year as interim principal and Todd Roberts named her as the principal that spring and there wasn't this hue and cry from the hiring committee people or from Linda Carter. Why December?To me that's as arbitrary as November. It's not unheard of for an interim to stay a while, and prove themselves in the meanwhile. That's kind of the point, I think of interim placement. And if Kevin Hudson won't make decisions because he's just interim, that sounds like as good a reason to keep looking. M
ReplyDeleteI don't know why there still is an interim principal at Pioneer, and I only speculate that Kevin Hudson wants that job,because he hasn't said he doesn't want it, like Robert Allen would say about being superintendent, and I'm nonplussed about all of it. It seems like Pioneer is running along. But I hate reading about the interview committee going to AA.com to complain about something that is just a personnel problem. I dislike even more when Linda Carter, (the teacher's union president) complains about big classes to the AA.com, of all places, when contract negotiations are starting. It is interesting to hear about big classes, and I am glad to know about it,and I would like to hear about what is going to happen, but given that there's contract negotiations going on,(or about to) I doubt people actually know how negotiations will conclude. Class size is tied to what the union will agree to. What is Pat Green supposed to say, when she probably has no true answer?
ReplyDeleteS
Linda Carter is not mentioned at all in the articles I refer to. . .
ReplyDeleteIt is not just that there is no permanent principal at Pioneer. There is a ripple effect. Because Hudson is interim principal, someone else is interim in his class principal position. That person is Klemmer, who teaches the most advanced math classes in the school. His teaching duties are covered by a substitue teacher. These kids are seniors, studying for the AP calculus exams, and applying to elite colleges. They have a substitute teacher indefinitely. If Hudson is name principal, Klemmer will stay class principal and they will have to start the search and hiring process for a permanent math teacher. This is really unfair to the kids.
ReplyDeleteI"ve been really frustrated with aa.com coverage of AAPS, and the cross argument that the classes are too big in Pioneer coincides with Linda Carter getting complaints of big classes and bringing that up in negotiations. Everyone seems to be using everyone else. It's so unseemly. That's not good reporting or good negotiating. Not by Kevin Hudson, not Linda Carter and not by the hiring committee, which hey coincidence? did Kevin Hudson encouraged them to go to the media so a decision can be forced soon.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, there's got to be smart math teacher out there who would like a long term sub position, the market in Michigan is such that's not a good argument.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteMaybe everyone is complaining that class sizes are too big, because class sizes are TOO BIG!
I do not think there is a conspiracy here.
A2anon
At Pioneer capsule night on Monday, parents were asking about the number of kids in the classes. 1 teacher said she has classes of 32, 33, 36, and 37. Another had 33 but not enough desks and chairs so kids just sit at the window sill. I believe there is a contractual limit for class sizes.
ReplyDeleteAnons, please identify yourself (with an anonymous name, that's fine) so that we can tell if there are 2, 3, 4, or 5 people chiming in on the thread.
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Ruth