  65memories Member Username: 65memories Post Number: 576 Registered: 10-2003 |
http://info.detnews.com/2008/0 627FacilitiesandFinance.pdf http://info.detnews.com/2008/0 627InstructionPrelimMemo.pdf http://info.detnews.com/2008/0 627ITDraftv20.doc | ||
Jb3 Member Username: Jb3 Post Number: 388 Registered: 06-2007 |
WOW! What the hell are these people being paid to do exactly? Obviously, there isn't a single person in the DPS that actuallu understands what their job is. OOOOH! I really like this one: '• The district is at continued risk from undocumented customizations to the financial systems. For example, the use of third party tools by super users to enter data directly into production tables bypasses system security and violates internal control standards.' | ||
Jb3 Member Username: Jb3 Post Number: 389 Registered: 06-2007 |
Here's a no-brainer: 19. Move truancy officers and other student service staff out of the IT department and into an appropriately focused instructional department. | ||
Jb3 Member Username: Jb3 Post Number: 390 Registered: 06-2007 |
Thanks 65! I've only read the last one there, but it has some great resources. | ||
65memories Member Username: 65memories Post Number: 577 Registered: 10-2003 |
As Detroit Teacher has pointed out in many posts, the solution lies not in letting good teachers go, but in trimming the fat downtown. In the first confidential report, Calloway was criticised for continuing to increase the fat at the top...at the senior management level. She got rid of some competent people (i.e. Juanita Clay-Chambers, Beverly Gray, et al) and has replaced them with friends/individuals who have no understanding of a large school system (Calloway's last school district was close in size to the current student enrollment at Mumford High School). Granted, she was not the first to buy into the Friends and Family plan for school district administration (Burnley also is at fault), but losing competent people who cared didn't help matters. | ||
Jb3 Member Username: Jb3 Post Number: 394 Registered: 06-2007 |
DetroitTeacher for DPS Superintendent! | ||
Goblue Member Username: Goblue Post Number: 2121 Registered: 03-2007 |
65m: Please tell me that you're kidding...they didn't really hire a superintendent who had never run anything larger than a 3,000 student district...please tell me that you're kidding. | ||
Retroit Member Username: Retroit Post Number: 248 Registered: 04-2008 |
Goblue, Calloway was superintendent for the school district of Normandy, MO (school population: 5700) outside of St. Louis. I second the motion for DetroitTeacher for DPS Superintendent! | ||
Lefty2 Member Username: Lefty2 Post Number: 1465 Registered: 07-2007 |
If the declining rate of student enrollment continues at this pace. In ten years there will be ZERO students. Think about that one. | ||
Goblue Member Username: Goblue Post Number: 2128 Registered: 03-2007 |
Retroit: UNBELIEVABLE! I made the jump one time from superintendent of a smallish town district of about 5,000 kids to a mid-size city with about 25,000 kids...and that had a steep learning curve...there is NO WAY in hell that she could make that kind of move...I guarantee that the local education bureaucrats are eating her lunch every day which is probably why she reportedly has tried to bring in a bunch of her own people...unbelievable. | ||
Kathinozarks Member Username: Kathinozarks Post Number: 1344 Registered: 11-2006 |
I third the motion for Detroitteacher for DPS Superintendent. Of course, she's much too smart to take on that un-godly task. Where has she been? It's summer vacation now, right? I hope she's somewhere peaceful, recuperating  . | ||
Detroitteacher Member Username: Detroitteacher Post Number: 1303 Registered: 06-2006 |
I am not recuperating! I am taking classes and getting prepared for the school year. My wonderful administration has me teaching 9th grade and 12th grade. I have never taught the 9th grade from the new text so I have to start from scratch. My area of expertise is in American and British Literature so they took that away and gave me crazy children (I didn't like my own son when he was in 9th grade!). The admin was remiss in honoring my request for a pacing chart for the new 9th grade curriculum (what the district wants me to teach and when which, BTW, doesn't follow the GLCEs set by the state). Guess I am winging it. The report doesn't say anything that teachers haven't been saying for years. Why listen to teachers, we obviously are out of touch with the classroom and the needs of our kids. Thanks for the vote of confidence but I really enjoy my kids and staying in the classroom. I do have some earth shattering ideas and would bring in reliable people (teachers) to help run the district, if I ever was to become CEO (which would NEVER happen). My first move would be to evacuate the Ivory Towers and set up shop in 2 or 3 closed buildings (in easily accessible areas for parents). My 2nd task would be to get rid of much of the downtown admin (fire em all and start from scratch)...hiring locals only, no matter their race or gender, who have a grip on running things. I've said, in prior threads, how to get the district back in shape (hand the board over to the teachers...we'd not tolerate all the fat at the top and we know what's best for our kids). We'd have to rotate every few years and go back to the classroom so that we don't stay out of touch (which is the problem with much of the central admin and the board...they've never been teachers or worked with kids). | ||
Goblue Member Username: Goblue Post Number: 2130 Registered: 03-2007 |
Don't be confused...teaching and leadership are two absolutely different sets of skills...good teachers do not necessarily make good leaders...both must be valued. To suggest that only "locals" could understand how to lead the DPS is provincial...and rejects the validated concept that leadership is learned in a variety of environments...the suggestion that "all of the fat is (sic) at the top" is a problematic concept that is equally naive...it completely ignores the fact that the union has protected incompetency throughout the DPS...in the classroom and in administration. Good leadership is good leadership...good classroom teaching is good classroom teaching...don't make the mistake of confusing the two...the issues are far more complex. Detroitteacher is undoubtedly an excellent classroom teacher...but very naive...and unfortunately not unique. | ||
Detroitteacher Member Username: Detroitteacher Post Number: 1304 Registered: 06-2006 |
GoBlue: I have continued to say that the teachers who are doing nothing need to be removed from the classroom. By locals I meant I would hire from the area (no one knows what's wrong with the system better than the people who live here and they also have a vested interest in it). I never said all of the fat is at the top. The "top" is a major problem for DPS and needs to be trimmed. I think the whole point was that teachers know what is best for our kids since we know them and know their needs (yet, no one listens to us). Good teachers are in it for the kids, they have to be...the stress level we endure on a daily basis because of our frustrations is unbelievable. I really have no intention of coming out of the classroom. To call me (and other teachers) naive, when I work this system day in and day out, is unfair. I know what is and what isn't, what needs to be fixed, and how to fix it (and it's actually very simple, as I've stated). Get rid of inefficiency in DPS, plain pure and simple. That means firing people who don't work and do what they were hired to do (teachers included), trim unnecessary jobs, get rid of the rented office space and set up shop in vacant schools, hire competent people (not friends and family), and most importantly...FOCUS ON THE KIDS AND THEIR NEEDS! How is that naive? It's everything the report suggests, only teachers have been saying the same thing for YEARS. | ||
Retroit Member Username: Retroit Post Number: 259 Registered: 04-2008 |
Detroitteacher, I withdraw my motion. Your considerate response to the condescending remarks of Goblue proves that your skills in dealing with troublemakers are much more valuable in the classroom. Goblue, just because you would not be able to "make the jump" does not mean that an "ordinary" teacher couldn't. Or does one have to come out of the womb with the skill sets needed for a superintendent of a large school district in order to be qualified? | ||
Goblue Member Username: Goblue Post Number: 2138 Registered: 03-2007 |
Retroit: I didn't mean the remarks to be codescending...just a statement of reality. The skills of a CEO can be...and must be learned...they are not inherent...excellence in one role does not guarantee excellence in another...a good comparison would be that a good physician does not necessarily make a good hospital CEO...in fact, its rare that they do. If you think that the skills necessary to lead and manage a multi-million dollar school district are the same as the skills necessary to provide an excellent learning experience for kids in a classroom...you as badly mistaken. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 2610 Registered: 07-2004 |
Goblue: Why do you write like Celine? | ||
Jasoncw Member Username: Jasoncw Post Number: 526 Registered: 07-2005 |
I think the old Cass Tech building could make a good admin building. | ||
Detroitteacher Member Username: Detroitteacher Post Number: 1306 Registered: 06-2006 |
GoBlue: The gist of it is that DPS admin is NOT using common sense to fix the problems. They have no grasp of what is supposed to happen in a classroom (and they should). They also have a holier than thou attitude when it comes to the staff and kids they serve. I think what everyone has been saying here (in voting for me to be CEO) is that I am using common sense and have a sense of reality about the district. Teachers have been saying, for years, what the report states (and we gave the advice for free, the report costs a pretty penny, I am sure). Teachers have a really good sense of how to run things (we manage classrooms, our lives, our budgets...). Teachers can pinch pennies and we do, finding the best deals for purchases made for the classroom (since we have to pay for our supplies out of our pocket). Teachers are also very aware of what is wrong and how to fix it. The current admin is overspending and it's all about them. They rent high priced office space and leave blight in the neighborhoods and communities they serve. They care not about the kids and the crumbling buildings/safety hazards in which the kids spend most of their day (asthma is the number one absence related illness and the triggers can be found rampant in the buildings). As long as they have plush office suites and their friends get paid, to hell with the kids. That is the attitude they have. In the forum's vote for me, they are saying that someone should be in charge who has a vested interest in THE KIDS!! | ||
65memories Member Username: 65memories Post Number: 579 Registered: 10-2003 |
Let me agree with Detroit Teacher. Her overview is right on target. One example: Linda Spight at Mumford is the best principal in the city, but she can only do so much. She manages to balance a bare-bones staff with a system and facility that is crumbling and she still manages to instill a semblance of positive morale in both staff and students. She often goes into her own pocket to help students. Kids are shuffled around because ceiling tiles are falling or a roof is leaking or a heating pipe burst. Mumford was slated eight years ago to get full window replacement (which would have stopped the rain in the library from damaging the books). A construction sign was dutifully placed in front of the school notifying the community that this project was financed by bond money. When the sign was still in place two years later the Mumford parents inquired of the Board, "When are we getting our windows?" The Board's answer?: the next day, they came and took the sign down. But in the meantime, the Board spent lots of money leasing newly renovated upscale space in three office buildings in the New Center area. Sad. Sad. Sad. |
