Last night the BOE appointed two new supervisors:
Mark Ferreri (current RHS social studies teacher) will be Supervisor of Humanities.
Chris McCullough (current RHS art teacher) will be Supervisor of Fine & Applied Arts.
It's really nice to be able to fill these positions with teachers from within the District, helping ensure that the transition is smooth and we maintain continuity. Congrats to both educators!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
14 comments:
Isn't this the same job that was taken away from Chis McCullough last school year? His position was given to a faculty member who was about to retire. It was clearly poor judgement to have done this in the first place. Where's the continuity there? Sounds more disruptive than anything else. Kind of pointless to try to paint a happy face on that. Still, I am glad to see Mr. McCullough returned to this important position. Lets see if the BOE can lay off of the Art Department for a while in the face of this blunder.
Let me clarify what actually happened. Last year, the two positions – Supervisor of Art and Supervisor of Music – were combined for budgetary reasons. The new position was called Supervisor of Fine & Applied Arts. By law, the employee with more seniority had to be placed in the new position. It was as simple – and as non-negotiable – as that: the law requires that if they both had the same supervisor certification, then seniority must decide it. In this case, the person with the most seniority was Dr. Schmiedecke, and he served as Supervisor of Fine & Applied Arts for the 09-10 school year. Whether or not he was “about to retire” when he was appointed – well, I think that could only be known by him, right? (And besides, as per the law just mentioned, it wouldn’t matter.) As it turned out, Dr. Schmiedecke did retire at the end of the 09-10 school year. Mr. McCullough applied for the open Supervisor position, and was appointed.
There will always be things in the District that a casual observer could try and paint as “blunders.” There will even be actual blunders. But this isn’t one of them. It was pretty straightforward and, in the end, I am thrilled that Mr. McCullough is the new Supervisor of Fine & Applied Arts.
You know Laurie, this is exactly why so many people are fed up with you.
For starts, I've been attending and BOE meetings and involved in the issues affecting our school district for almost thirty years so I am hardly a "casual observer".
I will not attempt a debate with you regarding that last school budget, but suffice it to say that the cuts that were made were the subjective choices of a handful of people and certainly did not reflect the community's view of what was best for our schools. That is why the budget failed. Residents that would normally come out to support the budget voted no because of those choices. You know that because we came to your meetings in droves to tell you so.
Mr. McCullough's position should never have been eliminated.
OK, OK, the “casual observer” crack was probably uncalled for, but since I don’t know who you are, I couldn’t know about your 30 years’ involvement and, really, I would expect someone involved for 30 years to know more of the facts. (But I’ve been wrong before.) Unfortunately, you (at least I think it was you) were throwing out incorrect information. I just wanted to clear up the actual facts in the chain of events, because those are not disputable (I’m talking about the rules about seniority and why one staff person was eligible for a position and one was not). And if I may clarify one more thing – the combining of the arts positions took place two budgets ago – and that budget was passed by voters.
BUT, your point is well taken. I get it. You disagree with the choices that were made to balance the budget. It sounds like you have some other ideas for where to cut. Would you please share them? Because we’re undoubtedly going to have to make even more cuts this Spring. I’d love to start the conversation much sooner this year. (And if I could have my wish, I’d love to know who I’m talking to...I find this anonymous conversation to be sort of disconcerting sometimes. If you don’t want to post your name here, I would welcome a direct email correspondence or phone call or even a meeting in person. Otherwise, feel free to remain anonymous if that’s more comfortable.)
So, let’s start discussing some concrete ideas for budget cuts.
Laurie, many concerned residents came to meeting after meeting and spoke directly to you and the other board members about our priorities regarding the education of Ridgewood children, including myself. Although there were many of us at the meetings, most of us voiced the same concerns. One after another, meeting after meeting we have done this. So please, do not pretend for your reading public that you do not know what we wanted and even more so, what we didn't want. I have already spoken to you, along with many, many others. If you are finally interested in acting on our concerns, feel free to review the tapes of the meetings. I think you know they are posted on line. All of the information is there.
As far as combining the arts positions is concerned, parents, techers and students attended several meetings in great numbers to express their disapproval of this action. Although that budget passed, it did just barely. When, yet again, the public's concerns were ignored this past year, we let you know we were not going to accept that again. Face it, you lost the votes of people with children in the school system who were voting no for the first time.
It is not for the few of you to humor us and then ignore us. It is your job to serve the interests of our children and by doing so, serve the interests of the people who know what they need best, their parents. After all, it is our money you're spending not just the few of you on the board. Once again, the art position should never have been eliminated by combining the art and music departments and I am glad to see Chris McCullough back where he belongs.
It is one thing to say you don’t like this or that budget cut. It is quite another to offer specific alternatives. Pretty much every cut we made had someone in the community both supporting and protesting it. That leaves the Board to try and figure out the best combination of cuts. Speaking for myself, I didn’t LIKE combining the positions. No one would choose to do it if they didn’t have to. I’m sure you recall me saying all that during discussion at our meetings and at other meetings. But with the budget number we had to meet, and the with alternatives we were presented, it had to be done. I’m not humoring you. I’m asking you to step up with some concrete ideas and an open mind to consider the implications for all 5700 students, not just your art student or whatever your particular interest. That is my job – to serve the interests of ALL the children – and it is not simple, nor is it a series of black/white, good/bad choices.
Have a good day…I’ve got a deadline for work, so probably won’t be back here today.
NOT TRUE Laurie. Most of the residents at those heavily attended meetings shared the same specific concerns and many of us told you and the rest of the board specifically what we wanted to see cut.
So far, you haven't told me anything that gives me any hope of a more responsive school board. You are just glossing over and justifying the very actions that have caused the BOE to lose the confidence and support of the community. Once again, I am disappointed. Hopefully the next election will attract more candidates and more voters.
Good luck getting your work done today and a good day to you. If you have nothing that would be more productive to offer here, please don't feel that you must take the time out of your day to respond.
Conference call delay, so time enough for a quick response:
As I'm sure you heard at the June 28 meeting, we want to invite community members to participate in the budget process earlier this year...with the formation of some kind of Budget Planning Committee. (I don't know if that is what it will be called...that's my working name for now.) Does that qualify as more responsive? Will you bring your specific cut suggestions to that forum?
Laurie, as other residents and I have done many times before, I will continue to voice my suggestions and objections at any forum the BOE offers. We'll see what happens this time. Ambitious plans and a fancy name for a committee are not necessary or important. The BOE has already had plenty of worthwhile input offered from the community. Now let's see some results.
So, that would be a resounding NO to your question on whether you are being responsive, so far. Apparently, you and the other board members were not listening to us when we came to speak to you at your meetings. You've already been given the information you're now requesting, over and over again. When you actually listen and prepare a budget proposal that directly responds to our most prevalent concerns and cuts the specific waste that we have complained about, I will revisit that question.
Laurie, as I've seen you have posted other, more recent comments, I've wondered why you haven't posted mine that I sent a few days ago. I've been hoping for an opportunity to answer your questions so here it is again for your convenience:
Laurie, as other residents and I have done many times before, I will continue to voice my suggestions and objections at any forum the BOE offers. We'll see what happens this time. Ambitious plans and a fancy name for a committee are not necessary or important. The BOE has already had plenty of worthwhile input offered from the community. Now let's see some results.
So, that would be a resounding NO to your question on whether you are being responsive, so far. Apparently, you and the other board members were not listening to us when we came to speak to you at your meetings. You've already been given the information you're now requesting, over and over again. When you actually listen and prepare a budget proposal that directly responds to our most prevalent concerns and cuts the specific waste that we have complained about, I will revisit that question.
I sincerely apologize...I did not purposely ignore your comments. Normally, I receive an email that tells me when comments are posted, and then I can click to publish the comments immediately. For some reason, I did not receive emails on these two...at least I don't think so. Lately, I have been getting tons of "spam" comments all day long...maybe I missed your comments when I was scrolling past the spam.
In any event, I do apologize.
I do find the crux of this discussion interesting...you make it sound like a cohesive and coherent alternative balanced budget was presented, and the Board ignored it. I don't recall that. What I recall are people with complaints about specific cuts...and emails about still other cuts...and phone calls about still others. Many people said "don't cut the thing I think is most important, cut this other thing." If a completely different set of cuts were made, there would be just as many complaints and protests -- from different people. It's a lose-lose from my perspective...all I can do is try and do the least damage and that is what I personally tried to do.
Look, I'm not stupid. I'm not hell-bent on destroying our school district. I mean, seriously. I am one person doing what I think is right after careful consideration and good-faith efforts to determine what is "right.". Am I going to get it right all the time? Nope. Am I going to do only what you think is right? Doubtful. I show up every day. I do my best. I invite you to work with me, but I cannot promise that yours will be the only voice I hear. Surely you can understand that?
Sorry again about the comments' delay.
Laurie, I suppose you can say what you want, after all its your blog, but saying it doesn't make it so.
Your account is incorrect. Our community has been unified and showing up at your meetings offering hours of comments asking for the same cuts and same saves. Say what you want, but you are simply not telling the truth here.
Even the simplest of requests, no matter how many residents asked, were ignored. So you can sell whatever spin you want here, but outside of your domain, we all know what really happened.
This is getting silly. "Saying it doesn't make it so" runs both ways, right? It is a fact that the Board, and I personally, received pleas to cut different items in the budget. Those suggestions often contradicted each other. Those ideas were not always expressed at public board meetings, but also came in via HSA meetings, phone calls, emails, blog comments, grocery aisle chats, etc.
I understand, you take issue with the Board not implementing some of the cuts which were suggested by yourself or others. I can say that every suggested cut was evaluated and discussed. For hours and hours. If a cut was not implemented, it could have been for a number of reasons. Sometimes the actual savings were not great enough to justify the disruption of services or effect on learning. Sometimes the cut would have had repercussions further down the line, which were not always clear to the public. And sometimes the board felt that the change would negatively affect a school, a group of students, or the district overall. Nothing was ignored outright.
Are we down to "yes you did" and "no I didn't?"
The District will undoubtedly be making more cuts this spring and I truly hope we can involve the community more in the process. We will be discussing how to do that (along with many other things) at our meeting on 8/30.
First of all, any waste large or small should be cut. Even "small" cuts add up eventually. If the community demands it, all the more reason to do it.
As for the rest of your message, I have been around too long and seen too much of the comings and goings of the BOE to accept what you are saying. That only works for people who are not around to witness what actually happens. And I am not just speaking of issues where I have a special interest as you have assumed. My interest, as with the District Supervisor of the Art Program position, lies more in what I think is right for our schools than what serves my or my children's specific interests. I have spoken out on various issues in support of what I think is worthwhile and important for our schools whether it be a proposed cut or way to save money or in order to save the position of a worthwhile member of our staff, simply because I believe it is the right action to take.
Time will tell Laurie if you and the BOE will do a good job in the eyes of the community going forward. The last few years' performance has been increasingly troubling and it seems the residents are getting fed up.
Post a Comment