Post by Chris_Wendt on Sept 25, 2014 12:15:31 GMT -5
You know what a rant is, and that a dirge is played or sung at a funeral. The news of the Hempstead Board of Education hiring the Roosevelt High School Principal to become the Hempstead High principal is worthy of a rant, but really calls out for a dirge over the funerary aspects of what this likely means for saving the education of the students of both the Hempstead and Roosevelt School Districts, you know, "The Children" about whom public education is supposed to be all about. However, you may be surprised at the target of my ranting over this colossal boner.
Across NY State, the affairs of public schools are directed by 24,500 men and women who comprise the Boards of Education of 700-odd school districts. These people are imminently qualified to direct public schools by virtue of their all sharing these identical rigorous qualifications:
Beyond those core qualifications, school board members have varying levels of education, work experience, training, relevant experience, talents and skills. The absence of better qualification requirements is exacerbated on Long Island by the sheer number (124) of school districts and boards of education, and the utter absence of any unifying authority over basic things like sourcing, recruiting, hiring, and poaching key employees, like high school principals in failed school districts. In this case, the current number zero school district is stealing the principal from the previous and perennially worst school district, now only the second worst district in the state and possibly the nation or even on the planet. (In the 2012-13 school year, zero seventh graders in Roosevelt were on or above grade level in ELA, just for one quick and easy example).
If this were Maryland, Virginia, Florida, or any other state with County School Districts, I think the hiring and assigning authority would have long ago found and assigned two top-notch principals to Roosevelt and to Hempstead High Schools, and a lot of the pain we have witnessed for the past decade and a half could possibly been avoided. Why? How? Well if the County School District had assigned top-flight principals to those two high schools 15 or 20 years ago, then those two principals would have insisted the County School District next send top-shelf department heads and assign a cadre of Grade-A teachers to their schools, hand-picked from the county-wide pool of talented educators. This same process could have been replicated across the elementary and middle schools in those districts, and the failing schools syndrome could have been averted before it ever happened in either place.
Billy Joel asked the right question: "Is that all you get for your money?"
And, oh, yeah, the Hempstead and Roosevelt schools situations are costing us HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, money that you are paying through your taxes, but money that is NOT going to the students, the children of Wantagh.
Of course, that last statement points-up the fact that millions of dollars of your Wantagh School Tax Dollars, which did go to the Wantagh School District, did NOT go to the students, the children of Wantagh, but went instead into heretofore illegal reserve funds to be used for who know what purposes.
Regards,
Chris Wendt
Across NY State, the affairs of public schools are directed by 24,500 men and women who comprise the Boards of Education of 700-odd school districts. These people are imminently qualified to direct public schools by virtue of their all sharing these identical rigorous qualifications:
- U.S. Citizenship
- at least 18 years of age
- resident in their school district for 30 days
- capable of speaking, reading and writing English
- Not convicted felons
Beyond those core qualifications, school board members have varying levels of education, work experience, training, relevant experience, talents and skills. The absence of better qualification requirements is exacerbated on Long Island by the sheer number (124) of school districts and boards of education, and the utter absence of any unifying authority over basic things like sourcing, recruiting, hiring, and poaching key employees, like high school principals in failed school districts. In this case, the current number zero school district is stealing the principal from the previous and perennially worst school district, now only the second worst district in the state and possibly the nation or even on the planet. (In the 2012-13 school year, zero seventh graders in Roosevelt were on or above grade level in ELA, just for one quick and easy example).
If this were Maryland, Virginia, Florida, or any other state with County School Districts, I think the hiring and assigning authority would have long ago found and assigned two top-notch principals to Roosevelt and to Hempstead High Schools, and a lot of the pain we have witnessed for the past decade and a half could possibly been avoided. Why? How? Well if the County School District had assigned top-flight principals to those two high schools 15 or 20 years ago, then those two principals would have insisted the County School District next send top-shelf department heads and assign a cadre of Grade-A teachers to their schools, hand-picked from the county-wide pool of talented educators. This same process could have been replicated across the elementary and middle schools in those districts, and the failing schools syndrome could have been averted before it ever happened in either place.
Billy Joel asked the right question: "Is that all you get for your money?"
And, oh, yeah, the Hempstead and Roosevelt schools situations are costing us HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, money that you are paying through your taxes, but money that is NOT going to the students, the children of Wantagh.
Of course, that last statement points-up the fact that millions of dollars of your Wantagh School Tax Dollars, which did go to the Wantagh School District, did NOT go to the students, the children of Wantagh, but went instead into heretofore illegal reserve funds to be used for who know what purposes.
Regards,
Chris Wendt