Saturday, March 01, 2008

Saturday Night's Alright For Superintendent Candidate Googling

Late night on a Saturday and here I am trying to dig up dirt on the "finalists" for APS Superintendent.

Pathetic, surely, but I'm probably not the only one so occupied.

Anybody found anything good on:

Winston Brooks, Superintendent, Wichita Public Schools, Wichita, Kan.
Steve Flores, Chief of Staff, Dallas Independent School District, Dallas, Texas
Diego Gallegos, Assistant Superintendent, Albuquerque Public Schools
Thomas Miller, Chief of Staff (Acting Superintendent), Ysleta Independent School District, El Paso, Texas
Gary Norris, Superintendent, Sarasota County School District, Sarasota, Fla.
Linda Sink, Interim Superintendent, Albuquerque Public Schools

yet?

Google is already turning up some interesting tidbits on Brooks (hmm...but this "Frontline" interview is more interesting), Flores (and yes the blog looks even more tawdry than Burque Babble, but the terms "deposition" and "Superintendent candidate" should not go together) and Norris (I like computers, and sure I'd like $350 million of them in my classroom, why not?). Not much on Miller at this point.

For Gallegos and SIW (Super-in-Waiting) Sink we don't need no stinkin' Google.

I am completely uninformed here (like that ever stops me), but I'm putting the early morning line at:

Chances of being next APS Superintendent:

Sink: 1/5

Gallegos: 9/2
Brooks: 5/1
Norris: 5/1
Miller: 10/1
Flores: 50/1 (unfairly high, most probably, but there's the "deposition" and the fact he is currently in Dallas...a fact that needs no further explanation to anyone who, like me, has ever lived anywhere close to the place)
Field (anybody but Sink): 4/1

Wagers, anyone?

Okay, back to more late night Saturday digging, Philly Joe Jones, Dexter Gordon, George Cables and friends helping me on the music side. Am I a party animal or what? In fact, I'm so zany I just might show up at next Friday's swinging Superintendent candidate "Happy Hour" soiree. Move over Amy Winehouse, you got nothing on me.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dr. Norris from Florida is looking pretty good.
http://www.sarasota.k12.fl.us/Superintendent/PDF/NGL_Progress_Report.pdf

I have three friends that have moved from Alb. to Florida (different cities) - but all three have said the schools are AMAZING. I'm off to research the others.

Anonymous said...

When this process started, I identified three criteria for evaluating candidates:

1. They should be from a large district, preferably one of the 50 largest. Of the four outside finalists, only one (Flores) is from a top 50 district and his baggage has been noted.

2. The district should be at least bi-cultural, preferably one of which is Hispanic. My preliminary research indicates Sarasota is less than 10% minority.

3. The district should be superior in performance to APS, on the theory that they are doing some things differently and APS could benefit from a different approach. For example, a higher graduation rate. Have yet to find statistics for Sarasota, but Wichita and Ysleta seem to be doing better than APS. Once source cited an 84% graduation rate for Ysleta which I neet to confirm.

We have often used El Paso as a "peer" city for various comparisions. If Ysleta is out-performing APS, Thomas Miller should be given serious consideration.

jscotkey said...

Keep 'em coming folks. I find myself rooting for the out-of-towners and against Sink at this point primarily because I'm a sucker for underdogs.

Primarily.

I'd love to hear from others on the subject, in particular from those who know more about Sink, or Gallegos than I do. Which would be just about everybody, esp. in ABQ.

Anonymous said...

Anyone remamber anything about Miller? Was here at APS, before my time though!
Thomas A. Miller
CURRENT POST: Chief of staff since 2005 for Ysleta Independent School District, El Paso, Texas, enrollment 46,000; from December 2007 to January 2008 was acting superintendent.
EXPERIENCE: Held district positions supervising academics and curriculum ... principal of Kennedy Middle School in Albuquerque from Feb. 1990 to June 1991, and Adams Middle School from July 1987 to Feb. 1990 ... principal of Deming Junior High and Gadsden Middle and assistant professor at New Mexico State University ... taught social studies in APS from 1969 to 1985 at Jefferson, Hoover, Wilson and McKinley ... doctorate from University of New Mexico.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Dallas candidate is getting out while the getting is good

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa080130_mo_teacherrevolt.74dc8d3b.html#

Grade-changing allegations at center of revolt
09:22 AM CST on Thursday, January 31, 2008
By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV

WFAA-TV
Also Online
Brett Shipp reports
More News 8 Investigates
More from Brett Shipp
DALLAS - A teacher revolt at a Dallas High School has reached a fever pitch, and the fallout could get messy.
Teachers at Roosevelt High School are providing News 8 with evidence that they said shows failing students are being awarded passing grades.
The uproar began last October when the new school principal issued an edict instructing teachers to give students grades they didn't deserve.
One notable case involved one of Roosevelt's star football players, whose grade was evidently changed in the wake of the principal's new grading policy.
Roosevelt's football team made it to the playoffs this year with the help of several talented players. But the eligibility of at least one of those players is in question following revelations from some high school teachers who say they were instructed to change grades of failing students as part of a policy implemented last December by first-year principal Myrtle Jean Dixon.
"We have agreed to provide students a grade of 65 as the lowest grade for a grading period," read one edict allegedly made by Dixon.
One apparent example provided to News 8 was a grade change form for one of the football team's star players in which his failing six-weeks grade of 60 was changed to a passing grade of 70. Principal Dixon authorized the change.
However, Melinda Johnson, an English teacher at the school, said that is nothing new. She said she has been approached and asked to change a failing athlete's grades by four coaches and the vice principal.
"... I refused and I said, 'Nope,' and, 'I'm not going to change the grade,'" she said.
Johnson said she has been repeatedly harassed for standing up to the principal and her administration. In fact, she said it got so bad this week, she quit.
"But, I told those administrators at the building yesterday, 'You will see me on the media because there are things going on at this building that are illegal and unethical,'" she said.
But Johnson is not the only one who has come forward.
Thirty-five teachers and school employees have signed a petition questioning what they called intolerable conditions at the school, and unprofessional treatment by Principal Dixon.
Teachers Union representative Jeff Sherels said teachers have been begging district officials to investigate.
"Teachers are frustrated," Sherels said. "Teachers have forwarded complaints and concerns to various individuals in administration and nothing has been done."
Principal Dixon did not respond to News 8 calls.
"The district is aware of the issues raised by this group of teachers at Roosevelt and is continuing to work to address them," said DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander in a statement.
The grade-changing issue at Roosevelt is expected to come to a head at DISD's board meeting Thursday. Teachers said they will demand action until the grade-changing policy is reversed.

Anonymous said...

Concerning Dr. Norris of Florida: He says he's looking for a school district with cultural diversity. Someone should ask him, "If this is true, why, after firing the principal of Booker High School (a predominantly African-American school in Sarasota), did you hide out in your office like a little girl, refusing to talk to the students and faculty?" Also, School Board members may want to ask about the lies and deception centered around the Sarasota school referendum vote of 2006. Why did the faculty and staff of the Sarasota schools send over 800 emails to the School Board requesting that Dr. Norris be fired? Two of the three School Board members who voted to retain him had been on the board for only two weeks. Two former board members stated that, if they had still been on the board, they would have voted to fire him. Dr. Norris's communication skills were deemed so poor that the School Board had to hire a Communications Director to do the job that he was unable to do. Someone should ask the principals and teachers at the Sarasota schools if he has ever visited their schools. Most would say he has never been to their schools. On a lighter note, someone might ask him about the speeding ticket he received for driving 20+ mph over the limit in a school zone.