This is the blog section of the PURE Reform website. Please leave your thoughts and comments here.
PURE Reform has created this blog as a forum for parents, teachers and community members to share information and voice concerns regrading the reform process in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Although we would like to foster constructive dialogue, PURE Reform does not edit content. The views expressed by bloggers in this forum are not necessarily views held by PURE Reform.
To comment on an existing topic, go to the line at the bottom of the post for that topic that begins "Posted by..." That line will list "1 comment," "2 comments," etc. Click on "comments," then leave your comment in the box provided. To post as Anonymous, no registration is required, OR you can choose an identity.
To suggest a new topic, go to this month's post labeled "Start a New Post" and add your comment (as described above) about the new suggested topic. PURE Reform will use these comments to start new posts.
Why wouldn't the district announce these layoffs in June?
What exactly changed between June and July? Why keep parents waiting to find out which Pre-K sites would closed?
It's the reduction in Accountability Block Grant funds driving these reductions. The Governor's budget plan was released on 3/8/11, almost five months ago, and it took the ABG money to $0. About a month later the House Republican version restored it to about 40% of the 2010/11 level. That is ultimately what became law.
In any event, impact analyses should have been completed four and five months ago.
Kind of makes me warm and fuzzy just thinking about two cocktail parties the Communications Department and our local foundations threw for Mark Roosevelt - one for the announcement of the Gates' partnership and the other to say goodbye.
I guess there will be no ra-ra event at the convention center this.
Poor Tarka looks like a deer in the headlights every time he says "the only acceptable number of furloughs is zero."
" Anonymous said... How classy - the same month that layoffs are announced the Chief of Staff has the Board approve a $68,000 contract for on-call video production.
Read the July 2011 Board Minutes..."
The board obviously does not read anything other than pre-approved materials/propoganda provided by "The Billionaires Boys Club"
It looks like no less than three Broad Residents were placed into high paying administrative jobs as part of the HR reorg and on top of that, there is either one OR two more administrative positions than before.
And that's before you count the ADDITIONAL HR jobs that look like they were added with TIF/Gates money (always short run, converts to 100% PPS quickly).
For the love of all that is good Dr. Lane, what kind of message are you sending?
The Legislation passed this month is full of "in your face" outrageous items, especially in Personnel. Yet, there is no outrage expressed. The Public Hearing was cancelled. Did anyone attempt to sign up?
I thought the Board was supposed to represent the Public!?!? Especially the children!??!
Fewer teachers and program; but more Central Office were legislated on Wednesday!?
And through it all the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers rolls over and plays dead...
What am I paying union dues for?
It's bad enough that this "managed" curriculum is shoved down my throat and wet behind the ears kids are watching my "fidelity", but my own union will stand back and say nothing about the expansion of Human Resources and no bid communications contracts when teachers and programs are being cut?
I'm all for labor-management cooperation, but John and Nina there is a time to stand and fight for what is right!
I hear the infamous chief of technology, mark campbell, managed to weasel another $120,000 out of the taxpayers pockets. Now he's officially participating in "unfair labor practices" by hiring outside contractors to repair analog phone issues after eliminating in house positions responsible for that. Way to go PFT, way to fight for your members.
True. It was unbelievable that Board members did not have the courage to persist in questioning this. A few words from the Superintendent and all questions ended, even though the answer was highly questionable??? What is happening???!
If you watch the replay of the legislative meeting Mrs. Colaizzi asked about issues with internet and phone and apparently it is all the fault of Comcast according to Mr. Campbell.
All the fault of comcast eh? Of course it has nothing to do with the fact that they laid off 50% of the Networking/Telecom department, including the Coordinator of Telecommunications, Infrastructure and Operations and then subsequently hired a Director of Networking/Telecom that has ABSOLUTELY NO experience in networking or telecom?????
I will fight tooth & nail if PPS asks us for a tax increase. I refuse to pay for this clusterf--k, which probably soon be followed by lawsuits that we get to fund too!
I swear this PPS central office has become the best paid (6 figure) internship the past 2 years. The top paid ones that were allowed or chosen to remain due to Jerri Lippert, Mark Roosevelt & Linda Lane are in this for the money & resume building. I put them in that order for a reason, Lippert is running this scheme.
This is a house of cards built on the "Dead man's hand". They get aces, we get (crazy) 8's!
We should all call Comcast to complain and ask why they are screwing up! We all know reporters won't ask. This city gave up on itself, so few people care about what is going on.
Pittsburgh Promise & declining enrollment, not a peep.
We should all call Comcast to complain and ask why they are screwing up! We all know reporters won't ask. This city gave up on itself, so few people care about what is going on.
Pittsburgh Promise & declining enrollment, not a peep.
We need an outside audit and accounting of where all the money has gone and is still going. We also need a master chart of each department with who does what and how much are they being paid. How do we go about doing this? Any suggestions? Things are bordering on ridiculous now.
You can forget the PFT doing anything. They quit representing their members along time ago. And yes, the NLRB should investigate them. That would take a lawsuit to undertake that though.
A+ has someone doing a financial review. Don't immediately go to the "A+ and PPS are too cozy" for any review to have been conducted with fidelity (I crack myself up when I use tha term). The person doing the review is a straight shooter; now whether or not his conclusions get reported accurately without spin or massage is another story.
The person doing the audit "or looking at the numbers" is a retired PNC bank person. WHAT why not get someone in the state or federal goverment who has the power to audit the district. AND has not ties to the district.
When you read the minutes and see HR positions cut, and then HR positions added, it is a huge travesty. Who do they pay to make up these titles and what on Earth are these people doing? HR has taken on a life of its own.
One additional qualification Mr. Johns has is that he served one year as an interim CFO for PPS, (I believe that was the official title). It could be that he wanted to live the retired life afterall or that finances were so shockingly askew he had to get away from it. Nobody knows. His time in admin should give him insight to a good starting point and a place to focus first.
I believe that there must have been a contract agreed to by PPS to employ "X" number of BROAD residents, directors, administrators, etc. at relatively high salaries and as a result many, many positions had to be created in PPS. Most of these people have trouble surviving in schools with students, so positions are created in Central Office. Also, if you notice many others are being designated and assigned as "directors" in schools that already have two principals, an assistant principal, coaches and student populations under 400-500.
As was stated previously, at every level now there are more administrative personnel than 10 years ago when the student population was substantially greater.
Paying all of these administrators at high salaries means the elimination of teachers and student programs and even courses.
Perhaps an organizationa; chart combined with a list of staff positions might help. If we include people whose job description is written to NOT deal directly with students-i.e. coaches,etc. we may actually find there are an equal number of people who do not deal with students but are just paid to harass teachers. Include the union officers on special assignment in this list and start counting
The administration does not have to answer to anyone, they know they have free reign. The school board passes everything, the media simply reports whatever the district PR department hands them.
They are taking full advantage of every cent they can get their grubby hands on.
The economy crashed due to teachers seems to be an acceptable thought pattern in Pittsburgh.
Answers, in our form of government, can also be expected from City Controller, Michael Lamb. He has a role and duty for oversight for both city and school finances. Audits are his job.
He fails. He does run for other offices too, but has fumbled his oversight chores w PPS.
I think someone needs to ask Dr. Lane and the Board the following question...Is there a plan awaiting execution identifying central administration cuts (not teachers) on the educational side of the organization. It seems that we have focused on the "worker bees" while the educational administration seems to have skated through relatively untouched. Salaries and benefits DO consume well over 50% of the budget...and we certainly have dozens of academic central staff with salaries in excess of 100K plus benefits! Yes I said dozens!
Since they are public officials, a long listing of all board employees--especially at the administrative level--should be available to anyone who requests it. How funny is it that some idiot has listed teachers and their salaries across the commonwealth in his effort to outlaw teacher strikes. Yes...some idiot. But where is that idiot in making the same amount of noise where government (read school district) bloat at the administrative level is concerned? Silence. I don't expect you will see any more "administrative cuts" coming from Dr.Lane. She has pretty much made it clear where her allegiances lie, and cutting the numerous individuals, positions and departments that were formed under Roosevelt would be an admission of complete and utter failure and mismanagement.
30 comments:
Why wouldn't the district announce these layoffs in June?
What exactly changed between June and July? Why keep parents waiting to find out which Pre-K sites would closed?
It's the reduction in Accountability Block Grant funds driving these reductions. The Governor's budget plan was released on 3/8/11, almost five months ago, and it took the ABG money to $0. About a month later the House Republican version restored it to about 40% of the 2010/11 level. That is ultimately what became law.
In any event, impact analyses should have been completed four and five months ago.
Looks the Pathway to the Promise starts at the Unemployment Compensation office.
Kind of makes me warm and fuzzy just thinking about two cocktail parties the Communications Department and our local foundations threw for Mark Roosevelt - one for the announcement of the Gates' partnership and the other to say goodbye.
I guess there will be no ra-ra event at the convention center this.
Poor Tarka looks like a deer in the headlights every time he says "the only acceptable number of furloughs is zero."
How classy - the same month that layoffs are announced the Chief of Staff has the Board approve a $68,000 contract for on-call video production.
Read the July 2011 Board Minutes...
Does anyone know anything more about the reorganization of human resources?
There was a job opened this month called "Director of Strategic Compensation."
Wow.
" Anonymous said...
How classy - the same month that layoffs are announced the Chief of Staff has the Board approve a $68,000 contract for on-call video production.
Read the July 2011 Board Minutes..."
The board obviously does not read anything other than pre-approved materials/propoganda provided by "The Billionaires Boys Club"
This is a joke and the kids are the punch line.
It looks like no less than three Broad Residents were placed into high paying administrative jobs as part of the HR reorg and on top of that, there is either one OR two more administrative positions than before.
And that's before you count the ADDITIONAL HR jobs that look like they were added with TIF/Gates money (always short run, converts to 100% PPS quickly).
For the love of all that is good Dr. Lane, what kind of message are you sending?
The Legislation passed this month is full of "in your face" outrageous items, especially in Personnel. Yet, there is no outrage expressed. The Public Hearing was cancelled. Did anyone attempt to sign up?
I thought the Board was supposed to represent the Public!?!? Especially the children!??!
Fewer teachers and program; but more Central Office were legislated on Wednesday!?
And through it all the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers rolls over and plays dead...
What am I paying union dues for?
It's bad enough that this "managed" curriculum is shoved down my throat and wet behind the ears kids are watching my "fidelity", but my own union will stand back and say nothing about the expansion of Human Resources and no bid communications contracts when teachers and programs are being cut?
I'm all for labor-management cooperation, but John and Nina there is a time to stand and fight for what is right!
I hear the infamous chief of technology, mark campbell, managed to weasel another $120,000 out of the taxpayers pockets. Now he's officially participating in "unfair labor practices" by hiring outside contractors to repair analog phone issues after eliminating in house positions responsible for that. Way to go PFT, way to fight for your members.
True. It was unbelievable that Board members did not
have the courage to persist in questioning this. A few words from the Superintendent and all questions ended, even though the answer was highly questionable??? What is happening???!
If you watch the replay of the legislative meeting Mrs. Colaizzi asked about issues with internet and phone and apparently it is all the fault of Comcast according to Mr. Campbell.
All the fault of comcast eh? Of course it has nothing to do with the fact that they laid off 50% of the Networking/Telecom department, including the Coordinator of Telecommunications, Infrastructure and Operations and then subsequently hired a Director of Networking/Telecom that has ABSOLUTELY NO experience in networking or telecom?????
If the PFT does not grieve the issue on behalf of its Technical Clerical members, I believe the Federation has NLRB exposure too for being complacent.
I will fight tooth & nail if PPS asks us for a tax increase. I refuse to pay for this clusterf--k, which probably soon be followed by lawsuits that we get to fund too!
I swear this PPS central office has become the best paid (6 figure) internship the past 2 years. The top paid ones that were allowed or chosen to remain due to Jerri Lippert, Mark Roosevelt & Linda Lane are in this for the money & resume building. I put them in that order for a reason, Lippert is running this scheme.
This is a house of cards built on the "Dead man's hand". They get aces, we get (crazy) 8's!
We should all call Comcast to complain and ask why they are screwing up! We all know reporters won't ask. This city gave up on itself, so few people care about what is going on.
Pittsburgh Promise & declining enrollment, not a peep.
We should all call Comcast to complain and ask why they are screwing up! We all know reporters won't ask. This city gave up on itself, so few people care about what is going on.
Pittsburgh Promise & declining enrollment, not a peep.
We need an outside audit and accounting of where all the money has gone and is still going. We also need a master chart of each department with who does what and how much are they being paid. How do we go about doing this? Any suggestions? Things are bordering on ridiculous now.
You can forget the PFT doing anything. They quit representing their members along time ago. And yes, the NLRB should investigate them. That would take a lawsuit to undertake that though.
A+ has someone doing a financial review. Don't immediately go to the "A+ and PPS are too cozy" for any review to have been conducted with fidelity (I crack myself up when I use tha term). The person doing the review is a straight shooter; now whether or not his conclusions get reported accurately without spin or massage is another story.
Who is the person doing the review?
The person doing the audit "or looking at the numbers" is a retired PNC bank person. WHAT why not get someone in the state or federal goverment who has the power to audit the district. AND has not ties to the district.
When you read the minutes and see HR positions cut, and then HR positions added, it is a huge travesty. Who do they pay to make up these titles and what on Earth are these people doing? HR has taken on a life of its own.
One additional qualification Mr. Johns has is that he served one year as an interim CFO for PPS, (I believe that was the official title). It could be that he wanted to live the retired life afterall or that finances were so shockingly askew he had to get away from it. Nobody knows. His time in admin should give him insight to a good starting point and a place to focus first.
I believe that there must have been a contract agreed to by PPS to employ "X" number of BROAD residents, directors, administrators, etc. at relatively high salaries and as a result many, many positions had to be created in PPS. Most of these people have trouble surviving in schools with students, so positions are created in Central Office. Also, if you notice many others are being designated and assigned as "directors" in schools that already have two principals, an assistant principal, coaches and student populations under 400-500.
As was stated previously, at every level now there are more administrative personnel than 10 years ago when the student population was substantially greater.
Paying all of these administrators at high salaries means the elimination of teachers and student programs and even courses.
To aparent at 4:42: Who is going to listen to what this person says?
We need an "official" audit. Admin. is BLOATED!
Perhaps an organizationa; chart combined with a list of staff positions might help. If we include people whose job description is written to NOT deal directly with students-i.e. coaches,etc. we may actually find there are an equal number of people who do not deal with students but are just paid to harass teachers. Include the union officers on special assignment in this list and start counting
The administration does not have to answer to anyone, they know they have free reign. The school board passes everything, the media simply reports whatever the district PR department hands them.
They are taking full advantage of every cent they can get their grubby hands on.
The economy crashed due to teachers seems to be an acceptable thought pattern in Pittsburgh.
Answers, in our form of government, can also be expected from City Controller, Michael Lamb. He has a role and duty for oversight for both city and school finances. Audits are his job.
He fails. He does run for other offices too, but has fumbled his oversight chores w PPS.
I think someone needs to ask Dr. Lane and the Board the following question...Is there a plan awaiting execution identifying central administration cuts (not teachers) on the educational side of the organization. It seems that we have focused on the "worker bees" while the educational administration seems to have skated through relatively untouched. Salaries and benefits DO consume well over 50% of the budget...and we certainly have dozens of academic central staff with salaries in excess of 100K plus benefits! Yes I said dozens!
Since they are public officials, a long listing of all board employees--especially at the administrative level--should be available to anyone who requests it.
How funny is it that some idiot has listed teachers and their salaries across the commonwealth in his effort to outlaw teacher strikes. Yes...some idiot.
But where is that idiot in making the same amount of noise where government (read school district) bloat at the administrative level is concerned?
Silence.
I don't expect you will see any more "administrative cuts" coming from Dr.Lane. She has pretty much made it clear where her allegiances lie, and cutting the numerous individuals, positions and departments that were formed under Roosevelt would be an admission of complete and utter failure and mismanagement.
Post a Comment