Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Change at U Prep?

Anonymous wrote:

"New topic: 

I heard Derrick Hardy is leaving UPrep? "

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes he is gone at the end of the school year. Tony Baldasare from Allderdice is taking over for the 2015-16 School year. He is a good man and will turn the school around.

Anonymous said...

Why would Mr. Baldasare at this point in his career, want to be thrown into that mess at UPrep? After a stellar career of service for PPS, they intend to throw him under the bus?? Throw one of those esteemed young Broadies into UPrep. Are they trying to force him into retiring? If so, what a wonderful way to treat a long time loyal employee.

Anonymous said...

I hope that Mr Baldasare can turn U Prep if he can bring a change than maybe just maybe we can remove PPS Superintendent for someone who can turn the WHOLE school district around for once it's a good start with
Mr. Baldasare

Anonymous said...

Baldasare was likely recommended by Friez in her capacity as asst. super. Sounds like a big vote of confidence in his abilities in my outsider opinion. As someone who is only a stakeholder/city resident I would love to see this school soar.

Anonymous said...

Do we continue to call it UPrep or Pittsburgh Milliones ( as the PG recently referred to it ) or do we wait until it 'soars' and decide then?

Being facetious in the falsity of it all.

Anonymous said...

The name of the school submitted and identified at the PA Department of Education is officially: Pittsburgh Milliones 6-12

Anonymous said...

Where does the information come from that Anthony Baldesare will be the Principal at Milliones?

When did the Board vote on this?

What is the starting date?

Anonymous said...

Will Anthony Esoldo stay on as the Director at Milliones?

Anonymous said...

Baldasare is at or very near the end of his career. Why would PPS place someone in UPrep who might only be there for a short time? Doesn't it make more sense to place someone there for the long haul?

He is at Allderdice, and with Frieze leaving, why not make him principal there?

Anonymous said...

Where is Frieze going? Full time assistant superintendent?

Questioner said...

So even though MR made a big deal of closing Milliones, all he really did was put "Pittsburgh" in front of the name and add high school students he pulled out of Schenley, where they had a much wider range of classes and activities.

Anonymous said...

9:07

Who places anyone anywhere for the long haul anymore ?

Anonymous said...

Addressing a number of comments here, let's just say that one way to "reward" Baldesare for all those years of service is to place him at a substantially higher pay scale level before he retires, so that he will collect a higher pension. Enough said.

Nowhere in the case of underachieving (because they are underserved) minority children/students does Central Office consider the negative impact of their decisions regarding the assignment principals or teachers. The PPS system is all about advantages for adults and never about children! The evidence is overwhelming!

Mark Rauterkus said...

Where does Mr. Hardy go next?

Anonymous said...

"Where does Mr. Hardy go next?"

Director of Performance or other such title that will have Mr Hardy "supervising" the RISE process.

Anonymous said...

Stop, really??!? After the scandal last year of him gibing out unsats to teachers who had NEVER been observed?!!? (Grieved and won, by the way.)

Anonymous said...

As an outsider now and retiree I read the blog & saw this describing a current principal, "the last principal. She merged two schools without the bloodbath that was predicted. She raised test scores in spite of the fact that Oliver's scores were horrible before that student body was moved to Perry. She was the only principal at Perry to lead them to make AYP. She started a cell phone policy that was copied in schools across the country. She started having teachers meet in teams by grade level, a practice that was revolutionary for high school, was nationally praised and was documented in a number of academic journals. She brought more grant money into Perry than any principal in the history of Perry. She was able to install projectors and whiteboards in every classroom and facilitated bringing iPads to every teacher and several classrooms (making Perry the only comprehensive high school to have been given that opportunity). She implemented PRAISE, a program that gave each student 40 minutes a week to work on study skills and academic awareness. If a kid came to school in winter with holey shoes, she bought them boots. If a kid was consistently late, she bought them alarm clocks. She provided EVERY student with back packs full of school supplies at the beginning of the year and gave EVERY STUDENT a Christmas gift of a Perry hat. She made sure kids had breakfast and lunch, bought prom dresses for those who couldn't afford them, and traveled to homes to bring kids to school when they had decided to just opt out." Sounds like this would be a great candidate for the new principal at Milliones- get someone with a great track record! No disrespect to Mr. Baldesare intended but this gal got it going on!

Anonymous said...

Is this the same "gal" who parents were bashing on this blog? Wasn't she moved to an elementary or "middle" school?

Anonymous said...

The community wants leadership at Milliones Uprep that is effective for the kids in the Hill district. Seems like that is not the priority for the Board of Education.

Seven years and the all of the results are negative. So what will turn this around? Consultants? Really? How has that worked so far?

The School Improvement Plan is on the website so that everyone can review and make COMMENTS!. See the PG article from Wednesday or Thursday.

Will a new charter school in the Hill district be the answer to the community's search for leadership?

Anonymous said...

Whoever takes over the principal position must realize that Uprep(what a name) is not a school. The principal must also make sure that there is no lapse in his/her LIFE INSURANCE, HMO, or AFLAC coverages. Uprep(oh, that name kills me) is a "Community Centers Gone Wild" pilot. There is no more than 15% academic interest displayed by the student body. That percentage is staggering, not because it is too low, but because it is too high, considering Hardy's incompetence and abuse of ethos. How any student can concentrate on learning, developing a good quality, let alone surviving, is nearly impossible. There is no student council at all in the school, no class president for the Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and for the Seniors. The latter fact is egregious. There has never been a play put on in the school. There is no library. Hardy not only ruined the lives of many students, he created the dogma of the Hill District youth: "Yo, I hear it is banging at Prep. Nephs! You can run the halls, get pizza and soda if you blame everything on the teachers. Tizzy!" Now, for Hardy's 1% ethos makeup: imagine if a teacher failed seven students for the year in his/her roll book six months prior to the end of the school year? What would be the fate of that teacher? The teacher would lose his/her certification is the answer, save press embarrassment, family ruin, and seclusion. Yet, Mr. Hardy keeps rolling along. For those unaware of this scenario, allow me to fill you in on the TRUTH: Mr. Hardy had seven teachers on the improvement plan slated for termination in November of 2011, but he typed the letter during the previous May of 2011. Even more amazingly arrogant and stunningly stupid, Hardy actually printed this document from the computer in his office to the main office's printer. As poetic justice, fate, and karma would have it, a teacher found the roster lying face up on in the printer's output bin. The teacher noticed the document because she saw her name on it. Next to her name it read, "November Termination", along with six other names with the inscription "November Termination" next to each and every name. You had to see Mr. Hardy panic. It was beautiful watching him squirm, pace back and forth, tremble, and what he does best, lie. It was so beautiful during that momentous faculty meeting where he admitted typing the document. He said that the document was his private thoughts and diary". Can you imagine that this unethical, pedantic, incompetent charlatan is still employed by any edifice in education? Over 150 teachers have either left, transferred, been unethically terminated, or have gone on sick leave, not to mention the hundreds and hundreds of subs who never returned because of the insanity. Whoever you are out there pondering taking over at Uprep(love that name), remember what one father of a student said in the Pittsburgh Courier, "It's total chaos".

P.S. "November Termination" transcripts can be sent to aNY United States PO BOX.

Anonymous said...

Wow!! There are no words to describe the sick feeling I had when I read this! The disservice done to the children of the Hill by this man's incompetence is disgusting. You can get on TV , talk about the Promise, talk about discipline and pretend to be concerned about our African American children , but by allowing this debacle to continue is the worst type of hypocrisy. Promises are meant to be kept.

Anonymous said...

Shouldn't the Board be announcing principal changes soon? It seems that every year they "shuffle" principals/VPs around. And don't believe for one moment that Tony Baldasare is going to UPrep/Milliones. That won't happen.

Anonymous said...

Hardy has resigned. It will be interesting to see what administrative changes are made at UPrep now.

Anonymous said...

Crenshaw, Lewandowski, Pipkin, Sacco, Washington- so many good choices out there get someone that has a proven track record & experience!