Decisions by Hamlet

Anonymous wrote:

"*New post please As a PPS parent, I am increasingly concerned about the unfolding events surrounding Hamlet et al. I questioned the Board’s decision to honor his contract when his blatant plagiarism was discovered. I questioned his ability to lead a parade, much less a school district, when the fairy-tale data increases he cited on his resume were exposed as fantasy. I suppose, then, I should have expected nothing more from those with whom he surrounded himself. Instead, I turned a blind eye, taking my cue from Regina Holly, and drove a leg of the Welcome Wagon’s pilgrimage to pave the road to “superintendentdom”. Are we now experiencing the backlash of karma?

Rumors aside, the band of merry men brought in to support Hamlet’s superintendency are falling like Trump cabinet members. First, we had Seema Ramji, the CAO who lasted less time than the smoke rings Hamlet blew to distract us. We collectively waved goodbye to a woman who leapt from a position as a Reading Director to that of a member of the triumvirate.

Next is Milton Walters, brought in via the sunny streets of Youngstown, Ohio after meeting our superintendent at a professional development session. Forget for a moment that Walters resigned from his post as the Chief of Human Resources in Youngstown, citing “personal reasons”. Better yet, instead of forgetting it, file it away for a moment. He came and was given carte blanche to fill the offices around him, which he did. He brought in an “assistant” to work under him (literally it seems), a woman without a track record to support her salary. Not enough of a red flag even when coupled with his past “resignation”? When the relationship started to go south (coincidentally the same direction from which our leader arrived), Walters initiated charges against her for poor performance. One has to wonder exactly which job she was performing poorly, but she returned the serve with allegations of her own of unwanted advances from Milton. His response was Clintonesque as he denied any involvement. At just about the same time those words were being spoken, texts were uncovered in which this man was gushing like a middle school boy. So it was adios to them both, leaving empty (and yet unfilled) positions in a department that has suffered from poor management since, it would seem, its inception.

The third strike in Hamlet’s hiring just emerged, and it may be the most spectacular example of why not to hire your friends. The “newly” appointed principal of Perry High School is now on administrative leave, trailing a chain of allegations of inappropriate behavior. While the details have yet to fully float to the surface, the murky waters surrounding Cooper can’t obscure the fact that he was hired by our super superintendent. In Cooper’s place we once again see Dr. Spadafora, the man who was once responsible for a spate of vicious fights and for letting in-place initiatives wither and die. So far, in his short term as the boss there, Perry has already again made the news when a student was suspended for a fight, his mother wasn’t notified, and the child was sent home on his regular bus without consideration for his safety. In retaliation for the altercation at school, three boys jumped the kid and beat him mercilessly, while someone with a phone filmed the event and posted it to YouTube to ensure its infamy. Spadafora didn’t see that coming?

We may have chosen as a district to overlook Hamlet’s resume, his lies and lack of character, but his transgressions keep piling up, now in the form of misguided hiring. The money his poor judgement is now costing us is unforgivable. Rehiring and retraining personnel in important positions of leadership is expensive. Additionally, these positions are, in some cases, still empty at a time when their work is critical. 

Trump, while stumping, repeatedly promised his supporters to “drain the swamp”. Perhaps it’s time for us to drain our own swamp, the Bellefield Bog, before the creatures there devour us whole and leave behind only the broken psyche and mismanaged education of our children. "