On another post Anonymous wrote:
"new topic>-- personnel info/principal changes!-- how do we get
personnel information now that the "hot line" is no more? Specifically--
principals changes used to happen in the early PG, then the hot line.
How do we get to whatever went on tonight at the board meeting, because
it sounded terribly interesting ;)
P.S. Thank to all of the participants in this forum-- I think you DID it-- getting the grad requirements at least tabled !
"
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They are now available instantly...Go to main webpage: http://www.pps.k12.pa.us/site/default.aspx?PageID=1
Click on Board Docs in Upper Right Corner
Click on Meetings Tab
Click on Legislative Meeting
Click on View Agenda
Scroll down to HR Report Section (10.1)
Click on this and it opens all links and addendum's
You can view any in PDF Format
Once you get used to it, it is fairly easy and they are almost always posted right at the beginning of the meeting (as opposed to having to wait like in the past)
The Principal changes are there. BUT, the conversation around "Supervisory Positions" from Regina Holley are nowhere to be found on any of the Personnel documents.
You can also see the principal changes posted on the PPS Facebook page.
Dr. Connie Sims is officially the Chief of School Performance pending getting all the required state paperwork. Her salary is $144,000 with an annual increase of up to $2,000 and an annual achievement bonus of up to $15,000.
One would think that with the District going broke and scores so low, Bellefield's salaries would be getting lowered and any annual increases or bonuses would be off the table. Don't worry, we'll see money taken off the teachers in the coming contract. Let them eat cake.
Nina Sacco is going from Perry to Westwood K-5. That gets her out of the Perry mess.
Explain the value of Dr. Connie Sims' services to the District in some detail. What does she bring that we currently do not have access to in terms of improving education for our underachieving students and schools?
Where has she been successful in accomplishing that goal?
1:25 I believe it's the position being taken by Connie Sims. If you click on the Human Resources report it's addendum C.
Board Docs are great. Can anyone enlighten an outsider or two on a position opened for a Director at Clayton? Is this to prep a district staffer for when the district assumes full responsibility for Clayton in the 2015-16 school year? If not why isn't the management of Clayton (SESI, I think) finding their own director. The whole relationship has been confusing to the public from the word go and therefore has always seemed suspect.
I could not find a link online to watch the board meeting live. Was there such a link? I can't find a link even now to watch it. Am I looking in the wrong place?
If a position is open for a Director at Clayton, who is paying the salary? Since we are paying SESI 2.4 million, I hope they are paying for it.
9:25 - The amount being paid to SESI is 2.8 million, not 2.4 million.
This 2.8 million is due to be paid whether the number of students at Clayton is 150 or 250 or any number in between. How can this be the right?
it is true that the entire Clayton relationship is very unclear. CEP became SESI, the first director or at least an early director was Mr. Bullard, a district retiree. the accounting must be a nightmare if the district acts as an headhunter for Clayton. Would SESI pay pps for acting as its agent to fill its position?
Anybody know anything of this Yarra Howse assigned principal to Allegheny next year? She goes straight from teacher to principal. Hmmmm.....
maybe it is an experiment to see if PELA training is not needed to be a knock-out principal.
Ms. Howze is a wonderful teacher with many years of experience in the classroom. I worked with her when I was new to a building. She is very knowledgable, professional, and went out of her way to welcome me and help with my transition to the building.
I would work for her over a PELA any day!
She just recently had PELA training.
I agree on Howze -- excellent classroom teacher and seems like good principal material (not all great teachers are good administrators). She's at Sterrett now and has a good principal there (Holly).
how refreshing that Ms. Howze is getting some good reviews here. there are some really good PELA principals too. perhaps Ms. Howze's appointment will usher in a new era.
If only you knew the truth. She is described as incompetent. So much so that David May Stein had to step in because she wasn't fulfilling her rise responsibilities. She was trying to do all her observations the week before they were due, something that was supposed to be going on all year. That was part of her ITL2 responsibility. That's the tip of the iceberg.
I do not know Ms. Howze. But it doesn't make any sense to promote anyone directly to principal from a teacher's position, or from a PELA program.
Experience matters, always! Why not have Ms. Howse first serve a few years as a vice principal?
Why does the PPS promote people from nowhere to principal? Why all the urgency here?
WASN'T FULFILLING HER RISE OBLIGATIONS!!?? Are you kidding?!! That means she was probably spending her time doing work that was actually beneficial to students.
Give me a break. I've had the pleasure of seeing Ms. Howze play an auditorium of students like she was conducting an orchestra. If she's in a room, she controls that room. Hopefully she does put all this RISE B.S. on the back burner and help her teachers be the best they can be instead of turning them in to little rungs on a ladder to some pointless job at Bellefield.
The only one who went from teacher to principal That I have not heard complaints from is Mrs. Friez from Allderdice. She went from teacher to principal at Peabody. Then transferred to Allderdice. The few teachers I know there seem to like her. Not that Allderdice does not have it's problems, just saying she seems to be doing better than others mentioned here.
ITL2's only teach 2 classes. They have a significantly reduced teaching schedules so that they can FULFILL their duties and EARN the extra pay. So no I'm not kidding.
Regarding principal changes - what is the status of the Brookline principal whose charges of indecent exposure and open lewdness are still pending in court?
Anon 10:47, Are you kidding! With all these other distractions going on, who cares! This board will probably make him a director of employee standards. If he is terminated, he will be back as a consultant for evaluating ethics, practices, and misbehavior! Hundreds of thousands will be thrown at his feet to teach us how to accept perverts and/or criminals into daily life. Lessons will be scripted, opponents will be bullied, heads of those who dare to abide by the law will roll!
He will be viewed as the victim, we will be made the cause.
Someone asked earlier about the principal in the gym. This is in todays PG
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2014/05/13/Former-city-principal-testifies-that-he-never-acted-inappropriately-in-gym-shower-sauna/stories/201405130197
http://www.wpxi.com/ap/news/local/jury-to-debate-principals-health-club-sex-case/nfwpF
Principal found guilty.
The principal was found guilty of indecent exposure, corruption of minors, indecent assault, and open lewdness. He will lose his teaching certificate.
He should spend a little time in a wholesome, nurturing confined area. See how much his VAM is worth.
Did anyone catch Melissa Friez commenting on channel 11 news? It has been the policy for years not to talk to press. That was reserved for the public relations officer or the superintendent. Is there a promotion in Mrs. Friez's future. She certainly presents a better photo-op than linda lane!
5:17,
I'm told that Mrs. Friez will be moving to a central administration position at Bellefield in the fall.
She will (I'm told) be taking the position recently vacated by Jennifer Murphy. The position involves monitoring teacher effectiveness.
This position is widely seen as a hatchet man position. And it certainly was so under Murphy. Because "monitoring teacher effectiveness" is a code phrase in the PPS. It actually means "find ways to fire teachers we don't like."
Yet Mrs. Friez is known as a fair and decent person. So it will be interesting how this all plays out.
Before Broad/Gates did a central office position monitoring teacher effectiveness exist? Have teachers become any more effective since that time?
14 Principal changes. When I was in school, I can only recall one Principal change and that was because they added one to my High School.
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2014/04/30/Pittsburgh-Public-Schools-makes-14-principal-changes-throughout-district/stories/201404300236
In response to questioner 12:52, these types of positions are funded by the gates money and did not exist before Tarka/ Roosevelt love affair. Many central office positions were created and funded from the Gates money. That is why you will always hear CO & A+ schools talking about "effective teachers" and the "generous gift" we were given by Gates. You will never hear a teacher rallying to keep the Gates money. It never touches students or teachers. CO employees are terrified of losing this money and having to return to work as a principal or teacher in the inhumane conditions they have created.
It seems as the goal of Gates "generosity" is to fund initiatives that will lead to the demise of public schools in whatever city they are supposedly helping. This creates a charter school market.
As for an increase in effective teaching, lolololololol!!!
If anything there is a DECREASE. As conditions decline due to PELA principals, excessive testing, no discipline, and the stress on teachers to spend more time collecting evidence and data to PROVE they are effective than actually teaching, many teachers have left PPS, quit, or retired early.
Great teachers have many options to find employment elsewhere. They are leaving in droves. When you see 5 vacancies at a school like Concord you know something is wrong. So teachers who are good enough to have other options leave, many great teachers who are older at top of pay scale are fired through the farcical RISE/ Salary dump. Then new inexperienced teachers are brought in and last a few years before they are burned out! Look at the teacher and principal turnover! That's good for kids???
Teachers are only going to be able to take so much, no matter how much they love their jobs and students.
We work incredibly hard doing things that you would never dream of on a daily basis. I regularly start my school year as a third grade teacher with half of my class or more reading below a first grade level. This is in addition to extreme social, emotional, and behavior issues. I have always chosen this because it is where my heart is.
But people don't realize when they just look at data, it is not the whole picture. For example, 3rd graders are supposed to be able to read 80 words a minute at the start of the year and 110 by the end to become "proficient" in the data. That is an increase of 30 words.
Well today I tested a student who started the year reading only 11 words a minute, which is severely below basic. I worked with her all year and she increased to 72 words a minute, a 61 word increase, which is amazing. She was not happy though, she cried because when she asked is that enough to be green (proficient) I had to say no it's still pink (below basic) but look how much you have grown, you increased more than anyone in the class and that's what matters! She was still not proud of herself.
What kills me,other than these practices hurting kids, is that if I chose to work in a school where the majority of the kids started at 80 like they should, I would have only had to increase their scores by 30 and I would look great on paper and so would my students. Instead I increased a child's score by double that amount and we both still look like we failed when you just look at the data that identified her as Below Basic.
For how long will teachers and students do double the work and still be perceived as failures. I could go work at Mount Lebanon or South Fayette and do half the work and get awards, bonuses, and the respect of the public and community, maybe even Elenor Chute (lol)
The quality of teaching will continue to decline until they clean house at Bellefield, bring back real principals, and recognize the hard work of students and teachers.
I hope the posting about Mrs. Friez is wrong. She is actually a nice gal. She has a good heart and compassion. Two attributes not good to do the kind of job Murphy did. I think Murphy sharpened her ax while at Brashear. She later honed that ax while at Carrick. Not so much by the number of teachers led out to pasture, but the way it was done. Once she identified a target, she was on it. Always professional, always in the open. She didn't create the concept of exiting teachers, but she wrote the book. Mrs. Friez just does not have that essence of evil in her heart. It still makes one wonder, why was she on TV the other day. Was that Ebony Pugh standing just off camera?
If it is true about Friez, who would be the new Allderdice principal? The parents and community won't stand for some flunky.
Really? hmm.. a block up the street is the PELA who caused the Minadeo Minutes thread. Could the standards have changed that much?
Nice work Mrs. Howze. Gossip only goes so far. The proof is in the pudding. Fast forward one year later, her building has been transformed by ensuring the safety and success of students and efficiently rating teachers. My neighbor's daughter attends her school. She is hardly incompetent and has proven that she can handle the position. Congrats on an awesome promotion ceremony as well!
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