On the previous thread, Anonymous wrote:
"3:03 & 11:42
Very true. So how do we get them out.? As
taxpayers, city residents, teachers, parents, etc., how do we get them
out and replaced? What is the procedure or precedent to replace a
superintendent? Can they be sued? Honestly it is almost fraudulent what
they are doing. How can the board approve her performance rating when
her goals are student achievement and AA gap?
What steps can we
actually take to replace Lane? Demand for her resignation? How can we
make the information about excessive and redundant CO jobs and the
exorbitant salaries for unqualified people public knowledge? There has
to be some accountability. The PFT could be putting the info out there,
especially knowing PPS will claim to be broke in he upcoming contract
negotiations.
What can actually be done? I'm talking immediate
next steps. We have talked this to death. Lane and company are going to
continue to fatten their own bank accounts at the expense of our
children as long as we let them. They will continue to get rid of any
teachers willing to speak up and fight until all of your children are
taught by temps with no school or neighborhood investment. Does anyone
know what we can really do? I am a teacher who willing to take on the
risk to save our district and I'm sure there are others as well as
parents and city residents.
The union as failed us, they won't
speak out against Lane or the Board. Too many community groups and
foundations are in cahoots ($$) or afraid to speak out against PPS and
the local media is their personal PR. There is no help there.
But
teachers, parents, students, alumni, city residents are a powerful
group if we organize and actually do something. I just truly don't know
what the next step is. I just know PPS has to be taken back from these
unqualified outsiders and returned to Pittsburghers.
We are a
highly educated and passionate group of people with a wealth of
experience. We love our children and have their interest at heart. We
should be running our district. If there is anyone who has an idea about
what to do and feels the same way, I am ready.
Questioner, do you have any ideas?
"
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17 comments:
In the end, it all comes out to the Board. If Pittsburghers are tired of having a Broad district they can elect a Board committed to change. It's one vote for person, but the catch is that voting in your district only comes around every four years and it is necessary to hunt up someone good to run.
School board members up for election in May, to be supported or not, are Bill Isler, Sherry Hazuda, Regina Holley and Mark Brentley. Now is the time to start planning.
No, that is not the answer for now and not likely to be in the future.
Surely, you are not suggesting that the parents of in excess of 20 thousand students have no power whatsoever to protect the futures of their children.
The thinking here is a result of Pittsburghers who are not being taught to think for themselves.
A public expose of academic achievement in our schools, if understood, would necessitate mass outrage.
Some communities have power, why not all? This is the civil rights issue of our time. Please do not suggest that the people are powerless,
Problem solvers (not complainers or the completely acquiescent). are what is needed.
Leaders are out here and need only to be informed and called to action. Better yet, make the call to action!
Year after year, we hear the same comments.
Year after year, we hear it takes time to put things in place.
Year after year, we hear "now is the time".
Year after year, we hear about the PFT.
Year after year, we hear about community apathy, disengagement, etc., etc., etc.
And one generation after another is left uneducated!
Now is the time to take immediate action, no more planning, discussing, researching, venting, vetting, and one excuse after another. The beat goes on and on and_______________
Becoming informed about board candidates and voting is one of the most practical way for parents to get involved. Not the only way, but something that even parents with tight schedules can do without a large commitment of time.
We've heard plenty of promises of fast results, too, they just did not work out as expected.
With Melissa Friez as potential super, let's recommend to have Derrick Hardy moved to Central Office at any position or a newly created one.
It is the best way to get new leadership at Milliones.
New leadership by someone who understands the students and earns their respect as well as the respect of the teachers. It must happen now.
Many have suggested a few adults in the school who have the total respect of students (so it is possible).
Let's brainstorm a potential list of leaders for Milliones who are up to the challenge!
Move Mr. Esoldo and Ms Kelly to places where they too can find success.
Hughley is another possible replacement. Fresh out of school to assisstent super. And from a different state!
Why can't teachers, parents, & students petition and take it to court?
The PFT didn't lose power, they gave it away. The PFT should be suing the district over it's continued use of the harsher evaluation system. The PFT should be planning to strike. The PFT should be on a PR blitz regarding Broad' reform. The PFT should be speaking out about HB 1722 bill to discredit seniority!
The PFT no longer works for the teachers of Pittsburgh yet we continue to pay them. When the contract expires, we can elect to have our dues reduced to fair share. I will, I may even go to court to have it done sooner.
Too many residents are unaware of the decline in the schools and the bloated CO staff, etc. PPS PR is really good at placating the public. The mayor and Nina are basically are in on the game too,
I keep posting here that I am ready to take action. I am a teacher who is fed up. I do believe if the public were truly informed, we could rally support. Some things we could do include:
Get petition circulating to oust Lane and board members
Get facts out to public, (send these threads out, show how data is manipulated, release the salaries, experience, and job titles of all the useless CO staff & condultants)
Get teachers, students, and parents who are willing to go on record about the conditions at school (it's not just u prep)
Get reporter Rebeca Nutall involved, she is not owned by PPS
These things can rally public support and should inspire outrage at the injustice to our children. Now we can organize protests, mass student and teacher walkouts. What are we so afraid of?
Lane & company counts on our fear and lack of union support to advance her agenda. They will be running scared when they see we're not going to stand for it. Seriously, what are we so afraid of?
I am ready to take action. Who else wants do something? Have any other ideas? I am just one elementary teacher, but I don't believe at all that I am powerless. How can we come together, organize, plan and make something happen from here?
Why would someone state that Mark Brentley is the one voice of reason on the Board and follow that with saying he must go???
Even the people who don't like him (and reasons are suspect) have to respect the courage it takes to maintain a strong position of advocacy for students when all other politically adjust or qualify their positions for their own personal agendas.
Too bad he no longer represents any part of the Hill District. At least the students would have a voice!
I didn't mean to say Hughley is a replacement in a good way, I meant that bringing in inexperienced out of towners seems to be the MO of CO,
The next superintendent needs to be someone who is not part if the current admin, unless it is Regina Holley. She has the experience to do the job.
The new board is not ever going to stand up to Lane. They approved her getting a bonus!
It is up to us, parents, teachers, taxpayers!
I don't understand why Friez is a plausible candidate for super. I thought there was disatisfaction from the parents when she was running allderdice. If you can't get good results at allderdice, how are you going to run the district? Is she a Broad alumni? I do think they will look for a Broadie will replace Lane. Micheaux is a Broad graduate. I figured that was why PPS brought her back.
We may be assuming te general public knows that Lane and others are Broads, and what that means. Most teachers i work with don't even know this or even have heard of Broad's school. The public is not aware. They have some faith that Lane is doing her best for our children and that PPS is improving. Getting the facts out to the public needs to be priority number one.
Then an online petition to oust Lane and most of the CO staff and board members.
Every few years someone tries to start a revolution against the PPS administration. But it always fizzles out.
How will the next uprising be any different?
I'm not trying to be a pessimist or anything like that. I'm just asking a question: How will the next uprising be any different?
Because if there is no good answer to my question, people ought to think of leaving the PPS (if they can) instead of wasting energy trying to reform it.
11:26 - It's not so much reform that is needed; rather, PPS needs to fulfill its purpose--to educate kids so that they have a chance at developing their potential and surviving in a world that will not make a place for them without a basic education or more.
If one walks away from the PPS system that currently exists it feels as though you are abandoning those young who have few other options and there are thousand upon thousands of them. Is that responsible adult behavior? It may seem futile; but giving up and walking away? That shouldn't even be an option for successful, responsible adults, should it?
Nobody likes the idea of closing buildings and despite Mayor Peduto's plan to grow our population pps can't wait. The issue should be are we making the best decisions on which schools to close? How many organizations have come in over the past 10 years and done an analysis, produced a nice report and had the recommendations ignored. We need a more teachers, more classrooms, lower overhead approach. If it isn't fewer buildings where to cut? How top heavy can one school district get?
We never get a detailed explanation of how much closing a building actually saves, and that is probably because it doesn't seem to save that much especially when resulting extra costs are taken into account- like transportation for students who can no longer walk. And in many cases a charter just opens in the area where a school was closed (Northside, Environmental, Burgwin) and PPS ends up paying more than it would have cost to keep the school.
I think that the board does hold the keys to hiring and firing the superintendent. That was the question and the first reply at the top is accurate.
I also think that board presidents have more power than other board members. Squeaky wheels, no big deal.
Sure, parents have power. Most deploy that and move out of PPS, to the burbs, to private / Catholic schools or to charter schools. Some may stay and rely upon tutors and enrichment in other avenues.
Year-after-year the city's population churns and those with kids flee. That's the year-after-year story. PPS shrinks greatly every year because many parents who have the power opt to put their kids elsewhere.
Those without kids care far less than those who do raise their children here. Fact of life. Bill Peduto and Michael Lamb and Jim Ferlo and a host of yuppies living in apartments in South Side Works care a tiny bit....
Meanwhile, those who do have kids are often so close to the action that the selfish streak is going to come out first. There is forest, trees and momma bear in the woods, if you know what I mean.
IMNSHO, the next revolution -- or more to the point -- the next revolution that will gain some system-wide changes and be noted in history as a game-changer is NOT about taking down or taking out people with power, captains on a sinking ship.
Be careful for what you wish for in terms of changing principals and such. Once upon a time the people of Poland could turn to their hopes to the east and see Stalin and then to the west and see Hitler. Today's (and for generations I guess) the middle east is a quagmire with ISIS, Syria, Iraq, Iran, etc., etc. Friends are not generally found with the enemy of an enemy. We're learning that lesson, right?
The next revolution that is going to work is going to be one that HELPS THE KIDS. This is something that we can all get behind, even those YUPPIES that use the bike lanes that Peduto is happy to build and boast about. A new venture that greatly helps the educational options and outcomes with a lot of kids is going to get many people excited and make a serious impact.
That's the ticket.
I'm not inclined to pitch a protest and rail against any figure-head and repeat the mistakes of the past.
I have serious doubts that Dr. Lane's replacement would be any better than what we've already got and that is not saying much.
You are right-- replacing Lane with Roosevelt was worse--while I had ALOT of hope for new board members and on a personal level I think they are strong intelligent candidates-- I had hoped the would "rail against the establishment" more-- it feels like with the viewing ability of board meetings etc-- they sit as if they are being judged on decorum-- and they seem no question NOTHING of late- unless WE get riled up-- like TFA and then Lane takes it away without discussion--
Political will is a good think and the political will to do the right thing, often not so easy, is missing, sadly, on many important issues in PPS.
Dr. Lane does not have the political will, for example, to address the athletics, sports, recreation issues that I care about. Some other top administrators don't have the will to act as well.
We got issues, problems, and solutions -- but -- we don't have the political will to roll up the sleeves and make necessary changes.
I am sorry I was not clear in an earlier post. Mark Brently has always been a voice of reason on the board. I know him and like him very much. His problem is that he has been unable to persuade the rest of the board members. We thought with Dr. Holly on the board that things would change. Have they?
We kind of figured that Sylvia Wilson would go along with whatever the board wants. All she needed was her own rubber stamp. Cindy Falls has asked questions, big deal. How many times has she voted with the majority? We need board members who can persuade the others to vote against Broad hires, policies, anything broad. Cut the funding and kill their initiatives.
As far as Melissa Frieze becoming a superintendent in the future, I predicted a promotion for her last year. We saw her on television giving a news release. Does anyone remember? I still think she is in the plan. She is a PPS graduate, teacher, administrator. Just like Andy King, except she has more class. I don't believe she is a Broad grad, perhaps a PELA?
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