Peyton Wolcott - Commentary

Conservative commentary - Board Governance: Ethics, Team of Eight & Single-Member Districts

P E Y T O N W O L C O T T

Who's in charge of our school boards & their
meetings when it's a 'Team of Eight'?
By Peyton Wolcott
Updated Friday, February 15, 2008 - 6:31 p.m.

Two, four, six, eight, who do we n-o-t appreciate?
THE TEAM OF EIGHT!
By Peyton Wolcott - June 16, 2006
Updated May 4, 2008
Comes an interesting comment from a friend who is--brave soul--also a
school board member. The new supe they've just hired has asked to be
included on the dais with the rest of the board, front and center with the
president. "Anything wrong with this," my friend asks.

My response: "Lots. So very many lots of things wrong. Come, let us reason
together and while we're at it, let us count the lots of things."

What happened when I asked
Lake Travis ISD (TX) who
hired a team of lawyers to
forward their receipt for 24
matchy-matchy shirts
By Peyton Wolcott-September. 13, 2006/11 pm

Ann Arbor, Michigan

EMAIL FROM ANN
ARBOR'S PR GAL RE
JUNE 16, 2006
REPORT ON AAPS

The name says it all
The meetings we are talking about are called "school board meetings." They
are not called "school super-
intendent meetings." A good clue is what it should look like; there should be
an odd number of folks up there on the dais--five, seven, nine.

Point 1: If the elected trustees' employee, the superintendent, wants to hold
his or her own "school superintendent meeting," he/she can put himself up in
the dais at that meeting with anyone he wants.

Point 2: Unless and until the school district's superintendent is elected by
taxpayers, he/she needs to sit off to the side at school board meetings; the
only folks on the dais should be the school board. Too often when the supe
sits on the dais, he/she winds up running the meeting as with this photo of
Texas supe Dennis Hill (center below in white shirt).

Lake Travis ISD's trustees
leaving board room for private meeting room
during July 2006 executive session

In addition to legitimate questions
as to the necessity for LTISD's
hiring edu-law powerhouse Walsh
Anderson to forward a single-page
receipt for them, several questions
have also arisen in the course of
looking into this purchase.

Here are the particulars on the
LTISD "Team of Eight" shirts:

Lake Travis ISD paid a Waco
vendor $649.94 for 27 "Executive
Men's Shirts" for the trustees and
supe which no residents who
regularly attend board meetings
are able to recall ever having seen
worn at board meetings.

Once upon a time the Ann
Arbor, Michigan school board
practiced the Team of Eight
with their supe George
Fornero (right front).

Remember this photo above
posted here on June 16, 2006?
On July 14 Liz Margolis, Ann
Arbor's PR gal, emailed:
Dear Mr. [sic] Wolcott, As I am
sure you are aware there are
always two sides to every issue.
The "terrific citizen-driven site" you
mention is maintain [sic] by a
small group of individuals who
live very close to the new high
school site and who
unsuccessfully attempted, in the
courts, to stop construction on
what turned out to be a false
claim of an endangered species
of salamander found on the site.
They have since become
self-appointed watchdogs with
dwindling support in the
community. This district has
faced many challenges in
building the new high school.
After a 20 year debate, the bond
passed in 2004 by the highest
percentage in the history of the
district and after delays, mostly
caused by outside forces, we are
well on track to open the school
in Fall 2008. I am not asking you
to retract or take down any of the
information CRS shared with you
but to just ask you to remember
many have questioned the
motives of this group in their
drive to derail projects this highly
respected school district is
involved in.
Sincerely,
Liz Nowland-Margolis Director,
Communications Ann Arbor
Public Schools
2555 S. State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734.994.2236
margolis@aaps.k12.mi.us

No response from La Joya ISD's
'Power Couple' re 'power to the
people' questions (BELOW)
By Peyton Wolcott
Sep. 7, 2006/11 am

ANY SUGGESTIONS FROM
INTERNETLAND?
Last week I faxed and emailed both
Antonio and Rita--but no response yet.
Ideas, anyone, anyone? Why do we
need to hear from them? See below.

Superintendent creep
This past decade has witnessed a general and insidious movement towards
the supe/trustee "team" concept, insidious because most trustees do not
understand to what they're acquiescing, as with my friend's question. We
Americans are a decidedly egalitarian lot and readily embrace the concept of
teamwork. Supes have recognized this innate goodness and have, I believe,
over-eagerly taken advantage.

What makes this easier is that unfortunately many trustees generally have no
clue what their powers are and, rather than taking it upon themselves to learn
what they can and cannot do, are for the most part content to ask their
superintendent, which is the cart leading the horse. Or, they attend
governance training sessions he/she recommends, which are likely most
often hosted by state school boards associations or similar, with the trainings
themselves in many cases led by former superintendents. "I'm just sick," a
friend told me after her first such training. "The guy who led my trainings is a
former superinten-
dent from [name of town deleted] and he kept telling me what I couldn't do. Of
course he'd say that. They all stick together."

Team of Eight
Here in Texas the "Team of Eight" has been promoted by the Texas Ass'n of
School Boards, which appears to be staffed mostly by retired superintendents,
and the Texas Ass'n of School Administra-
tors, which I think of as the supe's union. Folks in Austin call it "The Lodge."
It's to superintendents' advantage to be considered an integral "team" member
rather than an employee. In one fell swoop such a move both boosts their
image and power and at the same time limits their accountability.

In the best of all possible worlds a good supe is a glorified business manager.

La Joya ISD's Antonio Uresti, husband
of new LJISD board VP Rita Marie
Garza- Uresti (above left); Antonio was
recently promoted to LJISD ass't supe;
residents have raised ques- tions re
his certification history. There are also
questions regarding Rita's (above
right) SBEC certification status in light
of her employment by the Texas
Education Agency as a No Child Left
Behind Consultant; wouldn't a current
"Principal" certficate be a handy
resource in that line of work rather an
an expired one?

INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO
KNOW: Neither La Joya ISD's
newest ass't supe Antonio Uresti nor
his wife, La Joya ISD's newest board
vice president Rita Garza-Uresti, have
responded to queries regarding their
State Board for Educator Certification
status; according to Antonio's LJISD
bio, he's entering at least his ninth year
of being a principal--but a check with
SBEC shows he only received his
SBEC principal's certificate on April 5,
2005. How can that be? And how can
the state of Texas employ his wife as
an NCLB consultant when her SBEC
principal's certificate has expired?

My same-day response:
Liz, thank you for contacting me.
Is this the reference to which you
are referring, the one on this
page? >>snip>> Could you
please send specifics regarding
your statements? I am always
eager to learn the truth. The
highlighted portions below (in
red) would be a useful place to
start. From what I can see,
construction costs are
considerably over budget, the
school's opening behind
schedule, and George Fornero
has moved on to another job in
another district in another state
(Deerfield-Highland Park High
School District 133 in Highland
Park, Ill.). By the way, would you
be open to a few questions
regarding your job as AAPS
director of communications? I
also have a few questions
regarding your new superinten-
dent, Todd Roberts. Thank you
again, and wishing you all the
best. Peyton Wolcott

Elevating supes to the same status as elected trustees boosts them way
beyond their pay grade. Taxpayers often have little or no say in the hiring of a
superintendent whereas taxpayers can vote their elected trustees in or out.

Further, there is and should be a natural tension between school boards
and their superintendents. After all, the superintendent is the point man for
spending the money and should be the place where the buck stops. The team
concept is meant to erase that tension because as a "team" member the
supe becomes one with his bosses the trustees and thus accountability is
lost.

From local bloggers:

EARN MY VOTE, 08/10/06: So ... has
La Joya elected wolves in sheeps
[sic] clothing? Well, better the devil
you know than the devil you don't.
Guess who was awarded the
position of Assistant Superintendent
for Human Resources & Student
Services ... none other than Antonio
Uresti, husband of La Joya ISD
Board Vice-President Rita Marie
Garza-Uresti. La Joya ... we may
have a problem.

AMONG THE 94 COMMENTS
THIS POSTING ABOVE
GENERATED:

No response from Margolis as of
July 30, so sent this follow-up:

Liz, you contacted me two and a
half weeks ago (July 14, 2006)
with some general statements
to which I responded that same
afternoon by asking for
specifics so that I might better
understand your statements. It
does not appear I have yet
received a response from you. In
the event there might be some
confusion, perhaps the following
will help:
1. You mention "a small group of
individuals who live very close to
the new high school site." To
whom are you referring? What
are the names of these
individuals?
2. You refer to "self-appointed
watchdogs with dwindling
support in the community." How
are you quantifying such
"dwindling support"? Is this your
perception or is this based on
factual data and if so what
factual data? What are the names
of the "self-appointed
watchdogs" to whom you refer?
And--I'm being very serious
here--what do you mean by
"community"? Are you referring
to the Ann Arbor Public Schools
community and/or those who
support it? Or the greater Ann
Arbor community comprised of all
Ann Arbor citizens which
community may include
individuals who do not
necessarily support Ann Arbor
Public Schools?
3. You mention "delays, mostly
caused by outside forces." Could
you please detail these?
4. You state that "many have
questioned the motives of this
group." Who are the "many" and
which is the "group" to whom
you refer?
Finally, I also asked whether you
would be open to questions
regarding your position at Ann
Arbor Public Schools.
In the event that you did not
receive my July 14 response, I
am resending it (below).
Looking forward to hearing from
you.

Only looking out for their own family
members. What about the people that
helped them with the campaigning
and actually spent endless hours in
the hot sun and brought in voters
because they believed that things
would be different. Let me just say that
so many of their followers are so
disappointed in them and their
decisions..... Shame on you Rita and
Team USA. Can you say "nepotism"?

Yvonne Katz
(PHOTO/Dallas Morning News)

A textbook example
A great example of why the supe/board/team concept doesn't work is what
occurred two years ago in Spring Branch ISD, a school district in Houston's
comfy Memorial Drive area.

When Yvonne Katz was SBISD's supe, while the elected school board
operated under the "Team of Eight" concept. The problem was, Yvonne
didn't.

We all know how qualified this moron
ISNT. Of all people to put in HR.

What is even worse: The fact that this
guy has a conviction for burglary and
assault. He was arrested and
charged numerous times on this act.
Then he took it a step further when he
was arrested for possession of
cocaine. What a great person La Joya
ISD now has as an assistant to the
top tier of the district.

I truly believe that it is time for TEA
and/or SBEC to get involved and
investigate what is really going on in
this district.

In addition to the generous $250,000 per annum her trustees were paying
their fellow team member, turns out Katz was also pocketing $500 a hit as a
consultant for Energy Education, Inc. as a consultant.

Where is the South Texas Paper in
all this? A man steals from La Joya for
years by lying about certification,
heads one of only 2 schools who got
unacceptable ratings, gets busted with
cocaine, and has a history of
burglarizing homes; and now, [interim
supe] Dr. Benavidez promotes him
and the Board approves it? Does this
Board have any shame? There are 7
members & 2 are calling the shots!

According to Scott Parks of the Dallas
Morning News, "Superintendents,
particularly those in big districts, have
become wily in the ways of business.
Sometimes, too wily. [In 2005] we
were shocked to learn that Yvonne
Katz, superintendent in Spring Branch
ISD in Houston, was earning fees as
a "marketing consultant" for a
company that sells energy
conservation services to school
districts. After she arrived in Spring
Branch, she recommended
the company, Energy Education Inc.,
for a lucrative contract in her district.
Even worse, she didn't tell school
trustees about her financial
relationship with the company before
they approved the contract. They
learned the facts only after I reported
the story in this newspaper."

NOT MAKIN' THIS UP
By Peyton Wolcott - Aug. 27, 2006
UPDATED Aug. 27, 2006

Recent carryings-on by the La Joya
ISD school board (Texas) (above)
present a good case for citizens
extracting a signed pledge from their
trustee candidates similar to the one
we did in Llano ISD in May 2004--
before the election. Afterwards it's too
late. The nicest, most responsible
folks get themselves elected to the
local school board and all kinds of
unusual things can happen, witness
this excerpt from a local paper:

STATUS AS OF
AUG. 26, 2006:
NO RESPONSE FROM MARGOLIS
OR ANN ARBOR PS

ANN ARBOR PUBLIC
SCHOOLS EXPERIMENTS
WITH THE TEAM OF EIGHT:
A CAUTIONARY TALE
By Peyton Wolcott - June 16, 2006

Energy Education, Inc. endorsers
Voyager and then-Richardson ISD
supe Jim Nelson (R) and then-
AASA exec. dir. Paul Houston (L)

The La Joya school board’s three
newest members campaigned last
spring against what they called a long
tradition of cronyism and corruption in
the school district. But since Rita
Garza-Uresti, J.A. “Fito” Salinas and
Johnn Valente Alaniz took office in mid-
May, the seven-member board has
installed several people with close
family and political ties to board
members. The new assistant
superintendent for human resources
is Anthony Uresti, Garza-Uresti’s
husband and a Palmview city
councilman....Garza-Uresti, a No Child
Left Behind program consultant for the
Texas Education Agency, has placed a
firm emphasis on raising academic
standards. At a board meeting in late
July, she grilled principals of several
schools flagged by the state as low-
performing....But a week later, no one
on the board questioned Schunior
Middle School Principal Antonio Uresti,
Garza-Uresti’s husband, when
Schunior was the only school in the
district to receive an “academically
unacceptable” rating from the TEA.
Instead, the board promoted him to
his new post as assistant
superintendent for Human Resources
and Student Services.
Garza-Uresti, Salinas and Alaniz
complained of unholy alliances
between current and former board
members, district staffers and former
Superintendent Filomena Leo and her
husband, La Joya Mayor Billy Leo.
Rio Grande Valley...blogs have been
buzzing with talk of the district’s recent
hirings and firings.... “Truth in La Joya
Politics” explicitly blasts the new
majority on the school board and
defends Filomena Leo and her allies.
The blogs include various digs,
including several about Antonio Uresti’
s 1987 arrest on burglary charges, for
which he was given deferred
probation. A judge later ordered the
case’s court records expunged. Few
people seem willing to publicly criticize
the board or attach their names to the
invectives they hurl. Carmen Ramirez,
a close friend of the Leos and the
former school board president, has
her own legal problems. She has
said she would like to comment but
her lawyer has barred her from doing
so until after her trial on charges of
stealing thousands of dollars from the
La Joya Water Supply Corporation.
--Kaitlin Bell, The McAllen Monitor

Noted
“There’s a new sheriff in town,” Garza-
Uresti said. (Ibid.)

So much for Katz's participation in
the "Team of Eight." At the same
time her seven trustees, unpaid
volunteers all, were acting as team
members, Katz their employee
was looking out for Katz.

But Katz didn't stop with Katz. "In
addition, a close subordinate she
brought into the district, former
facilities and transportation
associate superintendent Michael
C. Maloney, has been indicted for
alleged mishandling of at least
$627,000 in school construction
and consulting contracts," writes
Rhea R. Borja in Education Week.
(More on Maloney in grey box at
bottom.)

In 2004, voters passed a
$205 million bond issue,
which included a new high
school with a $69 million budget
and a Fall 2007 completion date.
"It was never the case, as was
pitched by the Superintendent
and his consultants, that a new
high school would help the
imminent financial crisis. As far
back as 2003 and up through
the bond vote, the administration
was keeping its own Business
Services Director out of
discussions about paying for the
operation of the new high
school. District employees and
teachers said the district
couldn't afford it. Still, the
Superintendent, consultants and
even one Board trustee
concocted arguments to rush to
build a facility they couldn't pay to
run." (SOURCE--Citizens for
Responsible Schools)

NPR commentator Juan Williams at
TASA/TASB convention (Oct. 2005, Dallas)

Small world follow up
Last fall at the TASB/TASA annual
convention in Dallas, after NPR
commentator Juan WIlliams'
keynote address during the
second general session, as I was
heading towards the exit I noticed
several "Teams of Eight" in the
crowd, each team wearing
matching shirts and so snapped a
quick shot of the blue-shirted team
closest to me.

CRS asks: "Why are Board
members making excuses ('we
didn't want to micromanage') for
their inability to hold the
administration accountable?
Why is Dr. Fornero leaving town,
after telling his Board and the
community that he would stick
around till 2008?" In addition to
not being on top of construction,
"Superintendent Fornero blamed
principals and teachers for the
district's achievement gap."
(CRS)

The district started
building the new high
school and the school board
experienced difficulties getting
accurate progress reports from
their fellow team member
Fornero. In late January 2006,
"two days after the board called
for an audit so they could finally
get to the bottom of their district's
construction fiasco, Fornero
announced his departure for
greener pastures," (Ibid.) a new
job near Chicago at Deerfield-
Highland Park High School
District 113 of Lake County, Ill.
Fornero said that he would
remain at the helm at Ann Arbor
until July 1. (Supe Ann Riebock’
s resignation is effective June 30
over at District 113.) Less than
two weeks later the new cost
estimate for the high school was
$84 million and Fornero
announced it would open a year
late. (SOURCE--Ann Arbor News)

SBISD's Team of Eight at TASB/TASA
convention last October in Dallas; note the
PBK gimmes--canvas totes.

Given the foregoing,
are you as curious
as I am about LJISD
board vice presi-
dent Rita Marie
Garza-Uresti's
career as an NCLB
consultant for the
Texas Education
Agency?

Garza-Uresti

One of their members noticed me,
then volunteered for her group to
pose; the nice lady was Mary
Grace Landrum (center, below
left), a new board member, and
the group was Spring Branch
ISD's Team of Eight, the seven
elected trustees with their new
supe, Duncan Klussmann. Sure
enough, if you go to the SBISD
Board of Trustees Home Page
you'll see under the heading
"District Leaders - Board of
Trustees" not seven bright shining
smiling faces but eight--the seven
elected trustees and their
employee, the superintendent.
His name and photo are even
featured first, ahead of the seven
trustees. Perhaps they're hoping
the Team of Eight will turn out
differently this time.

Garza-Uresti's SBEC expired?
Especially given that her State Board
for Educator Certification certificate
appears to have expired? Have
emailed Garza-Uresti today to verify
that this link below is her SBEC page;
hard to imagine that SBEC's Rita Marie
Garza is not the same person as Rita
Marie Garza- Uresti, especially given
than SBEC has no listings for Rita
Marie Garza-Uresti, but all things are
possible. Will post her response if
and when received.

Community comments
"In the middle of the disaster
and chaos, created primarily by
the Superintendent and his
teams, Dr. Fornero announced
in late January, 2006, that he is
leaving the district. Very
convenient. He leaves the
community, the district, and the
Board to deal with his mess and
the red ink.
Traffic problems, school
attendance boundaries, inability
to fund the operations and
maintenance of the new school
will all need to be dealt with, but
not by Dr. Fornero. Remember
that when interviewing to get the
job in Ann Arbor, he said that he
wanted to stay with the Ann
Arbor Public Schools until
retirement." (Ibid)

Antonio's SBEC status also
confusing
According to SBEC Antonio Uresti only
just received his principal's certificate
on April 2, 2005. But how can that be?
Antonio's bio on La Joya ISD's
website indicates he's been a
principal for at least 8 years, not 1;
sent a query to Antonio yesterday re:
Science teacher 6th-8th
taught 4 years. Middle
school assistant princi-
pal 6 years. Elementary
school principal 4 years.
Associate High School
Principal 4 years. Cur-
rently principal of
Schunior M.S.

So this was a good lesson learned
well by those open to learning
lessons.

The challenge this leaves for
Spring Branch ISD is that the
policies referenced in the contract
assume someone of the high
caliber of Duncan Klussmann will
continue at SBISD's helm.

For example, while this language
is encouraging, it only specifies a
"fee" without mentioning goods
and services, receipt of either of
which can be lucrative. According
to this wording, it appears the
district's superintendent could
theoretically receive a free trip from,
for example, an outfit like Plato
Learning, Inc. without reporting it
so long as he or she did not
receive a fee.

Leapfrogging over
the schoolhouse
This possible scenario includes a
recent real-life example, a series of
overseas trips subsidized by
vendor Plato Learning in conjunc-
tion with the National Association
of Black School Educators, headed
at the time by Andre J. Hornsby,
whose retrial for fraud while
serving as a Maryland superinten-
dent is set for June 10, 2008.

New Ann
Arbor supe
Todd Roberts
(left) hails from
Birmingham
Public Schools,
which does not
appear to practice
the Team of Eight
as their board
page features only

YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO COPY
AND PASTE THIS URL--MY SOFTWARE
WON'T ALLOW ME TO LINK THIS ONE:
https://secure.sbec.state.tx.us/SBECONLINE/v
irtcertdisplay.asp?spid=317082&mode=C

New Ann
Arbor supe
Todd Roberts

EVERMAN'S TEAM OF EIGHT:
FOLLOW-UP RE WHEN THE GOING
GOT TOUGH, GUESS WHO
RESIGNED?
By Peyton Wolcott - Aug. 26, 2006 - 5 pm

seven happy smiling faces and
makes no mention of their supe;
Roberts currently serves as BPS
deputy supe for educational
services.
Roberts starting under
a cloud
"Several members of a 29-person
citizens committee who were to
help with the interviews
questioned whether school board
member Randy Friedman had
been campaigning for months for
Todd Roberts, an Ann Arbor
resident who is deputy
superintendent for educational
services for Birmingham schools.
The committee members said
they had heard that Friedman
began a personal campaign early
this year, long before the official
search opened. They said
Friedman was introducing
Roberts around the district as the
next superintendent. If that's the
case, they asked, why bother
involving the public committee?"
(SOURCE--David Jesse/Ann Arbor
News)

Friends, I must admit to being
mystified by Everman ISD's board
president Boyd Andress's resignation
over the flap caused by EHS principal
Kathy Culbertson's alleged remarks of
a racist nature over the school's louds-
peaker (more below). My mystification
arises from the fact that EISD supe Jeri
Pfeifer (2nd to right, front row above) is
the Team of Eight board member
actually in charge of hiring and super-
vising employees, not Andress. So I
have today faxed and emailed Jeri;
will post her response, if and when.

Ending on a positive note
Fornero's name has disappeared
from Ann Arbor's pages
completely along with the group
photo of the Team of Eight at top;
the only images at present on
their school board's webpage are
different individual photographs of
seven, not eight, bright smiling
faces.

EVERMAN ISD'S TEAM OF
EIGHT
Peyton Wolcott - Aug. 25, 2006

With the Team of Eight concept, as the
eight smiling happy elected Everman
ISD board members above with their
employee, supe Jeri Pfeifer (second
from right, front row), my understanding
was that it's all for one and one for all.

How does a person without an advanced
degree get a job in the educational
bureaucracy when the position requires a
graduate degree? The Houston Chronicle tells
us the secret: The person claims to have a
degree from a College that doesn't exist:
A former Spring Branch Independent School
District administrator has pleaded guilty after
being accused of a misdemeanor for lying on
his résumé.

Harris County Judge James Anderson
sentenced Maloney to a year of probation with
deferred adjudication, community service and
a $750 fine. Anderson also ordered Maloney
to write a letter of apology to Spring Branch
ISD.
Mike Maloney's plea last week comes more
than five months after he resigned from his
position with the school district, where he had
worked since 2002 as the associate
superintendent for facilities.

In his 2002 district application, Maloney had
said he had a bachelor's degree and a
master's degree from Cal Southern
University, court records show. No such
school exists.
This guy lies on an employment application for
service in public schools thereby committing a
criminal act. He gets the job, and draws an
annual salary of probably more than
$125,000. He works for three years before
being discovered and forced to face criminal
charges.
+++++++++++++++++++
Maloney only got caught when his
subordinates became concerned at his
obvious lack of expertise in supervising the
letting of contracts.
And all this clown man gets is a $750 fine, a
misdemeanor rap on his record, and is
required to write a letter of apology? No jail
time? No restitution?

Talk about a slap on the wrist.
Maybe Mike Maloney, liar and convicted
felon crook is also "friends" with Harris
County Judge James Anderson.

Apparently, Maloney was hired because he
is "friends" with Ex-superintendent Yvonne
Katz, who herself was forced to resign her
$250,000 per year job last August amid
charges of improper conduct involving an
energy savings firm. In fact, her shenanigans
resulted in the passage of a new state statute
to address the corruption problem.
Superintendent Yvonne Katz "brought"
Maloney with her when she moved from
Beaverton, Oregon, in 2002.

It looks like Beaverton Oregon, sent it's (sic)
problems "down to Texas." They're probably
still doing handstands and high-fiving each
other. (The Education Wonks, April 1, 2005)

If you'd like to learn more about the
new Ann Arbor high school, this is a
terrific citizen-driven site:
www.proposedhighschool.org

So what happened when the happy
Everman Team of Eight met a big test
this past week? After Everman HS
principal Kathy Culbertson allegedly
blamed black students for the schools'
poor TAKS scores on the school's
loudspeaker, irate parents came out in
droves, including student Allison
Coleman (below) who with her mom

expressed
unhappiness with
the principal for
another reason:
Culbertson had
required the girls
to raise their
hands over their

Everman HS student
(PHOTO/KHOU-TV)

heads to make sure that belly buttons
were covered. Coleman (above)
demonstrates her coverage problem
for the TV camera.

Far be it from anyone to suggest that a
teenage girl wear an oversized T-shirt
offering generous and sure coverage.
Let's not even go there. Let's go back to
the racism issue.

Everman HS principal Kathy
Culbertson (PHOTO/WFAA)

Who resigned over the furor resulting
from Culbertson's alleged words?
EHS principal Kathy Culbertson herself?
No.
Well, then, maybe it was the Team
of Eight's (and Culbertson's)
superintendent, Jerri Pfeifer? Well, no.
The person who resigned was
Everman ISD's board president, Boyd
Andress.

"In submitting his resignation, board
President Boyd Andress said he
personally accepted responsibility for
any offense taken." (SOURCE--WFAA-TV)

So, how much bullet did supe Pfeifer
bite? This statement was as far as she
appears to have gone to date: "I have
every conviction--every conviction--that
there was no intent to hurt anybody or to
embarrass anybody, or cause anyone to
feel uncomfortable." (Ibid.)

R-A-C-E the issue
Oh, I forgot. Public schools are not
about teaching and learning. They're
about feelings.

By the way, anyone want to guess the
name of the street Everman HS is on?

(Drum roll) Race Street. Yes, R-A-C-E.

Everman HS
1000 S. Race Street
Everman, Texas 76140
Phone 817-568-3550

How we take back our children's education:
one person, one question, one school at a time.

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What is a "Team of Eight"? Seven elected school
board members plus their employee, the superintendent. If
your district has five trustees, you might have a "Team of
Six." With nine elected trustees, a "Team of Ten."
Why it's a bad idea: No matter how friendly the
relationships, there is an inherent tension between elected
trustees and a paid employee. Becoming part of an
artificially assembled team -- artificial because the
responsibilities are different -- blurs the distinction between
the two. Team members don't hold fellow team members
accountability in the same way they would an employee.

Too often, our superintendents as
in these examples sit on the school
board's dais -- many times in the
middle -- and run the agenda,
apparently forgetting that they're
called "school board meetings" and
not "school superintendent
meetings" for a reason.

For a superintendent to sit in the
middle of a school board meeting
and run the microphone is an
improper usurpation of authority by
hirelings, a power grab.

Llano ISD (TX) supe Dennis Hill in center of
board dais controls meetings by controlling one
of only three microphones he allocates to the
board, leaving the remaining two mics to be
shared among seven trustees. He who runs
the mic runs the meeting.

School board photos on
district websites are also
revealing. For example, at Lake
Travis ISD's board page we see a
group photo of not seven smiling
faces, but eight -- superintendent
Rocky Kirk having apparently given
himself a promotion -- and his elected
trustees a demotion, by their according
him equal rank -- to the Team of Eight.

Texas' Lake Travis ISD's(L) updated Team o'Eight
page, with supe Rocky Kirk at far right; below,
Maryland's Montgomery County SBOE with their
supe Jerry Weast (C)

Michigan's Ann Arbor Public Schools supe Todd Roberts (far left, seated)
with his seven elected trustee bosses, 2007-08 and 2008-09.

02.15.08 UPDATE:
AAARRRGGHH.
Ann Arbor has returned to the
Team of Eight concept. (See
above photo.)

MAY 2008 UPDATE:
Spring Branch ISD

Spring Branch's trustees and
superintendent Duncan
Klussmann took a big -- and, I
believe, important for the nation --
step towards transparency in
November 2006 when they
committed to voluntary post the
district's check register online.

At the time, SBISD was the largest
district in the nation to publicly*
undertake this, and the district's
move towards open government at
that place and time was an
encouragement to other districts in
Texas. For this I will also be
grateful to Duncan and his board.

Ideally, when negative situations
occur such as happened during
Yvonne Katz's era, alert boards
learn from their mistakes and,
rather than circling the wagons and
moving into a hunker-down mode,
correct them, out in the open.

When I called SBISD's business
office in June 2006 as a follow up,
associate SBISD superintendent
Margie Duffey located Duncan's
contract and read the language to
me over the phone on very short
notice. The "Consulting" section
stated as follows:

_______________
* We learned in February 2007 that
Dallas ISD -- unbeknownst to
anyone, including members of the
Dallas media who'd been regularly
attending Dallas ISD board
meetings -- had also posted its
check register online in November
2006. Also, Clovis USD in
California had posted its check
register online some years earlier
without telling anyone outside the
community. In fact, Clovis USD
appears to have been among the
first districts in the nation to move
towards this degree of
transparency, if not THE first.

"DURING THE TERM OF THIS
CONTRACT, THE SUPERINTENDENT
WILL NOT ENGAGE IN ANY
CONSULTING ACTIVITIES FOR A FEE,
OR IN ANY OUTSIDE EMPLOYMENT,
WITHOUT THE PRIOR CONSENT OF
THE BOARD. THE SUPT WILL COMPLY
WITH ALL DISTRICT POLICIES, RULES
& REGULATIONS REGARDING
CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND FRAUD
AS THEY EXIST OR MAY HEREAFTER
BE AMENDED OR ADOPTED DURING
THE TERM OF THIS CONTRACT."
Applicable policies include DBD (Legal) and
DBD (Local).

This example of Plato is especially
relevant as Plato is a vendor Yvonne
Katz signed up for during her tenure
as SBISD supe.

Brush up your Plato.

Then-Philadelphia schools "chief
academic officer Gregory E.
Thornton and administrator
Rosalind Chivis had approved a
$926,000 no-bid contract for Plato
Learning Inc. - five months after
the two took a 10-day excursion to
South Africa in June 2004 that
was subsidized by the
Minnesota-based
education-software distributor."
(SOURCE--The Philadelphia Inquirer)

Andre Hornsby (PHOTO: Washington Post)

Let's extrapolate this out a bit.
Here's more regarding one of the
trips:

Gregory Thornton

Who wants these problems for
their district?

The only way to solve this is
simple: No side consulting for
superintendents of any kind, and
no receipt of any goods or services
of any kind from anyone.

In the meantime, whatever
happened to Yvonne's employee
Maloney?

Lake Travis ISD "Team of Eight"
Seven elected trustees with
supe Rocky Kirk at right rear, standing

How and why superintendents try to force
their trustees into following the team
governance model. If a superintendent -- especially
one whose job is in trouble -- can force his or her board to
sit still long enough for a team training session, especially
one led by a nationally recognized trainer, the trainer can
coerce/persuade the board to follow the team governance
model in which trustees are taught to let their employee the
supe, the professional who knows best, run the show.

That's exactly what Capistrano USD supe Woody Carter (a
retired Army lieutenant colonel and a member of the first
Broad Superintendents Acadmy) appears to have
attempted last December. In a prepared statement to his
board, Woody told them, "Under the guidance of a nationally
recognized mediator, Dr. Harry Wineberg, we were going to
establish protocol, procedure, roles and responsibilities of
how we would perform as a team....This of course was
irretrievably altered Monday morning when [CUSD board
president] Addonizio changed the agenda to include my
evaluation...."

Nationally recognized? There are no mediators in the U.S.
named "Harry Wineberg." Escondido USD agreed to pay a
"Harry Weinberg" with an Ed.D. $900 for keynote speaker
services at the district's August 11, 2003 leadership retreat.

Comments Mission Viejo Watchdog Dale Tyler:

Capistrano, California supe Arnold Woodrow "Woody" Carter
addressing the CUSD school board in March 2009 just
before they voted unanimously to fire him as superintendent;
in March 2010 a judge tossed Woody's $5.5 million wrongful
termination suit. (PHOTO--Paul Bersebach/Orange County Register)

Llano ISD school board meeting
(2002-03)

Why public school superintendents dreamed up the
"team" governance model: It benefits them & vendors
By Peyton Wolcott
Updated Sunday, March 21, 2010

Before the "team" governance model swept the land,
elected school board members met regularly at school board
meetings and asked questions about their district's
operations which their employee the superintendent
answered.

As vendors began overrunning our schools, the questions and answers grew
louder and messier. And as superintendents began controlling ever bigger
pots of money their relationships with vendors came increasingly into question;
all the while havoc was being wreaked on a perfected good traditional classical
education model because everyone knows you can't make big gobs of money
with tried and true curriculums. To make any money you'd have to introduce
new ideas and concepts and gobbledegook.

Like Wily Coyote, America's superintendents were quick to cater to vendors'
overtures -- in league with liberal progressive politicians; then there were the
inherited-wealth and self-made billionaire idealogues eager for a compliant
dumbed-down labor pool. (Think about it: Someone unable to think for
themselves enough to start and run their own business would more likely be a
passive assembly-line factory worker.) The greater the inroads by vendors, the
bigger the big pots of money, the more secretive superintendents became.

And this, duckies, is how we've wound up with a "Team" as in "Team of Eight"
board governance model.

The "Team of Eight" is seven elected board members plus their employee, the superintendent. Supes' lobbyists arranged for this new board governance model to be written into most
states' education codes a decade or two ago to give more power to the supes. One quick thing you
can do: Ask your superintendent when he/she was elected to the board as you were under the impression the dais was reserved for elected trustees.

Of course, the workshop was planned. The idea of a
“mediator” originated with Mr. Carter. One can assume
that he believed such a mediator was necessary to
actually talk to the Trustees. Why would that be? Could it
be that he has spent so much time in the past year trying
to undermine the Board that he has developed a sense
of alienation? Why would an experienced $325,000 per
year executve need a mediator to talk with his Board of
Directors? Dr. Harry Weinberg, retired Superintendent of
the San Diego County schools does not hold himself out
to be a mediator. His usual role is to make motivational
speeches to teachers and staff. His “national
recognition” is questionable.

The position of Superintendent is not a public “office”. In fact, it is a position of public
employment. Mr. Carter is seeking to claim the respect one might owe to an elected officer, such
as a Mayor, Governor or President....

[Mr. Carter's] statement seeks to undermine the authority of the Board. As such, it is
insubordinate. If Mr. Carter cannot subject himself to evaluation by the Board that hired him and
defend his actions, then he should resign. He cannot claim that the job is too stressful because
some member of the Board (or the public) disagrees with his decisions.

Woody goes on to chide the board that they have "mortally
wounded the position of superintendent in this District. You
have shown a clear contempt and disregard for the office."

Woody next says, "I handle dozens of issues, make decisions constantly, and need the support
of a helpful and constructive team." Dale points out:

This whole statement needs to considered carefully. First, the Board is not a part of Mr. Carter’s
“team”. They employ him to run CUSD according to their policies. If he starts making or
changing district policy without their consent, he has exceed his authority. Mr. Carter has the
opportunity to create a helpful and constructive team — of subordinates — among his staff.
Sadly, most of his senior staff are unchanged from the days when [prior supe, now indicted] Jim
Fleming improperly ruled over his Board. Mr. Carter suggests that he lost support in June. That
might coincide with the moment that he sought the political support of [the teachers union] to
oppose the last recall election.

CASE STUDY: CAPISTRANO USD, CALIFORNIA

Woody was fired as CUSD supe on Monday, March 9, 2009.

Dale Tyler again:

The supe needs to be at school board meetings but in attendance, waiting in
the wings, as the trustees' chief employee, available to answer trustees'
questions -- not running the microphone.

Below, California's Davis USD has a good idea; the supe and administrators
sit with the audience: