BURKEonBOARD

(Oct. 11, 2008) – It has been five days since I had coffee with ISD 192’s assistant superintendent for education services, Dr. Christine Weymouth last Monday morning. I said I would get back with a recording of that conversation and I haven’t. About that in a second.

At our coffee, Dr. Christine Weymouth brought with her district finance director Jeff Priess and HR director Linda Goers. I was happy they joined. I’ve raised many questions about district finances and questioned the executive level staffing in Weymouth’s Department of Teaching and Learning, so I suspect that is why Goers was along.

Now about the recording of our conversation. There is no recording. (continue reading…)

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“What, then, is the true Gospel of consistency? Change. Who is the really consistent man? The man who changes. Since change is the law of his being, he cannot be consistent if he stick in a rut.” – Mark Twain

“There must be consistency in direction.” – W. Edwards Deming

(Oct. 10, 2008) – Recently, a friend sent me an audio recording and book by William Ouchi. He is a UCLA management professor who has focused much of his energy in the past two decades on how we manage our school.

Ouchi is a devotee of what is called the Edmonton Approach, a decentralized style of school management that puts all manner of decision making at the school building level, from how to teach to who plows the school parking lots. It gives students and parents the right to attend any school within a district. It has been amazingly successful in the places where Ouchi has studied it, (continue reading…)

(Oct. 8, 2008) – So, you have to wonder, what’s changed in the past two years for Terry Donnelly and the Farmington School Board?

Terry Donnelly is the current Farmington school board member who is now running for the Farmington City Council. He’d have to quit the board in mid-term if he won a council seat.

A friend forwarded to me this link to a Thisweek newspaper article (Terry Donnelly runs for second term on school board) published right after the filing period for the 2006 school board election. Donnelly had just filed to run for reelection and the newspaper quoted him on his reasons for seeking reelection.

“I don’t want to quit before I see it through,” Donnelly said. “It is kind of an exciting time and we are making a lot of progress and I want to see it through.” (continue reading…)

(Oct. 6, 2008) – I received a note from an anonymous school district employee over the weekend who commented on the difficulties the school district is having converting from the old student information system to a new one called Infinite Classroom which was to have been up and running for the start of this school year. It is still not fully functional, including Family Web Access (FWA), the module that gives parents access to their students’ academic records.

I wrote last evening to the district’s director of administrative services, Rosalyn Pautzke, who has responsibility for overseeing this project: (continue reading…)

(Oct. 6, 2008) – If you haven’t heard, yet, there will be a pair of candidates forums this Wednesday evening, but not for the school board.

Candidates for mayor and city council will face off from 6 to 7 p.m. That will be followed by a forum for the two candidates for state representative in Dist. 36B from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.

The forums will be held in the new City Hall, 430 Third St., downtown Farmington. If you can’t make it, the Farmington Independent will carry the audio of the forums streamed live from its web site, http://www.farmingtonindependent.com/.

(Oct. 6, 2008) – I’ve heard from a few parents who have heartburn with how school fundraisers are handled in our schools. I must admit, I never gave the matter a second thought except that when one of our kids brings a fundraising kit home, I take it away until homework is done.

The concerns I heard, though, were about the time taken during the school day to train kids to be good little fundraisers. Who to call (”Make sure you call your grandparents and aunts and uncles.”) and what great prizes they could earn if they sell so much of this or that. (continue reading…)

(Oct. 5, 2008) – Hope you had a chance to read the post added Thursday (A response from ISD 192 Assistant Superintendent for Education Services, Christine Weymouth) from Dr. Weymouth on what’s happening in her work world.

Clearly, Dr. Weymouth has a lot going on. Which caused me to think that since her’s is a new position, previously all this must have been done by the superintendent.

Well, at least now he has more time to focus on non-education matters, administrative matters, finances and personnel issues. But it turns out that the district has a Director of Administrative Services, Rosalyn Pautzke, to handle administration issues. And the district has a Director of Finance, Jeff Priess, to handle financial matters like the very popular (with the school board) upcoming bond sale and tax increase. And the district has a Director of Human Resources, Linda Goers, to handle the hirings and firings.

So, what exactly is keeping the superintendent busy these days? Maybe he would like to write to us, as Dr. Weymouth did, and let us know. I’d hate to think we were wasting that $160k (plus benefits)/year salary.

I’ll will extend to him the same offer I extended to Dr. Weymouth. Provide a response that addresses the question and we’ll publish it here, unedited and without comment.

(Oct. 5, 2008) – Sorry this is last minute, but if you have some questions you’d like asked of ISD 192 assistant superintendent for education services, Christine Weymouth, please email them to me ASAP at tim@burke4board.com.

I’m having coffee tomorrow (Monday) morning at 7 a.m. (ouch) with Dr. Weymouth. The coffee date was at her invitation after I wrote to her asking for an explanation of the management of the district’s Department of Teaching and Learning. (continue reading…)

(Oct. 2, 2008) – Last week I wrote to ISD 192 Assistant Superintendent for Education Services, Christine Weymouth, asking for an explanation of the staffing situation in the district’s Department of Teaching and Learning (DTL). I questioned the top level staffing in that department which includes Weymouth and two department directors, one a person who was formerly the director of curriculum for the district before Weymouth’s appointment and the creation of the DTL.

I asked Weymouth for an explanation of the staffing in DTL and promised her I would publish her answer in its entirety, unedited and without comment. Here it is. (continue reading…)

(Sept. 30, 2008) – We’re learning more and more about the bond sale the school board is planning and the tax increase that will go along with it.

And what we’re learning doesn’t necessarily square with what we’ve heard at recent school board meetings.

First, you need to know what the bond sale is for.

There are lots of details about the proposed bond sale that are helpful to know and we’ve written several times about it since the board started talking about it only earlier this month. You can get caught up by reading Another School District Tax?, Lookout! Tax Increase Ahead! and School Board’s Open Door Policy.

Bottom line, the board plans to sell up to $12.1 million in bonds (continue reading…)