Comments on: Executive team takes a beach retreat

By: Zarwen

Zarwen — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:30:46 +0000

John,

I explained this in a post on January 3, but here it is again in case you missed it.

It is a very common practice, in both public and private sectors, to eliminate positions and announce that it is a cost-saving measure. The part you don’t announce is that you have created NEW positions that cost about the same as the “eliminated” ones. So you dupe the public into thinking you’ve made cutbacks when you’ve done nothing of the kind. The “savings” is being spent on the new hires. Happens all the time.

By: John B. Tang

John B. Tang — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:15:00 +0000

Wow!!! I thought that job belongs to Lolenzo Poe. One of the comments I heard from the BESC central office staff was “They keep hiring new people” How does central office save $1M on the pretext of restructuring? This is not acceptable. Either Carole and Zeke lied to the public or they are so arrogant that they think whatever they say will fly. I bet teachers are up for a strike because it is not fair for them to sacrifice while the central office does whatever they please. In addition to the three new positions, RTI director, RTI assistant director, CIPA Government Relations Director… PPS is spending money on RACE training by the PEG group and Glenn Singleton. This man spins out school district training like a machine. The taxpayers are paying big bucks for the training. What are we getting in return? How is this going to close the achievement gaps for African American males?

By: Carrie Adams

Carrie Adams — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:34:07 +0000

It looks like they might have been working on a job announcement. A full-time position opened on 1/22 for a CIPA Government Relations Director. Is that new?

By: marcia

marcia — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:05:00 +0000

This poor person would like a contract settlement…and a possible 2 percent raise from a couple years ago so I can pay my bills.

By: moon baby

moon baby — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 01:39:25 +0000

I wonder what the poor people are doing this weekend….

By: howard

howard — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:19:37 +0000

“What if the PAT and district negotiation teams had gone on the retreat? Would we be any closer to reaching an agreement?” Now that both sides are in arbitration unfeasible. At 500 days and counting its probably too late for fence mending and bridge building..

By: by97225

by97225 — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:43:20 +0000

I agree that while an off-site retreat has its benefits, the timing is stupendously bad.

By: Carrie Adams

Carrie Adams — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:32:50 +0000

What if the PAT and district negotiation teams had gone on the retreat? Would we be any closer to reaching an agreement?

Trips like that have a way of breaking down walls. Somehow I don’t think that’s a problem within Carole’s team now. It just looks like more of the “war room” mentality.

Miss Merry Sunshine is right. The people at the top are clueless. That includes the board! I’ll bet board members are out campaigning this weekend. They’ve forgotten that the superintendent and her staff work for them.

By: John B. Tang

John B. Tang — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 08:46:38 +0000

Matt, I commend you for being an honest guy when you said you were not sure what the executive team was doing during their retreat. I hope you won’t get into trouble with that team later when they return because they might not like for you to be so honest. Stay that way and report to the public exactly what you know.

By: stephanie

stephanie — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 04:54:25 +0000

The retreat itself doesn’t bother me that much; I used to be a part of corporate world and you do actually work from 7am to 10pm and get a lot of stuff done but it could have waited until after the vote.