April 7, 2008
Redo redux
RPS Superintendent Deborah Jewell-Sherman announced this afternoon that she won’t seek to have her contract renewed when it expires next year. I think that’s a good start, but is “next year” soon enough? It seems to be that the school board would be well-served to step in and encourage her resignation a bit sooner, even if it would be fairly hollow gesture at this point. I think it’s also key that she’s not the only “turnover” in central administration; again, I’m not holding my breath.
And while we’ve yet to hear a public comment from Mr. Braxton, at least one other school board member has offered up some thoughts (and it’s probably not the member you think it is):
I don’t often use the first person in school board meetings because every decision we make must be a collaborative one. Taking personal credit doesn’t do too much to advance our work, but taking personal responsibility does. I want you to know that I am responsible as a leader of an environment where corruption, incompetence, fraud or waste can pervade such a major function of the system. I am responsible for having the internal controls in place to catch errors before they become regular practice. And to the thousands of kids, parents, mentors, teachers, principals, and support staff who show up everyday to do their best to build something worthy of pride, I am sorry.
The School Board will tonight board produce its audit response plan; Thursday, RPS administration will update the school board and public about its improvement steps at a special meeting of the Facilities and Operations committee.
Will it make a difference?
This was the second audit this year of procurement. Has anyone heard the mayor step up and take responsibility for the audit of city procurement, which read much as the school audit did. Where, in the budget, are the proposed savings from these audits?
Yeah, we need to rid the system of folk directly involved in ” corruption, incompetence, fraud or waste” and those who protected such acts through damage control, lies, bullying, and pure spinelessness.
The inept and/or corrupt individuals robbed our children of an education above the bottom line of SOL scores. And denied disabled students the ability to enter their district school and yanked the opportunity of a IB education for a great number of gifted children away. Shame, shame, shame!
I’m glad the board member apologized but why didn’t she stick up or stand behind Carol Wolf when she was blowing the whistle on Tom Sheeran? The board voted for Wolf to be sued!
Recent style news: http://styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=16729
There are signs of hope that the SB is starting to listen to Wolf. She had to fight for it, but she managed to convince them (9-0) that they need to “vigorously prosecute” anyone who has been involved in the “corruption, incompetence, fraud or waste.”
[...] RPS Superintendent Jewell-Sherman has tendered her resignation. Chief Monroe is leaving. Mayor Wilder will not run for reelection. … Anybody asked Director Creecy if he’s sticking around? Posted at 5:07PM under RVANews-politics, government [...]