Superintendent Smith’s Contract
Carole Smith’s contract is up for renewal on October 1, 2010.
Do you think PPS Superintendent Smith's contract should be renewed when it comes up for renewal in October 2010?
- No (68%, 27 Votes)
- Yes (32%, 13 Votes)
Total Voters: 40
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20 comments
Heck no. She will go down as the least effective and least competent superintendent since Dr. Mathew Prophet.
I have to agree, she is totally out of touch with what goes on, is ineffective and hires people who are also ineffective and Zeke can leave when she does!!
I think she is the best supt. since Prophet. Doesn’t mean I agree with everything she does. She came into the job with some pretty good ideas and a willingness to talk to all sides of the issues. But someone has stopped her from doing that. Don’t know if it is Zeke or just the people around her. But she has blown the opportunity to work together for all of Portland’s children with all of the city’s citizens. It is too bad because there really was a window of opportunity to get all sides working together. Dan Ryan is better at the Foundation than most in the past. Stand for Children was beginning to realize that they were not really representing everyone. Pam Knowles brought some much needed representation to the business community. Martin Gonzalez was supposedly going to address problems of the Latino community in the schools. David Wynde was working on making the money work. Equity was going to be addressed. There were a lot of things looking up.
But since then Carole has isolated herself behind the west hills – more affluent community wall and refuses to hold “dialogues” with people who are not in that community and who don’t hold those narrow positions. The result has been a serious failure to address the pressing problems in the district. Cause the answers for the education of Portland’s poor aren’t hidden behind those walls. And they certainly aren’t being solved. Look at the botched redesign, the continuing problems in the Latino community, the rediculous cutting of PE etc., the unadressed k-8′s, the failure to intelligently refigure the testing culture, the special ed. and ELL problems, the failed addressing of the transfer problem, the general decline in education in the lower economic areas, the failure to beef up the diversity hiring and the late hiring problem, the inability to build solid autonomy for teachers, the failure to fix the principal problems and the continuing top down structure of control, the refusing to define what constitutes a good education in the district by holding onto the emphasis on testing instead, and on and on. These are tough problems but the people from different parts of the city promote different approaches. And without the dialogue there is a tendency, tendency hell, a lock step approach to attempting to solve problems based on what is good for the more affluent parts of PPS, not what is good for all. Without bringing the more dissident members of PPS activists into the conversation in a meaningful way you depend on getting solutions to problems in the lower economic areas from people who have opinions and experience biased heavily in favor of the wealthier parts of the district. This restricts the conversation in a very unhealthy way and the problems (see, for openers, the unfinished and unsatisfactoryHS redesign and K-8 problems) continue unabated. Too bad Carole has become so insular. Happens all the time to people who are in the spotlight. Trouble is PPS can’t afford it right now.
Hi Steve: I don’t disagree with you. PPS staff had high hopes in Carole as well as the public. We thought we would invest in a local educational leader who would stay and make PPS a better place for staff and to improve the education of all students. We know her strengths and her weaknesses when we supported her. However, she let all of us down. Her strength of being a collaborative leader became her weakness because she did not want to face up to difficult situation. I can give room for her to be insulated by others but only up to a point. She has herself to blame for the current state of affairs at PPS. You covered all the areas that she failed to take leadership and the bucks have to stop with her and no one else. I would say she started out as a promising leader but went down the wrong path and made poor decisions for the district. She is an empress with no clothes.
Carole got the job because in her entire career she never made anyone angry and we were all excited about that. Thinking she was such a nice person. But good leaders take a stand and you can’t please everyone, she hasn’t learned that yet. She has allowed Zeke and other; Xavier, Hank, Jollee, to stand out front and make bad decisions and keep her away from any decisions good or bad. In protecting her they have caused her to be an ineffectual leader who should not be renewed. Maybe when we get a new person they will get rid of all the dead weight in BESC.
Carrie did you see the WW today. Carole and Hank gave all the administrators 18 days off for the summer with pay. Amazing. Anothe reason she should not be renewed.
Moonlighting, I saw that. Smith needs to go now. We can’t afford to wait until October. Every day of her leadership brings more embarrassment.
PPS is backpedaling now from their previous decision about letting principals and vice-principals off the hook from working the minimum of 18 days in the summer as indicated per their contract. So the email was totally wrong then. If this is the case, then Hank will need to go. An HR Director of the biggest district in the state could not be so ignorant to be sending out an email like that. It was not even well written and worst yet, it was sent out to the administrators by Monica Brown, his assistant. Hank does not use good judgement and he should not be running HR.
However, this decision sounds very similar to the one Carole made when the teachers were working hard to beat Measures 65, 66 and the Excomm were taking a three-day retreat at the coast. How many more stupid decisions would we have to see coming out of this superintendency? Carole owes her decisions to the taxpayers. She is not the CEO of her own company. She has to be accountable to every single penny contributed by the public. PPS is a public institution and not a private corporation. The school board also needs to be held accountable for every single misstep that Carole makes during her tenure. I think the school board needs to think twice about renewing Carole’s contract in October of 2010.
They are backpeddling because they got caught. Carole doesn’t stick by anyone look at Xavier. There should be a recall of her a petition or something. The fact that 30 percent of the people think she is doing o.k. especially after the memo Hank Harris sent which was from Carole Smith as he said.
Xavier left because he saw the handwriting on the wall. He was given the impossible: fixing ESL and Special Ed, Curriculum…district equity plan but he did not have the right people to help him. He could hardly wait to get out of Portland even when he did not have a job waiting for him in Chicago. That is a very telling sign. He was leaving a sinking ship. I strongly believe that the board should not renew her contract this coming October. With Carole, it would only get worse as we can see the decline in the last several years. Let someone else have a shot at it.
Show Me, Xavier left because he has a very, very ill child and is returning to Chicago to be near family.
Yes, I don’t dispute that but the burden of the job and the lack of support and differences in styles contributed to the separation. Xavier indicated that in Chicago, people discussed and disagreed openly and then they took action. Here in Oregon, people might seem to agree and then either do nothing or do the opposite. The differences have been hard for him to take as well as an overwhelming job responsibilities coupled with the unanticipated medical complications of his 7-year-old son.
Show me – from the special education perspective could you share some of the areas where people agreed but then did nothing or the opposite if you have some insight there? I was part of the stakeholder process and felt a little frustrated with the results because ISS responded to some major concerns right away but then the implementation has been inconsistent and very hard on some families. In particular the historical issue of kids with disabilities in self-contained classrooms being moved around every year, not counted by the principals, not being in yearbooks, and pushed out of schools at the whim of transfer slots or space issues. The redesign is supposed to address this but the tours were not posted in a timely manner and some even after the fact, letters did not go out about new placements, based on the classroom descriptions kids are not being placed in a classroom to the best of their abilities, and I have heard some of the schools are just not prepared for this at all. Kids in self-contained represent 6% of the entire special education population and it is hard for me to understand why you could not get letters and information out to a population well under 1000 in such a large district. I am less frustrated with ISS than I am with the bloated PR department who you would think could have spared some peoplepower to get information out to parents on time about the tours. At least the ISS page got updated which was appreciated. I do feel a bit wishy-washy questioning this redesign though but it was more the top-down and inconsistent implementation as well as the feeling that it was a move towards more self-contained and less inclusion that could then be proclaimed, “What the stakeholders wanted”. The population that ISS serves is so spread out and sometimes there is either an indifference, lack of engagement, a fighting over the scraps, backstabbing each other, isolation, active intent to keep parents from organizing around a classroom, and also the risk of retaliation from the district if you speak up. What are your thoughts, observations, knowledge on efforts to bring these marginalized groups together on the same side of the issues? I am a bit of a silo right now I feel but also overwhelmed myself trying to get folks connected with so many other crisis level issues going on. The communication from ISS is that this is a move towards more inclusion of kids with disabilities and I really hope so but they have to get the buy-in from general ed and this is not easy to come by. In the meantime the state budget is being balanced on the backs of seniors and people with disabilities. Needed services are being eliminated with only a short review time and no opportunity for public response. Families will have their caregivers eliminated soon just in time for the school to cut their EA’s which means more calls home to pick up your child for minor behaviors that would typically be manageable with an EA present. How is a parent supposed to keep a job getting called all the time to pick up their kids and now they will have no caregivers to help. I went off on a tangent but I have seen a lot of frightened parents lately hoping their kid does not get kicked out of school or they will have to quit their job or put them in foster care. It is bad times in disability world right now. There is a rally against these cuts at noon on July 15th in Pioneer Square.
Stephanie: You know more about Special Ed than anyone I know since you are actively involved in advocating and training of Special Ed parents. So we are talking about major issues in Special: Capacity of General Ed (Response to Intervention), Integration of Special Ed students, Continuum of Placements, Least Restrictive Environment, Appropriate Delivery and Appropriate Staffing…. Easy said then done with the huge dysfunction in PPS district. I don’t have the specifics but Xavier was advised by senior management to slow down when he attempted to make massive changes in both ESL and Special Ed and he was totally frustrated. On one hand, people listened to him and praised him for his good ideas. On the other hand, nothing happened. We already knew Carole’s style so we can understand his frustrations. Xavier particularly stated that with PPS, when people agreed with him, it only meant that they were listening. I am more familiar with the issues of ELL students who are dually identified as Special Ed. It will take me a few pages to list them all but the essence of the problem is that ELL/Special Ed parents are not given equal access to all the services accorded to English speaking parents. Services are not well-coordinated between ESL and Special Ed. Training for ELL/Special Ed parents are virtually non-existent. Very sadly speaking, these 775 students might as well not exist. However, they bring in approximately 9 million dollars to the district. I hope the Feds will investigate into PPS practices concerning ELL/Special Ed students and how they HAVE NOT SPENT money appropriately to improve services to this particular population. You are in the business of training Special Ed parents. You would know how many PPS ESL/Special Ed parents have been provided ANY training in the past two decades!!!
Stephanie I also don’t understand by adding more self contained classrooms for academic, behavioral and autism that we are heading towards inclusion? I would believe that Joanne Mabbott is spinning it that way but I truley believe we are headed in the opposite direction. Also Special ed. decided to chose their own staff to support the behavior classrooms instead of specific people who might help a particular school population.
I have been doing a lot more training in the state for Spanish speaking parents but just as soon as that money became available the state took it back in these cuts. I enjoy teaching the non-English speaking population more actually because they are hungry for the knowledge. The stories I hear from parents in my trainings in Multnomah and Marion County are about getting lost in the system, being openly disrespected, having their children set up to fail, not being able to access the parent support that exists for others, and also the tormenting by bullies seems to be a big issue for the families I have in my trainings.
I went to an IEP in PPS with a family who were Spanish speakers and the IEP itself went OK but I was shocked that MECP was not invited. I heard from someone recently that PPS does not want to pay them to attend the meeting but that is ridiculous because they actually know the child’s capabilities the best as they have provided the actual early intervention service. I asked at the IEP meeting how this family accessed ESL services for their child who was transitioning in to Kindergarten and the person conducting the IEP did not know the answer (but did say they would let the family know). They said they were pretty sure that when you register at the school you checked the language box and that triggered someone to contact you. I would like to see this added to the IEP itself and more of a connection between these two programs seeing as how they are now under one umbrella in ISS.
We are trying to get a large group of parents, students, and community members together to speak out against the cuts to special education and ESL on Monday July 19th.
If anyone reading this is affiliated with any organizations that could provide the space and translators I am more than willing to do free trainings on behavior, IEP advocacy, and disability related issues.
Thank you for the offer. But I would like to hold PPS accountable for their obligations to provide ELL/Special Ed students and families with all the services given to their counterpart who knows how to access the system and to advocate for their children. PPS is given a huge amount of money to spend for these students’ education. They have to be held accountable. Let’s hope that OCR will give this situation serious consideration and open a comprehensive investigation into PPS practices. Without the big stick, PPS will not change as evidenced in the last several decades.
I can tell you from an ESL perspective that the district has numerous examples of “areas where people agreed but then did nothing or the opposite”
It is so very, very frustrating! As educators, we want to do the best we can, and we know which methodologies work best for this population and which do not, but the leaders in the ESL department, and the district itself, refuse to listen, refuse to budge on their top-down-”do what I say even though there is no basis for this in research” approach.
I see PPS has backed off on killing PE in the K-8s, but are still planning on reducing the number of SpEd and ESL teachers. Not a great surprise there. You don’t see coalitions getting together to fight for the rights of ELLs.
Ack, it’s late. I should get to bed before I say something I might regret.
ESL Teacher – The special education advocates very much want to form a coalition with all groups that are experiencing inequity. This is about human dignity for all. In a civil society we should care for all learners and David Wynde’s email stating ESL, SpEd, and central office were going to be cut regardless of what happens in congress is a fine example of the “othering” of our children and families. Oh dear, the “real” students might suffer if you do not write congress but those others are being cut anyway so don’t bother. While I am certain he could not have meant that on purpose it still sends a message to me as a parent that my daughter is less of a priority.
I thank you for stating the obvious that you as a teacher understand intimately what evidence based best practices are and which ones work for your students. How dare they “other” us and cut our funding as a foregone conclusion while also disrespecting our knowledge of what is best for our children as teachers and families. If we come together we will not be a minority anymore. If we can fill a schoolboard meeting at a moment’s notice with the marginalized groups in this school district we could really make a difference. My passion is bringing those with disabilities firmly into the arena of civil rights. People with disabilities have been othered even as a minority and floating out there with no affiliation but we are growing strong and have resources and power to share. Let’s do this! Come to the schoolboard meeting on Monday and let’s join forces. We do not want to start a new group but simply bring all of our groups together under one message of Human Dignity.
PPS has a long history of treating special education students, parents and the people who work for them like second class citizens. They count on them being disorganized, busy and afraid. They are cutting from Special Ed. because the rumor is they are so over budget they have to cut just to get them to where they are suppose to be . But of course Carole and the rest of PPS couldn’t just be honest. Why not cut special ed. central office? They have not cut any “real” administrative positions. Joanne M. wont cut any more administrators because the next two to go would be her very good friends. She would rather cut teachers and para educators. They added coordinators and put the Tosa’s into them. So it wasn’t really a cut just a wash. They are letting schools keep some pe, but at Pioneer they cut the entire PE program. Again special education students treated differently and worse than their general education peers.
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