The Integrity Gap
Shortly after Sharon Thomas was hired, I had lunch with her at the downtown Old Chicago's. The lunch meeting was for us to get to know each other better. During the interview process before she was hired, Thomas never once mentioned anything about improving student learning in the District, so this lunch was important for me to see if she had any goals in that regard.
Thomas did not provide me with any goals or desires as the new superintendent. I, however, did provide her with my goals as a Board member. I was straight forward with Thomas about my view on our Board member/superintendent relationship and responsibilities. I pointed out to Thomas that I understood that we probably would not agree on many issues. I had obviously not voted for her, so that was no surprise. What I wanted Thomas to understand about me was that integrity was one of my most important issues when dealing with others. I told her that it was more important to me that we be totally up front and honest with each other about our views on issues, even if we disagreed, than to pretend that we were going to do something that we had no intention of doing.
During that very summer, I was involved with a committee that was formed to deal with the issue of tutoring. Tutoring was an issue because D11 did not (and does not) have trained staff to deal with students with tough reading problems, including dyslexia. Karen Teja had lied about helping parents with tutoring needs, so I picked up the ball. (Teja was running for state school board, so she told parents that her political ambitions took priority over their needs at the time). There was no consistency in D11 from school to school as far as the handling of tutors. Some schools would allow tutors into the buildings free of charge, while others would prohibit tutors from being in the buildings at all during the school day.
The biggest and most outrageous issue, which was covered by the Gazette, is that the District was paying for tutoring for certain people who happened to be affiliated with the District while denying the right of other parents to even have tutors in the schools, even if the parents were paying for those tutors (Gazette, 20 January 2005).
The purpose of the committee that met over the summer, which was made up of district parents and myself, was to develop policy that would ensure consistency across the District. The goal was to allow tutors in each building as needed. The specific goal of this committee was not to address the issue of unfair and unethical favors for Board members and staff. A compromise was pretty much reached after many meetings, and Thomas was briefed by staff and myself.
At the September 1, 2005 Board meeting, Thomas completely fabricated the content of the tutoring committee meetings, and she misrepresented the requests of the parents. This brought an angry reply from one of the parents, who was speaking on behalf of the others who had worked hard over the summer on that committee.
The first act that Thomas performed as the new D11 CEO was to lie to parents, the Board, and the community about an extremely vital issue to the future of those students. Sadly, Teja was the driving force behind Thomas's unwillingness to do anything for these underserved students. It was all about scoring political points for Teja. Most of these parents were on the "wrong side" of the political aisle for Teja. Only if they were staunch liberals would their kids be worthy of free tutoring services.
In a subsequent letter to the parents, Thomas promised that she would continue to address the tutoring issue. Right until the day that she shamelessly left D11, she did nothing to address the tutoring issue. On more than one occasion, Thomas and John Gudvangen feigned indignation over the fact that anyone would question Thomas's integrity. On more than one occasion, Thomas proved to the community that she really had very little integrity to question.
Thomas did not provide me with any goals or desires as the new superintendent. I, however, did provide her with my goals as a Board member. I was straight forward with Thomas about my view on our Board member/superintendent relationship and responsibilities. I pointed out to Thomas that I understood that we probably would not agree on many issues. I had obviously not voted for her, so that was no surprise. What I wanted Thomas to understand about me was that integrity was one of my most important issues when dealing with others. I told her that it was more important to me that we be totally up front and honest with each other about our views on issues, even if we disagreed, than to pretend that we were going to do something that we had no intention of doing.
During that very summer, I was involved with a committee that was formed to deal with the issue of tutoring. Tutoring was an issue because D11 did not (and does not) have trained staff to deal with students with tough reading problems, including dyslexia. Karen Teja had lied about helping parents with tutoring needs, so I picked up the ball. (Teja was running for state school board, so she told parents that her political ambitions took priority over their needs at the time). There was no consistency in D11 from school to school as far as the handling of tutors. Some schools would allow tutors into the buildings free of charge, while others would prohibit tutors from being in the buildings at all during the school day.
The biggest and most outrageous issue, which was covered by the Gazette, is that the District was paying for tutoring for certain people who happened to be affiliated with the District while denying the right of other parents to even have tutors in the schools, even if the parents were paying for those tutors (Gazette, 20 January 2005).
The purpose of the committee that met over the summer, which was made up of district parents and myself, was to develop policy that would ensure consistency across the District. The goal was to allow tutors in each building as needed. The specific goal of this committee was not to address the issue of unfair and unethical favors for Board members and staff. A compromise was pretty much reached after many meetings, and Thomas was briefed by staff and myself.
At the September 1, 2005 Board meeting, Thomas completely fabricated the content of the tutoring committee meetings, and she misrepresented the requests of the parents. This brought an angry reply from one of the parents, who was speaking on behalf of the others who had worked hard over the summer on that committee.
The first act that Thomas performed as the new D11 CEO was to lie to parents, the Board, and the community about an extremely vital issue to the future of those students. Sadly, Teja was the driving force behind Thomas's unwillingness to do anything for these underserved students. It was all about scoring political points for Teja. Most of these parents were on the "wrong side" of the political aisle for Teja. Only if they were staunch liberals would their kids be worthy of free tutoring services.
In a subsequent letter to the parents, Thomas promised that she would continue to address the tutoring issue. Right until the day that she shamelessly left D11, she did nothing to address the tutoring issue. On more than one occasion, Thomas and John Gudvangen feigned indignation over the fact that anyone would question Thomas's integrity. On more than one occasion, Thomas proved to the community that she really had very little integrity to question.
posted by Craig Cox | 10:07 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home