The D11 Fact Sheet

There is much disinformation and misinformation circulating around the School District 11 community. Much of this misinformation is being spread by those who are intent on maintaining the status quo. This blog will set the record straight and it will educate the public on the identities of these defenders of the status quo.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Why Bishop chose the status quo

Like most superintendents around the nation, Terry Bishop took control of School District 11 with big promises of big results. Like most superintendents of most school districts, Bishop's talk was just that - all talk. Even before the recall election in December 2006 (which Bishop supported), Bishop chose to move down the path of least resistance, which is to say, the path of"status quo." Bishop was convinced by D11 staff that it was not wise to ask D11 employees to actually work harder to achieve better results. After all, Bishop and his close advisers all believe that there is only so much that can be done to educate poor and minority children, so he felt that there was no need to push for something that was not in the realm of possibility.Bishop was convinced by D11 board president John Gudvangen that the recall election was going to be successful, and therefore there would be no need for Bishop to actually do anything in the course of his large salaried job.

In fairness, it cannot accurately be said that Bishop has not done "anything." He has succeeded in growing central administration and placing more of his close friends on the public payroll.
The 2006-2007 CSAP preliminary results have been posted on the Colorado Department of Education website today, and as can be expected when a school district has lethargic leadership, the overall composite CSAP results for the district declined slightly,.from 56.5% Proficient and Advanced (PA) to 55.9% PA. Congratulations Terry Bishop and Instructional Superintendent Mary Thurman. Your hard work in fighting reform has allowed you to continue your records of mediocrity. Congratulations also go out to this labor union purchased school board for overseeing yet another decline in district performance. While you are busy "getting along" and attending board meetings while drunk, the district continues to lose students and families to perform at a level that places it near the bottom of all school districts in El Paso County.

The CSAP results indicate that D11 has declined or remained level in 15 of 26 tests given this past Spring. No doubt that Bishop will receive a healthy check for his at-risk performance bonus, and he will immediately pay a bonus to his deputy superintendents.All of the current board members will run for re-election and they will promise the public that if just given more time, they will surely drive D11 to new heights. They will talk of caring about kids and respecting teachers, but none of them will provide any specific ideas or plans to actually shake D11 out of its decline.

For the record, to highlight the unhealthy state that D11 finds itself, in 2006, 17,435 students took the CSAP. In 2007, only 16,841students took the test. That is 594 students whose parents found someplace else to educate their kids.

The only slight bright spot in the statistics fall in middle school math. 7th grade statistics show a jump from 45% PA to 56% PA. 6th grade math had a 3 point jump, and 8th grade math had a 4 point increase. On the down side, 10th grade test results slipped from 30% PA to 28% PA. In another ominous sign of things to come, in 3rd grade, test results showed a decrease from 74% PA to 70% PA. Much of this decline stems from the fact that math chair Dora Gonzales continues to push the nationally discredited Everyday Math Program on the elementary schools. If 30% of D11 students at this young age cannot be taught basic math, this does not bode well for the futures of those students.

If anyone thinks for a minute that Bishop or his staff will take this data and develop a plan to improve D11, they are sadly delusional. While the teachers' labor union was deep in felony scandals, and while the board members were sipping cocktails at their North End dinner parties, and while Bishop and his staff were taking home their 6-figure salaries, your kids and you tax payers were continuing to be told that 50% effort and 50% performance were not only good enough, but were good enough to reward those in the district who already get paid the most and, in reality, do the least.

This is exactly the type of performance that recall supporters wanted to see in D11. This is exactly the level of achievement that labor union activists were pushing for. All of this results from low expectations, low standards, and a board that demands nothing of the D11 employees. This is exactly the type of school board that will assure the continued decline of the largest school district in El Paso County. As usual, the crisis continues (ACK TAS).

Friday, July 27, 2007

Just another "Day" in School District 11

Back on April 3rd, 2007, I wrote about the hiring of Barbara Day (by Terry Bishop) on a "part-time" contract for $50,000. This is $5,000 more part-time than what the average D11 teacher makes full time (or 35 hours per week based on the labor union contract, which is slightly different than full-time). In that April blog post, I pointed out that Day and her boyfriend Mark Maksimowicz had recently purchased a $527,000 home in Monument together. I also pointed out that since Day was only working "part time" at the time, then you could be certain that Bishop must have promised her and ex-D49 superintendent Maksimowicz a lucrative job in D11 in the near future.

As of July 1st, D11 Special Education Director Robert Howell retired. To no one's surprise, Bishop saw this as an opportunity to provide his long time friend with the income that she needed to pay for her expensive home. Bishop has named Barbara Day to as the new D11 Director of Special Education. I said this in my April post: "We can expect Day to receive a full time job in D11 next year for a six-figure salary, and we can probably expect to see Maksimowicz on the D11 payroll as a contractor or salaried employee about the same time." The salary and benefits that Day will receive will place her nicely into the 6-figure income range.

What qualifications does Day possess that got her this important and high paying job? What licensing does she have that made her the best suited person to fill this slot? How many applicants did Bishop interview before handing this job to his long time friend? Those questions have never been asked by the current do-nothing board.

Day has absolutely no qualifications to be director of special education or director of anything else in D11. In fact, Bishop had to ask for an emergency waiver to allow Day to take this lucrative job because she does not possess the training or licensing to qualify for that position. Her only qualification is that she is chummy with Terry. The watchdogs of the D11 budget, led by John Gudvangen and Jan Tanner, will say nothing about this hire.

Special Education is an area that costs the D11 tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Much of this cost is due to lawsuits by parents who believe that their children's' special education needs are not being met. The person in charge of special education should certainly have the experience and training to deal with the very unique situations that arise in the special education arena. Barbara Day has neither the training nor experience to lead the district in special education services. Nobody can argue against the very clear fact that Day was only handed this job because of her relationship with Bishop. Bishop never interviewed any other candidates for this job that was supposed to be publicly posted due to the laws dealing with a pubic entity.

Bishop clearly brought Day back to Colorado Springs as a personal favor to her rather than as a benefit to the students and tax payers of D11. He first hired her part time to be a site based management consultant, even though he was preparing to cancel the site based program that the full board voted to adopt. Day literally never did anything in her role as the site based project manager. Bishop then assigned Day to lead the citizens' committee on school utilization, which is still meeting regularly. Howell's retirement gave Bishop the opening he had been waiting for to reward his friend. As is typical in public education, there is no requirement for any type of proven competence in a specific area for a person to be handed a 6-figure job. The only requirement for someone like Day is that they know somebody in a position to hand them the money, no strings attached and no performance expectations.

The other half of my prediction will also shortly come true. Maksimowicz will likely be discovered on the D11 payroll in the very near future. Who knows, with the level of secrecy that this administration and board have practiced, he may already be on the payroll. Naturally, D11 is not a better school district as a result of these cronyistic hires. That is OK, though, as long as the school board members are getting along.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

John Gudvangen rips Labor Union & D11 teachers (But only behind their backs)

D11 board president John Gudvangen has not earned much respect for himself since being elected to the school board in 2005. His ability to turn any board discussion into a soliloquy on himself and his whiny demeanor have been a big turn-off, even to fellow anti-reformers. His lack of honesty when dealing with the public has also been a major problem for this weak board member.

Gudvangen was elected to the school board through the vote purchasing power of the teachers' labor union. The labor union threw over $200,000 of its member dues into the 2005 election to elect board members who would do the labor union's bidding, which is to say that they would do nothing to improve D11. Gudvangen was a huge supporter of the 2006 recall campaign to oust ex-board members Eric Christen and Sandy Shakes. He made numerous behind the scenes promises to community members to do "big things" in D11 if only the meanies were out of the way. As to be expected with people like Gudvangen, he had no intention of keeping his word.
Many recall supporters have been sorely disappointed in the performance of Gudvangen's board since December. A very prominent and vocal supporter of End the Chaos, (the group that was formed to run the recall), met with Gudvangen to express his/her displeasure with Gudvangen's lack of leadership. I also met recently with this same Chaos supporter, who I will refer to as "CS" so he/she does not receive the full force of hate that would surely come upon him/her from the Chaos community.

During the meeting between CS and Gudvangen, the issue of the East closure was discussed. During the time that the reformers were on the board, Gudvangen had constantly told his anti-reform supporters that the reformers were trying to close D11 schools, and that he would never allow this to happen on his watch. He was not even willing to allow board discussions on the topic of closure or re-utilization. This is a matter of public record. The question that CS had for Gudvangen was, why the sudden rush to close East Middle School? Gudvangen told CS that he was pushing for the hard decisions that the reformers left on the table. Since CS has been very involved in D11 for many years, he/she knew that what Gudvangen was saying was pure nonsense. Gudvangen talked to CS about the budget issues that would be helped by the closing of East, and CS pointed out that the biggest part of the operational budget for any building is teacher pay. CS asked Gudvangen if he was saying that the East teachers would then be laid-off since the school would no longer be in use.

Gudvangen's response to CS was a response that Gudvangen would never have the courage to say in public. Gudvangen is terrified of upsetting his labor union handlers, so he would never jeopardize his good-standing with the labor union bosses by standing up for the tax payers.

Gudvangen told CS that the district could not lay off the East teachers and that the district had to place these teachers in other D11 schools because that is what the labor union demanded that the district do with the teachers. Gudvangen went on to say that this was a shame because East was nothing but a warehouse for poor teachers. Gudvangen then blamed the labor union for the warehousing of teachers at the troubled middle school.

This illustrates a major problem that exists in D11 and other similar school districts. When you have weak and timid board members purchased with millions of labor union dollars, these weak board members will never do what is right for the parents who fund the school districts in the first place. Here you have a case where the board president realizes that there is a major problem in his district, yet he openly admits that he is afraid to address the problem because his union handlers will object.

By state statute, the school board makes all final decisions on employee hirings and firings. State statute trumps bargaining agreements, so the Master Agreement cannot be used as an excuse for having to keep underperforming teachers on the payroll. D11 is facing a budget squeeze, and rather than eliminate teaching positions due to the elimination of a school building, Gudvangen and his fellow anti-reform union puppets on the board chose to keep squeezing the budget by simply shuffling these teachers around. While the school board, as representatives of the tax payers, is supposed to be in charge of the school district, Gudvangen admitted that this is not the case under his watch. The labor union, a private organization, is pulling his strings. What a surprise.

What Gudvangen said about warehousing at East is probably a true statement (a rare occurrence from the lips of Gudvangen). This highlights a sad reality in D11. East was a very low performing middle school. Rather than push to help the students of that school by placing highly competent teachers in the building, the administration simply wrote off the students in that area and assured that they would receive a minimal education by, according to Gudvangen, placing poor performing teachers in the building.

D11 parents should now be concerned about which D11 school will be designated as the next "warehouse."

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

More on Poore

As mentioned in my last post, ex-D11 employee Michael Poore has been hired by his old buddy Terry Bishop to be the newest Deputy Superintendent of something. Poore will receive a salary of over $120,000 in the cash-strapped district. What experience does Poore have with IT, the area over which he will be responsible? Absolutely none.

While in his previous stint as a D11 employee, Poore served as the Mitchell High School principal. During the time of Poore's service at Mitchell, the performance of the school declined. Apologists for medicority in D11 will blame that decline on the fact that the minority student population grew at Mitchell while Poore was in charge. These apologists claim that "those" types of students just don't have the same ability to learn as white students. Even if that were true, Poore never developed any plan to improve Mitchell, regardless of the student body composition.

Poore spent the last few years up in the Sheridan School District, serving as the Superintendent up there in the 1700 student school district. A Sheridan resident added this comment to my last post on this issue: "Poore was the super of Sheridan school dist and a dismal, weak leader that depended on everyone else to do his job including the former super Judy Kary. This is well known up here and a major source of disgust and a continuance of their revolving door problems with their teachers."

"Revolving door" is exactly what exists in D11 as far as ex-employees are concerned. Although it will sound like a smart-alec question, can anyone honestly name one of the 6-figure earners in D11 who is anything other than a "dismal, weak leader?" Poore was not hired for his competence; he was hired due to his friendship with Terry Bishop. Bishop, like his predecessors, is far more interested in building the incomes of his old pals than in building a good school district.

As to the new Executive Director that Bishop hired in D11, at a salary of $95,000+, Christian Cutter is related to current Mitchell principal Larry Cutter. Qualifications for his job? Again, who knows. That big wheel keeps on turning.

If you read comments from labor union mouthpieces throughout this blog, they pretend to care about the future of D11. Notice how deadly silent they remain on the issue of the hiring of old D11 cronies who bring no competences with them at all. This money is being spent to continue to grow an already bloated administration, and the labor union remains silent. What about those watchdogs of D11, the McNally's and Annie Oakley's and Lyman Kaiser's? Where is their outrage at the expenditure of big dollars to hire old cronies of the current D11 boss, despite track records of low performance?

Maybe Bishop has a good reason for wanting to use East Middle School as a new central administrative building. East was built to hold 800 students. As central admin continues to grow, that space might be put to good use.

free html counters
Circuit City Discounts