Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Superintendent Advisory Meeting Tonight

District Event
Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Superintendent Advisory
Site: DIST LGI
Start Time: 7:00 PM
End Time: 9:00 PM

18 comments:

Wanda said...

Good Superintendents meeting tonight. these are great, informal meetings where the parent can ask whatever they want and actually get an answer. No formality, no pressures, no agenda, no topic off limits. Please consider coming when they start back up in Sept. You have no idea how much you missed tonight.

Anonymous said...

Tell us what we missed!

Jon said...

I'll leave the wonderful things to someone else, because honestly I can't recall any off the top of my head, it was mostly justifications for what's being done and continued chipping away at programs, offerings, options, etc. Also, I've heard the same preaching to the choir speech now about 5 times about how 5 years ago it wasn't true but now Morrisville School District is the place to be, the teachers are great, the teachers and admin work well together, the kids have more discipline, etc. Recommendation: Take that speech out into the hinterlands of the community to the people who rag on the district without ever having set foot in the buildings and don't know the first thing about what goes on. My biggest problem with the district is not the teachers or the students or the administration. It's with the school board, and by, extension, the people who elected them, and the people who didn't vote.

One thing I heard last night that I really didn't like was that the board introduced ZERO competition to the Superintendent's position. Mr. Ferrara's contract ends June 30, and the next board meeting is June 29, and so guess what? Mr. Ferrara gets the job. No posting of the job, no seeking other applicants, nothing. Someone will inevitably read this as "see, he just wants to get rid of Ferrara". Not true. But to have ZERO competition, to just hand him the job, after all this Hellmann talk about competition and efficiency? That's ridiculous.

Mr. Ferrara say no matter who gets the job, they'll be the lowest paid Superintendent in Bucks County. Fine, but that's not my point. My point is the board didn't even attempt to look at anyone else. Where's the sense in that?

Anonymous said...

10 aides cut.How is that going to help education? By distracting the teacher from instruction to keep classroom order? If you've been in a classroom you'd know this is a bad idea.

Anonymous said...

you know what i find helps education??saying thank GOD we have a responsable school board smart finance decisions of the peoples school board over and over and over again

Anonymous said...

Would it be too much to ask to have a few more smart non-conniving board members?

Anonymous said...

Hellmann identified Ferrara as wonderful superintendent material years before Ferrara got the job. No insult intended against Ferrara, but that's all the credentials needed. As long as you're simpatico with Hellman, you're in.

Anonymous said...

Yes. Fixing the "intelligence" around the foregone conclusion can lead to bad decisions with terrible conseqeunces. Ask George W. Bush, who I'm sure Hellmann voted for.

Anonymous said...

Twice!

Anonymous said...

From: Bill Hellmann
Sent: Monday June 30, 2008, 10:55 am
Subject: RE: engineering services, high school boilers

i am the one that stirs the drink. if i sit here, yonson’s spending will kill this town. she has two puppet board members that do whatever she tells them, and the TINY pro-Schoolers crew. ha ha ha! they are all sand-pounders. ha ha ha!

one by one they are either leaving or being replaced. soon yonson will be by herself. i have been talking to bill fararra (sic) and I like him and so do other board members. he likes the consolidation we are talking about (tuitioning out). i assured him we will always need a super and at least one principal.

i know i am not polite at the meetings. i will work on that and try to be more patient and respectful to the other fools. my problem is I have little patience for incompetence and i am surrounded by those types of people up there.

Anonymous said...

"I have little patience for incompetence and i am surrounded by those types of people up there."

We feel the same way, Bill. We have little patience for you and your incompetence and being surrounded by those type of people up there.

Anonymous said...

The drink he stirs is a Crappletini. Cheers!

Jon said...

Below is an excerpt from a Jan. 28, 2011 BCCT article. Note the part in ALL CAPS. So, is the BCCT wrong, and state law doesn't require the district to open up the position to other applicants? And even if the BCCT is wrong and state law doesn't require it, why on earth would you not open it up to other applicants anyway?


"...The only other business discussed Wednesday [Jan. 26] was a permanent superintendent.

Board members were expected to give the job to William Ferrara at Wednesday's meeting.

Ferrara has been the acting superintendent for the district since September. BUT STATE LAW REQUIRES THAT THE DISTRICT OPEN UP THE POSITION TO OTHER APPLICANTS BEFORE FILLING THE JOB.

Jon said...

A post of mine from May 4. Come to find out 1.5 more months later, there was no process, it's just give the job to Ferrara. I know I'm a bad person for pointing this out, but how can you blab about competition and efficiency and then conduct the exact opposite of an open, competitive job search for a critical highly paid position in the district?



So 3+ months have passed since the Super. job was to be posted, candidates interviewed, etc. Ferrara's job performance review mtg. is supposed to happen before the end of May, and his job term currently ends June 30. I don't think I've heard a peep about the status of this. Has anyone else? This is the kind of thing, like M.R. Reiter, the Grandview Trailers, and many other key issues, that I think the Board does a bad job communicating (or a good job not communicating, depending on how you want to look at it).

Don't read too much into this - I'm neither endorsing nor denouncing Mr. Ferrara. I'm not looking for Exec. Session details, I'm just asking in general about if there's a process going, and how's it going?
Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Anonymous said...

gutting a program is not a education cut in the eyes of the current board well people their will be a lot of gutting going on before the new school year

Anonymous said...

It's just Offal!! Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.

Jon said...

From one punster to another, I appreciate it!

Anonymous said...

PEOPLE YOU BETTER GET TO THE NEXT AGENDA MEETING ON 6/22 AND REGULAR BOARD MEETING ON 6/29 YOU CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT THEY ARE CONSIDERING BEHIND YOUR BACKS AND GOING TO HIT YOU WITH A RIGHT HOOK FOR THE NEXT SCHOOL YEAR. IF MORRISVILLE MEANS ANYTHING TO YOU BE AT THE NEXT MEETINGS, SPEAK UP ABOUT YOUR SCHOOL WHETHER YOU HAVE KIDS IN THE SYSTEM OR NOT.