Another era, another battle forty years ago for the Equal Rights Amendment. Gloria lives in NY a glamorous sinecure; I get cuffed around down here in the intellectual and cultural badlands for wanting the teachers and students to get a place in the board agenda so they can give their input into the policies that the board and administration now impose on them from above as if they did not exist and did not matter.
Bart, the guy I helped when Elia and Kipley cooked up a case against him, and Anonymous have left comments on the evaluation of Elia by the board in which Griffin and Valdes have made a big turn around in the evaluation of Elia and have almost gone the distance in falling in line with the board's automatic obeisance to her excellence.
I am not surprised. The two's behavior from the start of their board career has presented an inevitable repudiation to their pre-election position of skepticism. Whatever original convictions the two may have had about improving the schools for teachers and students and keeping their promises to the community have disappeared in the jet fumes of Board Travelgate festivities. They have switched loyalties for airline tickets to Las Vegas and Alaska and other jumping destinations.
What gets me is that the superintendent evaluation does not even mention how Elia treats the teachers, the students, and the schools. It's as if the students and teachers were peripheral to the ROSSAC grandeur--bit players on the education stage.
The evaluation does not cite the grade inflation Elia imposed on the teachers and students; it does not cite the purchase of the Spring without the people's input who must implement it: teachers. The board like the administration considers teachers and students incidental to their ROSSAC kingdom, puffed-up soi-dissant importance, and self-bestowed infallibility. The students and teachers comprise the tax head count that provides the board and administration the tax money to strut on the town's stage as Very Important People, hire buddies to bloated-salary jobs by giving the lie to "We are an equal-employment-opportunity employer," and gadding around town to soirees to pretend to be beneficiaries of education, not its cormorants that feed off it for self-aggrandizement, not for promotion of education.
I write off Susan and April as round heels and regulation board members in thrall to the administration's desires.
Let's turn our eyes to Steve Gorham. Let's see if he if elected is tough enough and ethical enough to keep his promise and provide a ballast on the board for all the collaborators he will have to oppose, those whom Griffin and Valdes have now joined. Let's pray he is Galahad. lee
Did you read the article about Elia's new evaluation? That
disappointed me. They gave her good marks. That article made me think you are probably right. You know I defended April and Susan to you,but after reading that article, I am disappointed. I feel like when you get to the administrative level people act like anything less than "excellent" is giving the person an "F"....
The culture in the downtown administration and the board is that everyone there should be treated with kid gloves and pack them in feather down or bubble wrap and to walk on egg shells, but mistreat the teachers all you want.
It is such a strange culture.
Even CTA told me that "investigate" was too harsh for Kipley, but it apparently wasn't too harsh for me.
I guess when you move up to the administrative level you suddenly have no skin whatsoever, so everyone has to walk on eggshells, but teachers are supposed to have double thick skin.
Bart
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Had I Been There":
I sort of agreed with everyone about Valdes being the better choice in the Valdes/Schmidt race, but after reading the article in the Trib about the latest Elia evaluation makes me think Lee is right about Valdes and Griffin. They have totally caved in.
It is sad. So we have a 7 member rubber stamp board now apparently, so after that article I am sort of in agreement with Lee, except that Schmidt is not a choice either. It is hopeless. People get on the board wanting to make a difference and somehow through peer pressure they are forced to go along with the majority. There is no hope.
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Posted by Anonymous to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 8:06 AM
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Teachers are so eager to believe that someone claiming she/he will help them is telling the truth. In the end, there is no hope. Elia will carry on and do as she pleases while the board sits back and nods their heads like bobble head dolls. It is a sorry state that Hillsborough schools have fallen to. In the last school board meeting Elia warned of more cuts after November elections. Let's see if she keeps her word to not impact schools. She should cut her salary and her officials' salaries. Since she gets them all from Kindergarten, Home Ec, and Early Childhood, if they get mad and leave, she can easily replace them for less money with more buddies.
There is no hope for the current school board. There must be an automatic brainwashing session when someone gets on the board.
I agree with the person who commented that Elia wears her hair in a mullet style. With all her money she should get a better hairdresser, but I guess you can take the lady out of the trailer park, but you can't take the trailer park out of the lady.
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