By Antonio D. French
Filed Wednesday, June 28 at 7:48 AM
Superintendent Creg Williams may have overreached his authority when he made roughly 1,000 teachers reapply for their jobs a few weeks ago. The superintendent's contract expressly states that while he can recommend such firings or reassignments, it is up to the Board of Education to approve such moves. To date, the board has not been asked to vote on these reassignments.
PUB DEF obtained a copy of the superintendent's contract last week after a formal Sunshine Law request. Under the superintendent's description of duties, it states that Williams is responsible for "recommending to the Board for approval, all personnel for employment and termination, and directing, assigning and reassigning all personnel in the District."
As we reported earlier, several board members were upset to learn that Williams had assigned the duties of the distrist's treasurer to Interim Chief Financial Officer Cedric Lewis without approval or even consultation with the board.
One board member told PUB DEF that Williams should be reminded that the superintendent is accountable to the board, not the other way around.
Hundreds of teachers are still waiting to learn whether they will have jobs in the district next year. Many have expressed anger over the way they have been treated by the district. Some veteran teachers have already accepted jobs in other districts.
7 Comments:
A few comments here: first, if any teacher is still waiting to hear if they have a job in the fall or not, most likely they dont have a job. The district sent out letters to everyone it was retaining a few weeks ago. Secondly you should look into the teachers contracts instead of the superintendents because the teachers contract is the one where the superintendent got the right to "have the teachers reapply" Thridly about people the superintendent have brought into this district that have caused problems for everyone, try Dr. coleman <--- this guy is something else but neither the superintendent nor dr. coleman can compair with the biggest nut of them all, mr. spencer over at sumner, this guy takes the cake hands down!!!
Wednesday, June 28, 2006 8:49:46 AM
I wanted to sign into blogger, Im new at this but I did want to leave my link along with that last message
Wednesday, June 28, 2006 8:51:07 AM
I have been trying to get a copy of Dr. William's contract. Any way PubDef could put the contract on its site? I have been curious as to how many sick days, PTO days, vacation days, etc. he was given. I would also like to know how many days our superintendent has taken off this year. He has come down hard on teachers taking their hard-earned PTO days - let's see how much time he has taken.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006 11:53:31 AM
Then exactly what is Dr. Williams suppose to be doing for his $300,000? Talk about micromanagement. Where was the board when Roberti cleaned house two years ago? Excuse me I forgot Roberti was the Board.
The Board members knew that Cedric Lewis was acting as treasurer at the June board meeting (see VIDEO: District Faces Financial Crisis and $2 million mix-up?) but nothing was on the agenda concerning Mr. Lewis. Besides why do we need two people to do one job? CFO’s routinely report to Executive Boards because THAT IS THEIR JOB! It may be a long time before someone who is QUALIFIED and willing to take this job. Did anyone stop to think that Dr. Williams is waiting to hear form our “Highly Qualified” Human Resource Department for applicants? Talking about this is a waste of time. There are more important items to talk about instead of certain board members deciding to finally use their position they were elected to do.
Dr. Williams should ask those thousand teachers to reapply. At the same time take a close look at what those teachers did for professional development to improve/update their teaching skills (instead of those pieces of paper going in some black hole). If those teachers are so good why haven’t MAP test scores gone up instead of down. Rumor has it that the entire math department at Vashon was asked not to come back. About time someone is starting to worry about academics instead of social promotion so a student can be part of a sport. Dr. Williams realizes that if we do not improve on standardize testing we will loose even more money that we haven’t even received yet. Since this district likes sports so much let us take a look at a team. If the team isn’t performing then a new coach is hired. If the team still doesn’t perform the players are traded or their contracts are not renewed. This district has moved principals around hoping that will solve the problem. This district needs to do something about the teachers. There are to many teachers like Bryon Clemens who refuses to follow a curriculum mandated by the district (information received from very reliable sources). This is called insubordination. It doesn’t matter how Mr. Clemens felt about the curriculum he should be implementing it. It also doesn’t matter that he belongs to some Union. He refused to follow a directive. I am sure if Mr. Fowler had this problem he would have fired Clemens without his Executive Board approval. The agenda from the June Board meeting has an item for Personnel Matters, what was discussed then? OR Was there discussion about reapplying/reassignment of teachers but Mr. Purdy decided to leave? Dr. Williams needs to be able to reassign/remove teachers for the betterment of the district. But just don’t move teachers and principals for the sake of saying I made some changes. Take a good look at why the change needs to be made and who would be best qualified for that position. This is considered a day-to-day routine that he would report to the board. This doesn’t need board approval (lets be a little realistic). Plus this would be considered an action Dr. Williams to show the board how the district is improving student learning which would be reflected in standard test scores.
The Board and Dr. Williams need to be meeting each week (if they are not already). Teachers need to know where they will be going and what will they be teaching. Plus teachers who have been transferred need to clean their previous rooms. Even though this will all be undone because the Union will step in and screw everything up by the so call “seniority” bumping which will move the teachers around all over again. Regular school starts in seven weeks and teachers report in five weeks. How are we going to prepare the students for the MAP test on the first day of school? OR Are we going to wait until January again to implement last minute programs to improve MAP scores?
While I was composing my thoughts I see Mr. Harris had posted a statement. Which Mr. Harris I have a few questions for you. How do you know what is in the Teachers’ Contract since you are not a teacher? If a teacher hasn’t been notified yet whether he/she has a job does this really mean we do not have a job? Let me help you with that one. Take a look at the principals’ list. The list shows only the new and transferred principals but not all of the schools are listed. Does that mean those schools do not have principals yet? No, it means the principals who were there will be there for the 2006-2007 school year. Even though I haven’t been asked to reapply or leave doesn’t mean I still have a job this fall (even though I have signed a contract). Essentially the contract means that you cannot go to another district but the district can still replace you. As I have seen during my short time in this district some teachers were relieved of the positions the first day teachers were to report back.
The last thing for you Mr. Harris is that I do admire concern about the district. I can be long winded but take a look at the articles you are responding to. I try to provide examples and support for my arguments to educate people how it is in at least one classroom. Instead of complaining what are your suggestions on how to fix the district instead of just closing it down? For example, since you do not like Mr. Spencer so much what do you propose to do about the situation? Explain to me why Mr. Spencer is such, as you say, “an asshole!” As I tell my students if you make a statement provide support to your argument to make it convincing.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006 11:55:50 AM
SnoopyDad, it is not true that "board members knew that Cedric Lewis was acting as treasurer at the June board meeting (see VIDEO: District Faces Financial Crisis and $2 million mix-up?)"
Mr. Lewis addresses the board at every meeting in the capacity of Chief Financial Officer. Three board members have told me that they did not know Lewis was asked to serve as treasurer and all of them said they would have prefered Williams asked them first.
I think part of the problem here is oversight. Just as the CFO and the Superintendent spotted problems in the treasurer's office (which quickly led to his resignation), the office of treasurer is also in a position to keep an eye on the CFO and the superintendent.
If two of those offices are occupied by the same person, that could mean less oversight. But that is a decision for the board of education to make, not the superintendent alone.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006 12:13:31 PM
damn shakespear, this is a blog, not a term paper!
Wednesday, June 28, 2006 3:45:28 PM
Actually, in most school districts, the CFO IS the treasurer. St. Louis is different, though.
And, since when was it the responsibility of the superintendent to call a board meeting? I thought only board members could do that?
Wednesday, June 28, 2006 5:11:56 PM
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