One year ago, I counseled members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education not to engage in a protracted search for a new Superintendent.
My observation, detailed in many articles on this blog, was that nothing in the way superintendents are trained works to produce the kind of professionals likely to articulate a program for bringing excellence to the public schools.
We got lucky with Bernadeia Johnson, who included in her professional history experience outside the education establishment, so that she was able to elude the heavy odds prevailing against those whose professional trajectory follows more traditional routes.
Superintendent Johnson did identify the most vexing problems facing the Minneapolis Public Schools (and all centralized public school systems)
>>>>>
>>>>> She recognized the need to slim the centralized bureaucracy and move sources close to the classroom in her Shift program.
>>>>> She acted on the long-prevailing need to address low academic achievement at schools with high enrollments of students from families of low income and frequently dysfunctional home situations by elevating attention to those needs after identifying High Priority Schools.
>>>>>
And she addressed the curricular inconsistency long endemic to the Minneapolis Public Schools, especially at the K-5 level, by establishing the Focused Instruction program for implementing cohesive grade by grade curriculum throughout the K-12 years.
If we followed through on those programs established during the Bernadeia Johnson tenure, we would overhaul the Minneapolis Public Schools in such a way at to establish the knowledge-intensive education that students of all demographic descriptors must have--- the system of education that I have presented in many articles on this blog.
But now, just when members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education seemed to have followed through on the protracted process against which I argued in such a way as to arrive at a viable selection in Sergio Paez as Superintendent--- the process became vitiated, much bungling ensued, and a situation even worse than that which I feared now abides.
And as the search now appears likely to drag on into summer, personnel at the Minneapolis Public Schools are not acting vigorously enough to move on the promising programs from the Bernadeia Johnson years.
Meanwhile, all of the old conditions endemic to the education establishment and the debased culture of the Minneapolis Public Schools remain unchanged >>>>>
>>>>> Teachers are still trained terribly according to the errant philosophical precepts and programs of professors in departments, schools, and colleges of education.
>>>>>
Once in the classroom, most teachers prove to have too little knowledge and to be mediocre at imparting necessary knowledge and skill sets to the students with whose education and therefore lives they are entrusted; a few teachers find their way to excellence, but a like number are so inept that they never should have entered the classroom.
And, specifically, in the schools and classrooms of our students at the Minneapolis Public Schools,
>>>>>
too many videos or DVDs are shown;
>>>>> too many worksheet-filled “packets” are distributed;
>>>>>
too little discussion and teacher-dispensed knowledge occurs;
>>>>>
too many field trips occur in which students have little preparation and limited idea of the purpose;
>>>>>
too many students endure the presence of inept substitutes due to teacher absences and midyear resignations;
>>>>>
and students move forward on a very slim skill base in mathematics and reading; and abominable training in literature, fine arts, natural science, history, government, economics, psychology, world languages, and the industrial and technological arts.
The pool of possible superintendents is unlikely to produce any candidate who is a sure bet to have the training and experience necessary to address these problems that are at the core of the public schools dilemma. Whoever is selected will need lots of help from a few capable people able to point that superintendent in the right direction.
Thus, the real task before the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education is to opt for the least objectionable selection from a murky pool of candidates; then to train attention on the vexing and long-abiding problems detailed above and identified by Bernadeia Johnson in the programs of Shift, High Priority Schools, and Focused Instruction.
To move the Minneapolis Public Schools in the direction of delivering knowledge-intensive education with retrained teachers possessing the knowledge necessary to impart such an education; and bequeath to our students that excellence of education that will send them forth culturally enriched, civically prepared, and professionally rewarded;
we must cease distractions presented as we lurch from unnecessary crisis to unnecessary crisis; select the best candidate for Superintendent available; but in doing so know that any such person will need the counsel of the few apt educational professionals and knowledgeable people able to guide and support the new leader in addressing the problems and furthering the programs that can lead us to excellence in education in the classrooms of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Jan 29, 2016
Jan 27, 2016
Notes on the 26 January 2016 Meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education Committee of the Whole
Here's the gist of the 26 January 2016 meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education Committee of the Whole, with regard to the matter of chief public interest--- the renewed quest for a new Superintendent >>>>>
This was by definition not a time when the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education made definite decisions, but rather moved in the direction of decisions via discussion. From the discussion of the renewed search for a Superintendent, now that the school board blew the first search, a consensus seems to be forming around the following:
>>>>> hiring another search firm and following a process that would take us up until the end of May;
>>>>> bountiful opportunity for community input as to what "stakeholders" are seeking in a Superintendent.
>>>>> a desire (that could be seen at cross-purposes with bountiful community involvement) to winnow the candidates down to just two before conducting public interviews, with the expressed view that a high-quality candidate does not want to expose herself or himself to a public spectacle that might see her or him eliminated when six or even three candidates are still under consideration.
....................................................................
I was actually proud of the school board during the November interviews and community events during the first search, and I was of the conviction that the board, while not opting for my preferred candidate (Charles Foust), came to its 6-3 vote for Sergio Paez carefully and with sound reasoning.
But this evening, I disagreed with every major point around which consensus seems to be forming >>>>>
>>>>> The school board should not hire another search firm.
It should depend on its own Department of Human Resources to send out notices of the opening for the position of Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools--- then evaluate those applications for viable candidates, identify 10 or so for uppermost consideration by the school board, winnow the list down to five who will be given semifinalist interviews, then focus on three candidates at the finalist stage.
>>>>> Given that there is already some groundwork done and a pool of candidates already considered, the process should not take five more months but should be expedited to unfold within no more than three months.
>>>>> Just as too much of a mystique has now surrounded the selection of the (never gonna happen) perfect Superintendent, there is now too much buzz around community input.
A central theme in all of my communications to the school board and administrators at the Minneapolis Public Schools is that they must develop a coherent educational philosophy grounded in knowledge-intensive education imparted by knowledgeable teachers, confidently explain that philosophy to the public, then move forward with the many actions necessary to deliver such an education.
I value explaining the theory and action necessary to achieve educational excellence over community input regarding the selection of Superintendent or any other decision or program.
But here we are, with meaningful progress toward achieving excellence in education on hold while we exaggerate the importance of the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools--- as we are always putting aside what really matters by pretending that the hot topic of the moment is much more important than the mere matters of paramount importance, namely
>>>>> curriculum;
and
>>>>> teachers.
This was by definition not a time when the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education made definite decisions, but rather moved in the direction of decisions via discussion. From the discussion of the renewed search for a Superintendent, now that the school board blew the first search, a consensus seems to be forming around the following:
>>>>> hiring another search firm and following a process that would take us up until the end of May;
>>>>> bountiful opportunity for community input as to what "stakeholders" are seeking in a Superintendent.
>>>>> a desire (that could be seen at cross-purposes with bountiful community involvement) to winnow the candidates down to just two before conducting public interviews, with the expressed view that a high-quality candidate does not want to expose herself or himself to a public spectacle that might see her or him eliminated when six or even three candidates are still under consideration.
....................................................................
I was actually proud of the school board during the November interviews and community events during the first search, and I was of the conviction that the board, while not opting for my preferred candidate (Charles Foust), came to its 6-3 vote for Sergio Paez carefully and with sound reasoning.
But this evening, I disagreed with every major point around which consensus seems to be forming >>>>>
>>>>> The school board should not hire another search firm.
It should depend on its own Department of Human Resources to send out notices of the opening for the position of Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools--- then evaluate those applications for viable candidates, identify 10 or so for uppermost consideration by the school board, winnow the list down to five who will be given semifinalist interviews, then focus on three candidates at the finalist stage.
>>>>> Given that there is already some groundwork done and a pool of candidates already considered, the process should not take five more months but should be expedited to unfold within no more than three months.
>>>>> Just as too much of a mystique has now surrounded the selection of the (never gonna happen) perfect Superintendent, there is now too much buzz around community input.
A central theme in all of my communications to the school board and administrators at the Minneapolis Public Schools is that they must develop a coherent educational philosophy grounded in knowledge-intensive education imparted by knowledgeable teachers, confidently explain that philosophy to the public, then move forward with the many actions necessary to deliver such an education.
I value explaining the theory and action necessary to achieve educational excellence over community input regarding the selection of Superintendent or any other decision or program.
But here we are, with meaningful progress toward achieving excellence in education on hold while we exaggerate the importance of the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools--- as we are always putting aside what really matters by pretending that the hot topic of the moment is much more important than the mere matters of paramount importance, namely
>>>>> curriculum;
and
>>>>> teachers.
Jan 26, 2016
My Counsel to the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education On the Cusp of Your Committee of the Whole Meeting, 26 January 2016
This evening you, members of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education, will take the first step in your efforts to restore your credibility with the public and to regain control of the process by which you will select a new MPS Superintendent.
My counsel is as follows >>>>>
>>>>> Reflect that you should have never conducted a national search. As detailed in previous articles posted on this blog, the pool of candidates is not great enough, nor the tenure of a superintendent likely to be long enough, to justify all of the energy expended in the search for a new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
>>>>> Remember and try to convey to the public that once having begun the ill-advised search, you actually did a very careful and classy job this past November 2015 as you winnowed the candidates down to three (Sergio Paez, Michael Goar, and Charles Foust) and interviewed those candidates.
>>>>> Remember that I counseled you to select Charles Foust (for reasons detailed in other articles on this blog) but that you opted for Sergio Paez. Then you began your retrenchment, panicking when the Disability Law Center made allegations that were old news, in a case closed (1 October 2015) by the State of Massachusetts after a two-year investigation and issuance of orders for corrections (ultimately deemed satisfactory) in Holyoke Schools centered on admitted abuses of special education students at Peck School; and when the Hampden County Attorney announced a criminal investigation.
>>>>> Understand that you should have had the spine to stand behind Sergio Paez but voted unanimously not to pursue contract negotiations. You then were seemingly poised to opt for Michael Goar. But NAACP President Nekima Levy-Pounds and a few other protesters shut your meeting down until you succumbed to their pressure and postponed the discussion on offering Goar a contract. Levy-Pounds and group were right on the matter of Goar not being suitable at this point--- but you looked weak in allowing a small group to take control of your meeting.
>>>>> Now, Goar has taken himself out of consideration and at this Committee of the Whole meeting, you should eschew a national search and signal that you are going to consider with great care the candidacy of Charles Foust and any of many internal and local candidates who could perform suitably. Indicate that you will vote on the candidates within two months.
>>>>> Then individually and collectively develop a philosophy of education . Strongly consider my definitions (given in many articles) for an excellent education, the excellent teacher, and the purposes of K-12 education.
>>>>> Use these definitions to guide you in selection of a superintendent who will move forward in fostering knowledge-intensive education, train the necessary knowledgeable teachers, and implement an aggressive program of knowledge and skill acquisition for every student in the Minneapolis Public Schools--- making full use of the existing programs of Shift, High Priority Schools, and Focused Instruction--- and making every decision on the basis of advancement of this knowledge-intensive education for students of all demographic descriptors.
>>>>> Remember that your prime responsibility is to ensure the improvement in curriculum and teacher training that will bring academic excellence to the Minneapolis Public Schools--- and holding the Superintendent and all personnel in MPS responsible for advancing knowledge-intensive education and teacher quality.
>>>>> On this eve of 26 January 2016, you must regain control the process of hiring a new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools and move forward on the basis of an educational philosophy that will eventually send all of our students forward according to the purposes of K-12 education >>>>> preparation for student lives of cultural enrichment; civic preparation; and professional satisfaction.
>>>>> Consider that you are a long way from educating students according to such purposes--- but that you can do so if you will follow my precepts for excellence in K-12 education--- which, after all, should be the central aim of everything that you do.
My counsel is as follows >>>>>
>>>>> Reflect that you should have never conducted a national search. As detailed in previous articles posted on this blog, the pool of candidates is not great enough, nor the tenure of a superintendent likely to be long enough, to justify all of the energy expended in the search for a new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
>>>>> Remember and try to convey to the public that once having begun the ill-advised search, you actually did a very careful and classy job this past November 2015 as you winnowed the candidates down to three (Sergio Paez, Michael Goar, and Charles Foust) and interviewed those candidates.
>>>>> Remember that I counseled you to select Charles Foust (for reasons detailed in other articles on this blog) but that you opted for Sergio Paez. Then you began your retrenchment, panicking when the Disability Law Center made allegations that were old news, in a case closed (1 October 2015) by the State of Massachusetts after a two-year investigation and issuance of orders for corrections (ultimately deemed satisfactory) in Holyoke Schools centered on admitted abuses of special education students at Peck School; and when the Hampden County Attorney announced a criminal investigation.
>>>>> Understand that you should have had the spine to stand behind Sergio Paez but voted unanimously not to pursue contract negotiations. You then were seemingly poised to opt for Michael Goar. But NAACP President Nekima Levy-Pounds and a few other protesters shut your meeting down until you succumbed to their pressure and postponed the discussion on offering Goar a contract. Levy-Pounds and group were right on the matter of Goar not being suitable at this point--- but you looked weak in allowing a small group to take control of your meeting.
>>>>> Now, Goar has taken himself out of consideration and at this Committee of the Whole meeting, you should eschew a national search and signal that you are going to consider with great care the candidacy of Charles Foust and any of many internal and local candidates who could perform suitably. Indicate that you will vote on the candidates within two months.
>>>>> Then individually and collectively develop a philosophy of education . Strongly consider my definitions (given in many articles) for an excellent education, the excellent teacher, and the purposes of K-12 education.
>>>>> Use these definitions to guide you in selection of a superintendent who will move forward in fostering knowledge-intensive education, train the necessary knowledgeable teachers, and implement an aggressive program of knowledge and skill acquisition for every student in the Minneapolis Public Schools--- making full use of the existing programs of Shift, High Priority Schools, and Focused Instruction--- and making every decision on the basis of advancement of this knowledge-intensive education for students of all demographic descriptors.
>>>>> Remember that your prime responsibility is to ensure the improvement in curriculum and teacher training that will bring academic excellence to the Minneapolis Public Schools--- and holding the Superintendent and all personnel in MPS responsible for advancing knowledge-intensive education and teacher quality.
>>>>> On this eve of 26 January 2016, you must regain control the process of hiring a new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools and move forward on the basis of an educational philosophy that will eventually send all of our students forward according to the purposes of K-12 education >>>>> preparation for student lives of cultural enrichment; civic preparation; and professional satisfaction.
>>>>> Consider that you are a long way from educating students according to such purposes--- but that you can do so if you will follow my precepts for excellence in K-12 education--- which, after all, should be the central aim of everything that you do.
Jan 20, 2016
The Decision for a Particular Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools Is Not As Important as You Think
The decision looming for the school board as to the new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools is not as important as you think.
Remember that most candidates for superintendent in any school district have been trained in terrible programs in departments, schools, or colleges of education. They are infested with the same fundamental disrespect for knowledge as the goal of an excellent education as are teachers, the latter of whom are also disserved by education professors, who are the chief culprits impeding progress toward the knowledge-intensive education for which our students wait.
We have just undergone a wholly unsatisfying search for a superintendent who can lend definition to Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020, which can work but will require people possessing the proper definitions of an excellent education to fill in the missing details and articulate the needed plan of action--- as I have done in my writing and my many venues for public commentary, including the time designated for such at the meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education each month.
No such leader assuredly emerged. The process eventually gave us three finalists: Interim Superintendent Michael Goar, the unfairly treated Sergio Paez of Massachusetts, and the enormously gifted Charles Foust of Houston.
Goar has given no indication that he has the definition for an excellent education in his gut.
Paez recognizes the on-paper inadequacies of Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020, and he knows that filling in the many gaps will require great effort from the central office--- but his precise plan for filling in those gaps was still undetailed when he was first given and then denied the superintendent position by an inconstant and ultimately irresponsible Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education.
Foust, despite his magnificent gifts as a communicator and school turn-around artist, like the two above-named candidates had no knowledge upon my questioning of E. D. Hirsch’s Core Knowledge Foundation or the many publications that have emanated from this chief proponent of knowledge-intensity in K-12 education.
Foust was the best candidate of the three; his future holds great promise, and his intellectual nimbleness holds out the possibility that he might internalize the precepts of a knowledge-intensive education, toward which he seems to lean intuitively.
But the furor around Sergio Paez’s candidacy now brings new circumstances to the search for a superintendent, a passionately followed but little understood reality. Foust may or may not be in the mix.
What we need to understand more fundamentally is that the importance of the actual occupant of the position could be greatly exaggerated. As I have maintained from the beginning of the misguided national search, the pool of candidates is mediocre, at best.
Nothing in the training or culture of the education establishment is conducive to the development of great superintendents--- so any nationwide search would at best be a diversionary tactic on the part of the MPS Board of Education conveying to the public an attempt to attract the best candidate available.
And the track record of superintendents across the nation suggests an exit after two or three, and at most five, years on the job--- before any substantive achievements can be recorded. So any superintendent search tends to be a distraction from the real issues vexing the public schools, creating the Shakespearean Macbeth's proverbial "sound and fury, signifying nothing."
We must first get the definition of an excellent education right, understanding that
an excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive, logically sequenced curriculum in the liberal (mathematics, natural science, history, economics, literature, fine arts), technological, and industrial arts to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the K-12 years.
School board members will need quite some time fully to internalize this definition and to understand that for the delivery of such a knowledge-intensive education, we will have to train teachers at the level of the central school district, remembering that
an excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.
That also will take a long time to get lodged into the collective mental consciousness of the school board, the members of whom must then remember that
the purpose of a strong K-12 education in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts is to provide maximum probability that students will graduate with the likelihood of living lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.
Until we get enough people in the public, and in the central offices and classrooms of the Minneapolis Public Schools, who have fully internalized these precepts, we will forever be running circles around the K-12 education of high quality for which our precious students have been long waiting.
Any new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools, having been largely ruined by education professors, will need lots of help from those few who understand that excellent education requires knowledge intensity and teachers possessing great knowledge--- and that the purpose of K-12 education is to provide for our students futures of cultural enrichment, civic preparation, and professional satisfaction.
My chief life mission, which shall never change, is to provide the guidance that the education establishment must have, via the example of my own teaching; public speaking appearances; television show; academic journal; new book (Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education); and in the many already posted articles and hosts of those to come on this blog.
The decision on the precise personage for occupancy of the post of Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools is not as important as you may think.
Whoever gets the nod will need lots of help along the pathway toward defining excellence in K-12 education.
I’ll be providing that help, and I invite those few of you who grasp the requisite precepts to do the same.
Remember that most candidates for superintendent in any school district have been trained in terrible programs in departments, schools, or colleges of education. They are infested with the same fundamental disrespect for knowledge as the goal of an excellent education as are teachers, the latter of whom are also disserved by education professors, who are the chief culprits impeding progress toward the knowledge-intensive education for which our students wait.
We have just undergone a wholly unsatisfying search for a superintendent who can lend definition to Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020, which can work but will require people possessing the proper definitions of an excellent education to fill in the missing details and articulate the needed plan of action--- as I have done in my writing and my many venues for public commentary, including the time designated for such at the meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education each month.
No such leader assuredly emerged. The process eventually gave us three finalists: Interim Superintendent Michael Goar, the unfairly treated Sergio Paez of Massachusetts, and the enormously gifted Charles Foust of Houston.
Goar has given no indication that he has the definition for an excellent education in his gut.
Paez recognizes the on-paper inadequacies of Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020, and he knows that filling in the many gaps will require great effort from the central office--- but his precise plan for filling in those gaps was still undetailed when he was first given and then denied the superintendent position by an inconstant and ultimately irresponsible Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education.
Foust, despite his magnificent gifts as a communicator and school turn-around artist, like the two above-named candidates had no knowledge upon my questioning of E. D. Hirsch’s Core Knowledge Foundation or the many publications that have emanated from this chief proponent of knowledge-intensity in K-12 education.
Foust was the best candidate of the three; his future holds great promise, and his intellectual nimbleness holds out the possibility that he might internalize the precepts of a knowledge-intensive education, toward which he seems to lean intuitively.
But the furor around Sergio Paez’s candidacy now brings new circumstances to the search for a superintendent, a passionately followed but little understood reality. Foust may or may not be in the mix.
What we need to understand more fundamentally is that the importance of the actual occupant of the position could be greatly exaggerated. As I have maintained from the beginning of the misguided national search, the pool of candidates is mediocre, at best.
Nothing in the training or culture of the education establishment is conducive to the development of great superintendents--- so any nationwide search would at best be a diversionary tactic on the part of the MPS Board of Education conveying to the public an attempt to attract the best candidate available.
And the track record of superintendents across the nation suggests an exit after two or three, and at most five, years on the job--- before any substantive achievements can be recorded. So any superintendent search tends to be a distraction from the real issues vexing the public schools, creating the Shakespearean Macbeth's proverbial "sound and fury, signifying nothing."
We must first get the definition of an excellent education right, understanding that
an excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive, logically sequenced curriculum in the liberal (mathematics, natural science, history, economics, literature, fine arts), technological, and industrial arts to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the K-12 years.
School board members will need quite some time fully to internalize this definition and to understand that for the delivery of such a knowledge-intensive education, we will have to train teachers at the level of the central school district, remembering that
an excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.
That also will take a long time to get lodged into the collective mental consciousness of the school board, the members of whom must then remember that
the purpose of a strong K-12 education in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts is to provide maximum probability that students will graduate with the likelihood of living lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.
Until we get enough people in the public, and in the central offices and classrooms of the Minneapolis Public Schools, who have fully internalized these precepts, we will forever be running circles around the K-12 education of high quality for which our precious students have been long waiting.
Any new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools, having been largely ruined by education professors, will need lots of help from those few who understand that excellent education requires knowledge intensity and teachers possessing great knowledge--- and that the purpose of K-12 education is to provide for our students futures of cultural enrichment, civic preparation, and professional satisfaction.
My chief life mission, which shall never change, is to provide the guidance that the education establishment must have, via the example of my own teaching; public speaking appearances; television show; academic journal; new book (Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education); and in the many already posted articles and hosts of those to come on this blog.
The decision on the precise personage for occupancy of the post of Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools is not as important as you may think.
Whoever gets the nod will need lots of help along the pathway toward defining excellence in K-12 education.
I’ll be providing that help, and I invite those few of you who grasp the requisite precepts to do the same.
Jan 13, 2016
The Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education Should Apologize to Sergio Paez; Nekima Levy-Pounds and the Minneapolis NAACP Should Develop an Honest Interest in Curriculum and Teachers
I have just emerged from a busy run of days.
One week ago today (on Wednesday, 6 January) a call came in on my cell phone that informed me that a close friend of my 94 year-old mother had died. I called Mom and signaled that I was most likely going to make the trip to be at the funeral--- then aggressively started organizing for activities in the meantime, and for the trip.
I stayed in scholarly mode through Thursday, doing further research on the history of painting across the world, then conducted two academic sessions on Friday, one group focusing on the Economics chapter of my new book (10 of 14 chapters completed), Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education, the other having moved through that one and almost to completion of the chapter on Psychology.
Then at 5:00 PM on Saturday (9 January) I hauled off southward on I-35 and arrived 500 miles later in Emporia, Kansas, at 2:00 AM. I went on to Dallas the next day, in time to spend the evening of Sunday, 10 January, with Mom, a time for some terrific conversation and reminiscences.
The next morning we attended the enormously respectful 11:00 AM service that was inspirational, streamlined, and thoughtfully conducted. The pastor gave a tremendous personal homily, and grandchildren reviewed this great family friend's quips and aphorisms, including my personal favorite:
"A person can never be bored with a book in hand."
Once back at Mom's residence, I fixed a salad for myself and the small lunch ordered by Mom (Swiss cheese, crackers, Bread 'n Butter pickles, and buttermilk), we had some more good conversation, and I departed Dallas at 3:00 PM, determined to be back in time for Tuesday's (12 January 2016) school board meeting.
I once again arrived in Emporia, this time at 10:30 PM, stopping to make sure that I had time to craft an opinion piece written after examining a ton of evidence for posting on the blog, making the case for respecting the contract negotiation promised for Sergio Paez. I did not get to sleep until the wee hours of the morning but arose to leave at late morning on Tuesday, 12 January, for the drive on northward via my well-traveled route on I-35.
.............................................................................................
The school board meeting was a sordid affair in which members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education discontinued the contract extension process with Sergio Paez and had begun to discuss whether or not to conduct such discussions with Interim Superintendent Michael Goar when members of the NAACP arose to demonstrate volubly against any such eventuality.
I agreed (remembering that my candidate of the three finalists was Charles Foust out of Houston) that the contract should not be extended to Goar but rose to speak amidst the hubbub with articulation of a position that occupied considerable distance from that of the group led by Minneapolis NAACP president Nekima Levy-Pounds.
When my lack of lock-step with the NAACP sloganeering became apparent, Levy-Pounds and group tried unsuccessfully to drown out my review of a process whereby I had
>>>>>
argued against a national search from the outset (ten months ago);
>>>>>
but found Charles Foust the most compelling of the three finalists when compared to Interim Superintendent Michael Goar and former Holyoke, Massachusetts, Superintendent Sergio Paez;
>>>>>
on detailed examination of allegations against Sergio Paez came to the conviction that the accusations were not compelling and that contract negotiations should proceed in fairness to this man who had gained 6-3 school board approval on 7 December 2015;
>>>>>
but then reminded everyone of the lamentable energy expended on such matters when the "focus, focus, focus, cutting the hocus pocus," should be on delivering knowledge-intensive curriculum to all of our precious children with teachers trained to the necessary level of excellence by the central school district itself.
The school board caved to Levy-Pounds and group, the latter of which did not interfere with the remainder of the meeting once the board agreed to defer any decision on matters pertinent to the search for a superintendent until the February school board meeting.
Minneapolis Public Schools central office personnel Eric Moore and Terry Henry then gave the most informative presentation of the evening on progress pertinent to credit recovery and graduation---
but by then NAACP members had recorded the victory for which they came and had demonstrated their minimal interest in programmatic details actually having an impact on the lives of students by making their exit as that latter presentation was beginning.
That presentation was given to the school board, a few central office members, and a very few people remaining in the audience---
as I stayed in my perch right up front and had productive discussion with Henry and--- especially--- Moore, in the aftermath of their presentation and the meeting.
..............................................................
Members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education should feel deeply ashamed of their cowardly nixing of negotiations with Paez and for their lack of assertiveness in the midst of the NAACP demonstrations.
Nekima Levy-Pounds and the NAACP should lament their lack of presence in the meetings and interviews relevant to the semifinalist and finalist candidates; for their disinterest in my more nuanced views; and for their disregard of presentations materially relevant to the academic lives of students.
>>>>> The school board should apologize to Sergio Paez.
>>>>> Levy-Pounds and group should vow to be present for matters that actually pertain to the academic lives of students.
And both groups should "focus, focus, focus, cutting the hocus pocus"---
while understanding that, in adaptation of James Carville's succinct line pertinent to the politico-economic arena to that of the educational sphere:
>>>>> "It's curriculum, stupid."
>>>>> "It's teachers, stupid."
One week ago today (on Wednesday, 6 January) a call came in on my cell phone that informed me that a close friend of my 94 year-old mother had died. I called Mom and signaled that I was most likely going to make the trip to be at the funeral--- then aggressively started organizing for activities in the meantime, and for the trip.
I stayed in scholarly mode through Thursday, doing further research on the history of painting across the world, then conducted two academic sessions on Friday, one group focusing on the Economics chapter of my new book (10 of 14 chapters completed), Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education, the other having moved through that one and almost to completion of the chapter on Psychology.
Then at 5:00 PM on Saturday (9 January) I hauled off southward on I-35 and arrived 500 miles later in Emporia, Kansas, at 2:00 AM. I went on to Dallas the next day, in time to spend the evening of Sunday, 10 January, with Mom, a time for some terrific conversation and reminiscences.
The next morning we attended the enormously respectful 11:00 AM service that was inspirational, streamlined, and thoughtfully conducted. The pastor gave a tremendous personal homily, and grandchildren reviewed this great family friend's quips and aphorisms, including my personal favorite:
"A person can never be bored with a book in hand."
Once back at Mom's residence, I fixed a salad for myself and the small lunch ordered by Mom (Swiss cheese, crackers, Bread 'n Butter pickles, and buttermilk), we had some more good conversation, and I departed Dallas at 3:00 PM, determined to be back in time for Tuesday's (12 January 2016) school board meeting.
I once again arrived in Emporia, this time at 10:30 PM, stopping to make sure that I had time to craft an opinion piece written after examining a ton of evidence for posting on the blog, making the case for respecting the contract negotiation promised for Sergio Paez. I did not get to sleep until the wee hours of the morning but arose to leave at late morning on Tuesday, 12 January, for the drive on northward via my well-traveled route on I-35.
.............................................................................................
The school board meeting was a sordid affair in which members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education discontinued the contract extension process with Sergio Paez and had begun to discuss whether or not to conduct such discussions with Interim Superintendent Michael Goar when members of the NAACP arose to demonstrate volubly against any such eventuality.
I agreed (remembering that my candidate of the three finalists was Charles Foust out of Houston) that the contract should not be extended to Goar but rose to speak amidst the hubbub with articulation of a position that occupied considerable distance from that of the group led by Minneapolis NAACP president Nekima Levy-Pounds.
When my lack of lock-step with the NAACP sloganeering became apparent, Levy-Pounds and group tried unsuccessfully to drown out my review of a process whereby I had
>>>>>
argued against a national search from the outset (ten months ago);
>>>>>
but found Charles Foust the most compelling of the three finalists when compared to Interim Superintendent Michael Goar and former Holyoke, Massachusetts, Superintendent Sergio Paez;
>>>>>
on detailed examination of allegations against Sergio Paez came to the conviction that the accusations were not compelling and that contract negotiations should proceed in fairness to this man who had gained 6-3 school board approval on 7 December 2015;
>>>>>
but then reminded everyone of the lamentable energy expended on such matters when the "focus, focus, focus, cutting the hocus pocus," should be on delivering knowledge-intensive curriculum to all of our precious children with teachers trained to the necessary level of excellence by the central school district itself.
The school board caved to Levy-Pounds and group, the latter of which did not interfere with the remainder of the meeting once the board agreed to defer any decision on matters pertinent to the search for a superintendent until the February school board meeting.
Minneapolis Public Schools central office personnel Eric Moore and Terry Henry then gave the most informative presentation of the evening on progress pertinent to credit recovery and graduation---
but by then NAACP members had recorded the victory for which they came and had demonstrated their minimal interest in programmatic details actually having an impact on the lives of students by making their exit as that latter presentation was beginning.
That presentation was given to the school board, a few central office members, and a very few people remaining in the audience---
as I stayed in my perch right up front and had productive discussion with Henry and--- especially--- Moore, in the aftermath of their presentation and the meeting.
..............................................................
Members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education should feel deeply ashamed of their cowardly nixing of negotiations with Paez and for their lack of assertiveness in the midst of the NAACP demonstrations.
Nekima Levy-Pounds and the NAACP should lament their lack of presence in the meetings and interviews relevant to the semifinalist and finalist candidates; for their disinterest in my more nuanced views; and for their disregard of presentations materially relevant to the academic lives of students.
>>>>> The school board should apologize to Sergio Paez.
>>>>> Levy-Pounds and group should vow to be present for matters that actually pertain to the academic lives of students.
And both groups should "focus, focus, focus, cutting the hocus pocus"---
while understanding that, in adaptation of James Carville's succinct line pertinent to the politico-economic arena to that of the educational sphere:
>>>>> "It's curriculum, stupid."
>>>>> "It's teachers, stupid."
Jan 12, 2016
Sergio Paez Deserves Contract as Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools >>>>> My Reassessment After Thorough Reading of Multiple Documents
Sergio Paez should be given a chance to negotiate for the contract that seemed his to accept as of 7 December 2015.
I make this statement as a reassessment after considering a bevy of factual information pertinent to the tenure of Paez as Superintendent of the Holyoke (Massachusetts) School District. I have completed a thorough reading of multiple documents that pertain to communications and actions emanating from the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families; Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education; the Holyoke (Massachusetts) School District; Disability Law Center; and Office of Hampden County District Attorney Anthony Gulluni--- in the interests of establishing a firm chronology and factual account of events relevant to allegations of physical abuse of special education students at Peck School. The latter is an institution in the Holyoke School District where Sergio Paez--- the Prospective Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools--- served as superintendent from June 2013 until April 2015.
Here is the factual composite account that emerges from examination of these multiple sources:
Sergio Paez was hired as Superintendent of the Holyoke School District in June 2013, with the responsibility of preventing the academically underachieving school district from going into receivership under the authority of the State of Massachusetts. In Fall 2013, Paez and staff established the Therapeutic Intervention Program to comply with state orders to integrate disabled students more effectively into the district’s academic programs. From August 2013 until May 2014, the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families conducted four investigations into practices at Peck School and found evidence of abusive use of physical restraints in dealing with students.
At this point, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Schools assumed responsibility for investigating the alleged abuse. Interviews with school personnel, students, and parents yielded evidence of abuse in incidents spanning academic year 2014-2015. During this time, Sergio Paez conferred with staff in a process for establishing a Restorative Alternative Program, especially for students in Grades 5-7 who had not been successful in previous learning environments.
In early 2015, Paez met with parents who showed them photographs of bruised arms caused, they said, by staff at Peck School. On 6 March 2015, former Holyoke staff member Lisa Hirsch sent Superintendent Paez a letter alleging that staff members at Peck School improperly used physical restraints, forced children into seclusion (isolation in closets), and did not follow proper procedures pertinent to the issuing and tracking of suspensions. On 20 March, Paez sent a letter to Hirsch conveying his concern and promising investigation into the alleged incidents.
The process for establishing the Restorative Alternative Program culminated in a 17 April 2015 meeting that set guidelines for moving the proposed program forward.
On 28 April 2015 officials in the State of Massachusetts took control of Holyoke School District; the district went into receivership and Paez was removed as superintendent. Paez, though, in association with the Restorative Alternative Program, Credit Recovery, English Language Immersion, and improved graduation rates had gained favorable notice from officials; the latter eventually hired him as an academic consultant to the Holyoke School District where he had launched these programs and recorded these achievements.
On 30 April 2015, the Disability Law Center (DLC) sent a letter to officials in Holyoke conveying that the DLC was proceeding with an investigation of allegations at Peck School.
On 21 July 2015, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education notified Holyoke officials that its investigation indicated noncompliance on matters pertinent to physical restraint of students. Incidents occurring during academic year 2014-2015 that led to this determination included use of physical restraint in situations in which such restraint was not warranted; use of prone restraint and seclusion, both prohibited by Massachusetts law; and improper procedures and lack of documentation for out-of-school and in-school suspensions.
In a series of meetings during August and September 2015, variously involving Holyoke administrators or staff members, including meetings specifically for those at Peck School, officials under the leadership of Receiver Stephen Zrike took corrective action to address the concerns conveyed in the 21 July 2015 noncompliance letter. On 1 October 2015, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education official George K. Haile (Program Quality Assurance Services) sent Zrike a letter ruling favorably on corrective action by the Holyoke School District.
This closed the case.
.........................................................................
On 7 December 2015, members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education voted 6-3 to make Sergio Paez Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
On 9 December 2015, the Disability Law Center issued a report conveying that staff at Peck improperly slapped and restrained students.
On 14 December 2015, the Office of Hampden County Attorney General Anthony Gulluni announced that it was launching a criminal investigation pertinent to the alleged incidents of abuse at Peck School.
On 16 December 2015, members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education suspended contract negotiations with Sergio Paez. School board members Tracine Asberry and Josh Reimnitz went forth with a visit to Holyoke Schools already scheduled during the 7 December meeting.
In early January 2016 Sergio Paez came to Minneapolis on his own initiative to address any concerns of school board members, school staff, and community members.
On 12 January 2016 the regular second-Tuesday-of –the-month meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education will take place, with a review of the decision regarding Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools promising to be the item of greatest importance on the agenda.
...........................................................................
Note that the letter of 1 October 2015 closed the case relevant to abuse at Peck School in the aftermath of approved corrective action by Holyoke Schools.
The timing, over two months later, of the accusations levied by the Disability law Center seems odd. The sorts of allegations made by the DLC were those acknowledged by Holyoke Schools, which took the approved corrective action.
Then, just after these allegations were made by the DLC, the Office of County Attorney Anthony Gulluni announced a criminal investigation. This is a viable follow-up at the discretion of a public attorney, but why the announcement had not been made earlier, on the strength of admissions by officials at Holyoke and documentation by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education--- again seems odd.
................................................................................
Sergio Paez was in the process of launching programs addressing the needs of students needing academic alternatives at the time that he went from superintendent to consultant status at the Holyoke School District from April 2015.
Nothing in the process followed by the members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education under guidance by the search firm HYA associate Ted Blaesing over the nearly ten months that culminated in intense semifinalist and finalist interviews in December 2015 revealed any concerns over physical abuse in the Holyoke Schools.
A curiously timed letter by the Disability Law Center seems to have triggered another curiously timed communication from the Office of Hampden County Attorney Anthony Gulluni.
.....................................................................................
My readers may scroll down to read my accounts of having opposed a national search from the outset.
They may then read how my own assessment of candidates, once members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education went forward with their unwise national search, led to my recommendation for candidate Charles Foust.
I reiterate both of those stances, lamenting the time that is elapsing as the academic needs of students of the Minneapolis Public Schools go insufficiently met; and still expressing my enthusiasm for the talent manifested by Charles Foust.
But upon careful review of the facts given in considerable detail above, and in fairness to the candidacy of Sergio Paez, who gained the favorable school board vote of 7 December 2015--- I strongly recommend that at this point the members of that board honor their vote and move forward to negotiate a contract with Sergio Paez as the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
I make this statement as a reassessment after considering a bevy of factual information pertinent to the tenure of Paez as Superintendent of the Holyoke (Massachusetts) School District. I have completed a thorough reading of multiple documents that pertain to communications and actions emanating from the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families; Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education; the Holyoke (Massachusetts) School District; Disability Law Center; and Office of Hampden County District Attorney Anthony Gulluni--- in the interests of establishing a firm chronology and factual account of events relevant to allegations of physical abuse of special education students at Peck School. The latter is an institution in the Holyoke School District where Sergio Paez--- the Prospective Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools--- served as superintendent from June 2013 until April 2015.
Here is the factual composite account that emerges from examination of these multiple sources:
Sergio Paez was hired as Superintendent of the Holyoke School District in June 2013, with the responsibility of preventing the academically underachieving school district from going into receivership under the authority of the State of Massachusetts. In Fall 2013, Paez and staff established the Therapeutic Intervention Program to comply with state orders to integrate disabled students more effectively into the district’s academic programs. From August 2013 until May 2014, the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families conducted four investigations into practices at Peck School and found evidence of abusive use of physical restraints in dealing with students.
At this point, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Schools assumed responsibility for investigating the alleged abuse. Interviews with school personnel, students, and parents yielded evidence of abuse in incidents spanning academic year 2014-2015. During this time, Sergio Paez conferred with staff in a process for establishing a Restorative Alternative Program, especially for students in Grades 5-7 who had not been successful in previous learning environments.
In early 2015, Paez met with parents who showed them photographs of bruised arms caused, they said, by staff at Peck School. On 6 March 2015, former Holyoke staff member Lisa Hirsch sent Superintendent Paez a letter alleging that staff members at Peck School improperly used physical restraints, forced children into seclusion (isolation in closets), and did not follow proper procedures pertinent to the issuing and tracking of suspensions. On 20 March, Paez sent a letter to Hirsch conveying his concern and promising investigation into the alleged incidents.
The process for establishing the Restorative Alternative Program culminated in a 17 April 2015 meeting that set guidelines for moving the proposed program forward.
On 28 April 2015 officials in the State of Massachusetts took control of Holyoke School District; the district went into receivership and Paez was removed as superintendent. Paez, though, in association with the Restorative Alternative Program, Credit Recovery, English Language Immersion, and improved graduation rates had gained favorable notice from officials; the latter eventually hired him as an academic consultant to the Holyoke School District where he had launched these programs and recorded these achievements.
On 30 April 2015, the Disability Law Center (DLC) sent a letter to officials in Holyoke conveying that the DLC was proceeding with an investigation of allegations at Peck School.
On 21 July 2015, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education notified Holyoke officials that its investigation indicated noncompliance on matters pertinent to physical restraint of students. Incidents occurring during academic year 2014-2015 that led to this determination included use of physical restraint in situations in which such restraint was not warranted; use of prone restraint and seclusion, both prohibited by Massachusetts law; and improper procedures and lack of documentation for out-of-school and in-school suspensions.
In a series of meetings during August and September 2015, variously involving Holyoke administrators or staff members, including meetings specifically for those at Peck School, officials under the leadership of Receiver Stephen Zrike took corrective action to address the concerns conveyed in the 21 July 2015 noncompliance letter. On 1 October 2015, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education official George K. Haile (Program Quality Assurance Services) sent Zrike a letter ruling favorably on corrective action by the Holyoke School District.
This closed the case.
.........................................................................
On 7 December 2015, members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education voted 6-3 to make Sergio Paez Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
On 9 December 2015, the Disability Law Center issued a report conveying that staff at Peck improperly slapped and restrained students.
On 14 December 2015, the Office of Hampden County Attorney General Anthony Gulluni announced that it was launching a criminal investigation pertinent to the alleged incidents of abuse at Peck School.
On 16 December 2015, members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education suspended contract negotiations with Sergio Paez. School board members Tracine Asberry and Josh Reimnitz went forth with a visit to Holyoke Schools already scheduled during the 7 December meeting.
In early January 2016 Sergio Paez came to Minneapolis on his own initiative to address any concerns of school board members, school staff, and community members.
On 12 January 2016 the regular second-Tuesday-of –the-month meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education will take place, with a review of the decision regarding Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools promising to be the item of greatest importance on the agenda.
...........................................................................
Note that the letter of 1 October 2015 closed the case relevant to abuse at Peck School in the aftermath of approved corrective action by Holyoke Schools.
The timing, over two months later, of the accusations levied by the Disability law Center seems odd. The sorts of allegations made by the DLC were those acknowledged by Holyoke Schools, which took the approved corrective action.
Then, just after these allegations were made by the DLC, the Office of County Attorney Anthony Gulluni announced a criminal investigation. This is a viable follow-up at the discretion of a public attorney, but why the announcement had not been made earlier, on the strength of admissions by officials at Holyoke and documentation by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education--- again seems odd.
................................................................................
Sergio Paez was in the process of launching programs addressing the needs of students needing academic alternatives at the time that he went from superintendent to consultant status at the Holyoke School District from April 2015.
Nothing in the process followed by the members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education under guidance by the search firm HYA associate Ted Blaesing over the nearly ten months that culminated in intense semifinalist and finalist interviews in December 2015 revealed any concerns over physical abuse in the Holyoke Schools.
A curiously timed letter by the Disability Law Center seems to have triggered another curiously timed communication from the Office of Hampden County Attorney Anthony Gulluni.
.....................................................................................
My readers may scroll down to read my accounts of having opposed a national search from the outset.
They may then read how my own assessment of candidates, once members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education went forward with their unwise national search, led to my recommendation for candidate Charles Foust.
I reiterate both of those stances, lamenting the time that is elapsing as the academic needs of students of the Minneapolis Public Schools go insufficiently met; and still expressing my enthusiasm for the talent manifested by Charles Foust.
But upon careful review of the facts given in considerable detail above, and in fairness to the candidacy of Sergio Paez, who gained the favorable school board vote of 7 December 2015--- I strongly recommend that at this point the members of that board honor their vote and move forward to negotiate a contract with Sergio Paez as the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Jan 6, 2016
Focus, Focus, Focus--- and Cut the Hocus-Pocus
With my younger students, especially, I am always engaging in verbal patter to make them laugh, and to sharpen their attention. Among my jests are the following:
>>>>>
“Go, go go, don’t be slow---
‘cause that’ll make me sad,
don’t you know.”
>>>>>
“Don’ be lazy:
It’ll make me crazy,
and then my brain’ll
get all hazy.”
>>>>>
“Focus, focus, focus---
and cut the hocus-pocus.”
While the latter is a great little ditty in motivating my students to concentrate on the task at hand, the message conveyed is also my succinct counsel to the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education at this time of controversy swirling around Prospective Superintendent Sergio Paez.
Events extraneous to the delivery of an excellent education are always distracting school board members and personnel of the Minneapolis Public Schools from the most fundamental duty properly to educate the students whose academic and therefore life futures will be determined by their K-12 experience.
Thus I went on record last spring in counseling against a nationwide search for a new Superintendent, stating that the quality of the pool of potential candidates is very low, Interim Superintendent Michael Goar was in place and alert to the prevailing programs bequeathed to him by the Bernadeia Johnson administration, so Goar should get the nod to see what he could do for the limited (two to five years) period of time that most superintendents are able to avoid the political or ethical troubles that inevitably short-circuit the tenures of people in the position of central school district superintendent.
At that time I wanted members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education to
>>>>>
“Focus, focus, focus---
and cut the hocus-pocus.”
This meant first getting the definition of an excellent education right, understanding that
an excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive, logically seqauenced curriculum in the liberal (mathematics, natural science, history, economics, literature, fine arts), technological, and industrial arts to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the K-12 years.
School board members will need quite some time fully to internalize this definition and to understand that for the delivery of such a knowledge-intensive education, we will have to train teachers at the level of the central school district, remembering that
an excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.
That also will take a long time to get lodged into the collective mental consciousness of the school board, who then must remember that
the purpose of a strong K-12 education in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts is to provide maximum probability that students will graduate with the likelihood of living lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.
With those succinct definitions and observations, I have provided the vision that is lacking in Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020.
In other many articles posted on this blog, I have explained what will be involved in actually delivering an education of true excellence, training teachers who possess great stores of knowledge, and sharpening the purpose for which we deliver an excellent education in the interests of a high quality of life for all of our precious students.
Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 can work, but we need a leader who can fill in the missing details and articulate the needed plan of action--- as I have done in my writing and my many venues for public commentary, including the time designated for such at the meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education each month.
.....................................................................
But the members of the school board allowed the distraction of a nearly 10-month search for a new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools to divert their attention from those most important fundamentals of educational excellence and purpose given above.
And now they are further distracted by exactly the kind of controversy that seems always to impinge on any meaningful action for the achievement of excellent education.
The new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools will have to fill in the many gaps of Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 with appropriate detail and specific definitions as to what constitutes an excellent education and who may be properly identified as an excellent teacher.
What a shame, then, that after many months of a national search for the right leader, the processes--- although followed conscientiously by members of the MPS Board of Education--- have proven to be just as inconclusive as I have judged all such processes to be that swirl around an insubstantial talent pool and a history of superintendent selections in school districts across the United States that so often end in short tenures, ethics allegations, or both.
Interim Superintendent Michael Goar is now a lame duck.
A cloud of uncertainty hangs over Sergio.Paez.
And nothing would be gained now by going through another prolonged search for a new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools. After nearly a year of searching for a new leader, no candidate with experience in overseeing an entire large urban school district as the official superintendent of schools emerged.
Under these circumstances, the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education should now move forward with further vetting of Charles Foust, the promising young assistant superintendent and academic turn-around specialist from the Houston (Texas) Independent School District who, of the three finalists, is the unwounded candidate from a multi-month search who handled all questions with candor and grace.
Foust was also the candidate who in conversations with me conveyed the likelihood of lending substance to Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 by promoting knowledge-intensive education, imparted joyfully by pedagogically skilled teachers who possess the requisite breadth and depth of knowledge.
Thus school board members should move with care, but as quickly as care allows, to do the necessary vetting for aversion of another distracting fiasco--- then hire Charles Foust as the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
In doing this, school board members and personnel throughout the Minneapolis Public Schools should >>>>>
>>>>>
“Focus, focus, focus---
and cut the hocus-pocus.”
Our students have been waiting for an excellent education for a very long time, and the policies that will ensure that quality of education will require full focus on the part of all of those responsible.
>>>>>
“Go, go go, don’t be slow---
‘cause that’ll make me sad,
don’t you know.”
>>>>>
“Don’ be lazy:
It’ll make me crazy,
and then my brain’ll
get all hazy.”
>>>>>
“Focus, focus, focus---
and cut the hocus-pocus.”
While the latter is a great little ditty in motivating my students to concentrate on the task at hand, the message conveyed is also my succinct counsel to the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education at this time of controversy swirling around Prospective Superintendent Sergio Paez.
Events extraneous to the delivery of an excellent education are always distracting school board members and personnel of the Minneapolis Public Schools from the most fundamental duty properly to educate the students whose academic and therefore life futures will be determined by their K-12 experience.
Thus I went on record last spring in counseling against a nationwide search for a new Superintendent, stating that the quality of the pool of potential candidates is very low, Interim Superintendent Michael Goar was in place and alert to the prevailing programs bequeathed to him by the Bernadeia Johnson administration, so Goar should get the nod to see what he could do for the limited (two to five years) period of time that most superintendents are able to avoid the political or ethical troubles that inevitably short-circuit the tenures of people in the position of central school district superintendent.
At that time I wanted members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education to
>>>>>
“Focus, focus, focus---
and cut the hocus-pocus.”
This meant first getting the definition of an excellent education right, understanding that
an excellent education is a matter of excellent teachers imparting a knowledge-intensive, logically seqauenced curriculum in the liberal (mathematics, natural science, history, economics, literature, fine arts), technological, and industrial arts to students of all demographic descriptors throughout the K-12 years.
School board members will need quite some time fully to internalize this definition and to understand that for the delivery of such a knowledge-intensive education, we will have to train teachers at the level of the central school district, remembering that
an excellent teacher is a professional of deep and broad knowledge with the pedagogical ability to impart that knowledge to all students.
That also will take a long time to get lodged into the collective mental consciousness of the school board, who then must remember that
the purpose of a strong K-12 education in the liberal, technological, and industrial arts is to provide maximum probability that students will graduate with the likelihood of living lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.
With those succinct definitions and observations, I have provided the vision that is lacking in Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020.
In other many articles posted on this blog, I have explained what will be involved in actually delivering an education of true excellence, training teachers who possess great stores of knowledge, and sharpening the purpose for which we deliver an excellent education in the interests of a high quality of life for all of our precious students.
Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 can work, but we need a leader who can fill in the missing details and articulate the needed plan of action--- as I have done in my writing and my many venues for public commentary, including the time designated for such at the meeting of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education each month.
.....................................................................
But the members of the school board allowed the distraction of a nearly 10-month search for a new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools to divert their attention from those most important fundamentals of educational excellence and purpose given above.
And now they are further distracted by exactly the kind of controversy that seems always to impinge on any meaningful action for the achievement of excellent education.
The new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools will have to fill in the many gaps of Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 with appropriate detail and specific definitions as to what constitutes an excellent education and who may be properly identified as an excellent teacher.
What a shame, then, that after many months of a national search for the right leader, the processes--- although followed conscientiously by members of the MPS Board of Education--- have proven to be just as inconclusive as I have judged all such processes to be that swirl around an insubstantial talent pool and a history of superintendent selections in school districts across the United States that so often end in short tenures, ethics allegations, or both.
Interim Superintendent Michael Goar is now a lame duck.
A cloud of uncertainty hangs over Sergio.Paez.
And nothing would be gained now by going through another prolonged search for a new Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools. After nearly a year of searching for a new leader, no candidate with experience in overseeing an entire large urban school district as the official superintendent of schools emerged.
Under these circumstances, the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education should now move forward with further vetting of Charles Foust, the promising young assistant superintendent and academic turn-around specialist from the Houston (Texas) Independent School District who, of the three finalists, is the unwounded candidate from a multi-month search who handled all questions with candor and grace.
Foust was also the candidate who in conversations with me conveyed the likelihood of lending substance to Strategic Plan: Acceleration 2020 by promoting knowledge-intensive education, imparted joyfully by pedagogically skilled teachers who possess the requisite breadth and depth of knowledge.
Thus school board members should move with care, but as quickly as care allows, to do the necessary vetting for aversion of another distracting fiasco--- then hire Charles Foust as the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
In doing this, school board members and personnel throughout the Minneapolis Public Schools should >>>>>
>>>>>
“Focus, focus, focus---
and cut the hocus-pocus.”
Our students have been waiting for an excellent education for a very long time, and the policies that will ensure that quality of education will require full focus on the part of all of those responsible.
Jan 5, 2016
Consider the Underlying Themes of Importance in the Current Controversy Surrounding Prospective Superintendent Sergio Paez >>>>> Then Decide for Charles Foust as the Next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools
When interpreting any controversy swirling in the peculiar setting of the public schools, one must train a focused eye on the issues of true importance. This is pertinent to those of you now following the drama of school personnel treatment of special education students during the Holyoke, Massachusetts, tenure of Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Prospective Superintendent Sergio Paez.
On 9 December 2015, two days after members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education voted 6-3 for Paez as the next Superintendent, the Disability Law Center of Massachusetts issued a report containing allegations of abuse of special education students at Peck School in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where Paez served as superintendent during June 2013- April 2015 and has continued as consultant thereafter.
On 14 December 2015, Hampden County (Massachusetts) Attorney General Anthony Gulluni initiated a criminal investigation. In all likelihood, Paez himself will not be implicated in criminal activity, but any criminal or ethically questionable activity of personnel under his watch raises legitimate concerns.
On 16 December 2015, the MPS Board of Education suspended contract negotiations with Paez. He remains, though, the candidate to emerge as prospective superintendent from the many months of national search from spring into autumn 2015 and from concluding semifinalist and finalist interviews in December 2015.
Even before these allegations and investigations clouded Paez's candidacy, his status was that of a prospective superintendent, pending contract negotiations and an investigative trip by school board members Tracine Asberry and Josh Reimnitiz. Decision for such a trip came at the behest of board member Carla Bates (who was one of the three who voted for Interim Superintendent Michael Goar) and by implication carried the goal of ensuring that nothing in Paez's tenure at Holyoke contradicted the favorable assessment given his record by the majority of six who voted for him as next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
In late December, board members Asberry and Reimnitz made their trip, coming away with favorable impressions (garnered from discussions with Holyoke school personnel, local officials, and community residents) of the academic efforts initiated during Paez's tenure in Holyoke, but still revealing concerns about matters pertinent to allegations regarding personnel in the special education program.
This week, Paez is in Minneapolis, meeting with school board members and making himself available to community members at two coffee hours, the first such event occurring today (Tuesday, 5 January 2016) at Avenue Eatery (1101 West Broadway) at 5:30 PM, the second tomorrow (Wednesday, 6 January 2015) at Fireroast Café (3800 37th Avenue South) at 10:30 AM.
So any concerns that you may have about Paez pertinent to recent controversies, you'll have a chance to express at those gatherings--- or at Public Comment time (5:30 PM) at the regular second-Tuesday-of-the month meeting of the MPS Board of Education next Tuesday, 12 January.
......................................................................................
But now I turn to the truly important and enduring themes in this scenario concerning the search for the next superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
In spring 2015, I went on record in this blog and other public venues with the counsel that the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education should eschew a formal nationwide search and proceed with the hiring of Interim Superintendent Michael Goar. My reasoning was as follows:
Goar served as the Chief Executive Officer under Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson, whose resignation effective at the end of January 2015 induced the selection of a new Superintendent. Johnson did not stay to promote policies that could ensure success for her three most promising initiatives: Shift (emphasizing concentration of resources close to the classroom), High Priority Schools (schools with economically challenged students who have not fared well academically, now targeted for additional resources and effective programming), and Focused Instruction (identification of academic subject area knowledge and skill sets to be acquired at each grade level during the K-12 years). But in her keen focus on areas that had long needed addressing, Johnson left a powerful legacy for the actual achievement by a diligent successor.
Goar was in position to push those key initiatives forward and had shown himself enthusiastic about two of those programs: Shift, in the service of which he reduced the central office bureaucracy at MPS by 120 employee positions, from 651 to 531, a diminution of more than 18%; and High Priority Schools, which have evidenced some improvement during his tenure as Interim Superintendent.
Goar lamentably advanced the case for pseudo charter schools (to be called "Community Partnership Schools") within MPS as his favored initiative for achieving academic improvement, over the more tangible changes in curriculum under the Focused Instruction program. In conversations with me as the candidacies for new Superintendent of MPS narrowed to those of Goar, Paez, and Charles Foust, Goar assured me of his dedication to the knowledge-intensive curriculum of Focused Instruction (which he maintained would still be required in the Community Partnership Schools), but much in his verbiage and activity conveys to me that I will have to be vigilant in reminding Goar of this commitment. He does not seem to have the importance of Focused Instruction in his gut.
But Goar seemed to me to have viability as the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools. My reasoning for his candidacy very prominently included the observation that the pool of great candidates is nonexistent: Nothing in the training or culture of the education establishment is conducive to the development of great superintendents--- so any nationwide search would at best be a diversionary tactic on the part of the MPS Board of Education conveying to the public an attempt to attract the best candidate available. And the track record of superintendents across the nation suggests an exit after two or three, and at most five, years on the job--- before any substantive achievements can be recorded. So any superintendent search tends to be a distraction from the real issues vexing the public schools, creating the Shakespearean Macbeth's proverbial "sound and fury, signifying nothing."
The members of the MPS Board of Education did not take my advice to hire Goar immediately.
Through summer and autumn 2015, the search was on, conducted by members of the firm, HYA Executive Search (represented in meetings of the MPS Board of Education by Ted Blaesing), hired at $40,000 to find the best candidates available.
The three finalists who emerged in the course of November and December 2015 were Michael Goar, Sergio Paez, and Charles Foust. I have detailed their qualifications and evaluated their candidacies in many articles posted on this blog.
In summary, Goar has administrative experience in Boston, Memphis, and Minneapolis but no classroom experience. Paez began his career as an elementary school teacher and has experience as English Language Learner administrator, assistant principal, and superintendent (two years in the medium-sized Holyoke school district). Foust also started as an elementary school teacher and held numerous administrative positions (including principal) before becoming an academic turn-around specialist as assistant superintendent in the Houston (Texas) Independent School District.
The narrowing of the pool to these candidates strongly suggested affirmation of the lack of truly great candidates. Greatness can always occur in the absence of obvious evidence predictive of greatness, and I actually came to note numerous compelling qualities in the personages of Paez and Foust. But not one of these candidates has experience leading a large urban school district in the formal position of superintendent. Not one of these candidates clearly articulated a compelling vision for the Minneapolis Public Schools during interviews. Paez and Foust conveyed a sense of how they would raise achievement in math and reading for historically underserved populations, but only their answers to my questions in personal conversations revealed their stance on knowledge-intensive K-12 education imparted by teachers trained and able to deliver an information-heavy curriculum.
At the culmination of the hiring process, I advocated for Charles Foust, who seems to have the importance of knowledge-intensive education most deeply lodged in his gut and thus dissuaded me from my original inclination toward Goar. Here again, members of the Minneapolis Board of Education eschewed my advice, voting for Paez on a six-for-Paez, three-for-Goar count.
And here we are, mired in the essential position of which I had warned. Something distasteful tends to happen in these hiring processes, either while it ensues, or in its aftermath. Superintendents tend to prove academically disappointing, ethically questionable, careerist, or energy-deficient. We spend months and months hoping to find a leader who will take us to a higher quality of education, the definition of which is too ill-defined by anyone at the school district. For whatever reason, the person in whose candidacy and selection much time was invested proves insufficient as to results, ephemeral in presence, or both.
In the meantime, we never get around to the development of the knowledge-intensive curriculum and teachers of true excellence that will actually give our precious children the K-12 education that they deserve.
Officials and personnel in our central schools districts are in constant motion, seeming to address all manner of issues critical to the moment, but making not one whit of advance toward excellence in
education.
I still maintain, therefore, that a national search should not have been conducted and that Goar should have been given his chance. The school board failed to take that advice and is now enveloped in the cloud of confusion swirling around Paez.
Having opted for the national search, the MPS Board of Education conducted numerous meetings that I attended and at which I came to know the candidates. While I still would have preferred to be focusing on real academic issues under a Goar tenure, as long as the search ensued I evaluated the candidates fairly and advocated for Foust. Thus, my counsel was not followed at a second major juncture.
At this point, many moons forth from the search that began in spring 2015, we do not have time to endure another prolonged and unsatisfying search for the great superintendent of proven mettle to lead a large urban school district.
The vote of the members of the MPS Board of Education on 7 December 2015 rendered Goar a lame duck. He is no longer viable according to public perception. Paez has become damaged goods and has a huge task to reverse his own perceptions among the public; he is not likely to recover.
Charles Foust is a young, vigorous educator, with the commendable qualities that I have detailed in previous articles. He has something of the aura of the talented young athlete who just might be ready for the big-time.
Members of the MPS Board of Education should now more thoroughly chew, rather that eschew, my advice, digesting my reasoning in opting for Charles Foust as the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools. Not to do so could well keep the themes of importance in the current controversy surrounding prospective Superintendent Sergio Paez swirling.
In the same way that we would have been better off giving Goar his shot to see what he could do, rather than endure the unsatisfying search process, we should now give Foust his chance:
Charles Foust could prove that golden nugget shining through a rather murky pool that at last gives education in the Minneapolis Public Schools a boost toward that level of excellence for which I will always advocate.
On 9 December 2015, two days after members of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education voted 6-3 for Paez as the next Superintendent, the Disability Law Center of Massachusetts issued a report containing allegations of abuse of special education students at Peck School in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where Paez served as superintendent during June 2013- April 2015 and has continued as consultant thereafter.
On 14 December 2015, Hampden County (Massachusetts) Attorney General Anthony Gulluni initiated a criminal investigation. In all likelihood, Paez himself will not be implicated in criminal activity, but any criminal or ethically questionable activity of personnel under his watch raises legitimate concerns.
On 16 December 2015, the MPS Board of Education suspended contract negotiations with Paez. He remains, though, the candidate to emerge as prospective superintendent from the many months of national search from spring into autumn 2015 and from concluding semifinalist and finalist interviews in December 2015.
Even before these allegations and investigations clouded Paez's candidacy, his status was that of a prospective superintendent, pending contract negotiations and an investigative trip by school board members Tracine Asberry and Josh Reimnitiz. Decision for such a trip came at the behest of board member Carla Bates (who was one of the three who voted for Interim Superintendent Michael Goar) and by implication carried the goal of ensuring that nothing in Paez's tenure at Holyoke contradicted the favorable assessment given his record by the majority of six who voted for him as next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
In late December, board members Asberry and Reimnitz made their trip, coming away with favorable impressions (garnered from discussions with Holyoke school personnel, local officials, and community residents) of the academic efforts initiated during Paez's tenure in Holyoke, but still revealing concerns about matters pertinent to allegations regarding personnel in the special education program.
This week, Paez is in Minneapolis, meeting with school board members and making himself available to community members at two coffee hours, the first such event occurring today (Tuesday, 5 January 2016) at Avenue Eatery (1101 West Broadway) at 5:30 PM, the second tomorrow (Wednesday, 6 January 2015) at Fireroast Café (3800 37th Avenue South) at 10:30 AM.
So any concerns that you may have about Paez pertinent to recent controversies, you'll have a chance to express at those gatherings--- or at Public Comment time (5:30 PM) at the regular second-Tuesday-of-the month meeting of the MPS Board of Education next Tuesday, 12 January.
......................................................................................
But now I turn to the truly important and enduring themes in this scenario concerning the search for the next superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
In spring 2015, I went on record in this blog and other public venues with the counsel that the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education should eschew a formal nationwide search and proceed with the hiring of Interim Superintendent Michael Goar. My reasoning was as follows:
Goar served as the Chief Executive Officer under Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson, whose resignation effective at the end of January 2015 induced the selection of a new Superintendent. Johnson did not stay to promote policies that could ensure success for her three most promising initiatives: Shift (emphasizing concentration of resources close to the classroom), High Priority Schools (schools with economically challenged students who have not fared well academically, now targeted for additional resources and effective programming), and Focused Instruction (identification of academic subject area knowledge and skill sets to be acquired at each grade level during the K-12 years). But in her keen focus on areas that had long needed addressing, Johnson left a powerful legacy for the actual achievement by a diligent successor.
Goar was in position to push those key initiatives forward and had shown himself enthusiastic about two of those programs: Shift, in the service of which he reduced the central office bureaucracy at MPS by 120 employee positions, from 651 to 531, a diminution of more than 18%; and High Priority Schools, which have evidenced some improvement during his tenure as Interim Superintendent.
Goar lamentably advanced the case for pseudo charter schools (to be called "Community Partnership Schools") within MPS as his favored initiative for achieving academic improvement, over the more tangible changes in curriculum under the Focused Instruction program. In conversations with me as the candidacies for new Superintendent of MPS narrowed to those of Goar, Paez, and Charles Foust, Goar assured me of his dedication to the knowledge-intensive curriculum of Focused Instruction (which he maintained would still be required in the Community Partnership Schools), but much in his verbiage and activity conveys to me that I will have to be vigilant in reminding Goar of this commitment. He does not seem to have the importance of Focused Instruction in his gut.
But Goar seemed to me to have viability as the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools. My reasoning for his candidacy very prominently included the observation that the pool of great candidates is nonexistent: Nothing in the training or culture of the education establishment is conducive to the development of great superintendents--- so any nationwide search would at best be a diversionary tactic on the part of the MPS Board of Education conveying to the public an attempt to attract the best candidate available. And the track record of superintendents across the nation suggests an exit after two or three, and at most five, years on the job--- before any substantive achievements can be recorded. So any superintendent search tends to be a distraction from the real issues vexing the public schools, creating the Shakespearean Macbeth's proverbial "sound and fury, signifying nothing."
The members of the MPS Board of Education did not take my advice to hire Goar immediately.
Through summer and autumn 2015, the search was on, conducted by members of the firm, HYA Executive Search (represented in meetings of the MPS Board of Education by Ted Blaesing), hired at $40,000 to find the best candidates available.
The three finalists who emerged in the course of November and December 2015 were Michael Goar, Sergio Paez, and Charles Foust. I have detailed their qualifications and evaluated their candidacies in many articles posted on this blog.
In summary, Goar has administrative experience in Boston, Memphis, and Minneapolis but no classroom experience. Paez began his career as an elementary school teacher and has experience as English Language Learner administrator, assistant principal, and superintendent (two years in the medium-sized Holyoke school district). Foust also started as an elementary school teacher and held numerous administrative positions (including principal) before becoming an academic turn-around specialist as assistant superintendent in the Houston (Texas) Independent School District.
The narrowing of the pool to these candidates strongly suggested affirmation of the lack of truly great candidates. Greatness can always occur in the absence of obvious evidence predictive of greatness, and I actually came to note numerous compelling qualities in the personages of Paez and Foust. But not one of these candidates has experience leading a large urban school district in the formal position of superintendent. Not one of these candidates clearly articulated a compelling vision for the Minneapolis Public Schools during interviews. Paez and Foust conveyed a sense of how they would raise achievement in math and reading for historically underserved populations, but only their answers to my questions in personal conversations revealed their stance on knowledge-intensive K-12 education imparted by teachers trained and able to deliver an information-heavy curriculum.
At the culmination of the hiring process, I advocated for Charles Foust, who seems to have the importance of knowledge-intensive education most deeply lodged in his gut and thus dissuaded me from my original inclination toward Goar. Here again, members of the Minneapolis Board of Education eschewed my advice, voting for Paez on a six-for-Paez, three-for-Goar count.
And here we are, mired in the essential position of which I had warned. Something distasteful tends to happen in these hiring processes, either while it ensues, or in its aftermath. Superintendents tend to prove academically disappointing, ethically questionable, careerist, or energy-deficient. We spend months and months hoping to find a leader who will take us to a higher quality of education, the definition of which is too ill-defined by anyone at the school district. For whatever reason, the person in whose candidacy and selection much time was invested proves insufficient as to results, ephemeral in presence, or both.
In the meantime, we never get around to the development of the knowledge-intensive curriculum and teachers of true excellence that will actually give our precious children the K-12 education that they deserve.
Officials and personnel in our central schools districts are in constant motion, seeming to address all manner of issues critical to the moment, but making not one whit of advance toward excellence in
education.
I still maintain, therefore, that a national search should not have been conducted and that Goar should have been given his chance. The school board failed to take that advice and is now enveloped in the cloud of confusion swirling around Paez.
Having opted for the national search, the MPS Board of Education conducted numerous meetings that I attended and at which I came to know the candidates. While I still would have preferred to be focusing on real academic issues under a Goar tenure, as long as the search ensued I evaluated the candidates fairly and advocated for Foust. Thus, my counsel was not followed at a second major juncture.
At this point, many moons forth from the search that began in spring 2015, we do not have time to endure another prolonged and unsatisfying search for the great superintendent of proven mettle to lead a large urban school district.
The vote of the members of the MPS Board of Education on 7 December 2015 rendered Goar a lame duck. He is no longer viable according to public perception. Paez has become damaged goods and has a huge task to reverse his own perceptions among the public; he is not likely to recover.
Charles Foust is a young, vigorous educator, with the commendable qualities that I have detailed in previous articles. He has something of the aura of the talented young athlete who just might be ready for the big-time.
Members of the MPS Board of Education should now more thoroughly chew, rather that eschew, my advice, digesting my reasoning in opting for Charles Foust as the next Superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools. Not to do so could well keep the themes of importance in the current controversy surrounding prospective Superintendent Sergio Paez swirling.
In the same way that we would have been better off giving Goar his shot to see what he could do, rather than endure the unsatisfying search process, we should now give Foust his chance:
Charles Foust could prove that golden nugget shining through a rather murky pool that at last gives education in the Minneapolis Public Schools a boost toward that level of excellence for which I will always advocate.
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