Calls to fire Zolkoski

[buck]

First, the Tulsa World has an editorial calling for the firing of TPS Superintendent Michael Zolkoski, now the Tulsa chapter of the NAACP is calling for his ouster. What are people's thoughts on this, and if he isn't fired, how does the school district move forward?

[waterboy]

Yeah, I think when the ship hits an iceberg the captain carries the blame. He brought this concept from Texas. That is where it should have stayed. My experience with these youth boot camps (one of my family members got the treatment) is that they are open to abusive treatment from DI wannabes often with poor oversight. Parents don't find out about it till way later. Same thing happened here apparently.

They make old geezers happy though, "what these young'uns need is more discipline!" yeah, like running till you drop and being refused water really helps turn kids around. And the success rates are about equal to the lawsuits generated. Even if the teachers/administrators were poorly prepared, it was his plan and his responsibility to follow up.

[pmcalk]

I don't know the superintendent personally, so I don't know if it is fair to say this, but I have yet to meet a single person that has a kind word to say about him.  I haven't heard anyone in the teaching profession say the think he is doing a good job.  I think it is time for him to go.

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by buck

First, the Tulsa World has an editorial calling for the firing of TPS Superintendent Michael Zolkoski, now the Tulsa chapter of the NAACP is calling for his ouster.

Look through the archives of the Whirled and you will find the NAACP's only interest in this is to make sure the superintendent is black.

I cant see excluding a qualified candidate based on the color of their skin, but the NAACP has made it a requirement.

Dont get me wrong, Zolkoski is a dipstick with his private police force and press censor, but his race shouldnt be the focus here.  The NAACP is in this for the wrong reason and will just distract people from the real issues.

[OkieDiva]

His clock is ticking... I think they're just trying to work out an escape package. Problem is, what do we do now? And why can't Tulsa attract and keep quality superintendents? This situation is not going to help the state of public ed in Tulsa.

[rwarn17588]

Screw superintendents. Assign their duties to the principals, and leave it at that. The principals are the ones who know the needs and problems of their schools, not an all-theory-no-practice executive.

[breitee]

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588

Screw superintendents. Assign their duties to the principals, and leave it at that. The principals are the ones who know the needs and problems of their schools, not an all-theory-no-practice executive.

I fully agree. Superintendants are obsolete, clueless, overpaid and worthless. The principals are the ones that really know what is going on in the schools. With the money they are wasting on morons like Zolkoski they could give principals the tools they need to run their schools.

[OkieDiva]

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588

Screw superintendents. Assign their duties to the principals, and leave it at that. The principals are the ones who know the needs and problems of their schools, not an all-theory-no-practice executive.

Principals could be tasked with more responsibility - but in your scenario, to whom do these principals report? An elected board of citizens who may have no teaching or educational administration experience? Who determines placement of principals? Who sets district-wide policy and oversees performance - with a goal toward the lowest performers rising up to the level of the best schools? There has to be a "buck-stops-here" person, and that person should be someone with real-life experience in public ed administration... not an elected and largely inexperienced board. Tulsa's problem is that the current buck-stops-here person either really does make or is largely perceived as making very bad choices.

[rwarn17588]

The "buck stops here" is the principal.

More here:

http://www.williamouchi.com/booksum.html

[buck]

I agree the principals make the real decisions, and with TPS being a large district they have some really good principals and some not so good ones I'm sure. What gets me as I been reading these stories is the postings on the comments section of the paper, one guy keeps taking shots at the teachers union when most of the articles state the teachers union was complaining about the school back in November, way before the paper, and the other is people posting how the kids that complained to the paper should be seen as heros of some sort. No they shoudn't have been subject to the TAC stuff but I hardly see them as heros since they got caught doing stuff to get them kicked out of their homeschool to begin with. The one kid showed up drunk to a football game, was sent to TAC, got out and then got caught with marijuana seeds in his car and got sent back. Now if this was such a bad experience why would you do anything that would get you sent back there?

[OkieDiva]

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588

The "buck stops here" is the principal.

More here:

http://www.williamouchi.com/booksum.html

Like I said, principals could assume more responsiblity... but, given this quote from Dr. Ouchi's fact sheet, it seems that even he doesn't believe superintendents should be done away with.

Dr. Ouchi writes: "The picture is one that provokes in me a strong emotional reaction, because I now know that any school superintendent who follows certain management principles can create success — and that there is no excuse for not making every school a success. I have boiled down these lessons into an essence of seven key elements that distinguish successful schools and school districts, and in this book I pass them along to you so that you can help your school to be
successful."

I like Dr. Ouchi's idea that there should be more "local"/at school site control. Hire motivated, professional and help them implement unique strategies for success. What works at Carnegie Elementary in south Tulsa isn't the same thing that will work at Springdale up north. (Perhaps rigidity and a one-size-fits-all approach are at the core of NCLB's problems?) However, you still need someone seasoned who can assess success and hold the principals accountable, make sure the district is in compliance with all Dept of Ed regs and coordinate district-wide initiatives (yes, even with local control, there would and should be district-wide programs). Having an unique culture at each school makes sense, however, for the sake of students moving between schools and educators/administrators advacing through our system, there must be demonstrated commitment to shared core values throughout the district.

[waterboy]

Someone has to provide direction and be responsible. My only insight is that the last few superintendents have come from outside the local system and have had a hard time understanding Tulsa (doesn't everyone?). It might be time to look within our own region for qualified candidates whether they be from the ranks of public school principals or administrators. People have a tendency to revere their local principal until they face a problem with them and realize their weanesses.

[PonderInc]

Basic requirements for next TPS superintendent:

1. Understands subject-verb agreement.
2. Able to express coherent thoughts in speech/writing.

Is it really that hard to get a qualified superintendent?  Seems like we've been scraping the barrel for a while.

[MsProudSooner]

I'm trying to envision what a School Board meeting would look like if TPS had no superintendent.  Would there be 50 principals reporting on their budgets?  Would there be 50 budgets, one for each school?

I'm all for lowering administrative costs as much as possible, but doing away with the Superintendent isn't a very good idea.

I work with a man whose wife is a TPS elementary teacher.  She said the current Superintendent wants to make all of the TPS schools charter schools.  Sounds like a bad idea to me.

[guido911]

quote:Originally posted by PonderInc

Basic requirements for next TPS superintendent:

1. Understands subject-verb agreement.
2. Able to express coherent thoughts in speech/writing.

Is it really that hard to get a qualified superintendent?  Seems like we've been scraping the barrel for a while.

Our current president does not meet those stringent qualifications.