Roy Exum
Jonathan Welch, the chairman of the Hamilton County School Board, had no idea he would be giving himself a well-deserved treat some months ago when he promised his son they would go on a mission trip together. This week has to be the first time his phone hasn’t blinked overload since a December tragedy triggered a tsunami and repeated shock waves that crashed the Hamilton County Department of Education.
While he richly deserves every second of peace and grace this week, I believe the pace to reinvigorate and restructure our county’s school system will pick up in earnest next week.
The most pressing matter is to replace a shamed Rick Smith with an interim superintendent. At the same time, a nationwide search for the best permanent superintendent we can possibly find must be launched in a very transparent, open way. To me the biggest challenge facing our school board is to regain the trust of our teachers and the administrators who have been callously whipped down by a “Good Ole Boy” regime for years. This cronyism is killing our education efforts and must be immediately dissolved.
The “GOB,” as it is now called after being publicly confronted, is the most malignant arm of the HCDE. In a letter that arrived earlier this week, an HCDE insider revealed, “I have seen totally inept individuals with GOB connections be promoted and protected at the expense of children and at the expense of genuinely talented professionals.”
The person also writes, “The first lesson from my colleagues in HCDE was to trust no one … The GOB network is deep and it is wide. Leadership is key and leadership choice needs to be talent-driven, not network driven. Just as Rick has undermined superintendents (plural) in the past, it will take a thorough house cleaning to avoid that same scenario in the future.”
Then the person pointed a finger that is fact: “The question is whether our board members can actually free themselves enough of the GOB network that some of them have been connected to, to stand up and do the right thing.”
The GOB is well-represented on the school board with former educators David Testerman, Joe Galloway, co-chair Donna Horn, and Dr. Steve Highlander having known ties with Smith and his fiefdom. Testerman even roared in anguish when he blamed the media for Smith’s resignation at the last school board meeting. It is overtly obvious the HCDE is at its all-time worst by nearly every measure and Testerman’s outcry would have been laughable had his GOB card not been so glaring.
In truth the school board members should be held accountable for the fact the last three superintendents have not weathered their terms. The conniving GOB is largely to blame for the departure of Jesse Register and Jim Scales according to records and news accounts. Face it, Smith was the only person considered when elected three years ago and the tainted board refused to take any other applications. Are you kidding me! That’s Mafia style!
This August four of the nine school board members are up for re-election – Rhonda Thurman, Dr. Welch, co-chair Horn and George Ricks Sr. Of the four, Welch and Thurman are definite keepers. Horn must overcome her GOB shadow (she first ran for the position while she was still a teacher) and the likable Ricks has said openly he will not support firing anyone. (A soldier who refuses to fire his gun is always the first casualty.)
Because the GOB has stagnated the top tier of the HCDE administration, it is clearly apparent the interim leader must come from outside the system. When a mid-level administrator writes “the first lesson ... is to trust no one” and the line is repeated in 100s of emails, the need for an impartial and fair leader is paramount.
Another vexing problem that must be addressed is the Public Education Foundation of Chattanooga. With our schools performing poorly and the system fractured, this seems like a dandy time to take a real hard look at the PFE’s role in our tumble to the worst. For some silly reason the HCDE is forced to hire and pay PFE advisors. That is totally stupid; get the PEF advisors out of the picture and replace them with full-time employees that are accountable to the HCDE instead of some dreamy non-profit.
According to the PEF website, the non-profit’s adjusted revenue was $5,930,275 in 2013-14, and that’s with 65 percent of our high school graduates taking remedial classes at Chattanooga State. Are you easy with that? Over 60 percent of our third graders cannot read at school level but the Public Education Foundation’s yearly payroll is bumping $2 million. I can’t even begin to connect the dots to such lunacy.
Another educational non-profit now soaking up gravy in Chattanooga is a group called “unifiED” Many suspect the PEF and unifiED are one and the same, just different-colored donation envelopes. Why else would we have two? I’m telling you, the overview of both will leave you scratching your head. Granted, I’ll readily admit I do not know what either organization does but, like a growing majority of people in Hamilton County now know, whatever it is they do doesn’t work.
I say close down both non-profits and channel public education donations through United Way or the Community Foundation. It is not my intention to be ugly or contrite but let’s cut and burn the riff-raff, shed the hangers-on and remove the leeches. It doesn’t take an Einstein to understand the salaries, the number of employees, the rent and the overhead of PFE and unifiED, when combined, absolutely defy common sense and logic. The buck doesn’t even bang.
I say start scrubbing from top to bottom. Study every contract and buy supplies/materials by open bid. “This is way we’ve always done it” is one of the reasons the HCDE is floundering. The GOB purchase orders must stop. It is time every HCDE employee be held accountable and guess what? Winners love that.
Let a remodeled HCDE stand alone and, if the lowly-regarded counselors at PFE can withstand new scrutiny, let the HCDE hire them so they can finally control their hare-brained notions. The HCDE should have no advisors, only employees. Unum, Blue Cross, Erlanger, Coca-Cola – they have no advisors. Call Volkswagen and tell them they must hire 12 diesel advisors from UTC – you’ll quickly learn you are thought to be a “Dummkopf,”the German word for “idiot.”
A good percentage of those eager to watch the HCDE rebuild believe the interim head should be a proven business leader not in education. The budget process – now over $400 million – starts in March and it has been my experience you function the best when people know what they are doing.
A couple of MBAs with accounting experience would be far more preferred than a pair of educators with Master’s degrees in education when it comes to managing $400 million. Elvis is dead but we sorely need common sense to return to the building.
A business type would also bring a different pair of eyes to the crony-ridden central office that has a number of poor-performing principals now in key positons, as well as an inflated payroll badly out of synch. It would take only a short while for a results-minded business executive to find and fix key personnel issues.
A business person could also supply the school board – and the public – with timely and factual reports like stockholders receive in an open and transparent way. In short, run HCDE as a $400 million business with good educators dealing with valid educational concerns. Last year the school board approved a $4 million contract for some school books. That is outlandish and, somewhere, somebody is still giggling.
A business person could quickly quell the ridiculous number of “hardship requests” that plague the system. It is obvious schools abuse the system to import athletic talent. For instance, the Ooltewah community is 97 percent white but in a photo of this year’s scandalous basketball team, there are 12 black players and two white players. The coach and assistant are both black.
For the record, of the three facing rape charges and the victim himself, three of the four are believed to have been zoned for Howard High before being recruited to Ooltewah. Reportedly, one had such a detrimental behavior record in middle school the Howard coaches rejoiced when he departed.
The Chattanooga 2.0 initiative must not fail. A business mind could figure the logistics, a timely schedule, and educators could administer it. Moreover, business leaders don’t put up with behavior problems that rattle every school today. Smart business people anticipate problems so they can avoid them.
The police department, the sheriff’s office, and the juvenile court need to issue the strongest directive ever to maintain order. Today student behavior is every teacher’s biggest problem in Hamilton County.
If a school needs three School Resource Officers, or even eight, a business leader knows the expense, whatever it might be, is cheaper than running some child through the legal wrangle, a hospital surgical suite, or -- with our increasing gang problems – the morgue.
Right now is when the school Board should call Sheriff Jim Hammond, give him the authority he needs, and let him design a modern and efficient SRO staff. We must have at least one at every school because of Columbine and Sandy Hook. The school board should get a report on discipline every time it meets.
The list of items where the current HCDE leadership have fallen short is long, which is why Welch and the school board must have special meetings this spring to assert the leadership they were entrusted by those who voted them into office.
Next week things need to start happening.
royexum@aol.com