This strikes me as a very bad decision. With my various jobs, it's impossible for me to follow the board closely, and I haven't had time to do any reporting on this yet, but I am struck right out of the chute by a couple of things:
1. Svee's biggest job was to calm the waters after the strike. He did that well and deserved to be rewarded for it.
2. The staff gave him much better evaluations than the board did. When the staff and board disagree, the staff is usually right.
3. His highest marks were for ethical behavior, personnel matters and accepting responsibility. Those marks should carry disproportionate weight.
4. Fruit basket turnover every three years is a lousy way to run a school district. I've been saying this for a long time, and it seems truer now than ever: City administrator and school superintendent have become impossible jobs. It would be better to get rid of the positions altogether than to keep hacking away at the hopeless dream of finding the perfect candidate. The district could buy a punching bag for a lot less money.
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6 comments:
I think Svee did a solid job, given what or who he had to deal with. I posted on it also;
http://www.downtownbillings.blogspot.com/
I think this will be a news story for a while.
The joker strikes again! Mary joke fox! I sear! Ain't NO man gonna please that broad!
I agree with all of your points, David. Superintendant and City Manager will laways be a revolving door in Billings.
The banshees are screaming again, huddled around their cauldrons, mixing another magic elixir. This current solution, Superintendent Rod Svee, was brought in to fix the banshees' last boondoggle, the teachers' strike. Svee fixed that and more. He opened the schools and the budget to the press and the public. He worked hard on the new funding program for schools. He has mended most of the rancor between the administration and the schools and the steachers. He made the public, but for a few banshees, proud of the schools. So what else can the banshees do. They send Svee on his way, creating another boondoggle so they can mix another elixir.
Magic aside, the only schoolution for School District 2 if for the board to resign. Short of that, voters must give the trustees the boot. That's the only elixir to cure this banshee boondoggle.
This school board is a joke. Their decisions are so reactive and so poorly thought out that it is no wonder they have completely lost credibility in our community. This is NOT the time to let Svee go, out of some desire to be more "activist." This board has already demonstrated its brand of "activism" and it has not helped a bit to restore any confidence in them. With teacher negotiations, funding issues, upcoming bond elections and all the other issues we face, we need calm and stability, not continual upheaval. It would be nice if this Board could actually manage to function for any length of time without generating some kind of a crisis.
You're right, anon 1003. Now is not the time to let Svee go. The right time was about this time last year would have been much better.
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