The new CPS CEO’s resume.
Jean Claude Brizard:
On the same day nearly 200 Rochester City School District teachers were laid off, the principal of Jefferson High School and four of her staff members were in Las Vegas for a conference.
“I would have much rather had the principal tell me,” said a Jefferson special education teacher, who said she was informed by a department head that she was out of a job. The teacher didn’t want to be identified for fear of retaliation by district administrators.
Mary Andrecolich-Diaz, two administrators, and two teachers went to a three-day conference at the University of Las Vegas that focused on Small Learning Communities. Jefferson, which has been cited by the state for low test scores, is studying the concept to improve. The trip is expected to cost about $9,500.
The staff learned of the trip in a weekly school bulletin.
The Rochester school board will go into executive session next Thursday night discuss a raise given to the superintendent on January 1, 2009, according to several board members.
Board member Allen Williams said he expected Jean-Claude Brizard’s attorney to be present.
Williams pressed the issue with his board colleagues after learning of the 4 percent increase. Brizard, who started in the district January 2, 2008 making $215,000 a year, saw his salary go up to $223,600.
“The board never agreed to a raise with the superintendent at all,” said Williams.
The front offices of the City School District’s Central Kitchen are newly-renovated, freshly-painted, carpeted, and air-conditioned.
The food preparation facilities in back are dimmer and cooled by fans. The fixtures are dirty, assembly-line machines appear to be aging, and cardboard boxes are stacked in the middle of the floor.
A used mouse trap sat in a corner by a cooler.
The Central Kitchen prepares breakfasts and lunches for students at all elementary schools. About eighty percent of city school students qualify for free or reduced-priced meals.
“That is highly unacceptable for the students in this district,” said school board member Cynthia Elliot, who invited 13WHAM News on a tour of the facility. “I would imagine if the health department came in here, there would be some issues and concerns.”
Rochester City School District principals were told to cut 10 percent of the staff member group that included art, music, and physical education teachers, according to a document obtained by 13WHAM News.
Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard has said that principals were responsible for making decisions about which positions were eliminated from their buildings. “Principals are making the best decisions about where to move people. They are making those decisions,” he said last week.
A spreadsheet given to elementary school principals by Central Office indicates the principals had little wiggle room to staff their schools. The document tells principals how many teachers each school will be losing. The document also tells principals to cut 10 percent of “on top of teachers,” a group including art, music, and physical education teachers, as well as librarians, social workers, and psychologists.
In an audit released Wednesday, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli took former superintendent Manuel Rivera to task for awarding undocumented raises to his top staff that should have been disclosed to the school board. 13WHAM News has learned current Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard awarded raises to some members of the Superintendent Employee Group, known as the cabinet, this school year. School board members say they did not know about the raises.
You can find more here.
I’m not a fan of Brizard, but I don’t see a problem with the Jefferson group going to a conference regarding Smaller Learning Communities. Teachers and administrators are supposed to go to conferences. That’s how they learn to better the system. That money had already been allocated for the trip and was certainly not going to save any jobs. Is the problem that the conference was in Vegas? Would it have been okay if it were in Baltimore?
Ah, Amy.
Imagine: You’re a teacher at Jefferson. On the very day you get a RIF notice (not from your educational leader. He or she is in Vegas at a conference on “small learning communities”), but in a letter in your school box or at home in the mail.
Yes. You’re right. The money has been allocated. People go to conferences. But you, the RIFed teacher would be objective about it. And so would your colleagues. Morale wouldn’t suffer. In fact, people’s enthusiasm for the information that your principal and the other staff members bring back from Vegas would be high. I’m sure they just can’t wait to hear what they have to say about small learning communities.
Jeez. Not in my world.
And, yes. There is the problem that the conference was in Vegas.
Are you kidding?