Permanent Amherst School Superintendent Maria Geryk (far left)3:20 PM
The Amherst Regional School Committee and Union 26 quickly voted last night during an executive session to accept Maria Geryk's counteroffer, doubling her length of tenure as "permanent superintendent" from one to two years with an annual salary of $140,000 but closer to $145,000 (when factoring in annuity/life insurance) up slightly from her current $139,000 salary that previously escalated from $109,000 when appointed to the position of "interim superintendent" last year.
Whew, that was a mouthfull.
54 comments:
Ahh, It's good to be Maria Geryk.
Larry there is always something filling your mouth
33% raise...
wow
More than fair.
Yeah, things change in only one year.
Still a lot less than ARod at $158,000 plus $15,000 extra for two years ("moving expenses")
Rick Hood stabbed the parents of this town in the back.
Deeply.
Let's just hope he doesn't scuttle the ship.
In this economy Ms Geryk is one of the only people without a PAC who has managed to screw over a whole town. Admire her "stepping up" after Alberto said sayonara? OK Increase her pay? 3% seems fair. But to justify the prolonged and expensive search when the result was foretold? Amherst. (whoops, I meant Pelham)
Hey, Maria Geryk, you've just played the political game in Amherst as well as anyone ever has AND you've driven your opponents off the field so you can have things just the way you want them for the next 20 years AND you've done it all to enormous financial profit for yourself in the middle of an economic downturn!!!!!!!
What are you going to do NOW?
Are you going to Disney World?
Move over, Princess Stephanie.
The persona that pays in this town right now is Earth Mother.
Let the healing begin!
When is her first evaluation?
Yes, the "official press release" did sort of dodge that issue.
...enormous financial profit for yourself...
financial compensation... not profit.
"Let's just hope he doesn't scuttle the ship."
You know what captains are supposed to do when the ship goes down.
did you all not know before today that that is what the super in this town makes? surprised?
you haven't been paying attention for the last 6 years.
what i don't get: the last super had zero experience as a super compared to geryk's 14 months, and less years experience overall than geryk (geryk has been in the system for 25 years, she just looks young) yet she's going to make 25K less?
maybe it's 'cause she's a she?
Or maybe that she is not Cuban American.
Hooray! What a great day for Amherst! I'm thrilled that Maria will be taking the post, and am hoping we can all work together to continue to make this the GREAT community that it is. Way to go, Maria! I'm looking forward to many great years of your leadership in the Amherst schools.
She already visited the town's ATM machine for a 96K withdrawal...
Cha-ching.
Girl you are good.
of course compared to what the other two candidates would have demanded, maria is a bargain. there's no way either one would have accepted less then what "A-Rod" was making. A couple thousand $ pay raise is more then fair.
I don't have a clue what you crybabies are bleating about. Her pay is certainly less, and for less years, than the candidates you were all panting over.
Our very own Chauncey Gardner. She says all the right things in that unmistakable educator's jargon.
The evaluation is not going to happen for this Superintendent. The ARod evaluation was set up after the contract signing in the fall of 2009 by Farshid and Company as a complete pretext, which was what was necessary to proceed to show the good Doctor the door.
No one is ever going to show this Super the door, because no one is ever going to admit that she's not doing the job. The reality will be altered so no one has to lose face. She's here for as long as she wants. It's like a marriage, and the implicit promise 'til death do us part has been made. We're in the Geryk Era, so we can all just shut up and settle in. Reality will not be an obstacle.
Fast food is a bargain, too, but that doesn't mean that it's good for you.
A two year contract rather than a one year contract? Hmmm......
Two years is exactly the time necessary for she and her friends to turn the political screws to replace Rivkin, Rhodes, and Spence with Pod People.
Coming Soon: The Stepford Wives Run For School Committee
I say again -- this is exactly the same mistake that the gays made at CPAC and she, too, went too far and you will see this come back to haunt her....
Do you have any idea the number of people on a national basis who are really (and I do mean really) interested in this story????
So here we are:
Gridlock on zoning.
Gridlock on the schools.
The Chauncey Gardener comparison was wonderful along with the Stepford wives. Thank you.
Ed It would be nice for someone to pull the curtain back and expose the situation but I don't think it is going to happen. I would love to be proved wrong. I have to agree with the guy who wrote we are in the Geryk error. Strap yourselves in and get ready for much of the same.
"Catherine Sanderson,... said it's time to pull together behind the superintendent."
Then she abstained! Really pulling together behind the super! And this is the person who you, Larry, stand in awe of? Please!
Actually it makes perfect sense to me. But then, I know who I am.
Anon 12:36 pm
She's gone....leaving.....out of here. You won. You will have to reorient your silly little life staring at the computer to accomodate that fact.
And, yes, we admire her, if only for the simple fact that there are shadowy types like you bashing her on a daily basis. She's got more fortitude in her whole body than you have in your pinkie.
Or: more fortitude in her little pinkie than that Cowardly Anon Nitwit has in his entire body.
LOL Anon 1:54
People bashing Catherine are the problem??????
Have you been reading Larry's blog in the last year or so? Or even in the last few days???
If so, then you would know that people bashing Maria and Farshid are far far far more numerous than those who comment about Catherine.
There is no problem with people bashing Maria and Farshid. They won, and now our schools will continue to be insulated from criticism and reform. The SC meetings will return to being a sham of oversight. It's over. Our schools are stuck, just as we're stuck on zoning and on a dysfunctional form of government like Town Meeting. We're stuck in the mud. You won. Can't you get your brain around that? Congratulations.
I think the bashing Catherine endured on her own blog was far worse than any bashing that took place here--targeting her or Maria or Farshid (well, except maybe for the racist crap with foul language directed at Farshid from a Nitwit I wish would go away.)
And that's another problem with using comment "moderation" on a blog. She still has to read the damned things in order to decide whether to publish or not.
And considering how nasty the ones were that she actually published, I hate to think about those she trashed but still had to read.
I have a Nitwit from Amherst who comes here every day--sometimes 4 or 5 times a day--using a google search hotlink (he must have initially done and then left on his desktop) with the search terms: "Larry Kelley Amherst Idiot."
And yes, I check my sitemeter fairly often--especially the Referrals link.
Funny thing is he could have saved his energy and simply searched under "Larry Kelley".
They can't get their brains around winning because they don't want to. Winning isn't enough for savages. They want more. They want it all. To them it doesn't matter how you get it. You just do. And when you do, you milk it for all it's worth. No regrets, no matter how much damage you cause, no matter who the victims are.
These are people who believe anything goes.
And they're running our schools, Amherst.
They're neglecting our children, Amherst.
"They won, and now our schools will continue to be insulated from criticism and reform. "
Does anyone on this blog actually pay attention to what is going on in the schools. Did any of you hear Maria's interview and the many many school reform initiatives she has already implemented? Is anyone paying attention? Does anyone really care? Or is just too much fun to bash someone without knowing what you are talking about?
Oh and by the way - this isn't a competition that one side wins and one side loses.
"(well, except maybe for the racist crap with foul language directed at Farshid from a Nitwit I wish would go away.)"
Don't let them define you (or it) Larry.
Don't.
It has NOTHING to do with Hajji's skin or his religion.
A pig is a pig.
If we could, we would remind him every single day.
Fine.
I just wish you did not waste my bandwidth doing it. There are plenty of things to call Farshid on without bringing in race, ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, etc.
Thank you Larry. I've been waiting for you to break your silence on this. There is a lot about you and your tactics that I have disagreed with over the years. But never have I thought you to be one who would condone the kind of vulgar and racist remarks of the prior commenter.
Well I'm 5th generation Irish, we know first hand all about ethnic racism (especially in Amherst)
Not talking about you Larry...
Do you have any idea, Larry, what a farce this blog has become?
Have you checked my sitemeter recently, Nitwit?
There's one born every minute.
Said the Sucker who was just on my blog.
I thought the purpose of this thread was to comment on the events and this latest, lopsided flawed decision of our school commitee. I think any moderator would call out an ineffective nitwit. Good for you. But don't lose sight of the thread.
I believe this latest incident of Pelham-does-Amherst spells out who matters around here, and not just in the Superintendent search du jour. NIMBY doesn't matter to the fine ex-Amherstites who pay lower taxes and call the shots.
Ed It would be nice for someone to pull the curtain back and expose the situation but I don't think it is going to happen. I would love to be proved wrong.
$500 for 3000 words -- yes, they did get my attention. A half dozen stories and I can buy a new-to-me car and not go out into the snowbank to patch up the one I have, this becomes real money fairly quickly...
Do you have any idea of the people who were amazed about the UN flag and not the US one flying in front of town hall??? Yep, they are...
Ed, you've commented twice about how many people outside town are following this story, and noted the UN vs US flag. When I lived in Washington DC I received calls from friends who knew I was an Amherst boy, after O'Reilly's coverage of the "West Side Story" incident and then of the "Vagina Monologues" incident.
[yes: I actually had Friends. Who. Watch. Fox. News.}
Now that I'm back home, inside the Amherst bubble, I wonder whether people (other than hopeful superintendent candidates) outside the Pioneer Valley are paying attention to the usual local nonsense. It would be nice, but what evidence do you have that anyone cares?
Have you checked my sitemeter lately, Tom?
Just click on the "location" button. Even keeping in mind some locations in Mass are still Amherst (I think Comcast shifts the loads once in a while on their servers to Hubbardston and Fairhaven) but still a huge majority from outside the bubble.
How come there are/has been such a disproportionately high number of Umass graduates working for and overseeing the schools in Amherst?
Is there an agreement between the town and the University? Hire Umass grads first? Or is it a friend of a friend thing? Or is something else going on here? Maybe they are better fits because they're more progressive?
Perhaps they want all our kids to feel good about applying to Umass knowing their are jobs out there for them???
Just asking...
Maybe because a lot of graduates of UMASS are either already settled in Amherst or wish to settle here? Seems logical to me that a higher percentage of applicants, and therefore people hired, would be from the University across town as opposed to the ones across the nation.
Reminds me of Appalachia. All that inbreeding. Not good.
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