Sunday, August 12, 2012

Jumping Ship at ARPS

 Irv Rhodes former School Committee member (left), former principal Mike Morris (right)

One of the downsides to principal Mike Morris abdicating his leadership position at Crocker Farm Elementary School is the scuttling of plans to become an "innovation school" to help the Amherst public schools compete with charter schools that are currently eating their lunch.

Six months ago the state awarded the Amherst schools $10,000 to support "planning activities" to turn Crocker Farm into an innovation school, a first for Amherst --  and hopefully a transformative template for more.

Not much of a chance now. According to Mr. Morris, "Crocker Farm decided not to go forward with applying for the ($75,000) implementation grant."

As a founding member of the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, I know all too well the rigors involved with taking an innovative concept and making it happen.  But with Mr Morris at the helm, Crocker Farm had a good chance for achieving that goal.

Interestingly, PVCIC did not get the coveted state education charter in its initial year (2006) of application. The state, however, was impressed enough to award -- for the first time ever -- $10,000 to help make the not-ready-for-prime-time concept, ready.  And that did the trick.

Now PVCIC is the number one competitor to ARPS siphoning away children from Amherst elementary schools at $16,413 per child, while Pioneer Valley Performing Arts continues to drain away kids at the middle school and high school level at a whopping cost of $17,144 per student.

If Crocker Farm had become an "innovation school," maybe those losses could be mitigated, keeping all that money in the district.

B-I-G problem #2 is ARPS is known for being top heavy with highly paid administrators, spending  $697.73 per student vs. state average of $445.97.   A difference of $252.76 per student, 57% higher than state average, or in real dollars $388,969.20!  And this was before they added this new $100K position.

Interim co-principals (don't you just hate that term?) Derek Shea and newcomer Annemarie Foley, I'm told, will have "revenue neutral" budget impact once they agree on a contract, since Mr. Shea will make less than Mr. Morris's previous $87K and Ms Foley will make less than Mr Shea was currently making as Assistant Principal.  

While Mr. Morris was already a member of the $85K Club, he will now move into the more exclusive 100K club in an entirely new position.  Amherst Regional schools will now have eleven (11) employees in the 100K Club compared to Northampton's, umm, one (1)!

And God help anyone who dares to mention it!

46 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, let me get this straight: he will supervise fewer people, he won't have to teach, he won't have to deal with (God forbid!) children, and he gets a $15,000 raise? Wow, why didn't we think of this before? It's sure to fix any school system problems immediately.

Anonymous said...

I can understand why Maria would want Mike at the administrative level I am concerned that this is not the best use of his talent. From what I have seen and been told he has energy, intelligence, creativity, vision, etc. He is a great asset to a once struggling school that is or will soon be the strongest school in the district.

While it is great that on the surface it looks like the district might take evaluation more seriously. Did we need to take one of the more talented people away from this type of direct leadership to perform these evaluations. Could some other person be hired who could do this and at a lower cost.

I am not sure where Maria is going with our schools. Rhonda Cohen is clearly a much better hire than Beth Graham. Good correction to a major mistake there. Moving Mike M. out of Crocker is concerning. I would hate to see Crocker retreat from its success due to poor leadership in the future. It seems risky. I hope the reward of evaluations is real honest accountability. That includes letting repetatively weak teachers go.

As for the pay scale I think someone is in a competition with Boston to see who can pay more. Cleary we are gaining ground and the tax-payers shall pay dearly for years to come.

Anonymous said...

Exactly which charter schools are eating their lunch? PVPA? Great if you want your child to sing and dance but be completely uneducated in the proverbial 3 r's. The Chinese Immersion School? Nice idea but its a mess.

Anonymous said...

there is a lot of churning at the principal and central officelevel in all the amherst schools, except the high school. it's hard to implement change with constantly changing leaders. on the other hand, there are lots of central office administrators who have been in their jobs for years and years and year with little to show other than lots of mistakes on their records.

Larry Kelley said...

I agree PVCIC is a mess (they could certainly use a Mike Morris at the helm), but last I looked they taken away many, many kids with an Amherst mailing address.

Anonymous said...

Geryk wants to hire another $100,000.00 employee in central office so she and her cronies don't have to take on more work.

Funny thing is that when there is more work for a secretary or custodian or teacher, Geryk just says, do more work now.

Guess that's the difference between management and labor.Management just tells labor what to do and then hires more managers.

What would $100k buy at Crocker Farm School? Two more teachers, that's what.

Oh, and the district has been taking evaluation seriously for a number of years. CHeck the facts and look at the evaluation plan the district agreed to when Hochman was supt.

Don't worry Geryk, nobody can see through your plan.

Anonymous said...

"Interim co-principals?" You have got to be kidding me. Do they have "assistant interim co-principals"? A squad of "deputy assisant interim co-principals?" Nothing about Amherst would surprise me any more. No wonder we pay through the nose on property tax.

Helen said...

What was wrong with choosing Derek Shea as the sole principal? He's proven that he's a good leader and has done well working with Mike Morris. Oh wait a minute, I get it. It's Amherst. We need a committee to decide that another committee needs to make the decision on who to hire.
It's sad to think that we are now on our 4th and 5th principals in the past 10 years in Crocker Farm.

Anonymous said...

The whole Amherst School system is BS starting with the top earners and working down to the department heads! These people, some not qualified to be admin of anything, earn way too much money. When will the taxpayers wake up and end this? When will a forensic accountant be called in to go over the books, justify spending? HA!

Anonymous said...

I'm so sad that our administrative personnel in the schools look like know-nothings. And the rest of us are worse for allowing the committee mentality to rule.

Anonymous said...

9:17 am,

your comment "check the facts and look at the evaluation....." Do you really believe that meaningful evaluations are going on or are you being sarcastic.

If you do believe this is happening can you give some examples, no names necessary, where this benefited our schools and kids.

I have had many good teachers for my kids but also several teachers that have been a problem for years that no administrator seems to do anything about. Your experience??

Anonymous said...

I'm impressed by all the anon experts you attract here onto your site, Larry, they clearly know much more than our highly educated and experienced civil servants regarding what "changes" ought to take place in our schools, in order to begin to close the achievement gap. (anon 9:49 is "not sure where Maria is going with our schools." uh-oh, they're onto us!)

Say... if improvements are demonstrated within standardized testing (MCAS) that occurred during Geryk's first year at the helm, will you guys agree to shut the f**k up for a while and let them do their work? Would it be OK to pay them a fair salary?

Of course I am being facetious, I know you anons can't possibly shut the f**k up about anything the people out here--who are actually working--are doing.

Anonymous said...

Ouch, anon 4:26. Guess things are getting a little to close to your cushy central office job so you have to lash out. Don't worry. Nobody else on this blog knows who you are, but it is painfully obvious to some of us.

I wouldn't want that private club disturbed either if I were you.

Anonymous said...

Is there anything here that we can blame on Catherine Sanderson?

Anonymous said...

Anon 4:26

So what would it take to get us to shut up. Well here are some thoughts. We will start by assuming that costs are not going down. We spend over $17,000.00 per student. That is $5000.00 more than Northampton which is similar to Amherst in many ways. Our achievement overall may be slightly better but at a much much higher cost.

So if it was up to this fiscally conservative, socially just person I would settle for the following. The low income and minority students should on average be getting MCAS and SAT scores no more than 10% less on average than the white subgroup. The rates of college admission for those subgroups should be similar to the more affluent population.

The number of students going to private schools and charter schools should decrease. Those parents would choose to keep their kids in our schools. The number of AP courses should go up as in AP Chemistry. SPED parents should not be pulling their kids our for homeschooling.

I am happy to pay my property taxes if I think those dollars are being efficiently used. I would be delighted to say that I pay very high property taxes but that the kids who go to my towns schools all do well regardless of race, religion, or economic status. How cool would it be to think that we could all collectively make that difference for so many.

Various administrations and school committees have ignored or meeting-ed to death the populace for far to long. This is not about Maria, it is about a long term trend. Until we feel like all of the children are getting the value out of a school that costs 40+% more than a similar town we are as you say never going to shut the *&@* up.

From your comments I am sure you work hard and are trying to make a difference. Maybe you are making an enormous difference. What is clear is that even if the difference is being made the perception is that it is not. Just my thoughts.

Anonymous said...

Dear Anon 2:01 pm,

Thank you for not having given up.

But this is a school system that is of, by, and for the bureaucrats who work within it.

The School Committee are merely the most compliant group of subjects they could find. We've seen how they react when a few miscreants slip through their screening process, even for a short time.

Anonymous said...

what are the problems that need fixing that require all the new hires? the problems are never acknowledged by the administration.

Anonymous said...

Solution:


"Supervisor of Schools"



Done.


(highly qualified outsider naturally)

Anonymous said...

anon 8:52: it ain't a private club... if you don't carry your weight, you get your ass booted. have you not been paying attention?

anon 6:47: we're trying to close the achievement gap, dip-s**t, everyone has acknowledged there's an issue there to be resolved. You begin to close it by improving teaching. Did you not watch Geryk's interview for the job?

Don't worry, i know change is scary... hang in there.

Anonymous said...

anon@1:45,

hasn't Ms. Geryk already been at the helm for over a year? Shouldn't we also consider the years that she was interim? At all? I hope she is successful and that 180 turn on elementary math was just an error in judgement? What was that, anyway?

Of course, for a lot of us its too late, but hopefully, those just coming into the system will benefit. Although, I hope that there could be more attention to the MS. Why did Mike Hayes take leave and why was it granted? A highly unusual situation.

Anonymous said...

The one think I know for a certainty is that the people on this blog will never be happy with the schools. We could have the best scores in Massachusetts, or everyone scoring in the highest MCAS category and the people on this blog would still be complaining.

Larry Kelley said...

Perhaps.

But at the moment they have very legitimate complaints ... so deal with it.

Hint: not by "shooting the messenger."

Anonymous said...

All the complaints on this blog do nothing to make things better. To me it's just alot of noise - entertaining noise I'll admit, but just noise.

Larry Kelley said...

And as a result things do not get better.

What's that cliche'?

Cut off your nose to spite your face.

Anonymous said...

No, things are getting better. But the noise does not contribute to the vast improvements that have been implemented in the schools in the last year.

Larry Kelley said...

"Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants."

Anonymous said...

"Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants."

???

Larry Kelley said...

Precisely your problem.

You want to work on problems (at least you admit they exist) under cover of darkness.

If the solutions succeed you will be quick to throw a spotlight on them and take credit, but if they fail you hope nobody will notice.

Consider me a 24/7 spotlight.

Anonymous said...

My question is - what constitutes the cover of darkness.

Anonymous said...

I think Mike Hayes is taking a management job at Yankee Candle. That's the rumor on the grapevine.

Why would the supt grant anyone a leave to "be with his family" after only two years on the job? This makes absolutely no sense.

Larry Kelley said...

See Comment above for instance.

Anonymous said...

And this is our business why?

Anonymous said...

Speaking for myself, if MCAS scores go up across the board, for poor kids, minority kids, all kids, I will shut the f.... up.

I'm not holding my breath.

Anonymous said...

As a Crocker Farm parent, I miss Mike Morris already. He has been a great leader there. I am sure that Derek Shea will do fine too, but Morris is a special person and has a blend of smarts, charisma, leadership, innovation and more that one doesn't see every day. Although this is a good promotion with more $ for him, it is sad to see him leaving Crocker for an administration job where he will no longer interact with students and parents.

I have been wondering about Foley and her background. I understand she was a elementary school teacher and is now a PhD student at UMass (in educational administration?) and served as Morris' intern last year, but don't know much else about her. Was anyone else considered for the co-principal job? The schools seem as though they have others who could have stepped into this position and done well at it.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know if Mike Hayes is receiving his full salary during the time he is taking off? If not then it certainly is not our business. If he is then that is a huge perk no one I know will ever see on the job. Then as tax payers that becomes our business.

As I understand it he going to be in touch with the school each week. It is not 100% leave of absence.

Larry Kelley said...

10% of salary, to occasionally check in.

Anonymous said...

10% of salary to attend school committee meetings and check in with interim principals

Larry Kelley said...

Attend School Committee meetings! He deserves a raise.

Anonymous said...

Seems like someone who has been working with Mike Morris as an intern is a perfect person to work with Derek Shea as a co-principal for the year. I've heard alot of good stuff about Derek Shea. And, we all know how talented Mike Morris is. He will one day be a Superintendent somewhere. This is a great opportunity for him.

Anonymous said...

"He (Mike Morris)will one day be a Superintendent somewhere" How about Amherst, how about today?

Anonymous said...

We already have an excellent superintendent in Amherst!

Anonymous said...

results, results, results

Anonymous said...

derek shea is excellent at whatever he does. he was a counselor at ft. river, and was great and much beloved. he was a guidance counselor at the high school and was amazing. I don't know first hand how it was at Crocker Farm with him, but I have to assume the same. mr. shea is professional, smart, caring, clever, and a leader. i have him pegged to be a principal or superintendent some day. i wouldn't be concened having him as the interim at Crocker Farm. He may not be Mr. Morris, but he is excellent in his own right.

Anonymous said...

Foley: has the respect of the staff, super-smart and energetic, experienced... she is a clear leader, a rising star.

I expect people will be dazzled by what Shea/Foley bring to the table. And remember, Morris will be at the schools (including Crocker) on a regular basis, and he is always two miles down the road.

The Amherst Public schools are becoming a place where the educators are interacting more, sharing experience, energizing each other, holding each other to high expectations.

Anonymous said...

Anon 2:04 AM,

I hear good things about Crocker. Could you send some of that energy over the Fort River. We have lost our Mojo and could use some.

Anonymous said...

With the teachers, staff, and leadership there, Crocker is my favorite of the Amherst elementary schools. I hope this year will continue to bring good things.

I definitely see Mike Morris being superintendent of Amherst or elsewhere someday if he wants to be. I thought that since the first time I met him.