Amherst Crocker Farm Elementary School is in the final stage of acquiring a new principal to replace Mike Morris, who was kicked upstairs into Central Office to head up teacher evaluations, a new state mandated protocol.
Originally 20 candidates -- 9 men and 11 women -- applied for the position. A volunteer screening committee interviewed 9 semi- finalists and whittled the field down to five finalists, all women.
Earlier in the week the finalists met with parents and other stakeholders.
Two of the final candidates are from out of state so ARPS paid their travel expenses, roughly $3,000 total.
Currently Crocker Farm is being run by co-principals Derek Shea and Anne Marie Foley. Ms Foley is a finalist for the permanent position of principal.
With two young children of his own and a coaching commitment to Amherst College in the Fall, Mr Shea opted not to put his hat in the ring, but said he "looks forward to coming back next year as Assistant Principal."
Kathy Mazur, Human Resources Director, is currently checking references on the finalists. Superintendent Maria Geryk will review the feedback forms and then make her decision. Any offer will of course be contingent on passing a criminal background check.
The new principal will start July 1.
Sorry to see this. We need more male mentors for these children. The complete imbalance of the female system offers our children a clear imbalance in life. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2011 Current Population Survey, men make up only 18.3 percent of elementary and middle school teachers and 2.3 percent of preschool and kindergarten instructors. I blame a large portion of it on feminism that went too far and created a false claim that men are abusers. That continuing sexism against men working with children continues today causing many qualified male teachers to not bother applying for teaching roles.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.menteach.org/news/still_too_few_male_teachers_many_grades_see_small_percentage
Umm, feminism is to blame for the lack of male preschool and elementary school teachers? Because there were so many male teachers before the women's movement took place? I'm sure that feminism is also to blame for the shortage of male nurses and male homemakers.
ReplyDeleteWalter, are you serious, or are you being factious?
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame, Derek would be a wonderful principal. Maybe in the future...
ReplyDeleteAmong the five, there are a few great principal candidates (the others not so much). I am really hoping that one of the top 2 gets an offer from the district and says "yes!"
ReplyDeleteWalter, until quite recently all the principals in the elementary schools were male (and the Superintedent), while most teachers were female. What example do you think that provided to our kids? Only males reach the level of leadership! I'm glad to see more women providing leadership roles!!
ReplyDeleteYou are cracked if you think feminism has gone too far. Just look around you and see who is making nearly all the decisions that count (many poor decisions) in our society. Yep, its men!
i guess my question is you had 2 co-principles and both applied....why was one chosen and not the other as a finalist.....is the one chosen that much better or the one not chosen not doing a good job??? to me they are equal....
ReplyDeleteThat would be a good question IF both co-principals (with an a) applied.
ReplyDeleteBut they did not. Read much?
I agree with Walter Graff but for a very different reason: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/229730/moynihan-report-and-ongoing-family-breakdown/rich-lowry
ReplyDeleteThe Pioneer Institute did a study and found that the average (mean not median) tenure of the live-in boyfriend of a single mother is 17 months. Consider what this means to young boys.
They need to have male principals as well as male teachers and the girls need to see that not all men are drug dealing thugs who routinely spend time in jail.
Another administrator search led by Amherst's HR dept.? Pray for us all!
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly with Anon 9:23. Walter's comment seems bizarre to me.
ReplyDeleteLarry, you should do a report on what is going on down in Florida with the guy Catherine Sanderson championed as a true Leader for our Amherst Public Schools...
ReplyDeleteI'm glad she's not involved with choosing Principals for our schools.
I'm glad we still have all the things Catherine said and wrote about how great she thinks Alberto Rodriguez is.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it bothers A-Rod that a young woman can do so well the job he couldn't do.
Oh Anon 7:44 p.m.
ReplyDeleteIn your pathetic attempt to bring up Ms. Sanderson yet again, please don't leave us in suspense. Do tell. Your public is on the edge of its seat.
Actually- Catherine wanted the race car driver from CT (not A.Rod)
ReplyDeleteCatherine was a huge defender of ARod when he was let go. Google him to find out what is going on. Seems he suspended three HERO students who had the audacity of tackling and disarming a fellow student who was about to shoot yet another student. Brilliant!
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot more going on down there than the suspending of students.
ReplyDeleteMaria is doing a better job than A-rod? Not to say he would have done better but if people have not noticed our budget continues to grow faster than inflation. The student population is decreasing faster than the reduction of kids in Amherst which means more and more parents are choosing to go choice out, using charter, home school, or private school. The low income and minority students we claim to help continue to fail as much if not more than before. How is Maria doing better?? Higher cost, lower success, and a population that is showing support by leaving he schools behind. Now that's a track record anyone can be proud of.
ReplyDeleteA-rod was going to start cleaning house and the powers that be saw their chance to push him out. Funny how he quit before the reviews written by his subordinates would have become public comment. Even funnier how the School committee was ready to put Maria into her role as interim as A-rods resignation hit the desk. Almost like it was planned. Of course the Karl Rovian liberals in this town have a different slant on the whole thing. Gotta get some of that kool-aid.
ReplyDeleteAs one who was witness and was even subjected first-hand to Rodriguez's tenure here...
ReplyDeleteYes, you are right, it was planned. Big time planned.
We play hard, hard, hardball up here. No time for rank amateurs. We've got important work to do and we'll do what it takes to get it done.
You guys can keep tip-tapping away... but has it weakened us over the past five years? Or has it made us stronger?
Well, get used to MG running things, because she's here for the long haul.
ReplyDeleteAnd when she's done, and we can look back at the Positive change she has affected, what will you have added to your life accomplishments in that same time period?
That is true that "the powers that be" saw their chance to push him out.
ReplyDeleteLarry contributed nicely by keeping the issue of his chronic absenteeism in the limelight while others focused on some of Alberto Rodriguez's more serious, shall we say, indiscretions. When all is revealed, not a single one of you will have any support for the guy. The taste of the man's name on your lips will fill you with remorse.
For those of you with none...
Power is not something that-
Oh, never mind, you guys won't understand.
Even funnier how the School committee was ready to put Maria into her role as interim as A-rods resignation hit the desk.
ReplyDeleteShe was the obvious candidate for interim: she had done it twice before for the Amherst Schools, and no one else had the balls to do the job at the time, in part because of the poison blog atmosphere.
"There's a lot more going on down there than the suspending of students."
ReplyDeleteAnd there's a whole lot more going on up here when a certain frighteningly under qualified insider gets hired to be Superintendent of a school district which, for all intents and purposes, functions like a mafia.
Further, put Geryk or any other Amherst administrator into ~any~ district on par with any A-rod has very successfully worked for and watch
how quickly and completely things
end
badly.
(~very~ badly)
LOL.
You know how true it is.
And I know how true it is.
"Larry contributed nicely by keeping the issue of his chronic absenteeism in the limelight while others focused on some of Alberto Rodriguez's more serious, shall we say, indiscretions. When all is revealed, not a single one of you will have any support for the guy. The taste of the man's name on your lips will fill you with remorse."
ReplyDeleteLOL!
Chimps really can be taught to write!
You really don't know what's going on down there, do you? A-Rod has never been successful in any school system he has worked in. When he got here, with no good 'ol boy network to support him, (he was of course trying to hire his criminal friends from FL into important positions here in OUR schools,) he found out that people actually go to work every day and work 10-12 hours minimum. He realized early on he didn't have what it takes at all to work in a real school system where the administrators don't show up at 11am, go out to lunch at 1pm, then go home to pack because they are going to leave for a week to go home and rest in sunny FL.
ReplyDeletePonzi, when you "LOL" it doesn't sound like a happy laugh. It sounds crazy. And it looks weird too.
When do you officially become an "insider" in this town? Geryk's not from around here, is she? Didn't she have like three other admin positions in three other districts before coming here?
ReplyDeleteI guess when you are such an outsider, everyone seems like an insider.
"Ponzi, when you "LOL" it doesn't sound like a happy laugh. It sounds crazy."
ReplyDeleteNever forget old friend:
"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."
But thanks anyway.
"(he was of course trying to hire his criminal friends from FL into important positions here in OUR schools,)"
ReplyDeleteYou know why.
To shut your asses down.
You don't own the schools or this god damned town.
I'll say it again and for the hard of seeing, again:
It's
over
baby.
Thanks, Ponzi, you've given me a whole new insight into your posts. You see things as you are. Now I get it.
ReplyDeleteI think Ponzi is Ed's poetic personality.
ReplyDeleteBut he got his ass shut down pretty fast, didn't he? It's because we are "the powers that be". We are so powerful.
ReplyDeleteOr so that is how you see things...
And further, Ponzi, I didn't mean that you seem crazy when you write LOL, I mean I've seen you laugh, it's kinda cackly, and you look and sound a bit crazy when you laugh out loud...
ReplyDeleteWhy does Ponzi keep calling us chimps??
ReplyDeleteO-o-o-h-h-h yeah: "We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are." (Ponzi, 2013)
Ponzi, when you see the chimps, do they have red hair?
I think Ponzi is Ed's poetic personality.
ReplyDeleteI think Ed has taped his fingers together to keep from posting today, in order to lend credence to his story about getting a job.
"I mean I've seen you laugh, it's kinda cackly, and you look and sound a bit crazy when you laugh out loud..."
ReplyDeleteCrazy impatient is what that was.
I could-not-wwwwwait for these days to come.
90,000 visitors a month have gotten to know me.
But most importantly, they have gotten
to know
~you~.
p.s. Hear that? It's me again, laughing hysterically.
(youuuuu betcha)
Do you cackle like that when you are teaching class?
ReplyDeleteMichele Tesauro has been hired
ReplyDelete