Maria Geryk, Amherst Town Meeting 5/7/14
Anytime a high ranking appointed public official is evaluated by elected amateurs -- especially a particularly docile board like the Regional School Committee -- I always factor in the tumultuous 1968 election where LBJ "won" New Hampshire, but only by 7 percentage points over upstart Eugene McCarthy (49% to 42%), and later dropped out of the race.
Is this year-end evaluation of Amherst Regional Public Schools Superintendent Maria Geryk really more "Exemplary" than "Proficient"? Should she have scored a LOT higher?
Or considering the tumultuous year at Amherst Regional High School, a LOT lower?
(Safe bet she will not be dropping out.)
48 comments:
At the School Committee meeting didn't Trevor Baptiste indicate that he couldn't support the summary evaluation as written and that he would be preparing and releasing his own evaluation report? I am assuming that will be public information once it's prepared.
Members of the School Committee are very pleased with your work over the past year, particularly your continued emphasis on serving the needs of all students.
Here! Here!
Signed,
A very satisfied and appreciative parent of three children
One in every crowd.
This cake was baked in 2011.
Amherst, where even the "very satisfied and appreciative parents" (Anon 2:59 pm) want to stay anon.
I thought that too. If youre so happy and appreciative, why not sign your name? What do you have to lose?
SHE IS DOING AS WELL AS ANYONE COULD IN HER POSITION.
It's OK for people to remain Anon and bash the schools but it's not OK to be supportive and remain Anon? Bull shit.
And I think Maria Geryk is doing a good job.
I miss Jere.
Thanks Kurt.
This blog thinks that only negative thoughts are valid. Meet this year's ARHS graduates and learn about all the great colleges they will be going to. Then you will understand the great education they get.
Yea Jere who never did a thing for equity.
Well he did let the kiddies do "Vagina Monologues," resulting in tons of national exposure (pun intended).
Superintendents that listen to everyone and do their bidding are labeled wishy-washy and weak. Superintendents that show some backbone are accused of being imperious and autocratic. It's a thankless job.
But the pay is pretty good. #1 in town government.
That's because they work harder. Half the time the town manager is attending ribbon cuttings, luncheons and other fluff. Same in Holyoke. Compare their mayor's salary with the superintendent.
I'm sure the Town Manager would politely disagree.
The superintendent gets combat pay.
As does the Town Manager for dealing with hyperactive NIMBYs.
Have the NIMBYS disrupted any select board meetings to the point that they had to be adjourned?
Looked to me like the meeting was done anyway.
So you think it was OK what they did? They could not finish it in an orderly fashion. It was totally hijacked and disrupted. I've never seem that happen at the select board. If these people think this is the way to get what they want I think they have another thing coming.
And whos fault is that, 7;07? Total lack of control.
Meet this year's ARHS graduates and learn about all the great colleges they will be going to.
And flunking out of...
It's not what college they get into but what college they manage to graduate from....
I'm glad the SC has a more grounded and reality based assessment of her job performance than the wackos on this blog. She's doing a fine job. She hasn't quit like the superintendent who was busy job hunting on the taxpayer's dime. It's a tough job. You never know when a controversy not of your making flares up and consumes everyone's time and attention. It's like being the president. You may have an agenda but it get hijacked by events. Glad to see she's toughed it out.
Anon 1019 you clearly weren't there. How do you control a whole roomful of people singing We Shall Overcome at the top of their lungs? And what do people think about a SC member (Shabbaz) leaving the table and going into the audience to join them. This was a working SC meeting with a big agenda. Not a public forum. And it is an outrage that a SC member would aid and abet the disruption of a public meeting. It shows total disrespect for his colleagues. I don't know how they will be able to function next year. I for one think he should resign. If he wants to be in the audience singing then he should join them permanently.
Larry, how exactly is this different from the Barney Blowout? Mob rule...
Anon 7:10 AM Mr. Shabazz (note spelling) did not joint the protesters singing "We Shall Overcome." He left the meeting just before that because he was feeling ill.
Anon 7:22 AM BIG difference between staging a protest using First Amendment rights and just plain drunken debauchery.
Um, I don't think they were singing We Shall Overcome at the Blowout.
Welcome to the Mike Morris employment agency.
Thanks, Ed, for disparaging the graduates with absolutely no basis. Your negativity knows no bounds.
Larry, Can you get a college matriculation list(including number of students enrolled that year) for ARHS for the last 10 years and publish it here. This should be public information.
Mike Morris is doing a great job and we are lucky to have him.
"Larry, Can you get a college matriculation list(including number of students enrolled that year) for ARHS for the last 10 years and publish it here. This should be public information."
You people have gone off the deep end. Try getting back to your own lives.
Actually, most high schools publish a breakdown of the number (and percentage) of the senior class going to college, into the military, to work, etc. They usually also give some idea of the types of colleges.
Now if ARHS isn't doing that == in a college town, umm.....
But my point< is that while it is one thing to matriculate, it is another thing to GRADUATE.
I've see far too many kids (from all kinds of high schools) not make it. In some cases, I've been called out of bed on the far side of midnight...
My negativity is based on reality. I've often wondered what happens to the kids who don't make it through their Freshman year...
Oh, and one thing having NOTHING to do with ARHS -- some years back, a survey of the homeless in Portland, ME found that 10% of them had an outstanding student loan to the University of Maine. That is not disturbing?
The only thing disturbing in your post Ed, is you.
Don't react.
Don't say anything.
Don't take the bait.
Deny him the one thing he needs almost as much as oxygen: attention.
Deny him the one thing he needs almost as much as oxygen: attention.
You do so misunderstand me. I'm not doing this for attention -- I'm doing this for posterity.
And for a pound of flesh. Amherst sucks and I want the whole world to know that.
I want to see what colleges ARHS students go to each year and how many students enrolled into each college. I hope ARHS will share this information with the community.
"I want to see what colleges ARHS students go to each year..."
Some are obviously doing well.
Very well.
I mean, even those who don't go on to college are cashing in,
hand over friggan fist.
Take the district's Director of Transportation's (ARHS class of '79) new house.
http://www.realliving.com/homes-for-sale/MA/Granby/1033/116-Maximilian-Drive-75200942
Could you afford that?
The hilarious thing is,
you ~paid~ for it.
WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!
And the dude can't even spell his own name!!!
-Squeaky Squeaks
p.s. Suckerz
I seriously doubt anyone affiliated with the school is hiding information about college matriculation. Are you kidding me? This school sends kids to all variety of colleges, most of them of the high end type.
Crazy Ed wants to know who graduates. Actually a great question that no high school in America brags about. Way easier to brag about what schools kids are accepted to.
My question is if 92% of the students matriculated at some higher learning institution, where is the achievement gap ? Can a school system both brag about its 92% and wail about the gap?
Oh, and by the way, every hs in America does this. Do your homework. One thing every hs bite brags about is the high percentage of kids go
Ing to college.
Any concrete info on closing the achievement gap and increased achievement by students in the past 3 years? Sounds like a rating of very good in 3 areas and just proficient in one. How is any of this measured? Just the impressions of the school committee members?
How is any of this measured? Just the impressions of the school committee members?
The school committee members are tasked with supporting their evaluation ratings with data and objective and subjective comments. All but two of the school committee members supported their evaluations with the state required "comments explaining the rationale and evidence for the rating” (DESE “Conducting the End-of-Cycle Summative Evaluation”, Jan. 2012)
So, any concrete info? It said….?
I'd like to know what percentage of the minority students (a) actually graduate from a college and (b) actually get a good job thereafter.
Wanna bet it ain't that many?
And THAT is what you ought to be protesting, not an incompetent math teacher hiding behind allegations of racism.
While I don't have the overall statistics, I know of plenty of examples of minority students from ARHS who have been successful in college and beyond. Check out the stellar business careers of Michael Ononibaku and his sister Laura. Orville "JR" Reynolds is an attorney -- an ADA for the Bronx. Jamahl Jackson is an athletic recruiter and coach at Emmanuel College. Imani Romney-Rosa teaches middle school in New York. George Bakuli, who died much too young earlier this year, worked as a corporate banking credit analyst. Doyin Richards just wrote a book about fatherhood. His brother Shola is a trainer at UCLA. Alice Ndikumana is a technology consultant at Deloitte with a degree in biomedical engineering. Those are just a few of the names that popped into my head. The students of color at ARHS have many alums to look to as role models of achievement.
I am not sure what leads you to believe that the situation is otherwise. I am sure that there are some ARHS graduates who experienced difficulties after graduation and whose life path has not been what they envisioned. But that happens to all kinds of people, everywhere.
Also, I don't see why you are making a statement about an "incompetent math teacher". You have no basis for that statement.
If you don't agree with someone's teaching philosophy, that doesn't make the person incompetent. It's a pretty strong word to use with no basis.
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