DPS adds 3 new board members, still allowing insanity to rule
I couldn’t take the stupidity anymore of going to the meetings. Now with Mohamed Al-Hamdani in charge, the dismantling of the district for takeover by either the Mayor or a private corporation is on an accelerated path. While Superintendent Libbie Lolli continues to rule with fear and loathing, the revolving door is spinning so fast, that HR can’t keep up. It’s probably why that department and the “consultants” she hired, have been abandoning ship. Lolli’s contract runs through June of 2021 at which she retires for her 2nd time and banks even more money. If the three new board members had a clue, they’d try to fire her for gross incompetence, just based on the disruption.
To know how bad it is, you have to have access to Facebook- where former board member Mario Gallin stays on top of Board Docs and the meetings. She gets most of it right- and understands things better than the 7 clowns on the board who allow this shitshow to continue. Since Facebook is a walled garden requiring membership, I’m going to flat out repost her last few posts:
One of the proposals that may be presented to the board for vote next week is a Reduction in Force.
First and foremost is eliminating the Males of Color program. I’m surprised it has lasted this long – it was obvious almost from the beginning that it was not supported by the Administration – any of the Administrations – beyond lip service. Now that the last strong Board proponent, Dr. Walker, has left, it seemed a foregone conclusion,
The Director has had 7? 8? supervisors since coming on. At one point he disappeared and then miraculously returned. The coordinators who have been working in schools had their status changed last year. Their job assignments have changed frequently. Originally starting with high school students, then moved to middle school, some dabbling I think in elementary schools, after school hours, during school hours, large group, small group, tutoring, and so on.
The language specifically is “the Superintendent has recommended the abolishment of the positions of Males of Color Facilitator (DSS) based on the best interest of the District…”
I am really interested in hearing how the District will be improved by letting this program go. I can’t believe that all the identified barriers to student success have been eliminated.
Bill Harris is the current board liaison to Males of Color. It will be fascinating to see what he has to say about this.
City Commissioner Jeff Mims was also influential in getting this program started. I wonder if he has been advised of this decision.
Hair splitting – the abolishment sentence refers to positions (plural) but the next clause says the employee impacted (singular) has been notified. Further down the school based facilitators are listed for layoff, but the Director is not. Not having seen the HR recommendations, I wonder if he is listed there as being let go.
The layoff list also includes “Vacant” in the Director of School Improvement Grant position. According to the Org chart that was a position held concurrently with Ohio Improvement Process. That administrator is still there but identifies her office solely as Ohio Improvement Process. The Data Clerk responsible for the School Improvement Grant is also being laid off. I can’t remember, has the SIG grant ended?
The Director of Early Childhood, the Associate Directors of STEM and Gifted are also being laid off. These layoffs are effective the end of June. Is it the Administration’s assumption that we will not be opening school in August? Are these people being laid off for one month? The STEM position is new, but the others have been year-round positions. Is it the District’s determination that there is no need for planning during that time? The Gifted program for sure could use some boosting, the Early Childhood Program has achieved 5 Star ratings for all our preschools (not by accident), and the STEM program is barely off the ground. Seems short sighted.
At the April Special Meeting, a policy change was approved to allow for virtual meetings. There was much discussion on how the public was going to be allowed to participate. The consensus was that since speakers need to be included in the minutes, Facebook comments or other online comments were not allowed because there is no guarantee that those commenters can be properly identified.
There was talk about setting up some sort of email process for citizens to comment. As of this writing on Thursday, there is no identifiable way currently on the DPS website.
The previous agenda, posted and pulled earlier this week had a Reduction in Force recommendation. That has been removed in the reposting on Friday. Now it is Superintendent’s Recommendations (A).
“I recommend approval of the abolishment of the following positions, and the employment of all staff holding these positions, due to restructuring and/or realignment of departmental duties:”
Director of Communications – Vacant since the last director was forced out a year ago.
Chief of Special Projects – now Chief, Turnaround according to the Org Chart. I know they have gone with a new program, foregoing the third year of a three-year contract with University of Virginia. They are also going to new schools. Again, hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars, incredible investment of time by teachers and administrators (also paid by us) and bam, can’t even finish it. Really? A comment was made in a review session that there was not as much contact as they wanted, but how did you not know this when you vetted them? Or honestly, did you?
Coordinator, Males of Color – contract non renewed in his own special recommendation. I wrote about this on April 16. Superintendent’s Recommendations (C)
Males of Color Facilitator (6) – originally proposed for layoff, now they are just terminated.
Associate Director of STEM – Administrator on this agenda for a move to Director – Inclusion and Diversity. This was the position held for a minute by Therman Sampson, before he was asked to return to Roosevelt Elementary after the principal there quit in her fourth month.
Since Thurgood Marshall has been designated a STEM school and STEM is all the rage, I find it puzzling that they would eliminate this position. Let’s see if there is some discussion, any discussion of the thought process behind this.
Director of School Improvement Grant – See April 16.
Data Strategist – also with the School Improvement Grant. According to a DDN article in January 24, 2017, the grant was for four years. Maybe they will talk about why the two positions associated with the grant are eliminated.
Associate Director of Gifted – I have no information on this except to point out that it is one of the weaker departments. I think DPS is required by law to offer gifted programming. If they couldn’t do it with a Director, how are they going to do it without one.
Director of Early Childhood – So let’s talk about this one. The current Director (at least until Tuesday) is a 27 year veteran of DPS. Under her leadership, all preschool classrooms have been rated 5 Star through Step Up to Quality for several years. There are big banners on the outside of all elementary buildings proclaiming that fact. She is the only administrator I know who responds to parents immediately, whether she sees a question on social media, someone comes to a board meeting or whenever I have called her at a parent’s request. She also returns calls promptly – not a DPS thing.
I understand that the position itself is being downgraded in the Org chart and the salary is also being reduced. Like the insult rendered to Teresa Troyer, apparently she has been told she is invited to reapply. I am insulted on her behalf. She would be an asset to any program. I hope she lands quickly with an organization who appreciates her. Teresa did, and that district is the better for it.
It would not surprise me to find out that she came up crosswise with a senior administrator. This would not be the first time DPS has used “reorganization” as a premise to remove someone they don’t care for. And to that end, who wants to place a bet on the next person coming from Hamilton County?
Clarification to my April 18 post.
The Associate Director – Gifted Services retired January 31 this year. Her name did appear in the Reduction in Force document. Whoever put together that document didn’t realize she had been gone for 2 months. The Gifted program has received a “Met” designation in Value Added since the 2015-2016 school year. The Performance Index and the Gifted Inputs categories remain “Not Met” which gives an overall designation of “Not Met.” My remark on its weakness was based on comments by parents and gifted teachers over the past few years. Clearly something was happening, but it didn’t translate into the other two categories.
This has gone beyond ridiculous. The following people are quitting:
Director – Health Services – longest lasting of the new hires at 2 years. Tied with the
Academic Coordinator – College Career Readiness & Scholarships, who is also quitting.
Thurgood Principal
Kemp Principal2 Academic Coordinators – OEC. both quitting an $80,000 a year job after 12 months. OEC is a revolving door and yet nobody seems to question that.
Academic Coordinator – ESL after 1 year – remember all the drama? Groundhog Day all over again, who wants to bet?
2 from HR, the Payroll Specialist after 12 months.
And I completely missed the new HR Director whose quit in March after 3 months.
2 Wogaman teachers
2 Belle Haven teachers
2 Louise Troy teachers
9 teachers from various other schools.
If you include the 6 resignations in March, that make 21 teachers who are quitting, and there is still time.This after fairly significant increases in salary.
These are not retirements; these people are leaving leaving.
And remember the Director of Transportation who resigned this year after a few months on the job,(his predecessor lasted 1 year), the previous HR Director – Recruiting, Onboarding & Systems, who left after 6 months, the Compliance Coordinator last year who lasted 4 weeks.
I don’t know when the Board evaluation of the Superintendent is scheduled to take place, but this should be at the top of the discussion. (emphasis added by esrati.com)
It’s unfortunate that Ohio has no mechanism for recalling school board members. It’s also unfortunate that Ohio believes any citizen off the street should be considered qualified to serve on a board of directors for an educational institution with a $400M plus budget.
The seven incompetent fools who allow Libby Lolli to run the district into the ground are: Mohamed Al-Hamdani, Jocelyn Spencer Rhynard, Rev. William Harris, Karen Wick Gagnet, Will Smith, Dion Sampson, Dr. Gabriela Pickett.
Remember those names when the feds finally get around to shutting this vile corrupt organization down.
If you need to see both the reminder of why I stopped trying to follow DPS and how the 3 year bogus contract was awarded to the University of Virginia with an incompetent presentation to the former board- see this post: Why there is no hope for Dayton Public Schools
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