Superintendent Gone Rogue?
Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 7:10 pm
Hi everybody,
If you saw my article in the current Lakewood Observer you read about great new decisions made by Lakewood Superintendent Joe Madak. Grant Elementary School's principal, Mark Gleichauf is moving up to Director of Teaching and Learning, and the current Coordinator of Teaching and Learning--essentially an expert on Lakewood's K through 12 curriculum and Lakewood's kids' particular learning challenges-- Roxann Ramsey-- will cross the street from the Board building and become Grant's new principal. Mr. Gleichauf will be right there to guide her, as he will the other principals in the district, if we're lucky, bringing all of our schools up to the Blue Ribbon, Excellent-rated status that Grant has achieved under his care.
What's weird about this is that the School Board had no idea that these changes were in motion. Dr. Madak came to last week's PTA meeting at Grant and, along with Mr. Gleichauf, introduced Ms. Ramsey to the PTA as our new principal, and also announced that Mr Gleichauf would be the new Director of Teaching and Learning, without our Board knowing anything about it.
An email was sent out to the School Board the same morning, around the same time, informing them that they had just hired some new administrators.
I learned that the Board had not been consulted on this decision, and in fact had had no discussion of this whatsoever, at the School Board meeting, Mon May 17th, when a letter of protest written by Board Member Matt Markling was read by Board Member John Kamkutis because Mr. Markling was unable to attend the meeting.
Mr. Markling's letter said that he had no interest in micromanaging our Superintendent, but that if a decision was being made that required a Board action, then it fell to the Board to discuss the action that they were being asked to take, before they voted on it. In this case, the Board, by law, had to approve of Mr. Gleichauf's and Ms. Ramsey's contracts. It seems reasonable to discuss what you are voting on, before you vote, and is, after all, the duty of the Board, as stated in their own Bylaws, which also outline the Superintendent's role as one who recommends but cannot legally hire anyone. At last Monday night's meeting, the Board approved these particular contracts, with NO DISCUSSION beforehand.
The first any of the Board Members heard of these new hires was in that email. This is unusual because Mark Gleichauf is replacing Assistant Supeintendent Jan Soeder, which means he is being hired for the most important position or second most important, depending on how you look at it (Asst Superintendent of High School Education is also a very important position) after the Superintendent's job itself. You would think our School Board would want to discuss who would be best qualified for this position. You also would think that they would want to discuss a potentially volatile move like removing Grant's principal, though in this case, the Grant community welcomes the decision Mr. Madak has made.
I think we should be concerned about this not because Joe Madak is not competent, he is very competent, and seems to understand and care about our District. We should care because the Board is elected to represent us, and they did not weigh in on this decision at all.
If they didn't have ANY discussion over the hiring of the Director of Teaching and Learning for the whole District, the second most important job in the District, what is it that they are supposed to be doing? What other decisions have been or will be made without appropriate public Board discussions? This is the opposite of transparency. We elected them. It is their job to represent us.
Board President Betsy Shaughnessy lectured Mr. Markling in absentia, saying that she hoped he would regret his attempt to provoke talk of "conspiracy" among Lakewood's citizens. Kristine Pagsuyoin spoke at the podium, taking exception to this, saying that it seemed that Mr. Markling valued transparency, and it was something that our District was in desperate need of.
Later in the week, I went to Two Dads to ask Board Member Kamkutis if this was really true, did the Board actually have NO DISCUSSION about this decision. At first he said, "Of course we discussed it." When I asked him when exactly he knew about it, I learned about the email that had been sent out during the PTA meeting, when Mr. Madak was announcing Mr. Gleichauf's and Ms. Ramsey's new jobs. This was the first Mr. Kamkutis had heard of our new administrators.
When the Board had NO DISCUSSION before they announced the school renovation plan this past February, I felt the same. At that time, Mr. Markling said, "If someone comes up to me and says, 'Hey, you're on the School Board, why did you vote to keep Lincoln?' I won't be able to tell them because we never discussed it."
The Board doesn't seem to have any interest in representing the public, or following their own bylaws, and the one member who does, Mr. Markling, is continually left standing alone shrugging his shoulders.
Betsy Voinovich
If you saw my article in the current Lakewood Observer you read about great new decisions made by Lakewood Superintendent Joe Madak. Grant Elementary School's principal, Mark Gleichauf is moving up to Director of Teaching and Learning, and the current Coordinator of Teaching and Learning--essentially an expert on Lakewood's K through 12 curriculum and Lakewood's kids' particular learning challenges-- Roxann Ramsey-- will cross the street from the Board building and become Grant's new principal. Mr. Gleichauf will be right there to guide her, as he will the other principals in the district, if we're lucky, bringing all of our schools up to the Blue Ribbon, Excellent-rated status that Grant has achieved under his care.
What's weird about this is that the School Board had no idea that these changes were in motion. Dr. Madak came to last week's PTA meeting at Grant and, along with Mr. Gleichauf, introduced Ms. Ramsey to the PTA as our new principal, and also announced that Mr Gleichauf would be the new Director of Teaching and Learning, without our Board knowing anything about it.
An email was sent out to the School Board the same morning, around the same time, informing them that they had just hired some new administrators.
I learned that the Board had not been consulted on this decision, and in fact had had no discussion of this whatsoever, at the School Board meeting, Mon May 17th, when a letter of protest written by Board Member Matt Markling was read by Board Member John Kamkutis because Mr. Markling was unable to attend the meeting.
Mr. Markling's letter said that he had no interest in micromanaging our Superintendent, but that if a decision was being made that required a Board action, then it fell to the Board to discuss the action that they were being asked to take, before they voted on it. In this case, the Board, by law, had to approve of Mr. Gleichauf's and Ms. Ramsey's contracts. It seems reasonable to discuss what you are voting on, before you vote, and is, after all, the duty of the Board, as stated in their own Bylaws, which also outline the Superintendent's role as one who recommends but cannot legally hire anyone. At last Monday night's meeting, the Board approved these particular contracts, with NO DISCUSSION beforehand.
The first any of the Board Members heard of these new hires was in that email. This is unusual because Mark Gleichauf is replacing Assistant Supeintendent Jan Soeder, which means he is being hired for the most important position or second most important, depending on how you look at it (Asst Superintendent of High School Education is also a very important position) after the Superintendent's job itself. You would think our School Board would want to discuss who would be best qualified for this position. You also would think that they would want to discuss a potentially volatile move like removing Grant's principal, though in this case, the Grant community welcomes the decision Mr. Madak has made.
I think we should be concerned about this not because Joe Madak is not competent, he is very competent, and seems to understand and care about our District. We should care because the Board is elected to represent us, and they did not weigh in on this decision at all.
If they didn't have ANY discussion over the hiring of the Director of Teaching and Learning for the whole District, the second most important job in the District, what is it that they are supposed to be doing? What other decisions have been or will be made without appropriate public Board discussions? This is the opposite of transparency. We elected them. It is their job to represent us.
Board President Betsy Shaughnessy lectured Mr. Markling in absentia, saying that she hoped he would regret his attempt to provoke talk of "conspiracy" among Lakewood's citizens. Kristine Pagsuyoin spoke at the podium, taking exception to this, saying that it seemed that Mr. Markling valued transparency, and it was something that our District was in desperate need of.
Later in the week, I went to Two Dads to ask Board Member Kamkutis if this was really true, did the Board actually have NO DISCUSSION about this decision. At first he said, "Of course we discussed it." When I asked him when exactly he knew about it, I learned about the email that had been sent out during the PTA meeting, when Mr. Madak was announcing Mr. Gleichauf's and Ms. Ramsey's new jobs. This was the first Mr. Kamkutis had heard of our new administrators.
When the Board had NO DISCUSSION before they announced the school renovation plan this past February, I felt the same. At that time, Mr. Markling said, "If someone comes up to me and says, 'Hey, you're on the School Board, why did you vote to keep Lincoln?' I won't be able to tell them because we never discussed it."
The Board doesn't seem to have any interest in representing the public, or following their own bylaws, and the one member who does, Mr. Markling, is continually left standing alone shrugging his shoulders.
Betsy Voinovich