1. The Edmonds School District teaches history but is compelled to repeat it. Despite having all the evidence for a budget shortfall and decreasing enrollment, they still get caught with their proverbial toga down.2. The Edmonds School District violates their own playbook by A) no longer bothering to post a position, B) sneaking in their favored application in after the deadline, C) directing members of the screening committee to change their scores for the pre-ordained candidate and D) disregarding the unanimous decision of the interviewing committee. Who needs a qualified candidate when we have so many friends facing a budget crunch.
3. The Edmonds School District no longer draws upon internal talent to develop, design, and build reconfigurations. Who needs qualified staff when you have so much money? A window seat will keep the Director of Facilities Operations happy. It's just $11,000.00.
4. The Edmonds School District follows the direction of the Snohomish Health District and doesn't notify parents that a child in school has MRSA. Perhaps the Health District should conduct state audits because they apparently carry a bit of clout. Odd that a private school in Edmonds cared enough to contain a medical condition and error on the side of caution.
5. The Edmonds School District develops automated systems to notify parents when their children do not appear in school. Unfortunately, the automated system has no idea it just dialed the wrong number. Worse still, no one answers when you try to call back. It might be a good idea to increase your family's insurance coverage.
6. The Edmonds School District doesn't advertise success - as rare as it may be - for fear of attracting better students from districts nearby. That is certainly the last thing we would ever want sitting next to our students - another student that actually wants to be there.
7. The Edmonds School District does appear to be a little heavy on the top. Years of enriching friends has to come to an end eventually when the students don't exist - or does it? They can move the furniture around the living room until the fire department shows up.
8. The Edmonds School District claims the new administration site is worth a lot more than actual value - until they seek to purchase the adjacent vacated street, in which case it becomes worth much, much less.
9. The Edmonds School District rents tables every year, instead of buying them. Why? They must be certain this silly WASL thing is about to be cancelled forever. Reports to the blog place the actual expense for renting tables at between $18,000.00 and $20,000.00 a year. For that price, you could almost justify making the WASL a take-home test.
10. The Edmonds School District is not accountable to the Snohomish County Prosecutor, the State Attorney General or the Superintendent of Public Instruction. We have already established they are not accountable to their own board policies. Who has the only leverage with district management? The State Auditor. But we shall soon see how much oversight they really possess. Place your bets.
11. The Edmonds School District appears to be losing a lot of staff these days. The Director of Transportation is retiring. The Network Administrator is resigning. The Business Manager has been down graded to Prof Tech. What will the District do in the midst of this massive "brain drain"? (Real. Real. Sarcasm.)
12. The Edmonds School District allows documents to be destroyed before the State Auditors can evaluate them. The District needs pianos. What does it matter how much was paid or from whom they were purchased. Details. Details.
13. The Edmonds School District seems incapable of preparing students for college math. Fortunately, I have numbered these issues so no one will fall behind. Of course, if we have constituents that can't add, subtract or bisect a chord, chances are they won't understand the overpayment of $2,300,000.00 for contaminated property. Bravo.
14. The Edmonds School District recommends that everyone watch "Finding Nemo" and "West Side Story". A child's cartoon and actors prancing around with knives greatly outweighs any meaningful work of literature. Let's build a legacy of mediocrity with everyone else's child. Shoreline is starting to look much better about now.
15. The Edmonds School District violates every shred of due diligence and buys property that King 5 easily proves should not have been purchased. The greatest experts in the state chimed in and guess what? Marla was wrong. The price of Nick's Legacy just went up by $2,300,000.00. Stay tuned for the cost to remediate contamination. That figure will only get larger. Much larger.
16. The Edmonds School District fails to adequately provide on-the-job training for their own Assistant Superintendents. What chance do our children have? While Granite Falls chucks all of the fingerlings back in the pond to cast another line in the stream, our district gets to keep their collection of highly paid administrators. Happy, happy. Joy, joy.
17. The Edmonds School District finally admits that enrollment is decreasing. What tipped them off? Was it the sound of crickets in the classroom? Oh, that's right. The decrease happened to coincide with an increase in classroom size. Sure does look crowded around here.
18. The Edmonds School District plays with numbers in claiming that we should pass the Tech Levy because it will decrease our property taxes. Call me unenlightened and mathematically-impaired but what would happen if we voted it down all together?
19. The Edmonds School District has so few vocal supporters in Snohomish County that they ask college kids in Illinois to write in their supportive comments. Unfortunately, these kids don't know what an IP address is or how it identifies them as being the son of the problem.
20. The Edmonds School District uses public funds to actively and aggressively seek out the least qualified people they can find. Intelligent people with experience in their profession ask hard questions and nobody wants that. Especially if they are trying to buy pianos and contaminated property.
21. The Edmonds School District cannot even locate their own property on a map. Every other country on the planet pokes fun at Americans because we apparently cannot locate Mexico on a world map. I would think if we just bought a contaminated piece of property the size and location of Texas, we might just have a clue. I bet Connelly Skis was unpleasantly surprised to be included in the District's grand plan to bamboozle the taxpayers.
22. The Edmonds School District swept $150,000.00 of Capital Partnership money right into Capital Projects with no plan to build anymore playgrounds. These were matching funds, which means a loss of $300,000.00 in real improvements that our children would feel, enjoy and appreciate. Way to go.
23. The Edmonds School District tolerates the interruption of everyone's workday to count keys and write down numbers. They allow fire alarm tests to be conducted during business hours. This would be called "bad planning". You need to hire someone that can plan and that has a detectable regard for the modern work environment.
24. The Edmonds School District tries to manufacture a case of inappropriate use of the Internet against a former employee to create a reason to terminate him. Meanwhile, they have a proven case of inappropriate use of the Internet and the culprit is still on staff. Busy maintaining a hostile work environment for everyone else. That is a legal case waiting to be filed.
25. The Edmonds School District goes out of their way to bend the rules for friends of management. While verbally assaulting staff, destroying public property and resisting arrest, this pillar of the community was given a "Get out of harm's way" card by management. No Trespass Order? We didn't mean it.
26. The Edmonds School District claims they wanted to more effectively evaluate each and every new development in the District but then quickly realized they didn't hire anyone that could actually do that sort of work. Maybe when she figures out what email is.
27. The Edmonds School District actively destroyed documents rather than take the time to understand them. You can't be held to a higher standard if you shred any evidence of any earlier standards. I hope they at least recycled.
28. The Edmonds School District chooses to spend hundreds of dollars in the hope of collecting a $15 check for the use of a parking lot. Why route every simple request through a law firm? Perhaps the District is hoping that incurring such an extreme cost will motivate certain people to stop looking for places to park. I wonder what that legal tab is so far? I would ask but the cost of doing so may have me losing sleep.
29. The Edmonds School District claims to have an Attendance Incentive Program and then burns all of your vacation days over 30. Or do they? They cannot cite any relevant RCW and are now relying solely on "Past Practice" as their governing authority. They are also hatching deals behind closed doors to appease staff that are poised to file legal action for a hostile work environment.
30. The Edmonds School District fosters an atmosphere of bullying by staff and students. If anyone has the sense to focus on creating a brighter future for themselves and others, watch them duck and dive out in the hall. Teachers have to not only intervene when one student bullies another but then tolerate such unprofessional conduct in the Teacher's Lounge.
A few more - click here. Thank you for your support.
12 comments:
THIS MIGHT QUALIFY FOR IT'S OWN POSTING ON THE BLOG.
You left off one of the new ones.
The district ended the ninth grade IB lottery that allowed my friend's children to attend the Edmonds Woodway IB program. Without kids coming from around the district, enrollment has been DRASTICALLY lowered at Edmonds Whitepeople, which will now host only kids as rich as their normal population. The rich kids get all the IB classes they want!
My friends younger children have been told to attend the honors program at their home school for the next two years. When they asked to see the plans for the honors program at Mountlake Terrace, they were told it would be forthcoming.
It is now almost April. Do they have a plan for the children at Mountlake or Lynnwood? ABSOLUTELY NONE.
Ask Dr. Limon and the principals for the honors plan. Ask who is teaching the classes. Ask about the special honors training for the teachers.
NONE NONE NONE.
So, two high schools in the district will now have real honors classes in the AP and IB programs.
And the kids from the other side of the district will get NOTHING. And they aren't even hiding it!!
No more small schools and no freshman and sophmore honors classes at Mountlake.
A new building with no honors classes at Alderwood Mall High School.
Do I at least still get to vote??!?
I'd love to get in on #29. Is it Door #1, Door #2 or Door #3?
But of course, I was told by my fearless union leadership that a "hostile work environment" just refered to sexual harassment. There were rumors about that, too, in our building.
In fact, at one point, a vague hint was dropped that I might be accused and guilty of sexual harassment because the office manager (to whom I had directed my e-mail request that she stop bullying me) was lesbian. I was sorta hoping that they'd follow up on that one; then I could bring in all my gay and lesbian friends from my "open and affirming church" and watch the egg run down the administration's face.
Good evening everybody,and welcome to a special edition of blogging. To address #24 on your list, I heard that the warehouse supervisor is gone as of August 31st. The mood is different over here as his wife is not around. She seems to be hiding out. Things are a bit quiet, but there is tension. I will tell you more as I become informed.
Do you mean Tracy Penney is off work again? I surely hope that the August 31, date for Porn King is true! Why are they giving him until August??
Great summary, Mark. Thanks for taking the time and effort in addressing the issues and making them easy to read.
This list is just incredibly overwhelming and sad!
The Penneys need to move to a warm, southern,tropical climate, and swim with Stingrays for a living.
So many issues - but a few seem to be offering minor solutions. The earlier budget reduction suggestions and comments was also very manageable. Perhaps they will even develop a couple of them. It is refreshing to be able to actually exercise the freedom of speech ideal and offer opinions while informing/reminding the decision/money makers in the District that they are being watched.
The waste of money is sickening, the quality of decisions is atrocious and the general philosophies/ethics/morality of the major players is a travesty. Surely this must all implode eventually as Rome surely fell.
"By law, districts must adopt budgets by the end of August. They must hold two public hearings before their school boards vote. Boards often meet about once a month in the summer, which means districts need to have a full proposal ready by July. And many prefer not to make big budget decisions in the summer, when parents and teachers aren't around to participate."
Yes, summer is reserved for the passage of $550,000.00 in annual salary increases.
If I was someone in charge of the Warehouse I would worry about having a disguntled supervisor in charge until August 31st. Think of the damage he has already been able to get away with and now why should he care he's out of here.Maybe he should be put on a special assignment under the watchful eye of OH that won't work he's been watched and still got away with Porn on the computer. Oh well we will soon be done with that one and hopefully the warehouse can heel and move on. thanks district for finally doing your job! From a tax payer and employee of the district vote NO on May 20th!
I hear the warehouse supervisor continues to get preferential treatment even though he has been let go.
Why would the administration allow the warehouse supervisor to hang around for five more painful months. He will just end up in more trouble. Likely trying to drag one of the warehouse crew with him. What a legacy.
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