While Nick may have complained bitterly that the State Auditor's diagnostic survey would be tainted by having been posted on this blog site, the results were compiled with copies sent to the District. Of course, no one at the District was inclined to share the results with others - except in limited circumstances, heavily-summarized and among select members of district administration.The blog believes in providing information to anyone, at any time, for any reason. It is only through free-flowing information that an organization can learn, change and grow. The Edmonds School District is all about learning, needs to change and growth wouldn't hurt.
The results are available in two sections.
Section one provides demographic information regarding respondents, response rates, questions and the responses. SA+A: Strongly Agree & Agree, D+SD: Disagree & Strongly Disagree, the remainder represents the proportion without an opinion.
Letter sized sheets (pdf)
Legal sized sheets (pdf)
Section two contains the actual narrative responses.
Letter sized sheets (pdf)
Here is my personal favorite:
The Edmonds School District has once again become top-heavy. In the most recent round of budget cutting, personnel reductions focused almost exclusively on cutting classroom teacher positions while the number of district administrators remained constant, despite a projected decline in student enrollment. The overabundance of central district administrators would be more palatable if they provided some kind of tangible leadership, but the Edmonds School District nominally practices site-based management, leaving difficult decisions to building-level leadership, while central district managers control the funds. This arrangement makes no sense fiscally or educationally. At the central district level, Edmonds is full to the brim with managers, but sorely lacking in leaders. District administrators assiduously avoid facing difficult facts or accepting responsibility for the few meaningful decisions they have made, such as the IEP Online boondoggle. And no one in a district leadership position would ever suggest an administrative shake-up or downsizing, which is what the district desperately needs. Finally, the school board's too-cozy relationship with district administration has thwarted its proper role providing financial and educational oversight. Although Washington state's chronic under-funding of basic education caused the educational crisis we find ourselves in, district-level mismanagement exacerbates it.
If you have trouble accessing the links, email me and I will send you the files as an attachment.
13 comments:
Thank you for making the results of the survey public. It certainly supports much of what has been report in the Blog. Good work Mark!
Now if we could just teach Nick to read. Damn it.
It is reported that the Penney camp is throwing him a party on Friday. This should improve the already horrible moral issue at the warehouse. It will be interesting however to see how the camp is still divided. My Get out of dodge party will go on without Chuck, as planned. To throw Chuck a party in his honor, would be like giving Hitler a microwave for Christmas.
I wonder what Chuck thinks about this survey? Probably would still think that the world loves him!
Oh he can read. He'll just make sure his spin doctors in Community Relations translate the document into something positive and cheery!
Is the party at the Warehouse with cake and coffee, or is this an off-site Bash? I wonder if the "guys", who actually do the REAL work at the Warehouse, will attend the party?
Number crunching requires time. It'll take a couple of days to interptet this.
"No person or organization has a responsibility to respond in any forum to anonymous allegations."
Nick Brossoit, August 2007
Interesting. The commentary from Mark is obviously from Mark. Our comments on the bullying of senior staff and students by principals and the support of that action by upper administration are signed and above board (no pun intended). Does that mean then that a "person or organization" DOES have an obligation to respond to such non-anonymous allegations?
Call me Nick. 509-375-3531
To 8-28 at 6:00am. Thank You for not responding. Are you kiddin' me?
Teachers in the Edmonds School District are expected to be very transparent, very clear and concise, when instructing students. Of course, you are not required to respond to anything on the blog, but there is nothing anonymous about several of my entries on the blog. There was nothing anonymous about my presence at the open forum for Mr. H spring of '07 when he publicly acknowleged his "mistakes" and you, Nick, sitting three rows away from me, chose to not speak to me. There was nothing anonymous about several articles In The Classroom. At least Tam was straight with me when he said that there was nothing illegal about the mean, bullying treatment going on at school. He's right. There may be a list of behaviors we are not to tolerate/allow towards students, but all of them are legal. Ditto the state RCWs concerning bullying and abuse in schools. They are hollow words with no teeth in them.
FDR said, "You have nothing to fear but fear itself", so why do you hesitate to be concise and transparent about the concerns mentioned on the blog? You are the leader of the District. Why are you absent?
Chris Reuther
What good is a leader that refuses to be held accountable?
He can't count a bowl, look at all the money he lost...
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