Depends alert! Louisville mayoral candidate Greg Fischer, Sheldon Berman’s BFF, decides using JCPS students as pawns is a pretty good marketing strategy

Greg Fischer is now using JCPS kiddies as pawns in his new TV ad.  Gee, whiz.  I thought he and Boss Hogg frowned on that kind of shameful exploitation of our children.

Remember this exchange a few weeks ago on WLKY?  Take a look for yourself and make sure you have your pee pad in place!  Anyway,  Berman somehow hoodwinked Fischer into dissing Republican mayoral candidate Hal Heiner and supporting forced busing in one fell swoop just hours before the midnight release of 2009 KCCT scores. JCPS had been sitting on those scores for about three weeks.  Kind of fishy, yeah?

I suspect if Berman had been forthright with Fischer and told him, “Those KCCT scores are really going to stink, 79% of JCPS’s schools failed NCLB standards, that whole student-assignment-improves-education rant is gonna sound like a bunch of hooey”  Fischer wouldn’t have come out swinging at Heiner.  So, you know, egg on Greg’s face.  (Surely, Greg didn’t trash-talk Heiner knowing those scores were so bad, did he?!)

Here’s the snarky kids-as-pawns exchange:

“Focusing solely on the student assignment plan, I think — universally — it is a failed plan,” Heiner said.

In response, Berman said, “We’re disappointed that the campaign has chosen to politicize our public school children. …The ad distorts and misrepresents the issues facing the school district.”

That comment was echoed by Fischer.“One, he’s using our kids as pawns six weeks before an election, and two, the result of his plan is the segregation of our schools here in the community,” Fischer said.

Poor Fischer.  What’s next?  A fake rail system with shuttle buses?

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If Jefferson County Public School’s public relations lady, Lauren Roberts, makes 100%+ more than local government PR folks does that fit your definition of “bloated salary”?

Do you ever stare at the staggering JCPS salaries on public records (just scroll to the bottom of the Courier-Journal home page to access them) and marvel at how so many people who never come within tickle distance of a boogery five-year-old can make over $100,000 a year?   I do.  Don’t some of those salaries seem a little extravagant for a failing school system? 

Let’s compare Lauren Roberts’ $120, 621 annual salary with other public relations/communications government employees here in Louisville.  I’ll let you decide if JCPS salaries are on the generous side. 

Paul Burns, Public Information Supervisor, Library – $45,406.  Roberts makes $75, 215 more; her salary is equal to 266% of Burns’ salary – she makes 166% more.

Kathryn Anne Harrison, Public Information Supervisor, Health – $56,638.  Roberts makes$63,983 more; her salary is 113% higher.

Deborah Sebree, Public Information Supervisor, Zoo – $57,970.  Roberts makes $62,651 more; her salary is 108% higher.

James A.C. Cissell, Public Information Supervisor, Metro Parks – $61,214.  Roberts makes $$59,407 more; her salary is 97% higher.

William Patteson, Communications Manager, County Attorney $67,558.  Roberts makes $53,063 more; her salary is 79% higher.

Chris Poytner, Louisville Metro, Deputy for Communications – $64,152.  Roberts makes $56469 more; her salary is 88% higher.

Patricia Burke, Director of Public Relations, Louisville Regional Airport Authority – $79,312.  Roberts makes $41,309 more; her salary is 52% higher.

There are plenty of other PR/communications folks I can add to the list – and Roberts makes significantly more than ALL of them.

How does JCPS justify such an extravagant salary?  Some of those other folks are supervising bigger PR machines than Roberts.  But none of them are shoveling as much poo as JCPS – maybe that justifies the disparity in pay?

Stay tuned!  I’ll have more salary comparisons soon to make your blood pressure skyrocket.

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JCPS’s 2009 KCCT social studies scores were super, super bad. Pee-yoo! Let’s take a look at who has a hand in the social studies curriculum for Jefferson County Public Schools, shall we?

I pulled this information verbatim from LinkedIn…

Name: Rick Daniel

Title: Social Studies and Curriculum Specialist at Jefferson County Public Schools

Past Experience: Teacher for JCPS

Asst Mgr for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Asst Mgr for Wal-Mart

Education: University of Louisville, Jefferson Community College

———————

The Wal-Mart stuff was entered twice by Mr. Daniel or (cough) the person who set up his LinkedIn page.  The double-entry is not my mistake.

So, stare at that information for a while and enjoy your morning mocha!

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How on earth did Sheldon Berman become the superintendent of one of the biggest school districts in America?

Well, he was the ONLY candidate for the job and your Board of Education was, quite simply, too lazy to open up the search for more candidates.  Sounds pretty preposterous, doesn’t it?  Read about it here in a great post from Paul Mirengoff that should have been called, “Who the hell is Sheldon Berman?”

So, Jefferson County Public Schools is headed up by some guy from a school district (Hudson Public Schools) that’s so tiny that the entire school district’s bus schedule can be summed up in five pages.  That’s elementary, middle, and high schools.  Private and public.  Five pages.

We can do better than this, Louisville.  Our kids deserve better.  We need to tap into Seattle, Northern Virginia, Broward County, Florida, or any number of large urban school districts for new leadership.

Berman’s contract is up in June.  Please write to your Board of Education rep and tell them you do not want Berman’s contract renewed.

Seriously, If I hear about another one of Berman’s $300 dinners or hotel stays, I think I’m going to stroke out.

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Jefferson County Public Schools Maupin kindergartner ditched at a trailer park on first day; kind stranger finds him miles from his Okolona home or day care; Mike Mulheirn calls fiasco a teeny “hiccup”

Yes, folks, you can be in charge of a transportation system that simply dumps kids off at random locations throughout the city and you’ll still be laughing all the way to the bank.  Just ask Mike Mulheirn, JCPS Executive Director of Transportation and Facilities (annual salary $146,857).

I’ve Googled “mulheirn jcps” and found so many f***ed up stories about JCPS’s transportation system that I can’t believe this guy still has his job.

Here’s the whole story by Bennett Haeberle at Fox-41.com: Five-year-old left alone after bus stop mix-up.  The reader comments are almost as compelling as the story.

Long story, short: A five-year-old was dropped off at a Fairdale trailer park.  He was miles from his daycare or his home.  A complete stranger found him wandering the streets of the trailer park, found his mom’s phone number inside the kid’s backpack and called mom.  A happy ending.  This time.

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Guess which JCPS six-figure bloke who probably doesn’t use public transportation said this to a local TV lady on the first day of school: “We want them to have fun on the bus. It’s a chance to meet old friends.”

If you guessed Mike Mulheirn, Executive Director of Facilities and Transportation (Annual salary: $146,857 and 10th highest-paid person at JCPS) then you are a winner!  Ding, ding, ding!

So, all you kiddies  have fun on those three-hour commutes.

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Here’s the bus schedule for Ballard High School.  First stop – 5:50 a.m.  School starts – 7:40.  I’ll bet Mr. Mulheirn thinks that commute is jolly fun!

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Jefferson County Public Schools tells the U.S. Supreme Court , “The voters of Jefferson County totally support the student assignment plan. So, like, why are we even here?”

Have you ever had a chance to read the brief Rosemary Miller, Legal Counsel for JCPS (Annual salary $161,306) and Frances Mellen  submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in the Crystal Meredith case?  Well, here’s the part where JCPS deftly flips the bird to parents and taxpayers throughout the district:

“Any action taken by an elected board of education is inherently subject to change, as the members of the Board and public perceptions change.  Elections for seats on the Board began its periodic revisions to the decree [the original busing plan to integrate Louisville schools] in 1984, there have been ten such elections.  Any citizen who desired to change the Plan and thought that Jefferson County voters shared that view could have sought a seat on the Board in any of those elections; that options remains open in the future.”

Don’t you love the wording?

Come on, Rosemary and Frances, it’s kind of tough to implement change when the Board of Ed elections are essentially rigged in favor of the JCTA-endorsed candidates who are flush with $50,000 and $160,000 campaign contributions from the teachers union.

Read the entire Brief for Respondents here.

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Hey, I have a great idea! Let’s get rid of Sheldon Berman and get a superintendent who doesn’t spend so much time trying to hire his BFFs.

Dear Jefferson County Board of Education,

Please don’t renew Berman’s contract.  Please hire someone who doesn’t view Jefferson County taxpayers as a bunch of suckers who will pay his fancy friends’ salaries.

Please.

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Here’s a little peek at some of Berman’s hires:

BFF #1: Dr. Paul Graseck worked with Berman at Hudson School District.  Here’s Graseck’s name splattered on the Fall 2002 issue of  Hudson Public Schools – Visions newsletter. As the Director of Cultural Studies he makes $130,591 which doesn’t even place him in the top 20 list of JCPS’s highest-paid administrators.   Some BFF Berman turned out to be!

BFF#2: Arthur Camins also worked with Berman at Hudson.  Here’s a glowing piece in Business First that spells out just how close these BFFs really are:  Sheldon Berman helps implement change in first year at JCPS.  Camins makes $140,557.  Score!  His salary ranks #14 at JCPS.  Mr. Camins has two other people in his ginormous department.  One makes $119, 441 and the other employee makes $39,526.

I wonder if he has the teeniest department at JCPS.

Be sure to check back for Part II on Berman’s BFFs and some dirt about Virtual High School.

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Oh, great. The CATS scores are totally inflated which means our kids are even dumber than we think they are.

In a post called CATS Inflation so obvious a grade school kid should see it, Richard Innes tells us that the 2008 CATS scores for elementary students were inflated by over 14 points.  Middle schoolers’ CATS scores were inflated by 29.6 points.

So, the percentage of students who were ranked “proficient” is wrong – but worse, it also means that the kids who needed help didn’t receive it because the numbers said they were doin’ just fine.

Did you catch that?  There is a big chunk of  kids who were rated proficient when they weren’t proficient at all.  So, the test fakers in Frankfort thought they were snowing us but they were actually shortchanging our kids on a grand scale.

Mr. Innes crunches all of the numbers for you here.

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79% of Louisville’s schools fail 2009 NCLB goals; $151,272 JCPS bureaucrat blames the scary scores on a lousy test

JCPS finally released 2009-10 KCCT scores on September 23rd after holding them hostage for weeks.  WHAS-11 summed up the whole fiasco pretty nicely.

The good news:  “There are highs and lows in this data,” said Education Commissioner Terry Holliday. “The good news is that many of Kentucky’s schools are seeing increases in the percentages of students performing at the highest levels.”

The bad news:  “Jefferson County met 52 percent of its goals this year, Oldham County met 73 percent of its goals, Bullitt County met 84 percent of its goals, Hardin and Shelby Counties each met 90 percent of goals.” Another item to note is that 104 JCPS schools out of 131 failed to meet their goals.

Math pop quiz!  104/131 = ??%  Answer: 79%.

And JCPS’s response from Bob Rodosky, JCPS director of accountability, research and planning (Annual salary: $151,272.  Bonus pay for the ironic job title!) “But we also think there is some mis-labeling going on.”  The district contends that many of the goals set are unrealistic to achieve.

If the goals are so lofty that they are unattainable, maybe some six-figure JCPS paper-pushers and bean counters  should spend a Professional Development Day at a Hardin or Shelby county school.

Put ’em on a school bus on a 90-degree day to get there.  Take a circuitous route so they’re on the bus for three hours. That will be nice.

Read the whole story and watch the video at WHAS11.com: Progress report released for Kentucky schools; more schools not meeting goals

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