I have begun to advise the community of the questions and answers that had come up during my first town hall style meeting. Click here for Part1 I am continuing my efforts to bring that information forward.

QUESTION:  A woman explained a situation about her child and was upset that her call was not returned by the superintendent.  The woman asked why the call was not returned.

ANSWER:  If I am very busy and my secretary can direct the call to the person closest to the situation who will know the details of the situation.  I may see the call slip and ask Kim to call on my behalf to get more information and to advise the person that the administrator closest to the problem might call to resolve the situation.  At other times, I call the appropriate administrator, give that person the name and phone number of the parent who has called, and I ask that administrator to call and advise me if I am still needed to intervene. There are times when I just lose sight of the many calls I get, but Most of the time, I do call back especially when the problem is at my level. I speak to many parents throughout a week; many times parents come directly to my office, and unless I am behind closed doors in a scheduled meeting, I will stop what I am doing and speak to the parent.  It is the protocol of the district office to have the person who is best able to address the problem is the person with whom the parent has the problem.  I always have the appropriate district employee call me back and provide Kim or me with and update and resolution.  I address those issues that rise to my level after a problem can’t be solved within the building or department in which the problem was initiated.

QUESTION:  How are you, as superintendent, going to be able to lead this district with a vote of no confidence from the teachers?

ANSWER:  When I was first hired, my main directions were to put practices and procedures inn place where there were none.  It was also the Board’s expectation that I initiate new programs and ideas that would impact and change instruction with the intent of increasing student achievement.  I brought ideas to the BOE and the administrative team and received the go ahead o some new ideas.  The mistake I made was to try to implement those ideas my self, and I began to work hands on within the organization.  That was perceived as being too top down.  As I have reflected and grown in my understanding of the position and its functions, I have learned that it is the job of the superintendent to work ON the system NOT IN the system.  As a result of this change in philosophical outlook, I am now asking the supervisors, directors, principals, and district office administrators to take the initiative outward and report back with updates and progress at our Cabinet meetings or at our Instructional Team meetings.  That way, the people most closely associated with the work, who know the employees the best and know the culture of the department or school better will be the ones, in conjunction with the teachers, carrying out the charge from development to implementation to assessment and revamping.  I can be more effective that way and leave more time to work on Board initiatives and goals.

QUESTION: Please explain the credit card scandal.

ANSWER:  There is no credit card scandal.  The auditors found some bills that were paid that did not have accompanying back up data to support the purchase.  The one that bothered most people is the one paid to a luggage company in the amount of $69.00.  After an extensive search we were able to find the receipts.  The purchase was a desk set for my office which included a small desktop clock, an in-mail box, a pen and paper holder for sticky notes and a holder for larger note paper.  The district has had a practice of purchasing cakes and cards for its employees at district office, of providing food and punch for district social gatherings, retirements, Secretary’s Day. Also in the past the district provided dinners for Board members and administrators on the evening of a BOE meeting. The credit card was used to purchase those things.  The Comptroller’s auditors have clearly stated that the district is not able to purchase those kinds of items, food, cards, gifts, dinners, for employees or Board members.  That practice has now stopped and will not occur again.  The other issue around the credit card is that it was not secured in a safe place with one person having oversight of it. There were some employees that had access to the cards.  All the cards were collected, were closed out, replaced with new accounts, and the cards are in the locked safe.  No one is able to access them without prior approval with a validated reason to use it.  Also in the past employees were able to go to local vendors and charge things without cards and without prior approval and validation.  That practice is no longer allowed.  I have reported the findings to the Audit Committee which is a Committee of the full Board of Education.  There is no fraud found in the audit report, and the Board has decided hat there is no cause for action.

QUESTION: When is the district going to hold contractors accountable for lousy workmanship?

ANSWER: It is my understanding from this question that the community is aware of the difficulties we have had with substandard workmanship during our capital project.  The District does hold all contractors accountable, and we have with held portions, sometimes hefty portions, of payments until the work was redone, repaired or done differently.  The problem then becomes that the contractor could stall on completing the job or could accuse the district of making so many changes that the scope of the work had changed.  We actually avoided a rather costly and long litigation process with a general contractor by using negotiations as the way to go.  However, because of the disputes between the contractors and the district, some things were not completed to our satisfaction.  Everyone associated with the job in district did his best to make sure that the work was completed in a satisfactory way with high quality workmanship.

I will write another segment next week.  Thank you for the opportunity to provide you with this information.