There were a number of decisions made last night, including the hiring of yet another principal through the PROACT search firm (an organization with Broad Foundation connections). If you’d like to read an excellent summary of those events, please take a look at Bonvillian’s articles on the Huntsville Times concerning this hiring and the proposal to put a security fence around the new Lee High School.
I would instead like to draw your attention to a common and consistent pattern of intimidation employed by the superintendent with any employee who dares to ask questions.
I’ve written before about the importance of questions and the superintendent’s astonishing arrogance in his conviction that his ideas should not be questioned.
He did the same thing to teachers who asked questions about even his oft quoted statement that the STAR test takes only 8 minutes to complete at the Mountain Gap PTA merger meeting on March 6th. (By all accounts, it takes student who are performing above grade level 20-30 minutes at a minimum. Those who are performing at or below grade level take longer.)
His approach is to intimidate teachers into silence.
He did the same thing last night at the board meeting to Ms. Pam Hill, a teacher in our system who dares to ask questions during the Citizen Comments section of the board meeting.
Here’s the video of their exchange.
So what did Dr. Wardynski have to say?
Ms. Hill, you’re an employee of Huntsville City Schools. You do not represent Hampton Cove Elementary School. So that was a misrepresentation. Uh number two, you stood there the night I read the specifications against Principal McGhee. Uh, Principal McGhee was relieved for a whole host of reasons that where upheld in court. That had to do with poor leadership, ethical questions. And so we will relieve such leaders, we will relieve such teachers, and so I would caution you when talking to your employers to speak to them as your employers. The Board is your employer.
First, yes, Ms. Hill is upset. She’s upset with the way the superintendent and the board seem to disregard teachers as a disposable inconvenience in the educational process. I am quite certain that Dr. Wardynski would prefer a school system that was filled with temporary staff whom could be dismissed at will. This is his model “teacher.”
She’s also upset that administration will benefit from others’ hard work. All one need do is look at the salaries Wardynski is paying his friends to see that this is also a model that he follows.
So yes, she’s upset.
She has ample reason for being so.
She is not alone. There is not a single day that I don’t hear from an employee of Huntsville City Schools who is not upset, hurt, demoralized, and looking to do something, anything, else. Ms. Hill is simply giving voice to those who are too afraid to speak out.
She should be praised for speaking for the voiceless, not threatened.
And Wardynski responds to her in much the same way that he has responded to me in the past when I’ve questioned him
Wardynski accuses Ms. Hill of misrepresenting herself as a spokesperson for Hampton Cove Elementary.
What he was referring to was Mr. Blair’s reading of the form that is required to be filled out by anyone who wishes to speak during the citizen comments.In order to be allowed to speak, you have to sign in at least 15 minutes before the beginning of the meeting giving the board your name, address, name of the organization that you represent, and the purpose of your comments.
So, Mrs. Hill’s “misrepresentation” was that she wrote the words “Hampton Cove” down on a sheet of paper. Unforgivable isn’t it? As you can tell from her comments, she did not state that she was speaking for all of the teachers at Hampton Cove Elementary.
For someone who regularly offers “misrepresentations,” you would think that Dr. Wardynski might be a little more cautious throwing around accusations of that nature. But as we’ve seen often before, the standards that Dr. Wardynski applies to himself, and to his friends, are radically different from those he applies to others.
That his actions are often hypocritical is old news.
But then he proceeds to offer a red-herring response to Ms. Hill’s comments by claiming that she was defending Fillis McGhee as having been wrongfully terminated.
Ms. Hill offered no defense of Ms. McGhee’s firing last night. Perhaps if Dr. Wardynski would spend those three minutes actually listening to citizen comments rather than thinking of ways to threaten the speaker into silence, he would have heard this.
But I suppose asking him to actually listen to people for even three minutes is just too taxing.
And then he wraps up his response by threatening Ms. Hill. “And so we will relieve such leaders, we will relieve such teachers, and so I would caution you when talking to your employers to speak to them as your employers. The Board is your employer.”
Again, you would think that someone who regularly speaks disrespectfully to his employers (parents and the public) would not feel comfortable accusing others of doing so, but as I said, his hypocrisy is old news.
What isn’t old news is his systematic attempts to threaten, intimidate, silence and even fire teachers, instructional assistants, therapists and staff who have the audacity to question him on anything.
Anything at all.
He truly believes that we should simply say thank you and move along.
His arrogance is destroying our schools, which is in turn destroying our community.
Dr. Wardynski should be required by the Board of Education to issue a written and public apology to Ms. Hill.
That, of course, won’t happen. This board is, at least in the majority, entirely in his pocket. And they suffer from the same arrogance and desire to cover up their actions that he does.
It’s time for a change.
“His arrogance is destroying our schools, which is in turn destroying our community.
Dr. Wardynski should be required to issue a written and public apology to Ms. Hill by the Board of Education.
That, of course, won’t happen. This board is, at least in the majority, entirely in his pocket. And they suffer from the same arrogance and desire to cover up their actions that he does.
It’s time for a change.”
It’s past time for a change. This board needs to be recalled and the Mayor/City Council appoint a Board until a special election can be called to elect a new school board.
“Uh, Principal McGhee was relieved for a whole host of reasons that where upheld in court. That had to do with poor leadership, ethical questions. ”
This from a Board and Super with poor leadership and lots of ethical questions.
I was thinking the same thing, Redeye.
He needs to remember that I am ultimately his employer. He has already wholly failed one of my children so that I have removed him from the public schools, my other son won’t be far behind. I am not the only parent to feel this way and the board better start paying attention to the numbers of children being pulled out of the school system.
Yep.
They ALL need to reminded we are they are OUR EMPLOYEES.
I am amazed. Ms. Hill was very brave & very much in her rights to stand up & speak. In the space of a year, she’s had her boss changed out TWICE. Once for just cause and now for the maneuverings of a despot. I think she is right to be angry. Here she is about to be “lead” by a “yet to be assigned” puppet who will receive credit for the work of the schools’ teachers without having done ANYTHING yet. (Can we go back to the original telling of the fable when the grasshooper starves over the winter?)
On top of that, a man who insists on keeping employment meetings & discussions closed, has the chutzpah to admonish her like that, in front of others, especially others who keep records.
That’s it, keep it up.
Well said!
“…And so we will relieve such leaders.”
Well said, Dr. Wardynski, because WE WILL relieve such superintendents and board members, and I would caution YOU when talking to your employees in public to speak to them as your EMPLOYERS. Because, Dr. Wardynski, they ARE your employers. They are the community members who vote for The Board members who hired you. No matter how monotone your voice is do not use your words to speak down to them or in a threatening manner. You are just embarrassing yourself and OUR community. They are already overworked and underpaid. A strong leader would seek to uplift teacher moral and not beat them to a bloody pulp or humiliate them in public. A strong leader would look to celebrate the TALENT and professionalism we already have in our educational community before bringing in your outside Broad Academy form of nepotism!
I am proud of Pam Hill for standing up to speak her mind about the situation at Hampton Cove. She spoke passionately about a situation that was obviously very close to her heart. She speaks on behalf of EVERY SINGLE public school teacher in HCS that is afraid to speak out of W’s tactics, because they cannot afford to be humiliated in public, lose their jobs, or their health insurance.
I would be surprised if he makes his three year contract. If my facts are correct, his contract will be up a few months before the school board elections of 2014. TWO of his biggest supporters on The Board will be up for reelection in November of that year. Anybody want to place bets on whether or not his contract is renewed and these TWO board members drop him like a hat at the last minute to keep their coveted positions on the Board?
Your facts are correct. His contract will be up before the 2014 elections, but my interpretation of this is not as optimistic. I think that the board members will likely be running on a platform of “look how amazing we are for bringing in someone as amazing as Wardynski. Isn’t he amazing?!? Aren’t we therefore also amazing?!?”
Or something like that. (Sadly, it’s difficult to use language as hyperbolic as the actual language that two of the board members use on a consistent basis. They do make it difficult on a writer! :))
I think it possible that he will leave on his own before his contract is complete for greener pastures, but as Redeye points out, the damage will be done by that point.
I’m hopeful that by making his decisions and approaches public that we can at least slow down the damage he’s causing, but it’s going to take a lot more people standing up as Pam Hill has done for this to work.
Thanks for reading!
“I’m hopeful that by making his decisions and approaches public that we can at least slow down the damage he’s causing, but it’s going to take a lot more people standing up as Pam Hill has done for this to work.”
He/She who controls the message controls the outcome.
We can’t wait another two years. The damage will have been done. Those who can are running from the HCS system like the plague, to the detriment of those who have no where to run.
Unblieviable!! That just goes to show you what kind of leader he is. Mrs. Hill is completely right. Why does admin reap the benefits of incentives for improvements. They are not in the classroom dealing with 30 kids each needing individualized attention, dealing with behavior issues, a 50 minute planning that is typically eaten up by meetings or running around the school. So please tell me how they helped improved any score. There is nothing worse then having your leadership changed twice in one year. We talk about the moral of a school, however teachers are bashed and admin praised. You can not build a great school if you keep changing principals and teachers every three years because you don’t want to tenure anyone.
My next comment is I would like to know how a principal was hired at Davis hills, who one has never taught a day in his life, does not have a teaching degree nor an admin degree. He has never been an assistant principal nor headed a school in Davis hills position. As a parent, I would be sueing Huntsville city schools for denying my child an education due to the behavior problems that go on there. This so called principal’s probation is a joke. The repeat offenders have been allowed to stay in the school and disrupt the students’ education, because the principal does not discipline.
We can not fix the education system until we fix the idocracey that is heading our system.
“You can not build a great school if you keep changing principals and teachers every three years because you don’t want to tenure anyone.”~ This is right on point
“I would like to know how a principal was hired at Davis hills, who one has never taught a day in his life, does not have a teaching degree nor an admin degree. He has never been an assistant principal nor headed a school in Davis hills position”~ The same way the a superintendent was hired who has never taught a day in his life, doesn’t have a teaching degree nor and and admin certificate from the Broad Academy.
“As a parent, I would be sueing Huntsville city schools for denying my child an education due to the behavior problems that go on there”. ~ You don’t have to be a parent, you are a TAX PAYER.
“We can not fix the education system until we fix the idocracey that is heading our system”.~ Exactly
The problem is TAX PAYERS are uniformed, they read The Huntsville Behind the Times and watch news reports and say everything is fine, nothing to see here, and go back to sleep.
http://redeyesfrontpage.blogspot.com/2012/02/color-of-change-in-culture-of-fear-and.html