Reconsidering Public Education in New Orleans

It's been many many months since I've talked about the state of public schools, which had previously been one of my more consistent beats.

I was pretty demoralized by the way the School Facilities Master Plan went down and the results of the Orleans Parish School Board elections only compounded my misery.

I've been trying to rethink how to approach the issue of public education given that some of the things I had been trying to fight against or force compromise on have become established reality.

One of the things I'd been emphasizing was the disorganized and reckless charterization and privatization. I was worried that the RSD had no real game plan for the eventual restoration of local control over schools. The implications of having such a balkanized administrative model over the short term were alarming; the potential for waste is important enough, but inattentiveness to general admission traditional public schools was scariest.

Although this is anecdotal based off of different things I've heard and read, I have noticed that, lately, there does appear to be increased concern in regard to poor performance at RSD schools. But one thing I think is disingenuous about the RSD is that poor performing traditional schools are almost set up to fail. Poor test scores provide the impetus to bring in charter operators to take over. This is happening at Frederick Douglass High School, for instance. Though the building was in sound condition, it had been slated for closure as recently as this fall; the award winning writing program, Students at the Center, was made unwelcome. In this kind of environment, how can a successful program be implemented? It can't.

But low and behold, Frederick Douglass High School has been saved because a charter operator, KIPP, is now interested in the facility.

Now you may find this kind of approach - helping schools into academic bankruptcy via systemic confusion or neglect - to be pretty disingenuous. And so do I.

Still, Paul Vallas has pretty successfully implemented what he set out to implement - the largest experiment in charterization in the nation's history. Whether that translates into higher achievement for students is another matter entirely. So is whether or not this model is economically or physically sustainable in the medium or long term, given that Mr. Vallas has made me look smart for predicting that he'd stretch his own budget to the max by spending one time revenue on recurring costs.

I advocated for a model resembling something closer to pilot schools in Boston, which allow for the academic exploration and experimentation that was the impetus for progressive embrace of the charter concept in the first place but without the same risks associated with unadulterated private charter boards. The pilot model allows for successes in one school to be replicated in others. Charters organizations, on the other hand, become like mini corporations, and successes are too easily treated as trade secrets. It's the difference between a true public education system and a for-profit education industry.

On the national level, people that have been alarmed by the ramrod approach of some charter proponents do not necessarily have an ally in the Obama administration, depending on whether early stances on issues like merit pay for teachers (which sounds better in theory than it might be in practice) foreshadow other policies.

Given the 'success' of Vallas' charterization plan and the larger momentum of the privatization movement on the national level, local advocates of true public education need to think through where they're at on certain issues and reorient in order to make the best of the new calculus.

One thing I'd like to see is a real shake up at UTNO. I don't know if that means management changes there, since I'm not particularly familiar with who's in charge. But it does mean that there needs to be a focus on organizing the younger TeachNola and TFA teachers. Things like merit pay appear to be on their way. UTNO would be wise to be ready to make sure that the measures used to determine achievement are fair to teachers. Beyond that, there needs to be a plan that grants good teachers legitimate stable job security without entrenching bad teachers. Given that UTNO's relevance has cratered, now is as good a time as any to reorient, as painful as it might be to do so.

On the issue of charters, I think at this point it's hard to just dig in and fight against the charters. It's not that it's an unstoppable freight train, it's that the train has already passed our station. What I think we need to do moving forward is force the RSD, OPSB, and the various charter operators to come up with a road map to local administration where charters cede some degree of control to a centralized body responsible for forceful oversight. In other words, whereas I'd been advocating that we move from traditional public schools directly to something resembling pilot schools, perhaps it's useful to think of the current balkanized charter landscape as the middle step in between the overly centralized OPSB of the past and a pragmatic pilot model that restores the voters of Orleans Parish to their rightful role as overseers of their own schools.

To that end, I found some of what was in this article to be extremely heartening given my low opinion of the new OPSB and the sober reconsideration I've been giving to some of these issues.

Later this week, several groups, including the Committee for a Better New Orleans/Metropolitan Area Committee, the Children's Defense Fund and the Urban League, are expected to announce a new coalition that will explore the future of public education in the city, including the question of long-term governance.

"Everything related to public education will be put on the table, " said Keith Twitchell, president of CBNO/MAC. He declined to release more details until the formal announcement, which is expected Thursday.

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School Board President Woody Koppel said the board does not intend to "sit idly by" and wait for someone else to determine its fate.

"I believe we need an opportunity, as a community, to openly govern our schools, " he said. "I think that people want to have schools that are run by people who live near them."

It's going to be messy, but hopefully hitting rock bottom this past fall will force us to figure out where the path upward is.

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I've also been sitting on some really dynamite stuff in regard to how the federal stimulus package touches New Orleans schools but it's all still raw information. I've been really busy but hopefully by next week I'll have something to publish for everyone about that.

Vallas Out

Set to run for Cook County President as a Republican.

RSD and Alternative Schools

Some rare praise from WCBF for the RSD for this new commitment to expand support for alternative schools for our city's most troubled kids. The only issue I'd point out is that Mr. Vallas is merely expressing a desire to expand alternative programs. I'd like to see it for real, in the budget.

“They are used to getting attention for negative things,” he said. “We turn that culture around. Now they are getting attention when they do something positive. That really makes a difference in their lives at school and at home.”

Students kicked out of other schools, for offenses such as throwing knives or carrying marijuana, find new life through the RSD’s alternative program. It takes in students from every school in the area regardless of district affiliation, Haggen said.

“We are unique because we have the only judicial liaison in the area. So when kids are sent through the judicial system, they come to us,” he said.

It's important stuff.

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And indeed Paul Vallas is negotiating a one year contract extension at the RSD. He had been expected to leave after this school year. In spite of all my criticisms, there is something to be said for continuity. I can only hope it manifests underneath as real life classroom stability.

Correct Me If I'm Wrong

Late last week, Paul Vallas wrote a letter to the editor of the Times-Picayune defending the Recovery School District's controversial school facilities master plan. In it, Mr. Vallas pushes back on recent reports by the Cowen Institute and the Bureau of Governmental Research that criticize the master plan's financial underpinning.

In short, because funding is concrete for only phase 1 of the facilities master plan, the independent groups argue that shortfalls made more likely by the financial crisis could lead to vast discrepancies in the quality of educational facilities in New Orleans with polar haves and have-nots.

In his letter to the T-P, Vallas addressed the uncertain funding structure after Phase 1 ends in 2013:

Phase 1 is funded by federal disaster recovery dollars that must be spent on building schools. While we're sure that we will be able to fund much of Phase 2, we know that in the years to come, the city and state will have to step up to the plate to raise capital funds to fully implement the plan. That is not surprising, or unusual.

In a sense, Paul Vallas is correct. Local and state governments do often have to share the costs of major projects such as the one the RSD is currently proposing. What I'm not sure of, is how usual it is for a project to begin without a plan to win funding. For instance, when a baseball team wants to hold taxpayers ransom for a new publicly-financed stadium, what they do is draw up a blueprint for their new digs and negotiate with the state and city for a plan to share the cost of stadium construction, land acquisitions, and related infrastructure improvements. That sounds similar to what the RSD is proposing but it really isn't. In this example, the team secures whatever legislation they need from the state and from the local city council and then begins construction. What they certainly do not do, is start digging holes into the ground with only enough money to build a third of the stadium. Here, the RSD wants to start construction without any concrete mechanisms to bankroll the later phases of the plan. Phase 1 alone insufficiently meets the needs of our district by concentrating precious dollars into just a few buildings without having evaluated the efficacy of spreading those dollars more prudently into targeted renovations.

The other thing I'd point out in this case is Paul Vallas' record from his time in Philadelphia. I wrote a three part series about this last year. Recall that Mr. Vallas was fired by Philadelphia's School Reform Commission after running unpredicted budget deficits running over $100 million. He seemed to have established a pattern. Mr. Vallas would spend furiously to implement certain aspects of his academic program and when he was forced to go to the state capital or to city council to defend a "surprise" deficit, it Vallas that would apply the pressure, goading lawmakers to "step up to the plate" to make up for his lack of fiscal restraint. To a certain extent, this is admirable because urban school districts are so badly underfunded. In practice, however, it provides for very short-term incremental progress. Vallas was successful once or twice in squeezing out a little bit extra to make up for the over-spending but it is never too long before lawmakers get tired of the act. Of course, in Philadelphia, contributing to Vallas' budget woes were huge increases in the number and value of no-bid contracts and unethical benefits paid out to Vallas consultants.

Here, Mr. Vallas has followed the Philadelphia pattern in an exaggerated sense, having already been raked by BESE for poorly formulated budgets and busted by the T-P and I for inappropriately large consultant contracts - including one to a woman forced to resign after unethical reimbursements paid by the Philly school district.

Also, let us consider Vallas' record in terms of spending on facilities from his time in Philadelphia. This passage is from something I wrote as part of the three part series:

In an op-ed to the Philadelphia Inquirer after Vallas had come to New Orleans, City Controller Alan Butkovitz wrote: (it has become archived, sorry I can't give a real link)

Right from the start we encountered resistance from the former CEO Paul Vallas when we questioned the insufficient progress and costs related to his $1.5 billion capital building program. It had a balance of $469 million - but little to show for it in the way of school construction. Vallas' original plan called for at least 20 schools to be built. At this time, we can only identify seven new schools that have been completed.

Ground broke on some construction way back in 2004. That there wouldn't be a clear accounting of what was built and when and for how much is shocking to me and should raise immediate red flags for everyone here in New Orleans given that the RSD is promising such a massive rebuilding program.

I called Harvey Rice, the First Deputy City Controller of the City of Philadelphia, to get more information about the capital improvement program. This is some of what he told me:

"There were two criticisms. One, we wanted to know what he did with the money. What did he build? No one has gotten that. We haven't gotten it. I don't even know if they have it in a document where they can succinctly sit down with you or anyone and say 'this is what we did'." - "We tried to do it on our own, spent a lot of hours going through newspaper articles, press statements, other statements that he made and trying to piece it all together... it's just been a difficult task." - "The other criticism was... that the school district wasn't spending it. They still have about half a billion dollars left... If you're not spending it, each year, material and labor costs increase, especially in Philadelphia, which is a union town. We thought if you're not spending it now, that sometime later you're not going to get the bang for your buck."
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I called the Philadelphia School District directly and asked for information related to the capital improvement program. Nobody got back to me. (I'm a nobody though)

Mr. Vallas has been adamant about the need to move quickly to begin schools construction on the master plan, threatening that federal funding could be lost if more time is taken to review the proposed spending. This is an interesting argument given his failure to spend money he was granted in Philadelphia.

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Lastly

This is the issue I wanted to raise when I titled the post.

My understanding throughout this entire process was that Mr. Vallas was not particularly involved in the master plan. Rather, the sense I've always gotten was that this was the other Paul's brainchild. Pastorek hired Parsons-Concordia to create the master plan before Paul Vallas was brought to New Orleans. It was Paul Pastorek and RSD Director of Facilities Planning Constance Caruso who worked with the hired firm to craft the document. It was Paul Pastorek who rejected a draft of the document in May that forced the delay of the release of the plan until late August.

From what I've gathered, Mr. Vallas's role in crafting the master plan had been limited to academic programming - the negotiation of different curricular themes for different schools. His job with the RSD is as an administrator of the schools themselves and it is my belief that this is what his responsibility was vis-a-vis the master plan.

So to me, it is very interesting to see Mr. Vallas being put up front to defend the plan. Where is Paul Pastorek? Where is Constance Caruso?

I hadn't planned on refreshing myself on Vallas' record in Philly as it pertained to the master plan because my understanding had long been that Vallas had very little to do with the SFMPOP.

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Here is this post's musical accompaniment.

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Expect news of a contract extension for Paul Vallas to percolate soon.

Independent Groups' Concerns Over Master Plan Increase as Vallas and RSD Play the Fear Card

....This just in from the Times Picayune:

Two independent groups raised red flags about the long-term financing behind the city's ambitious and unprecedented school construction plan, and probed school officials for more details about the costs of individual projects at a meeting of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Wednesday.

Representatives of Tulane University's Cowen Institute and the Bureau of Governmental Research argued that if money can not be found for later phases of the plan - which they agreed is a likely scenario -- it would exacerbate existing inequities in a city where children have long had unequal access to quality school programs and buildings.

Specifically, they said it would lead to a situation where some students attend school in state-of-the-art buildings while others remain in decrepit, outdated buildings.

There seems to be a developing consensus that this school facilities master plan is unacceptable. Wanna know why?

It's because people are using their skills of observation and logic to inform a factual reality.

And the reality is that this master plan is seriously deficient.

We close more schools than we build. The financing beyond phase 1 is nonexistent and increasingly unlikely to ever materialize. We concentrate limited resources into masturbatory wonders for the architectural class instead when the times call for a prudent allocation of resources that will get our kids into sustainable facilities as soon as possible.

But I want to discuss Paul Vallas' current talking point to the media. The company line is that we need to improve this plan as soon as possible and that any problems in the document can be fixed after the fact. Why can't the changes be made BEFORE we have to vote on the thing?

Vallas says it's because delays could result in our already-pledged funds being pulled.

"At some point we have got to start building," said RSD Superintendent Paul Vallas.

Unfortunately, I can't find a direct quote in a mainstream source but Mr. Vallas has explicitly explained that master plan approval delays could result in the loss of already-pledged monies. He made this point at the master plan public hearing at City Council.

A few points about this argument.

First, it is a typical post-K line we've all heard before about why we need to approve poorly contrived pet projects without question or debate. "WE'LL LOSE THE MONEY/REIMBURSEMENT COMPLETELY WE HAVE BUILD NOW WE HAVE TO KNOCK IT DOWN NOW SPEND NOW NOW NOW."

Second, if indeed there's a risk we might lose funding, guess who's fault it is?

The community has had this plan for less than sixty days. The RSD has been working on it since June of 2007. It was supposed to have been released last spring, then early last summer. It was finally presented to the public the week Gustav hit.

So don't feed us this BS about the delays caused by community concerns. How about the RSD planning team? How about the fact that when Pastorek saw his preliminary draft last May, he had to send the team back to the drawing board? How about the fact that even after that, Concordia-Parsons ultimately produced a document that is being widely criticized for a broad swath of structural and ideological flaws?

It ain't us that have been holding up this process - it's been them!

Third, and I think this is the real reason Paul Vallas is in such a hurry - not this empty lost funding threat - is that the deeper we get into this inevitable economic recession, the less realistic the master plan becomes. If we don't approve this thing right now, the master plan will go from being perceived as misguided, flawed, and unrealistic to being perceived as a parody of a fantasy.

This to me all seems like a bunch of 'let's move money around' horse crap. It's like how Vallas spends millions of dollars on high-tech Promethean boards for RSD classrooms when children aren't being provided with the basics, you know, like TEXTBOOKS TO TAKE HOME.

When Paul Vallas runs for governor of Illinois in 2010, as rumored, he'll get to say sexy little things in his commercials and pamphlets like:

"Spent x million dollars on state of the art classroom technology for New Orleans."
"Spent x million dollars on brand new school facilities."

Because he won't ever have to actually describe what we didn't get for expenditures that were, in reality, wasteful, premature, mis-prioritized, or worse.

Never mind that the economic crisis ensures incredible disparities in our public school system should we adopt a master plan crafted in an imagined economic vacuum. Never mind what happens when New Orleans is stuck in 2013 with what I compelled them approve in 2008.

JUST SPEND THE MONEY SPEND SPEND SPEND NOW NOW NOW NOW. YOU'LL LOSE IT IF YOU DON'T APPROVE. DON'T RISK IT. NOW OR NEVER! YOUR CONCERNS ARE UNWARRANTED. WE'LL FIX 'EM. I KNOW HOW TO FIX 'EM. JUST TRUST US. APPROVE NOW NOW NOW.

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The Carver High School alumni association has issued a statement condemning the master plan.

Transparent Bias by Times-Picayune Editors [Updated]

I was looking forward to see how Darran Simon's recap of yesterday's contentious hearing at City Hall in today's paper.

I found it, eventually.

Hidden all the way at the bottom of page B-1.

School-closing plan fuels council anxiety

I don't think I'm just too close to the story when I say that the upcoming vote on the facilities master plan represents the most important event involving public schools since Katrina, or at least since the decision to create the Recovery School District itself. The plan will determine the capacity of New Orleans' public school system for decades. Nobody disputes that. Nobody disputes that funding does not exist for anything beyond the first phase ending in 2013. Nobody disputes that 'landbanked' schools will likely mean demolition and/or resale. Nobody disputes that 'landbanking' is certainly synonymous with closure, even if planners allude to maybe possibly some of the closed schools one day perhaps being considered to be brought back as schools through third party operators.

Those are facts, those are the stakes. Read the article and see for yourself.

Yet, the Times-Picayune determined that this was not a top story today. In fact, the Times-Picayune made the decision that this wasn't even the top education story today. On the front cover of this morning's paper was another story about the RSD, this one about the possibility that four more schools may be turned over to charter operators. Now I'm not arguing that this doesn't merit coverage, as there are certainly people critical of the operator selection process and the ubiquitous involvement of Steven Bingler's sister-in-law's New Schools New Orleans in anything involving charter schools. But is this story nearly as important as the poorly-conceived master plan for school closure?

ABSOLUTELY NOT. It's not even close.

But let's argue for a moment that both stories are important and deserve front cover attention. The T-P could have included both stories, the one about charterization and the other about school closures, but then they would have had to bounce this life-changer that was included amongst the day's top stories instead:

Groom gets feds to snap to attention

That breaking news headline is in regard to some asshole who wore a Navy uniform to his wedding even though he'd never served. Something to note in the third hour of your midday talk radio program? MAYBE. Something for the front page of a major metropolitan newspaper on a day where the city's public school system teeters on the brink of catastrophic planning? HELL NO.

Really bad, Times-Picayune. Really bad.

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I'd also like to challenge an assertion by Paul Vallas included at the bottom of the closure article:

Vallas pointed out that only one existing occupied building -- Audubon extension -- is scheduled to be closed in phase one.

That's simply false. Even if Mr. Vallas is trying to make the point that all of the currently-occupied schools to be lanbanked under Phase 1 won't close until the end of the phase, he's still making a false claim. Phase I of the master plan runs from 2008-2013.

Let me count them all for you.

(AND REMEMBER, THESE SCHOOLS ARE CURRENTLY OCCUPIED)

Elementary Schools - from page 90 of the official master plan.

McDonogh 07 - 2012
NO Free School - 2012
Arthur Ashe - 2012
Audobon Extension - 2012
McDonogh 28 - 2012
Dibert - 2012

High Schools - from page 94

Rabouin - 2012
McMain - 2012
Douglass- 2011

Vallas is right if he really meant that Audubon extension will be the first to be closed within phase 1 in 2010, but the currently operating Frederick Douglass High School will close soon after, in 2011. The reality is, however, that FDHS could close after this school year if doing so strikes the fancy of the school district. They are under no legal obligation to keep the school in operation and in fact, had not decided to keep the building open for this year until last May or June.


UPDATE:

But perhaps nothing reflects the editorial bias of the Times-Picayune better than their absolutely ridiculous endorsements for this Saturday's Orleans Parish School Board Race. They pick the conservative establishment choice in every instance such a choice is available. Woody Koppel over Percy Marchand? You've got to be kidding me. Brett Bonin over either Amy LaFont or Davin Boldissar? A bad joke. Seth Bloom over Avis Brock? Totally ill-informed.

The Times-Picayune pretty much endorses the most conservative Board possible, the whitest Board possible, the most anti-union Board possible, the most pro-master plan Board possible.

Percy Marchand in District 6 and Amy Lafont or Davin Boldissar in District 3 are the only OPSB candidates that have taken the time to inform themselves about the consequences of this master plan document and have been brave enough to speak out forcefully with their concerns. Woody Koppel and Brett Bonin are opportunistic insiders looking to climb the ladder. It is imperative that they be defeated.

Times-Picayune editorial board: You're hurting the recovery of this city.

Absolutely infuriating!

Schools Master Plan Hearing at City Council

According to Councilwoman Hedge-Morrell, today's crowd was likely the largest to have ever attended an council education committee hearing. There was indeed pretty substantial turnout, considering the relative lack of attention called to the event and the fact that it was called at 10 AM on a Wednesday.

Comment was 100% in opposition of the master plan and came from groups representing schools from all over the city. Councilwomen Head and Hedge-Morrell each expressed pointed criticisms of their own.

State Senator Cheryl Gray came to speak out against the closure of schools in her district. Our BESE representative Louella Givens came to speak out as well, and introduced her BESE colleague who was also in attendance. This other person mostly stood awkwardly on the side of the room. His name is James Garvey and he recently refused to condemn LaBruzzo's eugenics bill to the Times-Picayune. (Just so you know)

Unfortunately, the public was grouped by school affiliation so educational advocates wishing to express concerns with the very structure of the master plan, including OPSB candidates Percy Marchand and Amy LaFont had to wait until the end of the hearing, by which point the room was largely empty.

The deadline for the public comment period remains midnight tonight. OPSB President Torin Sanders went on the record pledging to introduce a motion at tomorrow's OPSB meeting that would allow for more public comment, but he is under no legal or political obligation to do so, as he is not running for reelection.

Paul Vallas was there today and repeatedly made the ridiculous claim that Congress would pull funding for New Orleans schools if this were not approved quickly. But remember that the master plan was delayed for months by the consultant planners themselves.

(Also, I'd always thought that Vallas was not really involved in the master planning process, that this was Pastorek's thing. Pastorek was not present. Steven Bingler, the man hired to put together the master plan did not speak.)

Ultimately, there was no resolution of any particular grievance - either with the master plan or with the voting timeline.

So it appears as though the rubber stamp freight train remains on schedule.

That's sad. This is a bad document.

So How Many Master Plan Phases Do We Have Funding For?

Please, please, please read Sarah Carr's piece that profiles the proud history of Frederick Douglass High School on St. Claude Avenue. Douglass faces certain closure under the school facilities master plan.

How many snake oil salesmen have to come storming into town before we recognize the pattern?

Installed about eight years ago, the pipes might have brought cool air to the once-magnificent, now-decayed auditorium, but the school system never found the money to complete the second phase of the project.

The unfinished effort is emblematic of scores of well-meaning attempts to breathe life into the struggling academic program in recent years. Officials have repeatedly launched reform efforts, only to abandon them before they effect lasting change.

And there are scores of other unfinished projects, even if we're limiting our discussion to the facility itself. I'm lucky enough to have gone on a tour of the building and despite the appearance of decay, it is actually quite beautiful - not so far behind most other urban schools I've ever seen. The problem has been that on countless projects both before and after the storm, crews sent out to install things like light fixtures, intercoms, air conditioning systems, and ceiling tiles don't finish the jobs. They'll do things like only connect intercoms to some parts of the building or install outdoor light fixtures but not supply replacement light bulbs. Or as Ms. Carr reports, they'll install AC pipes but no AC unit.

Teachers, principals, students, parents, and community stakeholders operated under this neglect for years and years believing that - if they could just be allowed the stability and continuity to implement a strong academic program, if they could get the confidence and support of the school board, if they could just get basic facility maintenance - they'd be able to help our children succeed.

School communities like Frederick Douglass never quit on the kids. Instead, the city quit on the school communities. How else could a nationally acclaimed writing program like Students at the Center be discouraged from returning to Douglass? Instead, Paul Vallas and the RSD are implementing an experimental "theme" school at Douglass, a police academy, for the next year before the facility will likely be shuttered.

That's not change, it's more of the same failed slash and burn policy.

When you hire visionary principles who are well qualified and highly motivated and provide them a core of career teachers committed to the program, you can slowly but surely implement a healthy learning environment, a school culture - but only if you allow that community the stability, continuity, and basic resources necessary for parents and students to buy in.

When the district threatens schools with closure, castrates maintenance budgets, and constantly shuffles principals in and out, it is only natural for a school's academic and cultural fabric to unravel.

The RSD is sitting on $1.8 billion with the promise of a few "21st century schools" to replace the scores upon scores we'll be "landbanking" for other purposes.

Amongst other things, it's installing the pipes without the units. To play with Sarah Carr's characterization of the history of Douglass, it's yet another "launched reform effort" scheduled to be "abandoned before it effects lasting change."

'Scheduled' in the sentence above is my word and I choose it for a few reasons. First, in the case of Douglass, the brand new experimental police academy program is literally already being threatened with extinction after this school year (not that I care for that experiment anyway) AND the Douglass building is slated to be closed. Second, in more general terms, there is NO MONEY for any new facilities construction projects after the completion of the first phase of the master plan in 2013.

It is very easy to anticipate that this city may need facilities expansion after 2013. First, it is almost impossible to forecast the local and national trends that may contribute to population growth accurately enough to inform binding policy. Second, Concordia-Parsons has drawn up phases 2 through 5 in the master plan, admitting that phase 1 will drain every last cent but not finish the job. Spending every last penny to do half the job? Sounds sadly familiar, no?

BESE and the OPSB are seriously considering approval for the school facilities master plan. At a time when a traumatized community of children badly needs continuity and stability from their schools, we may be about to witness the blind rubber stamping of another poorly constructed, half funded, and experimental upheaval. The master plan abandons the neighborhood school model at the high school level in favor of a system that forces kids into the unfortunately sometimes hostile territory of a neighboring ward. Ask any teacher working in the RSD about the prevalence of geographic conflict but I'm sure you don't have to.

I don't have the stomach to continue this same pattern of half-assed and poorly-informed revolution followed by yet another yawning retreat in which nobody is held accountable.

Are people as mad about this as I am?

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RELATED:

In May, I looked at a small piece of the Parsons Corp. preliminary site assessment of Frederick Douglass High School and compared it to the school as it stood.

Liprap Leigh recaps Thursday's community testimony in front of the OPSB.

Did you know that OPSB member Jimmy Fahrenholtz, who expressed his "100% approval" for the master plan without having even read it, didn't bother to show up? He's not credible to vote on this. A lot of people tell me he's a good guy at heart but he's got no business making such a critical decision for this community if he's going to be so close minded as to not even read the document and not even pay lip service to divergent opinion. It violates public trust. We know that he is close to Steven Bingler's sister-in-law via social network and campaign contribution.

How pathetic is it that none, NOT ONE, of the OPSB members that did bother to attend was engaged enough to ask a question of the planners?

Here is the current schedule for regional master plan comment opportunities as hosted by individual OPSB members in their home districts. Two of them were today. The big event is the hearing at City Council on October 1st.

I'm still looking into how to support SOSNola's petition to extend the public comment period to January, lemme get back witcha on that.

LEAP Scores Tell Us Nothing

On Saturday, the Times-Picayune published this year's set of LEAP scores for all the public school kids in Orleans Parish.

Our kids didn't do so well.

Not one school cracks above 21% "advanced" at any grade level for either math or English. The majority of elementary schools have 50% of their students or more scoring "below basic." In over half of Orleans Parish public high schools a majority of students are scoring at the lowest "unsatisfactory" level.

Over half!

But, as Darran Simon and Sarah Carr point out, some RSD officials see this year's test results as a major improvement.

...a handful of traditional schools operated by the state-run Recovery School District posted gains that catapulted them from the bottom of the heap last year to above average this year.

Particularly in the younger grades, many of the RSD elementary schools saw dramatic increases in the percentages of students passing Louisiana's standardized test. At Murray Henderson Elementary School, for instance, two-thirds of students scored at least at the "basic" level on the English test this year, compared with only one-fifth of students last year.

"We spent the entire year focused on the prize, and the prize was to do better on testing, " said Beverly Johnson-Jelks, Henderson's principal.

That's unfortunate because one thing people always complain about is this idea that over-reliance on standardized test scores as measures of academic improvement causes teachers to teach to the tests. A well-balanced education is sacrificed as critical thinking skills, the arts, civics, personal finance, etc. lose their spot as part of "the prize."

Here we have an RSD principal telling us that they did just that in order to inflate their test scores.

Another interesting thing to note, and I'm glad Mr. Simon and Ms. Carr did this in several places within the article, is that this year's test scores may not reflect any actual classroom improvements. Instead, the improved basic residential stability of Orleans Parish students and teachers may have as much to do with improved test scores than any of the "reforms" instituted by Paul Vallas.

Given the instability New Orleans children faced in the two years after the storm, and the turmoil as the Recovery District opened in the fall of 2006, some test score gains were to be expected. And despite the growth, some of the district's schools still posted abysmal scores, particularly at the high school level.

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District officials attributed the sharp increases in lower grades to greater stability among the staff and students, as well as ramped-up test preparation districtwide.

"In the first year (2006-'07), we had so many kids coming back in October, November and December, " said Gary Robichaux, director of elementary schools for the district. "Some of the students had been in schools in different states, and some were not in school at all."

---

But individual comparisons between schools' test scores can be misleading. Some of the city's schools reopened within a year of Hurricane Katrina, while others just opened last year.

Beyond that, while one would think a comparison between this year's LEAP numbers and a school's pre-storm numbers might be more apt, staff and student upheaval renders that measure equally invalid.

And because scores were supposed to rise as a result of the return of the most basic functions (hot meals), couldn't the modest gains at only a handful of schools be characterized as a massive defeat for the RSD?

With all that hedging on the basic validity of LEAP scores as a measure of academic progress, can we say we've learned anything from this year's tests?

Recovery School District and Consultant Expansion

Though Paul Pastorek and Paul Vallas will laud this as a measure that will reduce "red tape," I think it is quite troubling.

The Senate Committee on Finance amended House Bill 891 to allow Pastorek to hire educational consultants without taking bids on contracts for the work.

He would be able to hire a consultant for a year’s worth of work beginning July 1 at no more than $250,000.

Currently, consultants who are paid more than $50,000 must be hired through a competitively bid contract.

Thus, the Recovery School District has reduced oversight on academic consultant contracts, quintupling the amount of money they can dole out in a single purchase without a price comparison. Upon hearing of this story, two things popped into my memory:

1. Paul Vallas got into trouble in Philadelphia for increases in the number of no-bid consultant contracts awarded over the course of his administration.

2. Some of the consultant contracts already awarded here in Louisiana by Mr. Vallas have already come under the scrutiny of the Times-Picayune.

I think this gives Mr. Pastorek and Mr. Vallas an awful lot of leeway...

Notes on the RSD Budget

More in the T-P today about the revised RSD budget:

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education charged Vallas with reducing his reliance on "Restart" dollars -- one-time money earmarked to rebuild schools in hurricane-affected regions -- for recurring expenses in an earlier roughly $202 million spending plan so the district could build up a healthy reserve and prevent drastic cuts in the future.

This is an improvement from BESE.

Also interesting was the mobilization of Morris Jeff advocates and their coverage victory:

Also at the meeting, a coalition of 25 people called Neighbors for Morris Jeff, wearing matching white shirts, implored the state board to work with them to reopen the closed Morris F.X. Jeff Elementary. The group said they envision developing the school as an early childhood development or an elementary school.

The convoy of parents and neighbors came armed with the results of a survey of more 280 households in favor of reopening the school, demographics of school-age children in proximity to the school and a Powerpoint presentation including a sketch of a proposed redesign of the school.

"Our need for a quality school is undeniable," neighborhood resident Shana Sassoon told the board.

The future of the elementary school will be decided in a larger master plan expected in August that would lay out the future of the city's nearly 130 public school campuses, only about 80 of which would be needed because of a shrunken post-Katrina population.

And also on WWLTV.

Good work Morris F.X. Jeff!

Wait-Wait-Wait, You Mean He's Not a Budget Whiz?

All of a sudden, BESE officials are asking Paul Vallas to stop funding reoccurring academic programs with one-time revenue streams.

Hmm.

Parsing Paul Vallas' Work Schedule

Finally, a public records request was honored by the RSD in a timely fashion.

After a slate of quotes by RSD Superintendent Paul Vallas indicated potential interest in running for Governor of Illinois in 2010, I thought it appropriate to examine whether or not Mr. Vallas' campaign efforts were already underway.

I requested Mr. Vallas' personal schedule dating from January 1st, 2008 and met with RSD communications director Siona LaFrance to view the documents.

She expressed some concerns that I, as a blogger without specific ethical obligations, might cherry-pick Mr. Vallas' travel dates and describe them out of context just to portray Mr. Vallas as on his way out the door.

I'm not that good. Nobody has ever disputed that Paul Vallas is a hard working administrator. He's never been known for too many rounds of golf. He stays on the clock. The amount of time Mr. Vallas has spent out of Louisiana is not gratuitous if his schedule is accurate, particularly when considering that some trips coincided with school holidays and that all trips to Illinois included time with his family in Chicago.

Besides, as Ms. LaFrance indicated, Blackberry technology ensures that Mr. Vallas is always on the job, even if he is physically out of the office.

In the end, Mr. Vallas' personal schedule reveals that his travels out of state did tend to mix business and pleasure. Here are my findings:

Mr. Vallas was in Chicago from January 11th to January 15th with no listed political events.

He left Louisiana again at the end of that month, traveling during Mardi Gras season from January 25th to February 3rd. This time, there were some listed events. January 29th featured a meeting with Gila Bronner of the Bronner Group in downtown Chicago. The next day, Mr. Vallas attended the State of the City address in Peoria, Illinois and met with Lee Graves
about the internet safety program he financed, Portcard. That evening, he dined with Jim Franczek back in Chicago. January 31st, Paul Vallas traveled to Northern Illinois University, in DeKalb. He attended a symposium and gave a lecture. Ten points to whoever can tell me which popular hotel/motel/inn chain he stayed at.

Vallas' next trip was from February 29th through March 5th. On March 1st, he spoke to the KIPP board in Chicago. On March 3rd, he held various meetings in Chicago during the day and one more with a development corporation from Northwestern University in the evening.

On March 4th, Paul Vallas traveled to St. Louis and met with Rick Sullivan, the CEO of the St. Louis public schools weeks after Mr. Sullivan began searching for a new superintendent for the St. Louis public school district.

On March 13th, Vallas left again for Chicago and returned on the 16th. This one purely family oriented, there were no listed events or meetings.

Then it was spring break. Mr. Vallas traveled from March 21st to March 30th. On March 25th, he spoke at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in New York. On March 26th, Paul Vallas returned to Philadelphia for a few days to deliver some talks at some local universities. In Philadelphia, he opened the possibility of running for governor of Illinois.

At the end of April, Mr. Vallas took another week in Illinois. There were meals or meetings on both the 26th and 27th. On the 28th, Mr. Vallas taped an episode of Chicago Tonight and spoke at the City Club of Chicago and Northwestern University. That night, he dined with City Club of Chicago President Jay Doherty. It was at the City Club that Vallas again admitted consideration of the Illinois gubernatorial race in 2010.

Around a month later, Vallas spent another week in Illinois from May 24th through the end of the month with some more meetings and family functions.

I requested Mr. Vallas' personal schedule to examine how his much-speculated interest in moving to Springfield, Illinois jived with his duties at the RSD in New Orleans. After examination, it would be misleading to characterize his travels as detrimental to his job performance here. He's not taking lots of extra days off, it appears to be on his own time.

It would be just as misleading to characterize his meetings with various politically connected individuals or groups as significant campaign groundwork. Mr. Vallas has largely been honest about his intention to lead the RSD on a temporary basis and has not denied that he may be interested in elected office in Illinois after he leaves here.

I do have questions about his March 4th meeting with Rick Sullivan in St. Louis. I do wonder if the open superintendent job was discussed. I emailed the communications staff at the RSD for clarification and will publish the answer once I receive it.

UPDATE: Siona LaFrance answered my email. She says that Vallas did not discuss the superintendent's job with Rick Sullivan, just the concept of school reform.

Also, upon browsing Illinois blogs, I noticed a post by "Chicagoland's premier local-access political talk show" where it is speculated that Vallas could entertain running in Illinois as a Republican. Again, only speculation, but Berkowitz does describe an interesting scenario.

"Buying Momentum"

Sarah Carr portrays a new perspective on Paul Vallas in her piece on the front cover of today's Times-Picayune.

For some time, mainstream media coverage of Mr. Vallas has been extremely charitable, ignoring oft repeated criticisms from prior Vallas stops.

This is the first article in the Times-Picayune that mentions Mr. Vallas' budget issues in Philadelphia.

This is the first time that the Times-Picayune raised the issue of unchecked power at the RSD.

In this article, the Times-Picayune alluded to collective criticism of Paul Vallas' spending habits.

I believe that this article is the most balanced piece on the RSD by the Times-Picayune that we've seen to date. I don't know what that means, but there it is.

-

There are some issues I'd like to discuss further, excerpting from Sarah Carr:

A big talker, big thinker and big doer, he has also thus far proved a big spender. One afternoon, he describes one of his strategies here as "buying momentum."

Whether that momentum morphs into long-term stability remains the question at the core of his tenure -- one he freely admits was never designed to last, as he plans to leave New Orleans, most likely late next year.

I want to talk about this. I want to talk about Vallas' short-term decision to "buy momentum" for the RSD vs. the need for long-term stability in local public education. This is a good debate to have.

Paul Vallas' game plan has been to splash money into "deliverables." What I mean by that is that he has invested in things he can show to people: the classroom technology, the new teacher corps, the extended schedule, the academic programming contracts, the RSD technocracy.

I won't go too deeply into the merits of the individual spending initiatives. I'll say that I like some better than others. It's pretty tough to find fault in extending classroom hours. At the same time, I can't help but be suspicious of the classroom technology spending. Do we need Promethean boards in every classroom when students can't even read the newspaper? That seems like waste.

I bring up the "deliverables" to illustrate Vallas' established spending habits. He spends one-time money on one-time fixes. This was his pattern in Philadelphia as well. To me, this inherently flies in the face of long-term stability.

Here, he has plowed millions of dollars into his own professional staff, technologies, and programs. This is not bad in and of itself. He was charged with building the administrative capacity of the RSD and he has done that. Nobody disputes that he is a hard worker and he has indeed worked hard to build a brand new bureaucracy from scratch.

These things are touted as his proudest accomplishments over the last year. He took an empty institution from his predecessor, Robin Jarvis, and was able to provide the necessary energy to ensure that schools were open on time and hot meals were served. Whereas Robin Jarvis had a ineffectively small staff, Paul Vallas has built an entire organization. Mr. Vallas has created the first ever RSD budget after the bureaucracy had operated without proper accounting since the storm.

The discrepancy is long-term stability. And not just the stability of Mr. Vallas. He admits he is here for the short-term. I have no qualms with that and I prefer his honesty on that front. My questions relate to the RSD as an institution.

Does building up the administrative capacity of the RSD really do anything for long-term stability?

Right now, New Orleans public schools are controlled by either the RSD, the Orleans Parish School Board, or independent Charter operators. That's three bureaucracies.

The RSD was granted unprecedented control of schools previously under the authority of the OPSB after Katrina. The idea was to go over the heads of the local school board to cut through the democratic red tape. By circumventing that body, Paul Pastorak was able to hire Paul Vallas to come in and make changes to the schools without time-consuming checks and balances. This, in 2005, didn't necessarily look like a bad option, the OPSB didn't exactly have a positive track record in terms of getting things done quickly.

Vallas differs from any previous superintendent, here or nationally, in one key way: an unprecedented level of relatively unchecked power.

He doesn't report to the local elected School Board -- one with a history of blocking superintendents' reform attempts, excoriating them publicly and ousting them. Neither does Vallas have to contend with a teachers union, which lost collective bargaining rights in the state takeover. The flood and takeover further shattered central office fiefdoms run by entrenched bureaucrats.

Vallas reports directly to state Superintendent Paul Pastorek. "I like to pretend that I have all these obstacles," Vallas said. But he concedes that his office faces fewer constraints "than any district in the country."

But this has to be temporary, doesn't it? Is the state of Louisiana always going to control a third or more of this city's schools without giving New Orleans voters any power to control who administers them?

No.

Eventually, either the RSD is going to begin returning administration of public schools back to the municipality or there are going to be major changes made to the RSD or to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to make the administration of schools accountable to voters.

While the RSD's "benevolent dictatorship" model was tolerated due to the post-storm emergency, there is no way that that body is going to simply rule over our schools forever without any accountability to local voters or local politicians. It's not sustainable, it's not tolerable. I would be shocked to find anyone in Baton Rouge or New Orleans that would claim that's even the plan. Ultimately, the RSD and the OPSB are going to merge or otherwise the New Orleans public schools are going to be locally accountable - like every other school system in the country.

So then if the long-term vision for New Orleans public schools administration is to eventually have a unified school district, how does spending millions on building the administrative capacity of the temporary RSD provide for long-term stability of public school institutions?

It doesn't!

Instead of overruling the "central office fiefdoms run by entrenched bureaucrats" of the old OPSB to get things done, isn't the RSD merely entrenching their own bureaucratic fiefdom?

And isn't this fiefdom much more troubling than the ones created by the OPSB?

At least we get to elected the Orleans Parish School Board.

So what is Paul Vallas really "buying momentum" for?

Once we reunify the school district, won't we have rinse and repeat?

___

Further notes:

1. When Paul Vallas or Paul Pastorak or the Times-Picayune touts gains in LEAP scores this year, it is important to note what years are being compared. This year's scores compared to last year's will artificially inflate LEAP gains because last year, the schools were still a major cleanup project. Progress is better measured against stable pre-Katrina school years.

2. I'm also noticing a new wrinkle to the RSD's much-debated 10 year master plan, as mentioned in Carr's RSD report card. "The plan, which may unveiled in August" had been slated to be released early this month.

_____

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Upon stricter review, it is inaccurate to say that the Times Picayune has never mentioned Paul Vallas' budget deficit in Philadelphia or the lack of accountability at the RSD. This was, however, the first time that these issues were offered as prominent context for Vallas' administration.

T-P's Vallas-RSD Telescope

Check out the long, long piece by Sarah Carr.

It is certainly worth your while.

I think that I'll have more to say later, congratulatory and constructive.

My first reaction was that this article's tone was remarkably different from that of other long pieces on the Vallas administration in the Times-Picayune.

The Truth About the RSD

In a fine, fine article written for the New York Times (student journalism institute) !!!!

Many believe charter schools can only have a small impact on the overall problems in New Orleans and the Recovery District remains the key to any turnaround.

“For those folks that have been long-time educators in the system we just laughed when the state said, ‘we can do it better,’ said Tracy Washington, a civil rights lawyer, referring to the 2003 creation of the Recovery School District.. “The state doesn’t educate students. That’s left to local boards.”

Some parents criticized Vallas for what they said is a lack of information for the community. At public meetings about a master plan for the district, parents were given questionnaires with only multiple choice answers allowed.

Daliet said passing out a handout is not enough to fully engage the community. “Yes or no isn’t going to give you what I need to tell you. The questions are irrelevant,” Daliet said. She added that it was misleading to think that the community could be engaged just by putting people in one room.

Indeed!

We Could Be Famous' "We Can" Weekend Roundup

There were a lot of stories that piqued my interest over the weekend.
There were some absolute nuggets of wisdom that I just have to briefly lasso together:


The Saturday T-P had a number of interesting articles.

1. The weekly New Orleans politics segment routinely makes my Saturday. I've canceled my TP subscription for a lot of different reasons but I still buy the Saturday paper, mostly just for this article. This weekend's piece elaborated on the Mayor's absolutely hilarious wisecrack about kicking all of the homeless people out of town.

"I'm not suggesting that they were dumped here, but we have a lot of people from a lot of different places around the country, and you may be helping one of your citizens," the mayor said.

"Maybe we can even find some bus tickets. We'll see," Nagin said, drawing uneasy laughter from parts of a crowded ballroom at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel. "One way."

Since I've never given my thoughts on those comments, I'll just say that the reason they are offensive is because Mayor Nagin has, at times, been openly hostile to concrete solutions for combating chronic homelessness. They are offensive because Nagin has routinely deflected the homelessness issue by blaming to "outsiders" when he himself continues to support policies that exacerbate rather than alleviate the affordable housing crisis. To contextualize the quote, Mayor Nagin was just kidding, his substantive answer to the question on helping the homeless was to donate to Unity or the Mission. This doesn't help matters much because the Mayor has generally been hostile to Unity's proven approach. As you'll recall, the Mayor's solution earlier this year was to round up the homeless into a giant barracks at the New Orleans Mission. This policy was seen as so reactive that the Bush administration sent an official to try to convince the Mayor to reconsider a more humane approach.

2. There was a second pearl from Nagin in that same TP article:

At other points, Nagin displayed his lighter side, responding to a question about whether local leaders trust the science of polling.

Referring to a recent poll by researcher Verne Kennedy showing that nearly one in four New Orleans voters think the city is "moving in the right direction," Nagin said he has faith in such positive results.

"We like these polls that say 23 percent of people think the city is headed in the right direction," he said. "Y'all keep these coming. We'll pay good money for them."

While I can believe that local poll numbers might be unreliable, I'm afraid that the percentage of people that think the city is headed in the right direction may be lower. If there's one measure of the city's recovery that is more important than any other, it is the one that represents how the residents of New Orleans themselves feel about the direction of their city. If New Orleans residents do not feel as if the city is heading in the right direction than the city is not heading in the right direction - period. This cavalier attitude toward his own unpopularity reminds me of that of another totally unaccountable and unapologetic golden god:




New Orleans residents don't think their needs are being met? So?

It is the job of historians to evaluate what a tragedy your Mayoral administration has been.

3. Also from the TP: Recovery School District behind in its bills

State Superintendent Paul Pastorek estimated that the district is delinquent in paying 10 to 20 vendors. The district did pay out more than $30 million to vendors during the past 60 days, he said, paying off every vendor who was owed $20,000 or less in full.

Yet as the school year draws to a close, officials say finances still remain one of the thorniest problems facing district Superintendent Paul Vallas and his team.

"I don't think anybody, including me, anticipated the difficulties of not having a cash reserve account," Pastorek said.

Well done Paul and Paul. Want to know who anticipated the difficulties?

The Times Picayune did. From the same article:

Recovery District officials have not responded to repeated inquiries over the last month as to which vendors have outstanding, overdue bills.
--
The district did not respond to a specific question asking what their 10 largest overdue bills are. It also did not respond to an April open-records request for copies of all invoices marked overdue.

So in other words, it was such a surprise that you spent weeks stalling out public records requests beyond the legally permissible three day wait?

No kidding. Know who else thought the RSD might run into some "surprise" budget issues?

Know who else gets routinely stonewalled by the RSD legal team on public records requests?

He has a blog.


4. Sad.

Over the weekend, our fearless President went to Saudi Arabia to plead with King Abdullah to make more oil. President Bush reads the internets and has heard that gas prices are too high so he went over to ride horses with the King and beg him to help US consumers buy more consumer electronics by reducing oil prices. King Abdullah said no.

Earlier in the week, Saida Mohammed Afrah left her children for two hours to scavenge for food and water. When she returned, her two babies had starved to death. High gas prices contributing to high food prices have exacerbated the effects of a drought in East Africa. Famine is upon Somalia, Eritrea, and Sudan. It approaches Kenya.

Our President's crawling on his knees routine with the Saudis is an embarrassment on so many levels. While it was very nice of the man to go to bat to Americans under legitimate pressure from high gas prices, it is so insulting to go begging the Saudis for help as US oil corporations reap windfall profits as a direct result of the high prices that are literally killing people in Africa.

Vallas Jumping Ship

It was a matter of time.

I'm afraid it had already been predicted, already written.

Does he leave at the end of this year or at the end of next year?

No education revolution. Just the temporary appearance of competence.

The end of this year or next year?

The RSD Master Plan was signed off on and contracted out before Vallas arrived.

Who's game plan is it? And how much implementation can Vallas stomach before he's dust?

How many speaking engagements in Chicago on NOLA schools can Mr. Vallas possibly squeeze into his schedule?

When does Vallas for Illinois come out of the attic?

Vallas Faces No Obstacles

Paul Vallas was back in Philadelphia the other day for the first time since he left his post as schools CEO there.

He spoke to the free hand he's been given to operate.

He also said he'd be around here one more year and stoked speculation that he is planning to run for Governor of Illinois.

Grrrrr. Where's my paycheck?

Darran Simon and Sarah Carr owe me some loot. Or some props....

C'mon y'all. That front page headline is me-me-me..... me.

I been known about Paul Vallas' Entourage.

There is one thing I'd like to add to the follow up research by Mr. Simon and Ms. Carr.

They confronted the RSD regarding a consulting contract awarded to Cozette Buckney, who was fired in Philadelphia after the City Controller's office uncovered improper billing of the school district for gym use, an apartment, and a rental convertible. She came under fire for simultaneously being employed in both Philadelphia and St. Louis. She was one of Paul Vallas' first hires here.

Simon and Carr obtained a response from RSD communications point-woman, Siona LaFrance:

Recovery District spokeswoman Siona LaFrance said "Buckney had some reimbursements that (Vallas) didn't feel she was entitled to, so all of her reimbursements were denied" in Philadelphia.

LaFrance said Buckney was brought to New Orleans "because she is one of the top labor people in the country and she has done a superb job here."

I'm going to go ahead and call BS on that. I don't dispute that she's one of the top labor people in the country but I would dispute that we need to spend between $1,200 and $2,000 per day for an ace on labor relations.

Because, as Simon and Carr lay out at the top of the article, Vallas' administration of the RSD is something of a test case for top-down management style with no local checks or balances:

As such, Vallas' superintendency could become a test case for a top-down, executive management style for urban school districts, a style unhindered by a local, on-the-ground school board or, for that matter, a strong teachers union.

If we don't have a strong teachers union, why are taxpayers shelling out so much loot to employ labor expert Cozette Buckney?

I would also argue that $2,000 a day to consult is ridiculous. That adds up to $730,000 a year.

That is about twice what Paul Pastorek makes. I would also argue that the current consultant rate of $1,200 a day is also irresponsible. That adds up to $438,000 per year, which is still much more than Paul Pastorek makes.

Paul Pastorek is the highest paid education official in the region. He makes $350,000 per year.

"...it's a unique salary."

The consultant army is putting him to shame, though.