By Roland Young Santa Monica
RE: Is school staff running amuck? I think [Bill] Bauer’s question should be, “Is the school board and its superintendent running amuck?” When a school superintendent comes before a City Council prepared with information “according to the rumor mill” you have to know there is a real lack of competence. To compound that embarrassment, she stated a need to leave early because of “oodles of work to do.” What work was more important than presenting an open and honest school district to the city in pursuit of badly needed funding to the tune of $ 5.29 million?
When the school district bowed to the city’s demands for that significant amount of money does it make sense that “staff” would then be the sole responders to that agreement? I would think the school board and its superintendent would surely be on top of something that important not only for the money, but to repair the district’s continuing tarnished image. How can four school board members be contacted on this issue and the superintendent can respond based on rumor? No, it is not “staff” that is running amuck.
A school board that hired a superintendent who immediately made a mess with negotiations that ended in the loss of Winston Braham (who you correctly stated was vindicated) should be questioned. A school board that tolerates continuing messes such as the current one should be questioned. And the first question should be why does the school board continue to retain a superintendent that repeatedly casts the district in an ill light and apparently has nothing concrete to show for her time in this community. From what I hear, this is a superintendent who rarely visits school sites and spends little time in the district offices. And that’s about as good as it gets.
So, who’s running amuck, a disconnected school board tolerating an incompetent superintendent? And like Winston Braham before him, Tim Walker will take the hit while Superintendent Talarico and the school board will go on as though all is well.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 9, 2008. Read the original PDF.