Don't They Get It!

I haven’t written in awhile, but last night’s story by the Denver Post’s Lynn Bartels reporting that Rep. Mark Waller has submitted his application to be Jeffco’s superintendent makes me want to scream from the rooftops, “DON’T THEY GET IT.”  The future of 85,000+ kids is on the line. Managing Jeffco schools is not a political game, it is serious business. If the political backroom deal-makers, including Ken Witt, John Newkirk, Julie Williams (WNW) and Brad Miller think that we don’t see that Waller’s application is part of a payoff for his withdrawal from the state’s attorney general’s race, they are crazy.  Waller did not just wake up on April 28th and decide he might like to be a school superintendent. He did not just suddenly find in his desk drawer a ready-made endorsements from former head of the Republican Party Bruce Benson. He was offered the position as a done deal. A political pay-off.

Jeffco parents (and staff), wake up: the political puppeteers believe your school and your children’s future is only good enough to be a dumping ground for unelectable Republican politicians.

The very fact that someone would offer up Jeffco schools as a political consolation prize, and that Waller thinks he can successfully run a school district when he has NO qualifications, shows just how little they think of our Jeffco schools and how little they know. DON’T THEY GET IT!

Some people are going to make all kinds of ridiculous arguments about why Waller has the skills to do this; he’s a coalition builder. . .Michel Bennett did it for DPS, etc.  Get a clue! First, the Jefferson County School District has 1400 employees and 85,000+ students. It’s a small city with city problems and little kids' lives on the line 288 days a year!  AND, MR. WALLER, you must educate those children in addition to keeping them safe and healthy. You have approximately 5,000 teachers who are very unhappy right now.  AND HERE’S THE KICKER - the current ultra-fanatics on the school board, WNW, have run off many incredibly skilled staff members. They won’t be there to help you Mr.Waller.

Since Witt, Newkirk and Williams took office, Jeffco has lost these employees:

-Executive director of IT,

-Director of education technology

-Chief academic officer

-Executive director of employee relations

-Charter school liaison

-Achievement directors (two)

-Chief school effectiveness officer (leaving as of 7/2014)

-Executive director of leaning & educational achievement (leaving as of 6/2014)

-Seven top high school principals, and many others, have announced their departure or retirement

I’ve talked to many of these people and they have told me they couldn’t work under Witt, Newkirk and Williams and were leaving the district. These people have found great jobs with other school districts - a loss for the children of Jeffco and the county’s reputation.

And, gone too is nationally recognized Superintendent Cindy Stevenson, a PhD, with 40 years experience in education. (REALLY, Waller, you want to fill those shoes? Political suicide.)

Michael Bennett made a go of DPS largely because he walked into the district with people like Tom Boasberg waiting to help guide the educational aspects of the organization.  Jeffco’s new superintendent will be walking into the Jeffco Education Center to a demoralized staff and a vacuum left by the departure of talented and knowledgeable educational experts, and 4,000 teachers who have been kicked around by the board.  It’s going to take more than a  past political career to make the district successful again and give our kids the education they deserve.

And, Witt, Newkirk and Williams, about those “Ends Goals” you like to trot out when it’s convenient. How’s an inexperienced guy like Mark Waller going get those goals accomplished?  WNW, you are leaving a legacy, a history of destroying a school district for your own children and grandchildren to see.  But, I think the answer to all these questions is that you just don’t care.

POSTSCRIPT: It was brought to my attention that Waller would not meet the minimum qualification to be considered as a principal for Jeffco. Waller could not meet the qualification to be a teacher in a regular Jeffco school.