Seattle’s controversia
l and recently fired school superintendent, Maria Goodloe-Johnson, is a potential contender for school superintendent of Newark, reports the Newark Star Ledger (“Newark schools superintendent search narrowed to 2 candidates, sources say” — April 21, 2011).
Those of us in Seattle’s Public School District who just experienced three and a half years of turmoil, scandal and fake data under our Broad Academy-trainee and her belligerent corporate agenda, have a few thoughts to share with Newark about this bit of surprising news.
This discussion, from Seattle’s highly informed and informative Save Seattle Schools Community Blog, pretty much cuts to the heart of the general sentiment here: Just Say No, Newark.
First of all, it’s hard to fathom how somebody who just got fired from her last job would make it to the short list of candidates for the top job in another major urban school district. Especially someone who had established a reputation in her previous location of employ for an imperious disregard for the community, ethics and facts.
Goodloe-Johnson came to Seattle from Charleston, S.C. in July 2007 and got her walking papers on March 2, 2011. If hired by Newark, that will be Goodloe-Johnson’s third superintendent’s position in four years. In Seattle we were glad to show her the door. But ideally, you would think that school districts should seek out a superintendent with competence and commitment to stay longer than just a few years. [UPDATE: This paragraph has been updated to reflect the correct termination date of Goodloe-Johnson as March 2 — not March 4, as originally reported. –sp.]
(Apparently the other candidate is a former TFA-er, so it doesn’t sound like Newark is getting much of a choice beyond the revolving corporate ed reform clique).
As for that Tom Payzant fellow who has lately been conjuring up glowing remarks about Goodloe-Johnson and rewriting her history in Seattle, Newark may be interested to know that he is not merely a professor at Harvard but deeply connected to the Broad Foundation. Specifically, he is the “Superintendent in Residence at the Broad Superintendents Academy” — the very enterprise that trained Goodloe-Johnson, and most likely helped her get her previous jobs and is trying to influence her chances in getting this one.
We at the Seattle Ed blog strongly recommend that the Newark schools community do a bit of reading about Goodloe-Johnson’s tenure and record in Seattle (and Charleston) before you make your choice. You may be able to save yourselves a lot of grief. To help you out, we’ve compiled a little reading list, below.
But first, a couple of things to know.
Though Goodloe-Johnson was apparently not directly involved in the fraud scandal which brought her down (and lost our district at least $1.8 million and is currently under criminal investigation), she knew about the problem and failed to act on it and apparently kept the information from the school board.
And though our school board was cowed into firing her “without cause,” there were in fact numerous other potentially fireable offenses that she could have been called out for. The “Pottergate” fraud scandal was merely the final straw.
Goodloe-Johnson was also cited for an Ethics violation/Conflict of interest by the state auditor in 2010 for failing to disclose she was on the board of directors of test vendor Northwest Evaluation Association at the time Seattle purchased its MAP test product in a no-bid contract. (She was subsequently forced to step down from the NWEA board.) She was also cited by the auditor along with the school board for mismanaging district resources. And it was revealed that she threw a $7,000 party complete with carving station on the district credit card (which is not allowed), at the same time she was taking an axe to our kids’ schools and teaching staff,citing budget crisis. A lot of us thought that was pretty questionable judgment on her part, to say the least. More significantly, she earned a near-unanimous vote of No Confidence from our teachers and a number of our schools in 2010. And she helped perpetuate a false number which grossly under-reported our high school graduates’ college readiness. (This “data,” by the way, was produced by yet another person trained by the pervasive Broad Foundation.) She also only managed to achieve 4 out of 17 performance goals yet received a bonus, in a farcical display of “performance pay.”
In other words, there is in fact a long list of grievances concerning our former supt (see below).
It’s also important to note that Goodloe-Johnson was fired in a unanimous 7-0 vote by Seattle’s School Board. So by the time she left, our school board, our teachers and parents had no confidence in her. Her “Five Year Strategic Plan for Excellence” has been deemed costly and not showing the promised results and is currently being reconsidered by the school board. So it was a pretty unified community decision that it was time for Goodloe-Johnson to go.
In the end, even Goodloe-Johnson’s most loyal PR servant, the Seattle Times, called for her ouster:
Seattle school Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson should resign: The Seattle Times Editorial Board says it is time for the superintendent of the Seattle Public Schools, Maria Goodloe-Johnson, to go. – Seattle Times, Feb. 25, 2011
Oh and Newark, if you decide to pass on our former supt, don’t feel too bad: despite a financial deficit and overcrowded schools and severe cuts to our kids’ classrooms, our school board generously paid her a full year’s salary in severance to leave – that’s $264,000 plus $20,000 in retirement, and probably other perqs we parents aren’t even aware of. So if you decide not to hire her, you shouldn’t lose any sleep over it — she’ll be just fine financially.
———————————————————————————————–
Maria Goodloe-Johnson’s Turbulent Tenure in Seattle
(a reading list)
———————————————————————————————–
The True Legacy of Seattle’s Fired (Broad Academy) Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson
The Superintendent’s Send-Off: Seattle School Board Fires Maria Goodloe-Johnson
Seattle School Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson’s ongoing conflicts of interest
The End of the road for Seattle School Supt. Goodloe-Johnson?
Fraud Scandal Rocks Seattle’s School District; Many call for Superintendent to be Fired
Report: Early warnings kept from Seattle School Board
Seattle superintendent’s job at stake after blistering report – King 5 News
Seattle School Board debates future of superintendent amid financial scandal
Goodloe-Johnson ousted as Seattle schools chief
Why Do Teachers Hate Goodloe-Johnson?
And just in case any parents, teachers or other members of the school community in Seattle would like to share their knowledge and impressions of Maria Goodloe-Johnson’s stewardship of Seattle Public Schools with the Newark Public Schools Advisory Board as they make their decision, here are their e-mail addresses:
Mr. Shavar Jeffries
Advisory Board Chairperson
Ms. Barbara King
Advisory Board Vice-Chairperson
Mr. Ivan Lamourt
Advisory Board Member
Mr. Marques-Aquil Lewis
Advisory Board Member
Ms. Eliana Pintor
Advisory Board Member
Mr. Juan Rivera
Advisory Board Member
Ms. Arelis Romero
Advisory Board Member
Ms. Shanique L. Davis-Speight
Advisory Board Member
Ms. Nakia J. White
Advisory Board Member
Suliat Oyinda Olusyana
Student Board Member
(Suliat doesn’t have a contact e-mail, but what a great idea to have a student representative on the school board! Something Seattle should consider.)
–Sue p.
Seattle Education 
Thanks for your excellent reporting on the struggle for better public schools and the facts about the high stakes testing lies.
Peace,
Tex Shelters
Newark and the State of New Jersey (a/k/a Gov. Christie) are dumb enough to take someone else’s garbage and continue the cycle of destroying the future of the students in the Newark Public Schools.
Its a shame, because the children of Newark deserve THE BEST, but instead, continue to fall victim to an incestuous web of deciet and fraud. Somebody has got to take a look at what goes on in Newark and SAVE THE CHILDREN and NOT HIRE OTHER DISTRICTS’ LOSERS!
I think we’re being trolled.