According to an article in today's Record & Landmark, Dr. Holliday is one of four finalists being considered by the Kentucky Board of Education to be the state's next commissioner of education. Click on the link below to read the on-line version of the article as well as some excellent comments.
Thanks to the person who mentioned the article in a comment to a previous post on this blog. We can only hope that Dr. Holliday gets the position. I just feel sorry for the citizens of Kentucky, especially since I am a native of Kentucky and have many relatives who live there. If you want additional information about the candidates for the Kentucky position you can check out the Kentucky School News and Commentary blog at the link below.
The blog also has links to two YouTube videos of Dr. Holliday speaking at the 2009 Quest for Excellence conference. In one of the videos Dr. Holliday mentions that one of the pivotal moments for the change in the I-SS leadership team occurred when he hired Brenda Clark. Dr. Holliday then goes on to say that he was able to save a couple hundred thousand dollars by changing her from a highly paid consultant to a poorly paid school district official. Of course, Dr. Holliday doesn't mention that Ms. Clark has a four-year contract starting at $129,900.00 per year. I guess that if your making over $200,000.00, then $129,900.00 may not seem like much. Try comparing that to what teachers and teacher assistants get paid. No wonder Dr. Holliday treats teachers and teacher assistants as if they are a dime a dozen.
Finally, how many times has Dr. Holliday mentioned that he really liked I-SS and that he has had offers for other positions but that he turned them down because he wanted to stay at I-SS until he retired in 2011. Now we learn that he has been actively seeking at least one other position. Don't get me wrong, I am glad that Dr. Holliday is wanting to move on. I hope he does, and that it happens very quickly. But, I think that it verifies what many have been saying for some time now. You can not trust what he says because he will tell you one thing and turn around and tell someone else something completely different. We need a superintendent who can be trusted to truly look after the needs of the students rather than bolstering his or her own ego.
One article in the Kentucky School News and Commentary mentions that the state board hopes to have a contract signed for the position of Kentucky State Commissioner of Education by July 18. That is less than two weeks away. According to the article, Holliday will have an interview on the 8th. Let us all wish him the best for this quest. You understand that the current Board of Education is responsible for the taxpayer subsidizing of Holliday's Baldrige Management system and winning the Malcolm Baldrige Excellence Award if you have kept up with the school issues over the tenure of Hollidays' Iredell/Statesville stay. Of course, that has been difficult to do since the R&L has carefully guarded the school news in favor of Hollidays' programs.
ReplyDeleteWhat? No call yet from President Obama regarding that "extraordinary award?" What could he possibly have on his mind? Let Kentucky send a delegation, and let's hope that those ISS employees who have enjoyed a power trip sans children will follow Dr. Holliday wherever he goes!! In the meantime, let the teachers of ISS teach!!! Let's just hope that Kentucky is as gullible as our Board of Education, though to be fair, Dr. Holliday is very gifted in manipulation of numbers and people. "Figures don't lie, but liars figure." (Twain).
ReplyDeleteLet me give a thought that won't make me popular, but needs to be said. Putting Holliday off on someone else isn't right. He may be in another state and will be out of our lives, but children in the entire state of Kentucky will be under his direction.
ReplyDeleteIt would be a shame for Holliday to show the same disregard in the State of Kentucky that he has shown for the children, teachers and parents of ISS.
Moving problems is one of the reasons that the U.S.A. is in the shape it is in. Bad leaders need to be put out of the system completely.
Our government needs a housecleaning. We all have a responsibility to see that those we know aren't fit for leadership are removed. The current system allows for those who make it to the top to remain at the top regardless of how self serving they choose to be. It is time for a change.
About my last post, I want to give an example. "In my opinion", Ken Wilson is a fine example of moving problems around. It is my understanding that he was moved from a high school, to administration on Race St., to Principal at Cool Springs School.
ReplyDeleteIt is my understanding that the reason for the moves was poor job performance. I can't confirn any of this except for his performance at Cool Spring Elementary. While there he demonstrated the same spineless character as the reputation that preceeded him. This opinion is a result of my personal dealings, not heresay.
Now he is on the School Board where he nods yes to whatever the "in crowd" deems appropriate.
As I said in my previous post, problems need to be eliminated. It's time to move bad leadership out and fill positions with people who actually care about what is best for the people they represent. We need leadership comprised of people who want to be a voice for the people they represent.
You're right, we should care about children wherever they are. That is one of the problems with Dr. Holliday's egotistical goal: using the statistics of Lake Woebegone (or Norman), where all the children are "above average."
ReplyDeleteWhat will be, will be! Good, Bad, or Indifferent,
ReplyDeletethe children and teachers of any state need to be our major concern. This man is determined to rise to national recognition. Is his ego and self-esteem that needy that he will take perfectly good people and destroy their careers?
What about his Baldridge spies, will he take those overly paid people too? He is so full of lies and hatefulness. He needs to take his "YES MAN" school board with him as well. I say we purchase them all a one-way-ticket out of our wonderful community. No, please do not let your guard down. We need to continue our efforts now, more than ever. We will have such a mess to clean up after his departure. Stay Strong!
Everyone should remember that Holliday has a 25% chance of getting the Kentucky post. Please recall that he was a finalist for a superintendent post in South Carolina the previous year and pulled himself from that opportunity. This gave him great leverage to use with our inept BOE to increase his salary and continue with the staggering growth of central office administration and salary. I think it is very important for people to bombard their BOE and County Commission members with letters or petitions stating their disapproval of the current managing of the school system. I see the spirit of our founding fathers constitution at work. Please continue your efforts and help others to understand the wonderful way in which our government is designed and what "we the people" can accomplish.
ReplyDeleteAs a former educator in ISS, I can only hope that the person who replaces Holliday is not affliated with Baldrige. I remember hearing my Instructional Facilitator say on many occasions that Baldrige will not go away even with a change in Superintendent. I no longer live in Iredell county because of the school system.
ReplyDeleteI finally left when I realized that my child's education was suffering because all she was doing was being tested.
Wow, I urge everyone to go the second link above. It discusses the candidates for the job and also has a video of Holliday speaking. It is priceless! He rambles on for over 24 minutes about how great he is and I found it to be very condescending to teachers and children. Simply embed this video on this blog and I think it will go a long way.
ReplyDeleteI am writing about comment #7: I, too, fear that Holliday will use this opportunity of being hired away to beat the school board into a bigger raise and even more central office personnel. We must not let this happen! I'll be glad to carry a picket sign at the next board meeting and use whatever means are appropriate to get the school board recalled.
ReplyDeleteAt the meeting of the whole tonight, Dr. Holliday talked about asking the board to give all central office personnel a 2% cut. He said that it would save over 100,000 dollars. When asked if that money would be used to save TA's, he began to ramble on about how important all the support staff at the central office were. he never did answer the question. Just hinted at using it to keep positions in the central office.
ReplyDeleteI have been at Central Office several times and one thing I see very little of is work. Walk into a school and teachers are frantically trying to teach their classes, analyze their data, and plan lessons. They come early, stay late, take work home and spend weekends trying to prepare for the next week. Planning time is spent in meetings when we should be planning. Teachers rarely get to stand around and just talk about nothing. Central Office and ADR is a whole different story. People have their coffee cups and they casually stop in the hall and chat about what they did over the weekend and rarely do you see a car at Central Office after 5:00. So don't tell us that staff could not be cut at Central Office. When I we walk into Central Office and see the frantic pace one see's in school I'll say then we can't cut staff. Until then cut away.
ReplyDeleteWow Perhaps I need to retake a math class. In the above comment, the writer indicates that Holliday stated a 2% cut for central office personnel would save over $100,000. In a previous article this blog showed all but four or five of the central office salaries. When you add them up they total around $2.7 million. To save over $100,000 with a 2% cut, those central office salaries must total over $5 million!!!...If I do the math correctly.
ReplyDeleteCan that be correct? $5 million for 35 central office personnel. That's an average of over $140,000 each!...
ReplyDeleteCentral office salaries .... $5 million?
ReplyDeleteDr. Holliday's salary ...... $200,000?
Baldridge Project .......... $150,000?
Saving teachers and teacher assistants ........
PRICELESS!!!
If you go to the Iredell-Statesville School website, Dr. Holliday posted a blog yesterday about paradoxes. Several people responded and asked about teachers being cut. Bottom line, he is still saying that teachers will not be cut. He does not address TA's which, as many teachers know, are invaluable to the classroom, or as someone said earlier....priceless. By the way, the EOG and EOC scores for this year have also been posted.
ReplyDeleteThe EOGs for each elementary school has not been posted for 08-09 year. There was the average for elementary schools but nothing more. High schools have been posted for EOCs.
ReplyDeleteI am amazed at the ignorance regarding the work done at Central Office. I am also amazed that all Central Office employees are lumped together and criticized. Just as you would not condemn all teachers at a school because there are a few who are not dedicated to their job (and there are some of these in ISS), you cannot generalize that ALL Central Office employees are overpaid and drinking coffee/chatting all day. Many Central Office employees have several degrees, years of experience and training and do not have a moment to spare during their 12 month employment each year. They deal with teacher concerns and needs as well as parent concerns. They have to know the law and run many different programs to make sure the district is running legally and current on what is best for teaching our children. I have called many times when I could not get a response or information from the school or teacher and have found these people willing to meet with me and find solutions. We don't lump bad parents together so please stop putting people in sterotypical categories.
ReplyDelete