During the brief video/audio, you will hear Huff indicate the following:
-Joplin was satisfied with receiving "Accreditation with Distinction" and did not aspire to anything more. (C. J. took care of that. Joplin has not been accredited with distinction since he arrived.)
-The city of Joplin was disengaged from the school and not concerned about the low graduation rate. (That word disengaged is a favorite of C. J. Huff's; he used it last week to describe the parents of East Middle School and Soaring Heights who are not volunteering as much as he would like.)
-The Joplin business community was "very demanding" and wanted a 21st Century workforce.
-The people of Joplin "did not understand" the challenges the school district was facing. (It took a visionary like C. J. Huff to explain the challenges to us.)
-We people of Joplin did not realize that we were part of the problem.
***
Scars From The Tornado: One Year at Joplin East Middle School is the story of the students and teachers at East as they battle the after effects of the May 22, 2011, and spend their first year in a warehouse school. Scars is available now at Amazon.
3 comments:
If it was a mess then, what do we consider it now that we are the laughingstock of the region? Now that every score is among the lowest in the area, and those scores coincide with the period of his reign? Now that we are top-heavy in administration and administrative salaries at the expense of teachers?
The turnover is ridiculous and speaks for itself. Stapleton is where my children attend. As far as front office staff goes, this past year saw a new principal, assistant principal, counselor, and secretary. Indeed, last year's TLC replaced what was a good principal. The assistant and counselor that are gone were very good as well. Hard to be engaged when the people we trust and have built relationships with are replaced with kiss-up kick-down suits, not unlike Huff and his most loyal companions (Flowers, Besendorfer, Sexson, Johnson, etc.) - birds of a feather.
Some grades are comprised of almost entirely new teachers, some of them being fresh out of school (lower salaries, eh?). I am aware that even more will be leaving next year - including some of those first-year teachers.
Huff keeps spinning that B.S. What kind of ridiculousness is it that he refers to parents as disengaged but also made it harder for them to be involved at the board meetings, where decisions are made. Please note that we were engaged enough to give Debbie Fort more votes than any other candidate, and the guy who was Huff's Heinrich Himmler on the board (Flowers) got sent packing. There's a message there, should he choose to accept it.
It says everything that the guy calls himself a conservative but spends as if the coffers were not almost empty. That is consistent with the other self-contradictory opinions and actions. Blame others, accept no responsibility. "Why don't they love me?" blubber blubber.
Mr. Turner please elaborate where in the video where Huff said that Joplin was a mess?
I appreciate the way Mr. Turner cuts through the crap. Anyone who listens to this and does not think that CJ was saying Joplin was a mess when he got here is either a damn fool or far too literal. Mr. Turner's headline is perfect.
Post a Comment