Wednesday, November 18, 2015

C. J. Huff had seven years to ruin the district; be patient with RIdder

It has only been four months since the Joplin R-8 Board of Education hired Norm Ridder as interim superintendent and there are already rumblings from people wondering when change is finally going to arrive.

It is easy to understand why people might feel that way.

It is also far too soon to start thinking that it is business as usual in the school district. C. J. Huff and Angie Besendorfer had seven years to ruin the district. The road back is not going to be an easy one.

Consider some of the problems that Ridder faces, thanks to Huff, Besendorfer, and the Board of Education that either rubber stamped everything they did, or in some cases, was kept in the dark.

-Most of the teachers who led the district to being honored with distinction by the state four straight years when Jim Simpson was superintendent are no longer in the system. More than half of the teachers left during a three-year period, leaving a district in which more than half of the teachers have less than five years of experience. When you have that many young teachers, with few experienced hands to show them the way, you have a recipe for disaster.

-The administrative team, for the most part, is made up of people who are not qualified for the positions they hold and many of them were promoted after failing in other positions in the district. The main quality that many of them exhibited to rise to the top in the Huff Administration was a willingness to do anything that Huff asked them to do, no matter what.

-Far too much money was placed in positions that have nothing to do with direct classroom instruction. When you have a district that has financial difficulties (more about that in a few minutes), you do not need an events coordinator, a public relations apparatus, or two full-time people in Bright Futures. We have had too many coordinators, too many executive directors, and too many social workers.

-We have a faculty that has been bombarded with initiatives and testing regimens brought into the district by this group of ill-equipped administrators who will buy into anything any consultant says because they do not know any better and don't have the ability to think on their own.

-We have a chief operations officer who has no background in education and yet has been given far too much power in the hiring of teachers.

-We are in far worse financial condition than CFO Paul Barr would have us believe. When Barr told the board at a recent meeting that the district has miraculously improved from about 10 percent in reserves to 26 percent, he should have received a Nobel Prize for fiction. The only way the total goes up to 26 percent is if FEMA and SEMA cover everything that has been turned in as "errors and omissions" and in many cases, these were not errors or omissions, but decisions that were deliberately made to veer away from the original plans. The district will be fortunate if those costs are covered (even though we should still be angry as federal and state taxpayers). Without the errors and omissions being added to the total, the district reserves stand at about 17 percent, much better than before, but nowhere near the miraculous recovery Barr was trying to sell us.

-Before he left, Huff did his best to reward his loyal administrative team, and at the same time, create more difficulties for his successor. As noted earlier in the Turner Report, Huff awarded raises to some of those employees, including an extra $15,000 a year to his public relations director. Administration sources are saying that in those last days after Huff announced his "retirement," he added a few more poison pills for Ridder by moves he took to make it more difficult (but not impossible) for Ridder to do anything with his executive directors, Jennifer Doshier, Jason Cravens, and Mark Barlass, without the district having to suffer. (In other words, Huff tried to put his most loyal team members in a position to pull off the kind of heist he did in his separation agreement should Ridder decide to cut them loose.)

Ridder has already taken steps that should reassure R-8 patrons. The removal of Sarah Stevens as curriculum director was an easy one. Reportedly, Stevens wanted a sweetheart buyout deal like the one Huff received. Instead, she will do grunt work for the remainder of the year cut off from any place where she could do more damage..

The board approved Ridder's request for surveys that will give him the evidence that he needs to take the next steps toward improving the culture of the school district. That information is scheduled to be shared at the December Board of Education meeting. At that point, a strategic plan will be adopted and Ridder will be able to begin moving forcefully.

One of the most distasteful things that the Turner Report has reported was the deal the board gave C. J. Huff to get him out of here. That deal has been used to criticize the current board, but unfortunately, it was probably the only move they had to make. Huff had to go before he did more damage. Their only mistake was letting Huff take a victory lap and do even more damage before he finally walked out the door (but stayed in the community where he could protect what he sees as his legacy, Bright Futures, and undermine the board members who pushed for his removal, and for that matter, Ridder.)

Change takes time, but consider how much has been done and how quickly.. Huff is no longer superintendent. Besendorfer has been gone for quite a while. In two years, the entire Board of Education has either been voted out, resigned, or decided not to run for re-election.

There was a reason why this job was offered to Ridder for two years. He not only has to clean up the mess Huff left, but he needs to rebuild an educational culture that Huff destroyed and create a solid foundation for whomever is hired to be the next superintendent.

It will not be easy, but the process is underway.

***
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14 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:01 AM

    He got rid of a curriculum director and is sending out surveys? That's his accomplishments? The other things you mentioned happened before you got here. Maybe their is a reason he was only offered a one year contract at his previous job. I think you will see he is a lot of tough talk, but not a lot of action.

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  2. Anonymous7:43 AM

    7:01- So Ridder should come in with six guns blazing? He doesn't do things in a knee-jerk fashion. Throwing the trolls out the door without due process could cost the district a pretty penny. Did you not read that Huff put things in place that made it more difficult to axe his minions? Give him a minute. Times, they are a changin'!

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  3. Anonymous8:32 AM

    OK, maybe there's an explanation for why the people at the very top have to be slowly eased out. But:

    -Far too much money was placed in positions that have nothing to do with direct classroom instruction. When you have a district that has financial difficulties (more about that in a few minutes), you do not need an events coordinator, a public relations apparatus, or two full-time people in Bright Futures. We have had too many coordinators, too many executive directors, and too many social workers.

    Why hasn't Ridder simply laid off these people? Is he too nice to do this, or vigorously rid the district of the harder to fire administrators? What about the "learning coaches" AKA spies; unless they've shifted their allegiance to him, why hasn't he laid off every one of them?

    I agree that 4 months is a short time, especially with the school year starting, but ... maybe he's timing this for the end of the school year, when perhaps not coincidentally Stevens will be "resigning"? I'd still like to see more "scalps" taken, if these non-teachers are as bad as we're told, why are all of them but Stevens still being allowed to do damage? And speaking of damage, how many lawsuits has that idiot physical plant guy caused? Why is he still employed? At the minimum he should be sidelined like Stevens and only be on tap to answer the lawsuits.

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  4. Anonymous8:33 AM

    If the district is as dire straits as Mr Turner makes it out to be, then yes. he needs to come in guns blazing. I don't think Jeff and the board worried too much about due process when they got rid of CJ and paid him out a ton of money. If Randy is correct, then waiting will only cost the district and it could collapse around itself before he makes any changes.

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  5. Anonymous8:51 AM

    Are you trying to insinuate that "Eagle of the Week" hasn't been a Yooge success in reducing turnover?

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  6. Anonymous9:51 AM

    I thinkRidder is the right guy for the job he is doing great leave him alone let him do his thing.obviously you people have no idea how big companies operate how tough it is to maneuver make no doubt about it school districts are like big corporations. show a little patience good things are happening.

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  7. Anonymous11:43 AM

    I am going to laugh my ass of when you realize that Ridder is not only in support of many of the staff members, per your assessment, "The administrative team, for the most part, is made up of people who are not qualified for the positions they hold and many of them were promoted after failing in other positions in the district." But that he thinks the team in place is actually a good one.

    You also state, "When you have a district that has financial difficulties (more about that in a few minutes), you do not need an events coordinator, a public relations apparatus, or two full-time people in Bright Futures. We have had too many coordinators, too many executive directors, and too many social workers." It will be comical when you discover that Dr. Ridder is in support of many of the programs in place and many of the people in their existing positions.

    What are you going to do then Randy? Are you going to start writing about how inept and incompetent Dr. Ridder is? Do you plan on vilifying him and attack him in the same manner in which you attacked Dr. Huff? What will you write about then? Maybe then some of your clones will see that you are nothing more than an angry man out to destroy those you don't like while hiding behind your keyboard.

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  8. Anonymous1:17 PM

    Remember, educators are protected by tenure. Because of the fear of a new administrator, educatiots cannot be fired without due process.

    Dr. Huff probably wrote glowing evaluations. It takes time to pinpoint problems and take them out.

    Dr. Huff used unethical means to fire and get rid of people. There is a reason why it looked easy. However, Dr. Ridder is not Dr. Huff, and follows the law and ethics to do his job. Therefore, it will take time to undo all of Huff's problems.

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  9. Anonymous1:52 PM

    1:17: Please check Missouri laws regarding teacher tenure. Teachers are eligible for tenure (after the appropriate time) but administrators are not. If an administrator was granted tenure as a teacher in the district they continue to work in, they are "somewhat" guaranteed a job as a teacher if their administrative contract is not renewed.

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  10. Anonymous3:41 PM

    Seems they when readership becomes sliw, Turner recycled old news stories to stir up more trouble again. Just can resist taking more shots at Huff rather than moving on to improve the district.......beatings of dead horses and such. Ritter is about the only option Joplin has right now but he won't fix all the problems that quickly. Joplin has so many problems that it's hard to know where to start, some of them due to the Huff regime and many others unrelated. Demographics, competing with private schools, having CJ and Webb located so close, low salaries and as a result, poor teachers, a dysfunctional board, and on and on...... Ridder will make progress but won't resolve problems completely. That will be the next guy. Or, the next several. No one will ever be happy, nothing will ever be enough. The board needs wiped out, maybe the state needs to come in for awhile and run the district. That way there are no agendas, no connections. Who knows. One thing that is for sure is that Joplin school's haven't had a very good reputation for a long time, long before Huff. Simpson was no prize, there was corruption and cronyism galore when he was here as well. Some of you have very short memories.

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  11. Anonymous7:09 PM

    Yawn, more drummed up drama to keep the narrative alive.

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  12. Anonymous7:56 PM

    Anson, is that you?

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  13. Citizen6:41 PM

    @7:56 - you know it is!

    Anson, what is your deal with names?! It's RiDDer, not RiTTer.

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  14. Anonymous8:33 PM

    There is no excuse and the teachers in my building are losing faith fast. Ridder is more of the same and will not make change. He talks tough but hasn't followed through. We are still giving many of the assessments we were told would go away with NWEA. We still have meaningless unproductive meetings that take away plan time. The biggest change he made was guidelines to how meetings are run with success criteria and his laughable Plus/Delta feedback. Ridder is a joke and you should be as hard on him as you were on Huff. Huff was horrible, but Ridder is just as worthless. You think teachers left when Huff was in charge, you wait and see how many leave when the year ends in status quo! Nothing is going to change! Morale spiked when Huff left, but it is drop like a ton of bricks since Ridder has done nothing and all we get is empty promises and more meaningless changes.

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