Search Results for 'scottie griffin'

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Thirteen (!) School Board Applicants

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 21, 2005 in Education and Politics. 4 Comments

A pool over a dozen masochists have joined Peggy Van Yahres (seeking reappointment) in applying for one of the three positions on the school board that open July 1. Bill Igbani and Byron Brown have said that they will not seek reappointment. New applicants are Louis M. Bogard, Jean S. Chase, Alvin Edwards, John J. Gaines III, Blair Hawkins, Kenneth Jackson, Sue Lewis, Brynda Loving-Kotter, Joseph Mooney, Chad Everette Thorne, David Randle and Karen Waters.

The most notable of the bunch, in light of recent controversy, would have to be Alvin Edwards, as he was an outspoken advocate of Scottie Griffin and, consequently, opponent of the school board.

James Fernald has the story in today’s Progress, which includes brief bios of each applicant.

Council to Appoint Superintendent Committee

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 3, 2005 in Education and Politics. 3 Comments

At last night’s City Council meeting, it was announced that an advisory committee will be put together to help the School Board find a replacement for outgoing superintendent Scottie Griffin. In today’s Progress, James Fernald writes:

The committee will include two School Board members, a former school board member, a former city councilor, a PTO council representative, a city school staff member, the city manager and a representative from an organization involved with low-income families.

Board chair Dede Smith has said that they’re not going to consider race or sex in their hiring (which would be illegal to do, wouldn’t it?), but fellow board member Muriel Wiggins says that, on the contrary, the new superintendent must be black.

This will end in tears.

Purnell Demoted

Published by Waldo on April 30, 2005 in Education and Politics. 15 Comments

Charlottesville assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction Laura Purnell — who blew the whistle on superintendent Scottie Griffin in February — has found herself demoted to “coordinator,” whatever that is. The school board says that they’re “top-heavy in the administration,” which many parents have criticized them for recently, and saw that as a a position that should be eliminated. Purnell has been offered the new, lower position, presumably entailing a pay cut. James Fenald had the story in yesterday’s Daily Progress.

The question, of course, is whether this has anything to do with her central role in taking public the internal criticism of Griffin. It was a month ago now that Griffin tried to fire Purnell, and just a week ago that Griffin resigned. Is Purnell being punished? Or is the school board just responding to an often-heard and reasonable criticism that the school system spends too much money on central office staff and not enough on teachers?

A Brief History of C’ville Superintendents

Published by Waldo Jaquith on April 22, 2005 in Education and Politics. 8 Comments

Because I have terrible time management skills and, currently, writer’s block on my class-assigned paper topic, I want to lay out the history of Charlotteville superintendents for the past few years, since I found a little back reading to help get a sense of how we got where we are today.

  • 10/19/2001: Bill Symons, superintendent since 1996, announces his intention to retire in June of 2002.
  • 05/01/2002: The school board announces that they have three finalists to replace Symons, whose retirement is 60 days away. Those are Jean Murray, Albemarle’s assistant superintendent for instruction; James Bughsley, deputy superintendent for Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Schools in North Carolina; and Kriner Cash, superintendent for Martha’s Vineyards Public Schools. Two of the three candidates are black, which is noteworthy because there is pressure on the board to appoint a black superintendent. A decision is due in five days.
  • 05/25/2002: Cash, the board’s stated #1 pick, declines the offer.
  • 05/29/2002: Pughsley, the board’s stated #2 pick, accepts the job of superintendent in Charlotte, NC. Murray, the board’s last choice, withdraws her application. Now there are no candidates.
  • 06/14/2002: Murray leaves her job to become superintendent of the Stafford County school system.
  • 06/27/2002: City Council refuses reappointment for all three school board members whose terms are ending, appointing Peggy Van Yahres, Michael Heard, and Bill Igbani. This clean sweep was said to be a result of the board’s bungling of the superintendent hiring process.
  • 08/19/2002: Ron Hutchenson, who had been named as a stand-in until the board could name a superintendent, is hired on a two-year basis, giving the board some breathing room to hire a new superintendent.
  • 05/27/2004: Dr. Scottie Griffin is named superintendent.

I have now read and written the word “superintendent” so many times that it’s lost all meaning to me.

Thurs. School Board Meeting Racially-Charged

Published by Waldo on April 2, 2005 in Education and Politics. 10 Comments

Thursday night’s school board meeting sounds like it was pretty tense. In yesterday’s Progress, James Fernald wrote:

A split in the crowd of more than 150 at the meeting was evident as most speakers either showed support for Superintendent Scottie Griffin or criticized her.

Mark Krebs, a former School Board member, asked the board to consider removing the superintendent.

“This is a superintendent who has made her race an excuse for her incompetence,” Krebs said. “Do these comments make me racist?” Many in the audience shouted over his “no” with an emphatic “yes.”

[…]

M. Rick Turner, dean of African-American Affairs at the University of Virginia and president of the local chapter of the NAACP, again at Thursday’s meeting accused members of the City Council and School Board of being racist.

“This insidious form of racism and corruption has taken us far away from solving the achievement gap,” Turner said. “A modern-day lynching is happening right before our eyes.”

Hey, don’t hold back, Dean Turner — tell us how you really feel.

cvillenews.com member “Upset” has his/her own account of the meeting, describing what went on.

To pack all of the school board/Griffin news into one post, Courteney Stuart has a piece about Griffin in this week’s issue of The Hook, while Cathy Harding has a big ol’ story about the state of Charlottesville schools and where the current situation fits into the long-term narrative.

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