Community contributions for consideration by our School Board during its deliberations next week.
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March 10, 2007
It's Time for a Change Now
There comes a time in every executive's career at a particular employer when it is time to move on. Sometimes it comes sooner, sometimes it comes later, but in every case it does come. Recognizing when that time is can be difficult for both the executive and their employer. Typically, the executive has reasons for wishing to stay—perhaps it is to see programs completed that one started, sometimes it is to reach retirement benchmarks, sometimes the executive just doesn't realize that other opportunities are waiting. Employers tend to hold on to an executive longer than best for their operation for their reasons, also. Sometimes it is the fear of change (will the replacement be worse?); other times it can be the financial cost of change. Occasionally, it is just the difficulty of telling a person that it is time to move on. I can speak to these things having been in management for some 30 years and on both sides—times when it was appropriate for me to ask an employee to move on as well as times when it was appropriate for me to move on.
For some time, I have felt that the time was close for Mary Barter, our 9-R School District superintendent, to move on. Her inability to implement programs to teach all our intelligent children to read, the fudging of results as presented to the community (who would ever think that “partially proficient” was the same as doing well?), misrepresentation of the community's desires (for example, a substantial contingent within the community—maybe even a majority—wanted two high schools, even though Dr. Barter claimed and still claims otherwise), a substantial contingent within the community who have lost trust in the task force or committee process such that they felt and feel that these are nothing but a ruse and the decisions have already been made (for example, recommendation as to the new principal at Escalante Middle School). We could include the recent unexplained firing of Shane Voss as football coach at Durango High School as an example of how not to conduct business in a school district, as well as the firing of the high school's well-liked welding instructor a couple of years ago after he publicly raised the issue of dangerous conditions (whistle-blowing) within the welding facility at the school.
We can look at how some of these issues are now costing us. Lack of proper reading instruction is causing us to again fail our adequate yearly progress, causing us to be at risk for continued federal funding. The arbitrary decision to enlarge Durango High vs. building a second high school will end up costing us millions, because it has now become obvious (as it was to many a few years ago) that we will need two in very short order. The poor decision making that has been coming from the corner office on 12th Street is going to cost us—every one of us who pay taxes in this district—a ton of money over the next few years.
Like I said above, it has seemed that the time was close for Dr. Barter to move on. Now, with all that has been going on over the past month, I have to agree with those who feel that the time is now. If Dr. Barter were to stay until her contract expires the following June (2008), we will continue with a contentious environment within 9-R, but worse than that, I worry about what additional poor decisions will be made to cost us even more money than the past decisions already have. Will we continue to throw more money away? Here are a few more reasons to make a change now:
Dr. Barter will hire the new High School Principal. Many folks do not think she did a very good job last time around.
Dr. Barter will hire—directly or indirectly—the numerous open district positions such as a new principal for Sunnyside and a new high school football coach.
Dr. Barter will utilize her PR machine to influence the upcoming School Board election to bring in members with less experience who will support her poor decisions.
I am well aware that the current school board has been less than happy with Dr. Barter's performance and that the vote to retain her was less than unanimous during the recent performance review. However, to present a seemingly unified voice to the community, the board permitted a report of a unanimous decision.
I hope that Dr. Barter realizes that the situation has now reached the point of breaking and the honorable thing is to resign and pursue the other opportunities that will most certainly present themselves. However, the School Board should ask her to remain for up to six months as a district consultant (perhaps even retaining her current title, but turning over responsibility to another during the interim) to assist in the transition to a new superintendent. Her consulting fee would be consistent with her current salary.
If Dr. Barter does not feel that resigning would be in her best interests, then it is time for the School Board to make the tough decision and decide for her. This would be sad as it would make it more difficult for Dr. Barter to pursue other opportunities, but that is her choice. If it means that her contract must be bought out, there are ways to do that. One, of course is to just give her a lump sum. Better, though, would be to relieve her of her duties and pay her as she is now—a regular pay check. This last would allow the amortization of her buy-out over the course of 15 months. Of course, there may be grounds to let her go based on performance that would not require compensation at all.