Well – it’s that time of year when our school committee submit their performance evaluation of our school superintendent at their August 18th meeting. Talk about a useless piece of business!
We all know from the past 3 years, all these clowns do, with the exception of C. Kourkoumelis, is take their previous years’ evaluation and change the date on it – work done! This group of sycophants can never find any shortcomings with our current superintendent and they give her the annual “the thumbs up” along with their deep and sincere appreciation for a job well done – while all the court cases against our school district get settled against us or are proceeding forward! If ignorance is bliss, our school committee is living in pure, unadulterated ecstasy!
I encourage all of you who want to read an honest and truthful evaluation of her, please read the evaluations by C. Kourkoumelis – pick any year – the truth doesn’t change! Also search through the school performance evaluation form to see where she is held responsible or judged on how well our students do on state and national exams.
I’ll save you some time – nowhere! Here is a news flash for the uninformed – school bureaucrats are never held responsible for poor or inferior performance – they just move on to higher paid jobs.
Education has now become a big business – not a vocation - and the only ones suffering are our students while dedicated and committed teachers remain collateral damage.
The schools benefit the superintendent, principals and teachers more than they do anything for students' learning. Students are just the excuse to give them all more money, along with the textbook publishers.
Notice how they automatically give large raises to teachers and administrators every single year before thinking of doing anything new or better for students. Now they want an override to pay more money to more 'educators' who won't be held accountable in any way for producing benefits for students. This lack of accountability will exist despite bleeding another $2 million from taxpayers.
It's time for vouchers. Melrose can do it even if the feds don't do it. Disband the school system. Starting in 2016-2017, give each Melrose child $10,000 to spend where the parents believe they'll get the best education. They can go to St. Mary's, St. Pat's, Mystic Valley, Odyssey, etc. Let them go to Stoneham, Reading or Wakefield. Malden Catholic, Arlington Catholic, Matignon, Belmont Hill, BB and N, St. Johns would step it up and take more students, too. Of course, parents will have to kick in for some of those last schools.
New schools will spring up quickly. The new ones will know they have to serve the children well or parents won't send them. There will be alternatives. Get some real competition going - it's the only way to generate excellence. Throwing more money at the miserable public schools hasn't made them any better to date.
If the superintendent or principals want to see how many parents truly have confidence in them, they can start their own schools (using their own money, of course). See how many parents choose them over the alternatives.
The superintendent is not doing a good job.She is not responsible or judged on the job.Look at all School Spring Job Postings.This list will expand as current teachers seek opportunities outside our school district .It's not just the number of postings. It's who is leaving.