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Wow. The Buffalo Snooze is really cranking up the union hating, teacher bashing, Phil Rumore is Beelzebub rhetoric these days. Today the editorial high wattage at The News was furiously applauding the arrival of DRPAMELACBROWN and her kinder gentler Superintendency. James Williams is gone. Love live the queen or something to that effect I think they said. But isn't it comical how they'd like to revise history and pretend they were onto Williams from day one. Looks to me as though they are simply repeating the pattern of their last big wet sloppy editorial fawning all over the new Superintendent same as they did that jackass Williams. Let me remind everyone for the record the "reporters" (I like Heaney's term better - lapdogs not watchdogs) sat on their keyboards, whistling and crossing their fingers hoping things would get better. Williams fired attendance teachers, you know the folks who used to go door to door rousting the slugs and slug parents who only show up to school when they are hungry, horny or looking for a drug sale or fight? Then Williams laid off a bunch of administrators many of whom sat home burning their sick time that a lot of people prefer to trade in at retirement for something like .20 cents on a dollar. Williams tried to arm twist people into dropping litigation against his administration for some of his other illegal antics saying if the lawsuits went away he'd consider rehiring some folks. Thankfully he was told to stick his offer where some board members were putting their noses and it never happened. Somewhere in all of this he told a roomful of adults he'd like to take Phil Rumore BTF President out into an alley and kick his ass. To give himself a little country cred he also told some dumbass yarn about the snakes in his grandpappy's tall grass or some shite and likened Rumore to one of them too. All the while here is what the News had to say about the loose cannon brought to Buffalo by Robert Wilmers of M&T Bank an avowed union hater and charter school advocate :
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Yep that was it. They didn't say squat. They looked the other way, they wrote about sports and weather and the problems Byron Casey was having down at City Hall. All the while the rogue elephant was sitting in the middle of the room braying and thrashing around like some deranged ex convict and all the Buffalo News could do was pretend it wasn't happening. Finally a teacher and a kid were both stomped by a group of idiots pretending to be students at BAVPA. The teacher went out on leave with injuries and the kid was knocked senseless. And when the smoke cleared everyone watched as Williams escorted the group of thugs back into the school were they'd assaulted a teacher and a fellow student and gave each of them his cell number and instructions to call him and tattle if any of the adults in the school hurt their little feelings. In a once blue collar town that still shows flashes of common sense this coddling of criminals and marginalizing of an injured teacher and an injured student was not going to play well. The News FINALLY had to abandon their master and wonder out loud what exactly he was doing.
Two people I know who've dealt with her in person described DRPAMELACBROWN as standoffish and arrogant in her demeanor towards them. But somehow the Buffalo News has zeroed in on her softer side, painting a mural of a postage stamp. They are thrilled she is here because she is also going to use DATA!!!! Yessssssssss. I was really hoping she'd say that almost as much as I love it when a multi million dollar contracted pro athlete tells us he had to leave San Diego and go to New York for the extra 6 million because he needs to take care of his family. James Williams also promised us a data driven administration. As he drove the data all came back lower for each graduation year he was here. Not bad for a hustler in a suit with a questionable doctorate degree huh ?
While the Brain trust at the News ed Board was percolating about the warm and fuzzy emanating from City Hall they were quick to remind us that there still lurks a dark shadow over the land. (Cue 3 note descending flourish here) It's he whose name shall not be spoken :
The bad news is that the Buffalo Teachers Federation remains what it has been for decades: a boot on the throats of Buffalo’s students and on the city’s hopes for economic revival. And given the retrogressive approach of BTF President Philip Rumore, there is little chance that anything will change, absent significant revisions to the current contract."
It's nearly impossible to formulate much of a response to this kind of churlish nonsense. So I'll do the best I can and say Blow Me, News ed Board.
And our brave crop of Buffalo admins will tamely roll over and put their little paws up in the air for a possible boot on the belly from PCBrown, just as they did with Williams. "OOhhh", they've been saying recently. "She raises her voice and orders us around and threatens to bring in her OWN PEOPLE". "She scares us!!"
ReplyDeleteWhat a rotten bunch of losers. Not one Principal will stick up for their staff members who are currently drowning in BS imposed by Albany. PCB has, of course, allied with the Commissioner and will imperially, punishingly, impose every single crazy Deformer bit of nonsense that Dr. King can expel from his various blowholes.
Oh, and in case our terrified admins didn't know it, Sup't PCB doesn't actually have her OWN PEOPLE. She has never worked anywhere long enough to cultivate any of her OWN PEOPLE. In the News bios of her, many former colleagues couldn't even describe her former jobs because they never got to know her. She was a career "moving target". Now she's Buffalo's education "first lady". And in super-trite fashion, with no knowledge except what the girlfriends on the Board are whispering in her ear, she blames just about everything wrong with education today on Phil Rumore.
Beware of PCB. I'll bet she is on the horn with King, collaborating on how to hand over the keys of East and / or Waterfront to the Reptiles. (She just has to find the right way to calm down her personal cheerleaders on the Board who veered from the script to everyone's surprise when they took a hard stance against the Reptiles last week.)
ReplyDeleteAnon, I agree. Administrators should be ashamed of themselves. Sad, but we must look to some other districts in NY state to find any administrators standing up to the Albany crap. Not a one from our neck of the woods.
Sean, perfect message for the editorial board. I'm grateful we have Phil, "he who shall not be named." The News just can't paint an uglier picture with each anti-BTF rant- now we are 'boots on the throats of students.' Oh, please.
[BN] the dark, Buffalo. Your paper/rag wants you to [BN] love with the new sup, but after she contaminates the environment and food chain here, she'll [BN] route to her next gig.
Just thinking... what I would tell myself if I were the new Superintendent at 14202
ReplyDelete1. The Board hired you, now you have to get your assistants to "hire" you. Their support is vital if you want your goals to be accomplished. Appreciate their efforts and make them feel that you need them and that you are grateful for their efforts.
2. You are not better or more accomplished than most of the staff that reports to you. "Attitude" usually marks a person as a conceited "empty suit". Change yours to one that is accommodating, accepting, and appreciative." All the statues have clay feet".
3. Be selective when choosing the "DATA" that drives your decision- making. A lot of the data you will find on your desk has very little value, or is incomplete and misleading. Stick up for the Principals, Teachers, and students when you are using the data you have received. You know the difference between what is morally right and what is politically expedient. The legislators who conceived NCLB and RTtT are not educators. You are. Act like one .
4. Make the people you work with "My own people", then you won't have to bring in your sister or your Mom to save your skin when the stuff hits the fan. The higher up the ladder you are, the more your derriere is exposed.
5. Smile at the Albany political appointees, but remember that they are not "Your People" either. You are a friendly "tool" in their workbox., not their friend.
6. Never threaten or raise your voice at people you will need to support you when you are criticized or when you make mistakes. Since it is inevitable that you will need the good will of those who work for you, make them a real part of your team. Give them credit for their ideas and contributions. Value them.
7. The BTF under Phil Rumore has always been professional and effective in their duties as representative of the teachers in Buffalo. In addition they have actively supported our community members when help was needed. Respectful cooperation would be wiser than recrimination and blame for defending the negotiated contract.
8, 9, 10. Stay cool under pressure and never embarrass a coworker. Remember, people" don't get mad, they get even."
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( Sigh...just wishing for the "good old days" with Joe Manch, Gene Reville, Joe Murray, Al Thompson, and Marion Canedo...all of whom came up from the ranks...not from "outta town".)
I watched an administrator cower in terror from that bitch Battaglia once and I was frankly stupefied that a tenured assistant would behave in such a manner especially in front of me. It was a hot day and I was wearing one of those 3 button henley t shirts and shorts. My colleague, a BTF rep who sadly got stuck with me and the AP and Batt sitting in on our grade level meeting was also dressed in shorts and a light short sleeved shirt. Her nostrils flared and she asked if we had a dress code for the teachers, were we required to wear collared shirts? I shrugged and my colleague stared at her and said we have a contract and that's not in it. The AP looked about to burst. She knew damned well we had a contract but she wanted to see if she could scare us. Sorry hon, I've been in a few tight squeezes with some scary people and none of them were Community Superintendents if you gather my drift. If she came to scare someone she picked the wrong party. But I was truly amazed at the terror she generated in others with that bitchy glare of disapproval. She even made it a point to tell the Principal how upset she was about our raiment but she and he and we all knew damned well there's a contract in place and that's not in it.
ReplyDelete