A report from Bridgeport, Connecticut:
Connecticut Working Families Party
30 Arbor Street, Suite 210, Hartford, CT 06106
(860) 523-1699 http://www.connecticutworkingfamilies.org
For an event occurring on
February 25th, 2013, 4 pm
Advisory – Parents Call on Bridgeport Board of Education not to renew Paul Vallas’ Contract as Superintendent
For more information contact Taylor Leake at (860) 670-1408 or tleake@workingfamilies.org.
Parents of students at schools run by corporate reformer Paul Vallas – including Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he is the current Interim Superintendent, and Chicago, where he was CEO of Public Schools from 1995 to 2001 – will speak out about the negative impact he has had on their children’s education. They will urge the Bridgeport Board of Education not to renew Vallas’ contract, which the Board is scheduled to vote on at the March 11th meeting.
Paul Vallas is paid a quarter-million dollars a year in a city where the average household income is barely an eighth of that – as a part time job. He is also paid exorbitant fees for consulting. He has a $1 million contract with the Illinois state department of Education, and a $18 million contract with the City of Indianapolis. He has awarded $13 million in no-bid contracts to his friends and former coworkers while demanding cuts to the schools. He has cut supply budgets in half, and run up huge legal bills.
** Press Conference to highlight Paul Vallas’ broken promises in Bridgeport **
What:
Parents of students at schools run by corporate reformer Paul Vallas speak out about his failings, and call on the Bridgeport Board of Education not to renew his contract as Interim Superintendent.
Who:
Gloria Warner, parent of Chicago public school student
JoAnn Kenedy, parent of 2 Bridgeport public school students
Former State Senator Ed Gomes
Sauda Baraka, Member of the Board of Education
Where:
Warren Harding High School
1734 Central Ave.
Bridgeport, CT 06610
When:
4 pm, February 25, 2013
###
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And there is a petition:
When it comes to running Bridgeport’s schools, Paul Vallas gets an F.
Paul Vallas’ brand of corporate school reform uses our schools to create profit, not educate. Vallas has laid off 50 teachers, cut supply budgets in half, and wants even steeper cuts, all while being paid more than $230,000 a year, and signing $13 million worth of no bid contracts with his friends and former colleagues. Vallas also spends much of his time consulting for other school districts and states, including an $18 million contract with the City of Indianapolis and a $1 million dollar contract with the Illinois state Department of Education.
Paul Vallas has failed Bridgeport’s schools. It is time for him to go.
http://signon.org/sign/fire-paul-vallas/?source=search
And let’s not forget that sudden, extra round of standardized tests tossed in at the end of the year to prevent slacking after CAPT.
That’s because they have no idea what teaching is, so they resort to test prep mania. The new BPS district song:
I saved this…thanks goes to Mark Naison:
On the President’s New “Pre-School Initiative”
By Mark Naison
Test them in the cradle
Test them in the crib
Test them in the infant seat
And when they wear a bib
Test them eating baby food
And when they ride a bike
Test them when they fall asleep
Or picking up a mike
If you don’t test your infants
They’ll never get a job
Sorting shirts in Wal-Mart
They’ll probably steal and rob
The entire US economy
Depends on taking tests
We’ll never compete globally
And fall behind the rest
Thank you for posting the link. Let’s see what the CT post will report about this.
There already is a short article by Lambeck with a slanted headline and a critical quote from the mayor’s spokesman for Vallas…I always wondered if Vallas contributes to their salaries, the “journalists”.
See here:
Joshua Thompson, director for education under Mayor Bill Finch, called the petition another example of adults from the Working Families Party intentionally promoting inaccuracies.
“It is incredibly sad to focus on something like this when it is our job to focus on our children and their futures. This petition has no merit,” he said.
http://blog.ctnews.com/education/2013/02/23/online-petition-started-to-fire-of-vallas/
Similar to the NOLA fluff piece posted here and then the real story comes from the readers/commenters/citizens/ taxpayers/
parents/teachers/students, etc.
Paul Vallas was also the CEO of the School District of Philadelphia from 2001 to 2004(?)…He came to Philly from Chicago and went on to New Orleans when he left us. Philly was a state takeover district, with the School Board disbanded and a School Reform Commision established to save the district dying from years of financial starvation by Harrisburg DOE. Quick summary… Vallas ran Philly into the ground financially, spent money without conscience and left unceremoniously. To be fair, He did make some excellent long needed academic changes…He instituted new math textbook series and new literature text series K-12, enabling year to year consistency and continuity district-wide for students K-12 ….He supervised the writing of a new curriculum in reading, math, science and social studies (though it micromanaged instruction and eliminated teacher autonomy)….and He established benchmark tests to measure student growth along the new math and reading curriculum every six weeks per instructional year (yup, 12 tests a year)…..and set up manditory extensive curricular inservice trainings for 20,000 teachers, much appreciated.. It was during his reign that the district began computerizing all students’ academic and attendance records as well as centralizing all special ed records, reports, service logs and compliance monitoring on a web based system (accessible by special ed personnel from home…how very thoughtful …we could now write our 30-50 page IEP reports on our own time; no more excuses for lack of prep time). We were becoming a paperless school district! Pennsylvania’s forests will be grateful for generations to come, I am sure. The relative speed with which he did all of this was phenominal and more than impressive, almost breathtaking…and long overdue…but apparently this efficiency was excessively expensive and he over spent…by millions. (The science and social studies curriculums were never emphasized much or for very long. Math and reading stole the instructional focus as state and district standardized tests predominated AYP mandates of NCLB.) He earned the reputation of being quite a ‘mis manager’…yet, off he scurried to cure New Orleans! He loaded Philly with debt…much like Bain Capital used to kill the companies it was hired to ‘rescue’ skillfully managed by Romney’s ‘caring magic touch’. Vallas buried us in debt. Each individual school budget took the hit with thuds heard ’round the district. By the time Arlene Akerman arrived, the School Reform Commission was ready to zero in on personnel salries and union contracts. Those Broadies are quite the tag team.
The Paul ‘Gust-o’ Vallas effect in Philadelphia…..
ACADEMIC http://educationnext.org/the-vallas-effect/
BUDGET/Political http://articles.philly.com/2006-12-12/news/25398676_1_paul-vallas-dropout-rate-fund-balance
Here’s Paul Vallas’s New Orleans legacy: “A sometimes polarizing figure, Vallas navigated New Orleans’ treacherous racial politics as he closed traditional schools, opened charter schools and extolled the virtues of school choice. Among other things, he was criticized for a lack of transparency, inattention to the most disadvantaged students, and slow progress at the schools he directly controlled.”
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2011/04/paul_vallas_leaves_new_orleans.html
Apparently it is most important to read the comments to get the real story. For example,
Vallas robbed the kids in his direct run schools of the opportunity to choose higher performing schools by not giving them access to school choice under NCLB. He tried to make the Feds think that this system of open enrollment was real school choice. He trapped students in his low performing schools so that they would not bring down the performance scores of the RSD’s charter schools. Vallas starved these direct run schools of the supports they desperately needed since they had the most challenging students. Vallas should be brought up on chargers of educational malpractice, not given this glowing send off that is painted in this article. He is the face of disaster capitalism if I have ever seen it. He’s brought in a slew of his friends from around the country and given them big contracts to do basically nothing towards transforming the direct run schools. This article is a disgrace considering with some of our more most challenged students face.
AND
I am a parent of a child in the RSD. This article is repulsive as the man it describes. In order for most Louisiana readers to relate, let me give this example: Just imagine how it would feel to read a glowing article about BP’s Tony Haywood after the tragic disaster in the Gulf. That is what it feels like to read this article about Paul Vallas, knowing that his time here has been detrimental to the lives and education of thousands of students, teachers, and families. He has failed our city, hurting the most vulnerable citizens..our future, our children. And THAT is the truth.
If Vallas’s contract does not get renewed, the sad fact is that he will just move on and create havoc somewhere else. I don’t think it matters to him whose education he ruins and whose money he takes. How can he look at himself in the mirror?
“Educational malpractice.” Wouldn’t that be great.
I agree, Linda, and perhaps I should have been more specific in my comments that I wasn’t supporting Vallas’ rape of the public schools. Once again, the media was seduced, careless, irresponsible. Just the fact that Paul Pastorek praised him was immediate cause for suspicion.
And, Robert, I think he’s using the same mirror Snow White’s step-mother used.
How do people like this get hired by a school board? They leave nothing but calamity in their wake,
DeeDee ,
Well then, Broadie standards…they have been successful, and should be paid well. They are doing what they have been trained to do. The measure of success”???….district budget in disarray, exodus of seasoned teachers, the ideclining number of public schools in a district and the increasing number of private charters opening up. I bet they even get bonus points for implimenting VAM….or for hiring other Broad graduates.
Reformers…. Its how they roll.
Jessica Martinez, a school parent issued a statement in support of Vallas from the education support group Parents For Progress, claiming the WFP is making up stories.
This is nothing new for the Working Families Party, who from 2009-2011 served on a Board of Education that repeatedly ran up multi-million dollar deficits, laid off teachers and oversaw a school district with the lowest student achievement results in the State.
Since returning to the Board of Education this fall, the Working Families Party has gone right back to their political antics – offering nothing but obstruction, repeated political attacks and petty fighting – but not a single solution or idea for students. This most recent attack is just another example of them putting their own political fights before what’s best for students.
As parents of children in Bridgeport public schools, we strongly condemn this petition. Prior to Mr. Vallas’s arrival, Bridgeport schools faced a crippling budget deficit and devastating cuts in education. In his short time leading our school district, Mr. Vallas has closed an $18 million budget deficit and made a series of improvements that directly impact students.
Our schools are finally on a path toward progress and improvement. Yet, this is exactly the kind of progress that the Working Families Party is trying to obstruct. “It’s clear that the Working Families Party’s only goal is to prevent progress in Bridgeport schools. They are playing political games with our children’s education and future. They have no solutions to offer. All they’re offering is more of the status quo that has failed our kids for years,” said Parents for Progress member, Claudia Phillips.
As Bridgeport parents, we also take issue with the misleading claims that parents are organizing a rally at Harding High School to support the firing of Supt. Vallas. The PTSO president of Harding High School was not even informed that such an event would take place at his school. Furthermore, the District PAC president Ondrea Moore had the following to say: “Paul Vallas has been working hard for a little more than a year. He has made great progress in a short time. We need to work together to reform our school system, not simply obstruct. We need Vallas.”
Finally, we are Bridgeport parents and no one—especially not a political party aligned with anti-progress, special interests—can speak for us.
Why don’t you organize a rally of Bridgeport parents to show their support of Paul Vallas? Thank him for all the additional testing.
Great idea. We will be out this afternoon.
Don’t forget your signs:
Please keep testing our children as much as possible.
We want to continue doling out multi-million dollar no bid contracts to out of state companies who are pals of Paul.
Bring in inexperienced teach for a while interns who will leave within two years so they can “practice” teaching on our children.
Continue to hire temporary highly paid out of state consultants to tell our seasoned teachers how to test.
Keep making promises that are “in process”, but are never finished.
Storm out of BOE meetings when you don’t like the questions being asked or when you are not the center of attention.
Collect and sell our children’s data to Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch.
Get our kids ready for menial, low paying jobs after years of test prep and bubble coloring.
Didn’t you want to sign your names?
Is this Excel Bridgeport and/or Achievement First? The mayor’s office? Josh T?
Why are you anonymous?
Diane and others….get ready to laugh.
Look at Vallas’s claim at the BOE meeting as tweeted by a reporter.
Wow…this guy is delusional.
Tweets:
Vallas says maybe his past districts aren’t doing so good because he is not there any more. Rattles off his accomplishments. #bridgeported
Vallas says he told his soldier son if he can survive Afghanistan he can survive Bridgeport. Also says he did not lay off 50 teachers.
Vallas says supporting charters shouldn’t be vilified if they work. Now I am aggravated. I am sticking around. You have me aggravated.