The Tulsa school board went into executive session and talked until 1 am, then voted to extend Deborah Gist’s contract for two years. Two board members voted no.
The vote occurred one week before an election runoff for two board seats.
Gist is a member of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change, which supports charters, vouchers, and high-stakes testing. As State Superintendent in Rhode Island a decade ago, she achieved fame and notoriety for firing the entire staff of Central Falls High School due to low test scores. Central Falls is the poorest district in the state. It still has the lowest scores in the state.
I really hate to say this but it fits— Stupid is as Stupid does”. It is very clear the direction this BoE wants to take. Good luck Tulsa, Oklahoma with the education of the children in your district.
What wonderful paragraph that should be considered for future civics lessons about the “perils” of democracy:
“It’s not fair to ask a brand new board member to come in and vote on Dr. Gist’s contract, I don’t think,” she said. “It’s not fair to them because they don’t even know what they don’t know. I can tell you having been there before as a new board member, there’s so much that goes on that isn’t in the news or the paper or on Facebook that happens behind the scenes to get to the stuff that is actually public interfacing.”
Truly mind-bending; when elected officials take office, they should have ample timeout to get broken in. Like a new baseball glove.
Greg,
It is indeed bizarre for board member to claim that the big decisions will be made before new members are elected. I’d the new members are running because they want a change of leadership, they are denied the power to represent those who voted for them. Of course I can’t understand why a superintendent would want to stay on if she does not have the support of her board.
I know it’s a typo, but “a. Lard member” just made me LVLOL (laugh very loudly out loud). Freud calling!
Fixed!
Booo! That was a classic.
That’s sad that they would keep a hateful and reckless person like that around. If you don’t like and appreciate teachers, then you should stay out of the education industry.
imagine…
Diane, thank you for bringing this issue to light! We the public tried everything to speak against this. The majority of the Board chose not to take time to include us in this vote. They posted this agenda 24 hours before the vote. I contacted every local media source after receiving a similar response from VP board member Suzanne Schreiber that this is “standard”.
Good for you all! Hopefully, the new board will find something that will provide grounds to fire her (& with NO sweetheart deal severance package–or gargantuan pension).
Good luck to you all.
“Dance of the lemons” (adminimals–w/credits to Senor Swacker), indeed!
I worked in Warwick RI when Gist was in RI. She caused nothing but havoc, division and she simply did not support teachers. Glad she went to the ” Sooner State” sooner rather than later! She started in RI on July 1 2009 and left June 30, 2015 giving teachers six years of he***.She should have been more attentive to the practitioners in the field: the teachers, principals and superintendents and she wasn’t…
She pushed RacettTop in RI because the politicians wanted the $75 million they would get and it would introduce reforms & charters into a state that really didn’t have any. She made enemies with teachers who gave her a vote of NO CONFIDENCE. And as stated, Gist was better known for firing teachers than marching with them as she made a complete turnabout going to Oklahoma.. I guess being TFA did not instill ion her a respect for teachers who are on the front lines….
Oh, & I meant to say, Melissa: keep fighting!
Thank you all for the encouragement. I am working with a small network of parents to call to action what we are dealing with Gist. Watching teachers & site administrators being bullied was the final straw to do something
Gist has been a disaster to Tulsa public schools