The Philadelphia School Board hired an inexperienced school superintendent, then signed a contract to pay $450,000 to a firm to train the new superintendent. Former Nashville school board member Amy Frogge wrote an open letter to the Philadelphia school board, warning about the track record and failures of the consultant they hired.
The Philadelphia Inquirer published this editorial.
From the start, questions surrounded new Philadelphia School Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr.’s readiness for one of the toughest and most important jobs in the city.
Watlington only had a little over a year of experienceas a superintendent at the Rowan-Salisbury School System, a small suburban district in North Carolina.
With 114,000 students, the Philadelphia School District is more than five times the size of Rowan-Salisbury’s 18,200 students. Philadelphia’s $3.9 billion school budget dwarfs Rowan-Salisbury’s $191 million.
Watlington spent his career in North Carolina, a right-to-work state with nonunion schools. But Philadelphia is an entrenched union city and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers is known for driving hard bargains and challenging major reforms.
Now comes word that the School District hired a group of consultants to essentially help Watlington do a job for which he is paid $340,000 a year. In turn, 10 consultants are getting an eye-popping $450,000 to support Watlington and “ensure a smooth leadership transition as he begins his tenure.”
That’s some high-priced hand-holding. It is also an ominous start for Watlington, which signals he may not be ready for the big time.
More troubling, one of the lead consultants — the Tennessee-based firm Joseph & Associates — comes with a trail of controversy. The firm’s founder, Shawn Joseph, served as the superintendent of the Metro Nashville public school system for less than three years before the school board bought out his contract in 2019.
During Joseph’s tenure in Nashville, questions were raised about costlyno-bid contracts, his use of a school bus driver as his chauffeur, and a school maintenance employee doing work at Joseph’s home. After Joseph left, Tennessee education officials recommended suspending his state license for one year.
After hearing about Joseph’s consulting contract, a former Nashville school board member wrote a letter to Philadelphia school officials saying she was “deeply disturbed” by the contract and warned the district about Joseph.
Joseph’s consulting contract with the Philadelphia School District calls for him to help Watlington execute “a 100-day entry plan,” which will include a listening and learning tour of Philadelphia. So, the guy from Tennessee is going to help the guy from North Carolina find his way around Philly.
Phase two of the contract calls for Joseph’s firm to help Watlington develop and implement “a transition team process informed by the quantitative and qualitative data gathered” during the listening tour.
“So, the guy from Tennessee is going to help the guy from North Carolina find his way around Philly.”
Phase three of the contract calls for Joseph’s firm to help Watlington develop a five-year strategic plan that “will serve as the district’s road map to achieve the goals and guardrails.”
That’s all well and good, but the three-step plan amounts to little more than the basic tasks of any incoming superintendent. The existing staff at the School District should be able to show Watlington around Philadelphia and his executive team can help develop a five-year plan.
Watlington defended the $450,000 consulting contract, but it still sounds like a giant waste of taxpayers’ money. The School District should look to end this contract immediately. If Philadelphia is serious about improving educational outcomes of students, it should look to Washington, D.C., which has made impressive gains in student test scores largely by improving the quality of teachers.
If Watlington wants Joseph’s help, he can read Joseph’s book titled “The Principal’s Guide to the First 100 Days of the School Year: Creating Instructional Momentum.” It’s available on Amazon for $29.95. That’s a better deal than the $450,000 consulting contract.
By all accounts, Watlington comes across as a dedicated educator. But the Philadelphia School District needs a dynamic leader with a track record of success who can hit the ground running. Not one who requires an overpriced consultant to perform on-the-job training.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Who’s son, nephew, frat brother is he?
bingo
Well, if he’s a frat brother, at least he won’t need party training.
He can hit the beer bong running.
At the risk of sounding a bit cynical, consulting can have a tendency to be a bit of a scam. I have always wondered how fees are set and that those seeking the advice are so willing to go to the high end. So instead of the superintendent costing Philadelphia $350 grand, this year he will cost $800,000. The other thing that makes me suspicious is that public entities like school districts seem so willing to go to private sector consultants who have all of this social science data, but little personal experience with teaching and learning. I often found it frustrating that whenever district leadership needed to make a significant decision or address an acknowledged problem, they almost never consulted with those in the school house. If they did, we certainly didn’t get paid $450,000.
Paul Bonner And then, again, there are consultants and their firms funded by prefab politics. It USED TO BE that so-called think tanks, and even colleges and universities, were relatively free of “bent” Koch-type funding and control. CBK
And the corruption just keeps growing and getting worse.
Some consultants can be helpful, particularly those with a proven track record or those from quality institutions of high education. Perhaps Watlington has good intentions, but he should tour the schools and talk to teachers which might provide more useful insights than relying on any “executive staff.” He should also plan to meet with some parents and students as well. These overpriced consultants sound like someone is steering public dollars into the pockets of favored individuals. It is not an auspicious start to Watlington’s tenure in Philly.
By the way In the Public Interest just published a policy brief on private contracts in public services. Their recommendations are really common sense “due diligence” that should be required before any public money goes into private pockets. https://inthepublicinterest.org/policy-brief-responsible-contracting-policies-and-practices/
retired Just the fact that charters want NO independent oversight is one of the biggest red flags going. CBK
“Favored Individual” who have favored themselves through the construction of corrupt cash cow schemes are using their ill-gotten gains to purchase calculated/strategic consultant services.
These will allow them to buy the public school superintendents selected to help destroy public schools. Incompetence is weaponized as is scandal, duplicity, deceit, racism, misogyny and old fashioned Payola.
Demolishing Philly will be a real coup for the democracy destroyers. They have certainly done enough damage already. Edison Project, Broad, Paul Vallas, TFA, KIPP.
And those are just the starting lineup. The Back Bench is just as heavy.
Sourcewatch provides a description of the links between Commonwealth Foundation, a right wing pressure group based in Penn., and the Koch network. Jane Mayer wrote about how they operate.
The Koch network praises Catholic schools to the hilt and it is accompanied by state Catholic Conferences quoting the biased studies of the Koch network.
Sun Tzu- If you don’t know your enemy, for every victory gained you will suffer a defeat.
ALL and Linda “The Kock network praises Catholic schools to the hilt.” More absent and twisted information.
Below are some quotes from Wikipedia about Koch and their work. From a brief reading, and to put it as briefly as I can, Koch and company are libertarians/neo-liberal. .The Koch(s) apparently SUPPORT many democratic ideas, like pro-choice, same sex marriage, etc., but Koch’s support of Catholic and other universities is about pushing and funding their neo-liberal agenda.
They support universities through their ECONOMICS curricula and departments where their big oil interests support flows into ANTI CLIMATE CHANGE (they were at the start of the climate denier coalitions decades ago) and, again, push the economics/political ideas of neo-liberalism.
Insofar as some of the groups below are notably driven by Catholic supporters, it takes a twisted consciousness, morally and spiritually, to identify neo-liberalism with anything Christian or even Doctrinal Catholic . . . except sinfulness.
I have been of the view for a very long time that in so many cases, Catholicism is a cover and a ruse for being saturated with predatory capitalism and the NO OVERSIGHT/ REGULATION neo-liberal doctrine.
Look them up and draw your own conclusions, but here are some clips (some with similar headlines were behind paywalls): CBK
Wikipedia
“’Former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough, co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, has pointed out that the Koch brothers have supported more than just what are generally considered conservative causes. They opposed George W. Bush on many issues, are pro-choice, support same sex marriage, and worked closely with the Obama White House for the Obama administration’s criminal justice reform initiatives that aligned with their own.[23][24]’”
“The Koch family funding apparatus has been funding conservative and libertarian groups through think tanks for over forty years. The Cato Institute, which Charles Koch helped create in 1974, is consistently ranked as among the top 25 U.S. think tanks overall in terms of influence on public policy in the United States.[26] In 2015, the Kochs worked with the American Civil Liberties Union on criminal justice reform, specifically in the realm of civil asset forfeiture. The Kochs have also worked to push legislation aiming to adjust federal sentencing guidelines and reduce prison populations.[27]
“According to a report by American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop, the Koch brothers have built “what may be the best funded, multifaceted, public policy, political and educational presence in the nation today.”[28] Opposition to the government spending any money on climate change is among this network’s activities.[29][28] Anthropogenic climate change skeptic Willie Soon received more than $500,000 from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and a trust used by the Kochs.[30] The primary recipients of Koch contributions, including Americans for Prosperity, The Heritage Foundation, and the Manhattan Institute, actively oppose clean energy and carbon legislation and are skeptical of climate science.[31] In fact, the Koch brothers were involved in the first known gathering of climate change skeptics in 1991. Organized by the Cato Institute, the meeting shifted the position of the Republican Party on climate change. While George H. W. Bush had still supported research into global warming under the Global Change Research Act of 1990, acceptance of scientific evidence on climate change began to weaken due to the Koch family’s influence.[32]
https://prospect.org/culture/koch-brothers-latest-target-pope-francis/ (behind paywall(
“The wealthy Koch brothers are best known for making large donations to politicians, universities, and institutions that support their economically conservative views. The Koch brothers are self-proclaimed Libertarians, and believe in an unregulated free market economy. Many Catholics, including Pope Francis himself, have claimed that this type of extreme Capitalism is in contradiction to the teachings of the Catholic church. In light of this, many feel that the church should not accept the Koch brothers’ large donations.”
Linda My reply went to moderation. CBK
Parts of Philly may be Asleep At The Wheel where the Takeover is concerned. But it has become SO painful in Llano Texas that locals there are waking up to our Nightmare On Elm Street.
Armed with books that have been challenged, banned and removed from county libraries, Llano Independence Day Protestors plan to surround the Courthouse and read quietly in a very PUBLIC show of opposition to a spate of book bans in town that already have led to the firing of a librarian and a federal civil rights lawsuit by residents.
Go Llano Texas!
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/Handful-of-Llano-residents-kick-off-July-4th-17280003.php
Have you seen the cost of living in Philadelphia lately? I think it’s noble of him to choose a vow of poverty. Hope he can get by.
Frogge for senate. She has my vote
I’ve gota copy of “Entry”, “Getting to Yes” and some old Ed Weeks I could loan him.
Or maybe he could spring for the few hundred dollars on an AASA or his State superintendents organization membership. They have… wait for it… mentors and first-year cohorts and supports.
(BTW… did anyone check the RFP for the consultant bids)?
The Texas Supremes are as bad as the US Supremes
They just allowed a 1925 ban on abortions to go into effect, which makes performing any abortion punishable by 2 to 10 years imprisonment.
Hell. While they are at it , might as well bring back all the laws from 1925.
In addition to the antiabortion law, I imagine Texas had some great ones back then.
Execution by drawing and quartering? By burning in boiling oil? Stoning for adultery (but only for women, of course) Burning of witches?
The list must be very long and glorious.
All members of the Texas Supreme Court are Republicans.
Linda Thank you for turning my attention to the Kochs (and the big “R.” I now know it’s worse than I thought (see my above note) about the Kochs.
Though I am sure SOME remain religious ideologues, my view is that the powerful among most Republicans take as their main mantra and doctrine: “Follow the money and the power, regardless.”
Apparently (from my googling above), Koch is even “taking on” Pope Francis who poo-poos the “extreme capitalism” in the USA. And the Koch’s apparently have already taken positions FOR the right to abortion, etc.; but yet anti-abortion is a one-issue vote . . . and so (speculating here), we have “Catholics on the Court cancelling Roe.”
Do the math about money and power, Linda. Harboring a hate for all-things-religious, in fact, is running interference for a long-term neo-liberal tear-down of democracy as such. Look at it: the only doctrinal threads that hold these conflicts together are the threads of MONEY AND POWER. CBK
About separation of church and state in Texas-
From the Lubbock Avalanche Journal, 9-28-2017, in a story about a scheduled speech for Red Mass to be given by Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman (R- now retired) who has self identified as Hispanic-
Bishop Coerver will be the principal celebrant for the Red Mass entrance processional which will include federal, state, county and municipal judges from the 25 counties of the Diocese of Lubbock.
Sounds like another “leader” in the vein of Brizzard who was brought to Chicago from Rochester by Rahm at the suggestion of his rich hedge fund friend. Rochester parents warned Chicago about the guy they were getting ready to fire before he quit, and he hit the ground in Chicago with a resounding SPLAT, not any kind of sprint. He too gave the superficial appearance of caring.