Elmhurst Parents for Integrity in Curriculum has issued the following press release:
Among the top District 205 initiatives this year was to develop a “Long-Term Strategic Plan” that prioritizes Social-Emotional Learning. The D205 website, under the heading “SEL Mission”, proclaims it is “strongly committed to developing safe and healthy environments where everyone thrives academically, socially, and emotionally.”
District leadership assembled a steering committee they claimed would “ensure representation from the entire district community.” Parents and stakeholders were invited to focus groups scheduled in the middle of the workday, which excluded many people who are not able to skip work to participate in a focus group.
The “inclusive” and “representative” steering committee assembled was comprised of 27 (~70%) women, 11 (~30%) men. Not surprisingly, Mawi Asgedom, our community SEL expert, was chosen to be on the committee.
It sure seems as though the district is looking for community members to affirm their SEL initiative, rather than seeking critical feedback and new ideas on how to improve academic outcomes?
As part of the process, District 205, with the approval of the BOE, hired a firm called Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates (HYA), as a “consultant” to provide guidance for the “Long-Term Strategic Plan.” Elmhurst taxpayers of course, footed the $40,000 bill. I’m not sure why the many $200K+ per year administrators, many with doctorate degrees, are incapable of doing strategic planning without the assistance of an outside vendor?
HYA’s current president, Glenn “Max” MaGee (a lifelong education industrial complex swamp creature) was fired from his superintendent role in Palo Alto, CA for among other things, “budget flubs and mishandling of a sexual assault case.”
In another report, HYA picked Sergio Paez for superintendent of the Minneapolis School District, even though Paez had been cast out of his previous job due to chronic academic underperformance. In April 2015, Massachusetts took control of the Holyoke schools Paez oversaw, citing widespread academic failings. As part of the state receivership, Paez was terminated and replaced.
The Minneapolis district rescinded its employment offer to Paez when a Disability Law Center investigation uncovered abuses that took place at a Holyoke school during Paez’s term. According to The Boston Globe, the report claimed that staff working in a program for emotionally disabled youth had locked students in unlit closets, slammed them against walls, slapped them and committed other acts of excessive force and psychological abuse.
Other criticized picks include Floyd Williams Jr., who served for just over one academic year as superintendent of Des Plaines Elementary District 62 in Illinois. Williams resigned after being accused of sexually harassing five female employees. He collected the remainder of his pay for the year, about $127,000, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates was cast in an unflattering light for failing to discover that Williams had resigned under pressure from his previous assistant superintendent position in Wisconsin when, among other instances of misconduct, nude photos were found on his district-issued computer.
According to the Daily Herald, other candidates recruited and recommended by Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates have been accused of claims like lavish spending, bid fixing, resigning abruptly and making false statements about degrees held.
After hiring a Chicago-based search firm in August for $50,000 to help find a new school district superintendent, the Indian River County School Board has decided the firm is a flop and not up to the task.
Rather than allow the firm to lead the final stages of the superintendent selection process, the board has decided to do its own vetting of the 36 applicants.
Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates “presentations to the board have been sloppy and disorganized,” Board Chairman Laura Zorc said. “We haven’t seen the professionalism that we had hoped for.”
Mr. Bill Adams, who has been leading our search, has been very condescending at times. When a board member says something he doesn’t agree with, he rolls his eyes and tries to dismiss their point.”
The Board voted 4-1 to hire HYA in August because the firm’s experience in leading national job searches. Board member Jacquelyn Rosario voted against hiring the firm because she was concerned about documented cases in which it badly botched other district’s superintendent searches.
Newspapers around the country have published stories noting that HYA recommended candidates to other school districts who had been accused of sexual harassment, bid fixing, lavish spending and lying about other qualifications.
There are numerous and credible reports of HYA doing shoddy work with bad outcomes for school districts and taxpayers. This should have raised some red flag warnings in the vetting process, but as with the Jarvis Sanford hiring, district leadership was hoping it would go unnoticed.
I guess it begs the question, is anybody paying attention to how taxpayer funds are spent? It appears not. This is yet another example of lack of accountability, and oversight, while education profiteers enrich themselves at the expense of unwitting taxpayers and our children.
In their “Strategic Planning” brochure, which I’m certain was used as a “cut and paste” for their D205 work, the first HYA asks is, “What is the mission of the district, for what purpose does the school district exist.” That’s a rhetorical question where I come from.
At the end of the day, parents should be extremely concerned and on high alert. District 205 leadership is proposing that this steering committee, using guidance from a discredited consulting firm with a checkered past, and a history of poor performance, is putting in place the framework for education in Elmhurst Public Schools for years to come.
At present, the academic learning deficit is perilously low and falling. Children and families in our community can ill afford another bungled attempt to fix our schools, because the costs to the people that matter will be extremely high, but the profits for all the unaccountable consultants, administrators and those peddling culturally responsive curriculum will be immense.
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