He's been a very public cheerleader for the "kids"at the Brownsville Independent School District and has stated his unequivocal loyalty to this district.
And all along, Brett Springston,the superintendent who had the position tailor-made for him by the former board has been been engineering to make his exit from his beloved (and ransacked) district.
Yesterday, during a sparsely-attended school board meeting, BWP & Associates presented the names of seven candidates to be the next superintendent of the Hu
ntsville City School System in Huntsville, Alabama.Among them is our own Brett Springston.
The names of the finalists are:
Dr. Daniel Brigman, superintendent of Macon County schools in Franklin, North Carolina
Dr. Barry Carroll, superintendent of Limestone County schools
Dr. Eric King, superintendent of Muncie Community School Corporation in Muncie, Indiana
Retired Marine Lt. Gen. Frank Libutti, president and COO of 3D Global Solutions in New York, although Libutti lives in Huntsville
Brett Springston, superintendent of Brownsville, Texas Independent School District
Retired Army Col. Casey Wardynski, chief financial officer of Aurora, Colorado Public Schools
Beth Wright, superintendent of Florence County School District Three in Lake City, South Carolina
Despite earlier media reports indicating that forty-one candidates had applied for the job, BWP indicated the number was actually fifty. The search was national in scope, with applicants hailing from twenty states. Nineteen of the applicants are current superintendents, and several more are assistant superintendents.
To hear BWP tell it, any of the seven candidates would make excellent choices, but that is to be expected coming from the search firm presenting the names. Two of the candidates — Libutti and Wardynski — have no background as professional educators, and Libutti has never worked in education at all.
The school board intends to move very quickly to initiate interviews, and is planning to conduct them Thursday and Friday of this week so that the list can be narrowed to three by Saturday. BWP encouraged a quick down-selection process so that the public would not have a chance to Google the candidates and start bombarding the board with negative stories about them (right — good luck with that!).
As BWP Director George McShan said, anyone who has been in a decision-making position — particularly leading a school system — will have made some decisions that angered some people. He urged the board to interview the candidates and come to its own conclusions about them.
If you remember correctly, Springston played his cards right when he applied for the position and the former board limited applicants to people already employed with the district. Since the same board had named him interim superintendent, the outcome was a foregone conclusion.
Springston had made life easy for the previous board with a majority made up of Rick Zayas,Ruben Cortez, Rolando Aguilar and Joe Colunga.
From 2008 to the end of this year, they depleted the reserve fund balance to fix their "deficit"budgets from $128 million to about $78 million. All the while, Springston, his accomplice CFO Tony Fuller and the board's majority denied that the district was facing a financial crunch ahead.
Today, as the district faces layoffs, offers early retirement to longtime personnel to save funds and cuts back on programs, stark reality has set in. The siren song that Springston, Fuller, Zayas, Cortez,Aguilar and Colunga were singing has brought us to the shoals of financial dysfunction.
Thanks a lot Brett. And good riddance.
11 comments:
Not sure Huntsville is looking for someone from one of the worst school districts in Texas. They will likely seek a more promising candidate with some record of success in education and new programs. The President of the BISD Board of Trustees introduced Congressman Blake Farenthold at tonights public forum at Burns Elementary School. She demonstrated her inability to speak publicly and could not pronounce the Congressman's name. So much for the leadership doing their homework. The Trustees can't be trusted.
can you blame him with our yahoo politicians?
Que bueno que se va, ya era tiempo.
When speaking of a educator you should concentrate on the real issues related to educating the child. Politics always have a way of interfering with what a good person is trying to do. I would listen to blogs written by educators who have actually had the opportunity to work with the person in an educational setting, no politics involed. I have and I find Mr. Springston a very strong educational leader who actually takes part in the training of teachers and principals. Serves us right if we loose him for it seems that BISD does not know when it has it good. We get a good supt and the board has to butt in a "scare him/her away." Would you want to stay at a place where you know you are not wanted and appreciated? Blame those on the board who have given him hell. Good luck, Mr. Springston.
Brett is a marginal administrator with very suspect experience. He became the superintendent by agreeing to maybe break the law and violate BISD policies. He is not will versed in any area of public education except coaching. He will answer to federal lawsuits very soon and will fall under the pressure. Do not feel sorry for him. He knew what he was getting into and belongs to a different team in our society.
worst school district? what about the broad prize, or whatever that was? bisd has received numerous other awards too. it's the fucked up politics that are the problem around here. too many losers who can't make it in the real world find their fortune navigating brownsville's political hell, and hiring all their worthless friends to cover their illicit activities
Mr. Springston came in during Dr. Z's reign and saw a gravy train. He used and abused people and made big bucks out of it. He aligned himself with the wrong board members and began to worry when they lost. He was often a guest at one of the board member's house....trying to hide fact by parking a house down doesn't make a difference. He then made that board member's wife a principal, raided the fund balance by fudging numbers and now we are in a financial mess. He moves in his cronies, Mr. Harris as an AA and doesn't listen to the needs of the campuses. Now, the principal at Cummings is on leave and not one word has appeared in the Herald. He needs to go.
Come on Brownsville what did you expect? You voted in a High School Graduate, with no College/University Degree. She ran several times for different offices and kept losing. Then one day she ran for BISD and she made it because people were angry at the current board members at that time. Well now Brownsville is Sooooooooooooo, soooooooooooooooo sorry that they voted in a MONSTER and then that MONSTER went out and worked hard to bring in TWO other MONSTERS like her. Wolves in sheep's clothing. Remember the BIBLE warns us about people like them. Our current board president does NOT and let me repeat this, does NOT care about anyone but herself. Don't believe me, just watch how hard she tries to keep herself on camera. She is only in it for the limelight. She cares about no one but herself. She will go after anyone who disagrees with her and that includes family. She stomps on anyone who gets in her way, that includes her own blood relatives. She is hateful to the center of her soul. Not even her family can control her when she goes wild; she will hurt whomever she has to in order to get her way and what she wants. Oh and beware of these wolves, because they will cry and boo-ho so they can get people to feel sorry for them. If you don't believe what is written here, just ask their immediate family members whom they have stomped on to get their way. They will do the sign of the cross on the outside, but on the inside beware there is an extremely evil being controling these Monsters. Brownsville beware, keep your guard up so you do not get stomped on by these Monsters that you ACCIDENTLY voted into the BISD board. Let us pray that the evil being on the inside of these MONSTERS is driven out and away; for the sake of our community. Brownsville do not ever lose hope and never give up on your Faith.
Monster-caller is an idiot.
Board President goes after Principal because she is a relative of Rick Zayas who she hates. Word is she sent internal auditing to "find" something, anything on that campus to get rid of principal. They have been "investigating" since her December meeting with the ISS Czar, an assistant principal, and other BISD administrators to plan her demise. So basically Catalina supports abusive teachers who bully students and staff members. Investigate that BISD. So much for anti bullying, you have the board president and teachers who bully. Great role models for our students.
Interesting... Mr. Montaoya is there any information you can give us about this principal from cummings? Why was she placed on leave? Things have been bad oer there since the beginning. Why was she suspended now?
Post a Comment