And from the "We No Longer Care Because None of You Do" Department...

This could also be filed under news that never happened.
This is the time of year that National Merit Scholarship winners are announced.

Sorry folks, but you didn't hear anything about it because none of our kids won.  [Ho hum...nothing new here]    Are our kids a cut below other districts?  Our curriculum?  Or does nobody care?  We give up.  If you don't give a rat's hairy tookus...then neither do we.

Using a slight tweak of the old SPASD tagline, "Great things are happening in our schools, but National Merit Scholars doesn't happen to be one of them."

More Basketball Shenanigans?

Is this directed at SPASD administration?
The WIAA?  

We're hearing reports of yet further shenanigans regarding the Boys Basketball team.  Does WIAA care?  Does administration care?  What will it take to stop this backdoor BS?  Add another domino to the sequence?

We hear that, in yet another creative approach to circumventing WIAA rules for organized team activites out of season, our Bball coach has solicited some "volunteer" coaches from Madison College to run the Boys Basketball tam through maneuvers.  Sounds like, after getting busted for "open gym" sessions last year, this is a new twist where "volunteer" external coaches work with the kids instead of their actual coaching cadre.  Really?  WTF?  Does anyone really believe that?

Have we all succumbed to the "if you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough" philosophy?

Time to Initiate the "Clean Slate Protocol"

The time was right for Tony Stark...is it perhaps our turn to implement our very own "Clean Slate" protocol?

We have a major Human Resources problem (tho the District does everything (un)imaginable to keep that a secret).

We went through the whole Jimmy Mac fiasco.  'Nuff said.

There continues to be the unabashed clusterf#@! known as "Policy KG".  We have organizations that owe the district large sums of money for using facilities yet they were allowed to continue to use the facilities without paying. And personnel from the organization are district employees!

Joe Palooka is a nice guy.  But he's now Facilities' Manager.  If it's possible, Buildings and Grounds has become even more of a bitter pill than it has been in the past.

We hear increasing rumblings that High School Principal Lisa Heipp's approval rating has sunk below that of ex-Principal Keats.  We hear that she has alienated virtually her entire staff let alone parents and students.  She was also the supervisor (and we use that term loosely) for Jimmy Mac.

Phil Frei understands DPI budgeting better than just about anyone else, but his supervisory skills have come into question.  Will his performance improve now that he has been relegated into a much smaller box on the org chart?

The school board has been working to re-structure the district office, and most of those dominoes are now in place.  Is it time to set off the chain and ultimately tip the primary domino?  The "Timino"?

All of these embarrassments are part of Dr. Culver's management sandbox.   Yet it appears he has no clue that problems even exist.   Has he had rose-colored contacts surgically implanted?  Or has he just finally ascended to be a prime example of the Peter Principle.  Was SPASD small enough back in the early 90's that he once could handle it, but now it has grown to a size he can no longer control?  We think so, and we've said as much....many times.  Nice guy.  Could probably handle a Deerfield or Cambridge district, but he's now out of his league.  He needs to retire...or be retired.

As part of the domino chain, we could take out some of the less stellar members of this cast.

INHuman Resources?

There's enough evidence to suggest we have a Human Resources management issue within the district.
Has anyone noticed the the turnover in that area of he district office?

If one looks at the bills...we have not one but TWO incidents where investigations had to be initiated AFTER some HR action was taken.  That doesn't bode well.  And never mind how much these "investigations" have cost the taxpayers.

There was recently an incident where an employee who participated in a district strategic planning session (theoretically a "be candid" forum) was "let go" following comments they made at the meeting.  There are also allegations that the district side of the story involves some serious embellishing.  (Thanks to the SPARCler who was in attendance and alerted us to this).

We have the Pool Manager incident last year, who was forced to write a resignation letter on the spot on a sheet of notebook paper.  The district will wave its hands and say that the Manager had to go due to some poor decisions...and that is certainly true....but is THAT how we handle things?

Jimmy Mac.  Need we say any more?

And then we have first hand knowledge of an incident in which a community resident offered some information at the request of the district to assist in their fact finding, and the HR Manager quickly hung the citizen out to dry when questioned about said fact finding.  In fact, district staff were told that the community resident had lodged an informal complaint.  That was an absolute fabrication of facts.  And let's not even talk about the importance of confidentiality in HR.  Confidentiality was tossed in the gutter here.

And people...these are but a scratching of the surface.  These are merely the wisps of smoke that betray the presence of smoldering embers.

The school district is the largest employer in the city...and we cannot accept this kind of behavior and lack of professionalism.
But nothing will be done until people speak up

Prom Incident and Bullying Allegations Arise

One reader provided the following... is there corroboration?

How about the prom. Did you hear a girl fell off of the balcony and was left there while the terrace closed. All principals are supposed to secure the grounds if they had done So she would have been found. Luckily she is ok but you won't hear that at any school board meeting. Or the senior speaker this year has been harassing and bullying same girl all year will speak at graduation. Makes you wonder did she try to take her life due to the harassment.


Those are some power packed allegations...and serious cause for concern if they fail to peg the bovine excrement meter.

Desperately Seeking: One Grass Whisperer

Nope....we're not out of commission...just monitoring to see if the SPARClers are planning a takeover.

About a year ago, the district hired what we affectionately labelled the "Tree Whisperer".  Apparently some genius in Building and Grounds flt like we now had more trees than students and so the next B&G hire should be an expert in getting in touch with the needs of trees.  That experiments didn't last long.

Too much nitrogen!!!

Now it seems---if rumors are true--that we might be in need of a Grass Whisperer.

Once again, it would seem that some genius in B&G made a teensy tiny mistake in calculating how much nitrogen should be included in a fer
tilizer mix.
[Sotto voce:  Geee...maybe we DO need those Common Core standards after all, if our B&G wizard cant do simple math.  Oh...and where exactly is/was our $100K Club member B&G Manager???]

We/re hearing that several of the athletic fields have been burnt out due to a mis-calculation .   Ever hear of "Measure twice, cut once"??