Sorry, another comment. Say what you will about Hardy Murphy but when he was superintendent—Ellen Fogelberg, literacy director let her Secretary go before she let any of the staff working with kids go…She had no Secretary. Fast forward to now with a ridiculous amount of administrators…more than any other surrounding Northshore district…Time to SLASH administrators and their 6 figure salaries 🤬🤬🤯
Last time I checked there were 3 folks working in central office that were executive assistants for various admin folks:
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO CFO
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO EXEC CHIEF OF HR
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO SUPT
We currently spend $285k/year on salaries alone for executive assistants for executives down there. These exec assistants make *more* than any Track I teacher!
Shame on all of them! Putting themselves first at the expense of our teachers and students. It sickens me as a former educator. I don't know how they sleep at night.
As this was Horton’s district, I bet and will give you odds that these well paid executive assistants job holders (a job title with fewer set qualifications), are probably ‘connected’ individuals, like in the city south of Evanston where Horton came from, for any plum gov’t job it’s ‘don’t send nobody who ain’t been sent by somebody’.
Horton actually had both an Executive Assistant and a Chief of Staff. His Chief of Staff wasn't even really a board approved position, her job title was "Special Assistant to the Cabinet" or something but he gave her a special title that was not on the org chart provided to the Board (but was in her email signatures). She's now Director of Equity down in the Georgia District with him.
This spreadsheet doesn't include 5 "Administrative Assistants" including one for the Superintendent's Office. (At one time, all the "Executive and Administrative Assistants" were called Secretaries and were part of that union.) It also doesn't include an "Assistant to the Assistant Superintendent of Operations."
They are listed on the spreadsheet. Also during the referendum in 2017, (when they thought the referendum was not going to pass and facing a deficit), the district eliminated a lot of positions at central office including all executive assistants except for one, who was reassigned to the Superintendent's office. When Horton became superintendent, he gradually reinstated some of those executive assistant roles, one for the HR department, the Business Office, and the Student/Special Education Services department. Those positions are non-certified exempt and were never in the union.
I see "Executive Assistants" but not "Administrative Assistants." I don't want to list the Admin Asst's names here, but I don't see the names (or the positions) on the spreadsheet. I found them by going to the district's staff directory, entering "JEH Admin Center" location and "all." I'm assuming that the staff directory has been updated by now. Or maybe not.
During the Murphy years it was the same thing with leaving high paying administrative positions intact. To clarify, the secretary position assigned to Ellen Fogelberg, which was eliminated, was a low-paying union position with a total compensation package of only $35K an amount that made no meaningful impact on closing the budget shortfall. While he retained administrators and executive assistants, whose combined compensation exceeded nearly $2 million. This pattern continues with the current administration as well. Teachers, paraprofessionals, and lower-paid support staff are being cut, while administrators with high six-figure salaries remain untouched. This practice is inequitable and must be addressed. So yes, it's time to finally eliminate these administrators and their HIGH 6 figure salaries.
The administration when Hardy Murphy was leading wasn’t nearly as bloated as it is now…not even close. Dr Horton made up so many positions it’s ridiculous (Dean of this, Dean of that, Superintendent of curriculum, Superintendent of operations, Superintendent of Human Resources) and then all of those positions had assistants. Clearly Dr Horton thought he won the lottery when he rolled into Evanston.
Exactly. I commented on another post re: respect for Murphy & his admin. Not that he or they were perfect, but at least I could respect them. These administrators? Nah.
I haven't seen it put this way before: "thus the average operating cost per student has risen 76% from $14,266 in 2020 to $25,078 per student this past year. "
Goodness
Also, from the other roundtable article, it looks like to catch teachers up on salary vs inflation will be a 6-7m budget increase. So, assuming that does eventually happen, add that on to the current 13m deficit to get to 20m needed in cuts elsewhere (plus the 200m or so of repairs)
This would be comical if it wasn't kids education at stake
Why is cutting special education an acceptable way to deal with this financial crisis? How does this align with the District’s commitment to equity? I cannot get my head around this.
Too much (or most) of the equity stuff is just lip service. I don't know how any Board using an "equity lens" could close Bessie Rhodes or cut special education programs.
I see the board as delusional true believers, but with Horton, it was clear he saw ‘Equity’ as little more than the needed window dressing to justify any canned curriculum/program he wanted to buy from a friend/former associate, or a friend/former assiciate he wanted to create a job for, or a friend/former associate he wanted to hire as a consultant. If not outright payola, then favor currency within the educational consultant ecosystem (payable in bogus award nominations, etc).
Anything he wanted to spend on, all he needed to do was wrap it in some ‘Equity’-based need. D65 got hustled, and now folks down south are getting theirs on the same proven hustle. ‘The Music Man’ moves on to a new town and a new set of rubes on a board, which is nothing short of amazing given the additional D65 bad press accumulated on the Internet by the time when he was given his next ‘opportunity’ as they say in HR. This is ripe for a Hollywood movie or mini-series.
I have sort of come to the place where like, I believe in the general ideas of equity and CRT and systemic racism. But like, the implementation here is embarrassing. If you’re a diehard equity person, you should be absolutely livid - guys like Dr. Horton are taking your cause and, making a mockery of it. Yet, they always come back to defend him, like the equity we need is for the guy making $250k/year and not the kids. I think often of this story I covered:
This guy got paid $35k to .. dance with some preschoolers and got paid without even doing all the work? This is where the equity budget is going? This is completely unserious. How is this defensible even to a diehard equity proponent?
In my post the other day, I noted the 60 point achievement gap issue between white kids and black kids. That is a huge serious problem, and our attempt to solve it is to hire this guy? Or send the teachers to more expensive Beyond Diversity training? These are just deeply unserious and expensive efforts to solve real problems.
When I was working on a project in West Baltimore we spent a lot of time interviewing stakeholders in the community. The term so many of them used was “equity hustlers”. They had experienced a non stop cycle of people and organizations coming in to the community promising all kinds of results, obtaining huge grants and delivering zero results before closing up and moving on. The people we spoke to were so pessimistic about outsiders and kept saying that the only people who actually care are people who live in the community. I totally understand it. “Equity hustle”
This is what I was trying to write about the other day in my post regarding the election. The data seems to indicate the Democratic coalition is slowly losing Black and Hispanic folks, while picking up white people who make over $100,000/year. This is I suspect, is a big reason why.
Cue the lawsuits that will result when District doesn't comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Or maybe they're betting on the Trump administration gutting the Dept of Education so there won't be repercussions.
I am doing some research on this now to put together a narrative of what happens if they close the Dept of Ed. Its not super clear because a lot of the stuff they manage is statutory like McKinney-Vento or IDEA, so its not like Elon can make it go poof on day 1
Comical to see Mendoza and Chow sign the letter since the whole current escapade began with the hire of Horton.
Both of them voted for Horton and would have known about his tens of thousands of dollars of debts to the city of Chicago and his personal bankruptcies.
Both of them stayed silent when Suni Kartha sent an email on behalf of the board during the search process that said Horton was requesting anonymity to stay in the search even though he was participating in public searches all over the country simultaneously.
Also, where was Mendoza when Horton gutted the reading specialists?
If either of them gave a Mea Culpa for allowing Horton to be hired even with the red flags, I would still consider them for the future, particularly Chow. The most galling thing about the current board is their state of denial and not taking responsibility for their mistakes, including all actions of their employee Horton, which they are ultimately responsible for.0
I have a REALLY hard time understanding how they would ever think Horton was an acceptable candidate.
I mean just the NBC expose alone would be disqualifying. That was the first thing I saw when I googled his name after he was announced at the hire. Then I watched his public session from a few months before in Rochester which was so vacuous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2kkYDO9004&t=2030s
It was just so clear that the guy is full of $&*#.
I would love to hear Chow's mea culpa because it truly mystifies me to this day how anyone could think this guy should run anything, let alone District 65.
I remember back to a board meeting discussion of the proposed new school with an exchange between Biz and Hernandez when, I believe in discussing size and budgeting need of a proposed large common room, one of them said the expression “GO BIG OR GO HOME” to enthusiastic agreement by the other (it’s on a meeting YouTube recording) — that is the go big knee-jerk free spending of other people’s borrowed money mindset that got us here. And now clearly, it is time for them to GO HOME, as they surely will before long.
In today's newsletter the district reminds us that Friday is "School Board Members Day" and asks us to join them in "saying thank you to the District 65 School Board for the work they do." 😂
Well, it looks like Biz and Kim are joining Donna Su in jumping ship. Joey hasn't announced if he is running again, but he hasn't submitted a petition to get on the ballot (which is due on Monday).
Evanston Now reports these people have filed petitions:
Brandon Utter. Christian Sorensen. Andrew Wymer. Ezra Shevick. Monica Slavin. Lionel Gentle. Chris Van Nostrand. Christopher DeNardo. Dan Kastilahn.
A couple of those folks appear to be identity-obsessed from their web presence. But hopefully we will get some independent thinkers willing to hold the administration to high standards of quality and execellence
Sorry, another comment. Say what you will about Hardy Murphy but when he was superintendent—Ellen Fogelberg, literacy director let her Secretary go before she let any of the staff working with kids go…She had no Secretary. Fast forward to now with a ridiculous amount of administrators…more than any other surrounding Northshore district…Time to SLASH administrators and their 6 figure salaries 🤬🤬🤯
Last time I checked there were 3 folks working in central office that were executive assistants for various admin folks:
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO CFO
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO EXEC CHIEF OF HR
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO SUPT
We currently spend $285k/year on salaries alone for executive assistants for executives down there. These exec assistants make *more* than any Track I teacher!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rq3D8kB0w9AECf4bwFutO8YJr1msOLINYh36azMGGO8/edit?gid=528062742#gid=528062742
I've worked for billion dollar companies that had fewer executive assistants.
Shame on all of them! Putting themselves first at the expense of our teachers and students. It sickens me as a former educator. I don't know how they sleep at night.
Every "executive" having an EA is very 1989.
I can see an argument for the Supt needing an EA given how complicated scheduling can get, but the CFO and Chief of HR having EAs is mind-blowing.
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As this was Horton’s district, I bet and will give you odds that these well paid executive assistants job holders (a job title with fewer set qualifications), are probably ‘connected’ individuals, like in the city south of Evanston where Horton came from, for any plum gov’t job it’s ‘don’t send nobody who ain’t been sent by somebody’.
C’est Evanston!
Horton actually had both an Executive Assistant and a Chief of Staff. His Chief of Staff wasn't even really a board approved position, her job title was "Special Assistant to the Cabinet" or something but he gave her a special title that was not on the org chart provided to the Board (but was in her email signatures). She's now Director of Equity down in the Georgia District with him.
Our loss, their gain, right?
This spreadsheet doesn't include 5 "Administrative Assistants" including one for the Superintendent's Office. (At one time, all the "Executive and Administrative Assistants" were called Secretaries and were part of that union.) It also doesn't include an "Assistant to the Assistant Superintendent of Operations."
They are listed on the spreadsheet. Also during the referendum in 2017, (when they thought the referendum was not going to pass and facing a deficit), the district eliminated a lot of positions at central office including all executive assistants except for one, who was reassigned to the Superintendent's office. When Horton became superintendent, he gradually reinstated some of those executive assistant roles, one for the HR department, the Business Office, and the Student/Special Education Services department. Those positions are non-certified exempt and were never in the union.
I see "Executive Assistants" but not "Administrative Assistants." I don't want to list the Admin Asst's names here, but I don't see the names (or the positions) on the spreadsheet. I found them by going to the district's staff directory, entering "JEH Admin Center" location and "all." I'm assuming that the staff directory has been updated by now. Or maybe not.
During the Murphy years it was the same thing with leaving high paying administrative positions intact. To clarify, the secretary position assigned to Ellen Fogelberg, which was eliminated, was a low-paying union position with a total compensation package of only $35K an amount that made no meaningful impact on closing the budget shortfall. While he retained administrators and executive assistants, whose combined compensation exceeded nearly $2 million. This pattern continues with the current administration as well. Teachers, paraprofessionals, and lower-paid support staff are being cut, while administrators with high six-figure salaries remain untouched. This practice is inequitable and must be addressed. So yes, it's time to finally eliminate these administrators and their HIGH 6 figure salaries.
The administration when Hardy Murphy was leading wasn’t nearly as bloated as it is now…not even close. Dr Horton made up so many positions it’s ridiculous (Dean of this, Dean of that, Superintendent of curriculum, Superintendent of operations, Superintendent of Human Resources) and then all of those positions had assistants. Clearly Dr Horton thought he won the lottery when he rolled into Evanston.
And bet that most all of those made-up positions were for friends of Horton (it’s called the Buddy System)…..
Agreed, it was not extreme like Horton, but it still reflected a level of elitism and disregard for teachers and staff doing the heaving lifting.
Exactly. I commented on another post re: respect for Murphy & his admin. Not that he or they were perfect, but at least I could respect them. These administrators? Nah.
I haven't seen it put this way before: "thus the average operating cost per student has risen 76% from $14,266 in 2020 to $25,078 per student this past year. "
Goodness
Also, from the other roundtable article, it looks like to catch teachers up on salary vs inflation will be a 6-7m budget increase. So, assuming that does eventually happen, add that on to the current 13m deficit to get to 20m needed in cuts elsewhere (plus the 200m or so of repairs)
This would be comical if it wasn't kids education at stake
Why is cutting special education an acceptable way to deal with this financial crisis? How does this align with the District’s commitment to equity? I cannot get my head around this.
Too much (or most) of the equity stuff is just lip service. I don't know how any Board using an "equity lens" could close Bessie Rhodes or cut special education programs.
I see the board as delusional true believers, but with Horton, it was clear he saw ‘Equity’ as little more than the needed window dressing to justify any canned curriculum/program he wanted to buy from a friend/former associate, or a friend/former assiciate he wanted to create a job for, or a friend/former associate he wanted to hire as a consultant. If not outright payola, then favor currency within the educational consultant ecosystem (payable in bogus award nominations, etc).
Anything he wanted to spend on, all he needed to do was wrap it in some ‘Equity’-based need. D65 got hustled, and now folks down south are getting theirs on the same proven hustle. ‘The Music Man’ moves on to a new town and a new set of rubes on a board, which is nothing short of amazing given the additional D65 bad press accumulated on the Internet by the time when he was given his next ‘opportunity’ as they say in HR. This is ripe for a Hollywood movie or mini-series.
I have sort of come to the place where like, I believe in the general ideas of equity and CRT and systemic racism. But like, the implementation here is embarrassing. If you’re a diehard equity person, you should be absolutely livid - guys like Dr. Horton are taking your cause and, making a mockery of it. Yet, they always come back to defend him, like the equity we need is for the guy making $250k/year and not the kids. I think often of this story I covered:
https://www.foiagras.com/p/district-65-consultant-who-skipped
This guy got paid $35k to .. dance with some preschoolers and got paid without even doing all the work? This is where the equity budget is going? This is completely unserious. How is this defensible even to a diehard equity proponent?
In my post the other day, I noted the 60 point achievement gap issue between white kids and black kids. That is a huge serious problem, and our attempt to solve it is to hire this guy? Or send the teachers to more expensive Beyond Diversity training? These are just deeply unserious and expensive efforts to solve real problems.
When I was working on a project in West Baltimore we spent a lot of time interviewing stakeholders in the community. The term so many of them used was “equity hustlers”. They had experienced a non stop cycle of people and organizations coming in to the community promising all kinds of results, obtaining huge grants and delivering zero results before closing up and moving on. The people we spoke to were so pessimistic about outsiders and kept saying that the only people who actually care are people who live in the community. I totally understand it. “Equity hustle”
This is what I was trying to write about the other day in my post regarding the election. The data seems to indicate the Democratic coalition is slowly losing Black and Hispanic folks, while picking up white people who make over $100,000/year. This is I suspect, is a big reason why.
Cue the lawsuits that will result when District doesn't comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Or maybe they're betting on the Trump administration gutting the Dept of Education so there won't be repercussions.
I am doing some research on this now to put together a narrative of what happens if they close the Dept of Ed. Its not super clear because a lot of the stuff they manage is statutory like McKinney-Vento or IDEA, so its not like Elon can make it go poof on day 1
Comical to see Mendoza and Chow sign the letter since the whole current escapade began with the hire of Horton.
Both of them voted for Horton and would have known about his tens of thousands of dollars of debts to the city of Chicago and his personal bankruptcies.
Both of them stayed silent when Suni Kartha sent an email on behalf of the board during the search process that said Horton was requesting anonymity to stay in the search even though he was participating in public searches all over the country simultaneously.
Also, where was Mendoza when Horton gutted the reading specialists?
If either of them gave a Mea Culpa for allowing Horton to be hired even with the red flags, I would still consider them for the future, particularly Chow. The most galling thing about the current board is their state of denial and not taking responsibility for their mistakes, including all actions of their employee Horton, which they are ultimately responsible for.0
If you ask the IL Association of School Boards (IASB), they would say your one and only job is to hire a Superintendent.
I have a REALLY hard time understanding how they would ever think Horton was an acceptable candidate.
I mean just the NBC expose alone would be disqualifying. That was the first thing I saw when I googled his name after he was announced at the hire. Then I watched his public session from a few months before in Rochester which was so vacuous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2kkYDO9004&t=2030s
It was just so clear that the guy is full of $&*#.
I would love to hear Chow's mea culpa because it truly mystifies me to this day how anyone could think this guy should run anything, let alone District 65.
It's heartbreaking that the Mayor's and past Board memebers have to write letters for them to do the right thing.
I wonder if resolutions have any legal teeth. I would love to take legal action if eliminated reading specialists have any recourse.
I remember back to a board meeting discussion of the proposed new school with an exchange between Biz and Hernandez when, I believe in discussing size and budgeting need of a proposed large common room, one of them said the expression “GO BIG OR GO HOME” to enthusiastic agreement by the other (it’s on a meeting YouTube recording) — that is the go big knee-jerk free spending of other people’s borrowed money mindset that got us here. And now clearly, it is time for them to GO HOME, as they surely will before long.
Only one has a soon-expiring term, but I hope you're still right.
In today's newsletter the district reminds us that Friday is "School Board Members Day" and asks us to join them in "saying thank you to the District 65 School Board for the work they do." 😂
You wouldn't think that a big ask.
smh
Well, it looks like Biz and Kim are joining Donna Su in jumping ship. Joey hasn't announced if he is running again, but he hasn't submitted a petition to get on the ballot (which is due on Monday).
Evanston Now reports these people have filed petitions:
Brandon Utter. Christian Sorensen. Andrew Wymer. Ezra Shevick. Monica Slavin. Lionel Gentle. Chris Van Nostrand. Christopher DeNardo. Dan Kastilahn.
A couple of those folks appear to be identity-obsessed from their web presence. But hopefully we will get some independent thinkers willing to hold the administration to high standards of quality and execellence
Stay tuned I am getting profiles from all these folks and will post on Monday or Tuesdat