Reed Progress And Superintendent Goals Touched Upon During School Board Meeting

By Eliza Hallabeck

Following Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson’s explanation of her oversight of the transition of Reed Intermediate School Interim Principal Jay Smith, Board of Education member John Vouros read a statement he composed with Vice Chair Laura Roche.

The statement, he said, reflected the two school board members’ personal opinions and not that of the board as a whole. Mr Vouros said the statement was written for clarification purposes. The statement regarded Reed and the superintendent’s recently composed goals following her evaluation by the school board.

“For years,” he read from the statement, “previous boards chose not to evaluate the superintendent in a written fashion. In addition there have been no personal goals put in place for a superintendent who is responsible for a $67 million school system.”

The goals, Mr Vouros said, are what he and Ms Roche wanted to address publicly.

“For the past two years there has been a vote of no confidence taken in the previous Reed principal by the teachers union at the Reed school,” read Mr Vouros. “How does that happen and how does the faculty reach such dire straights? It is our opinion previous boards have failed the Reed faculty and now this board is working to ensure this never happens again. The superintendent’s personal goals, which specifically address Reed, Goal One, are not about the teachers as a whole. They are about the role the administration has filled.”

The superintendent’s goals for the 2012-13 school year were passed unanimously during the school board’s September 4 meeting. At the time, Board of Education Chair Debbie Leidlein said since the goals were an executive session item they could not be discussed during the public meeting. The approval of the goals followed a vote 4-3 vote on June 19 to not extend a new contract agreement to Dr Robinson, leaving two years on her contract. The superintendent’s contract has been annually reviewed every June since Dr Robinson started in the district in 2008, and each year the three-year contract has been extended by another year, until this year.

Mr Vouros continued reading the statement saying his goal is to answer how the situation at Reed happened and more.

“[Ensuring] the BOE goals for the superintendent in place,” Mr Vouros finished, “require there be a high degree of collaboration, listening, understanding, and morale rebuilding. With the expert guidance of interim principal Dr Jay Smith, who [Dr Robinson] fortunately selected, we are all extremely optimistic that under his leadership Reed staff will be encouraged to voice their opinions in an atmosphere that breeds further academic excellence for the children. Certainly we applaud the teachers at Reed for the scores the children have demonstrated under such adverse conditions.”