The Daily Times’ columnist Gil Spencer thrives at getting under people’s skin. He’s one of the best that ever did it. The Times staff is fortunate to have him on board because he is the celebrity of the bunch.
Today he poked around with a ‘Chester is to Cleveland as Thornton is to LeBron’ topic which caught my eye.
As always, Spencer's style invokes emotion which if you allow yourself to get caught up in it you’d sometimes wish you could meet him in a back alley somewhere. (He’s a pretty big and athletic guy so think twice).
I thought I’d chime in on what I think Thornton’s motivation was for leaving Chester.
In my opinion, I believe he’d prefer to stay in Chester for all the reasons Spencer said he should...in essence, he’s more likely to be viewed as a superstar folk hero in Chester than Milwaukee. I also believe he’d rather live in the Philly area than in the urban tundra of Wisconsin.
Although Spencer doesn't mention it, I don’t believe salary was an issue with Thornton. In fact, either he was grossly overpaid as a superintendent in our tiny district or he’s a fool for taking such a relatively tiny increase for lording over a district many times larger. As Spencer suggest, the lure of the bigger district could be a stroke to his ego, and what man doesn’t like his ego stroked?
Personally, I really think Thornton’s decision came down to the Empowerment Board thing. He probably saw the writing on the wall and would have preferred to work for them rather than a bunch of locally elected officials.
Wouldn’t it be great if we had the luxury of selecting our bosses?
Click HERE to read Gil Spencer’s column.
As a currently employee of CUSD that worked closey with Thornton and his staff, the decision to leave was about the elected school board regaining power of the district. No one on the board has any previouos experience working in education and honestly I don't think they are able to make quality decisions about curriculum that will increase student achivement. The Empowerement Board had two members who spent over 30 years working in education and a member, who is a Georgetown graduate that is a very successful lawyer. I think Thornton left because giving power to the elected officials is taking a step backwards. Maybe if there were some qualified people on the board to make educated decisions he may have stayed. I think that new elections need to be held, soon! When is this elected boards term up?
ReplyDeleteI agree that Thorthon left because the power is being given back to a bunch of school borad members that are not qualified, besides the 2 members. Wanda Mann so busy at tines that she can't take the time to speak with a concerned parent. I say this as facts because there was an issue with my child and day after day even going to City Hall I was unable to speak with her. They don't need that school board unless we get new members.
ReplyDeleteAs usual GS has spoken to the core of his issue of the day, all I would add to that is that there are many parents myself included that really care about this city and just as importantly the educational well being of our children, and would love for all the positive to be enhanced in the schools and for the changes that have been made to have been more profound, such as focused more on the elementary level, if better expectation are made and taught early then it wouldn't be so hard when the children are older. and if more parents were invovled then that would have made a difference in the time he was here....but in all I believe that if a program was implemented to get more parents involved then, now, and in the future, his vision would be cultivated, nurtured, and grown without consistant handson tending like many beautiful annuals that grow every year, because thats what they have been trained and nurtured to do.
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