A little more than it week ago, it was announced that Dr. Lisamarie Spindler, superintendent of the Hudson City School District, was resigning, effective June 30. Yesterday, on May 1, the Board of Education began its search for her replacement by retaining the search firm of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates (HYA). The proposal presented by HYA estimates that cost of the search at $23,850.
Makes you wonder why are the school taxes so high. No one in the school district could do a job search on Linked in? 23K for a job search?
ReplyDeleteBefore they go diving into a new search, shouldn't they figure out what went wrong with Dr. Spindler? Was it a mutual "bad fit" or was one party not honest with the other? "Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it."
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly what should be done, Wowser: find out what happened and why it happened. What Dr. Spindler did, with, apparently, the consent of the board, was rip the school district apart with a wild frenzy of new spending, new hires, and new programs, then leave. There should be some accountability for this. --peter meyer
DeleteBack in the good ol' days, when Hudson had more superintendents than Peru had presidents, the district went through these same boom-and-bust cycles -- spending tons of money on fancy consultants to find high-priced superintendents, to move the chairs around, then leave. And the academic Titanic kept sinking. When I was on the board of Ed, from 2007--2012, we changed that, hiring a local boy, Jack Howe, as Superintendent, then, when Jack retired, local girls Maria Suttmeier as Superintendent. It cost the taxpayer almost nothing and we got two very good and capable superintendents. The current board needs to be talking to local people who know something about education instead of hiring fancy Shaunberg, IL consultants for $3,000/;hour. We have plenty of capable people right here in Hudson to do the job. --peter meyer
DeleteWith the ever increasing budget and decreasing enrollment, we're around $35K per pupil - not that most of that goes to anything that would improve the student/teacher experience. This search firm being a great example. How much was spent looking for the current superintendent? Can we put in the new search firm's contract that we get a refund if they don't last 2 years?
ReplyDeleteThe issue of where the Superintendent comes from is not the problem. And a local recruit, though a good idea, is not the key. It is the local welcome. And if you are going to do an investigation of anything it should be what Maria did with the billion US dollars she raised and spent during her tenure at HCSD. Or at least have her list out what we got for that billion.
ReplyDeleteDr. Spindler walked into a post COVID nightmare where kids and teachers were still traumatized....I thought that she deserved our support cuz everything was going to be against the odds. Willette and the BOE know what to do now....they ARE locals. We elected them. And they don't have time to investigate the past year. The whole world came back to life on a knife's edge last year. Dr. Spindler's first year in Hudson was always going to be rough. But her second year could have been great or in that direction. (Check your tax bill this year.)
The BOE needs to get on with other things and one of their first moves should be to ensure that Maria stays out of the process and the school system.
BTW, neither MC Smith nor Charles Williams were locals........Smith came here from England on a boat..............and took Hudson's kids through its poorest days and secured for so many of them bright futures. He had the support of the town. He had no interest in blaming others or investigating anything.......he focused ONLY on that day in June when diplomas were given out.....a trait he learned from his family friend Charles Williams. Smith told his teachers every day....focus on June, focus on June.
The BOE is too busy to look back and anyway what problem that involves kids learning can be solved backwards??? Time wasted like that now would be the greatest disservice to the kids.
And perhaps someone should host a farewell party for the departing Supt, she put her heart into Hudson and the kids, wheher you agree with her policies or not, that is a lesson we can use to teach our students about decency...........Ken Sheffer