At a school board meeting in late January, a woman identifying herself as a "proud graduate of the Hudson City School District" who has worked for the district for the past sixteen years questioned the need to look outside the district for a new superintendent, asserting, "The strongest leaders the district has known came right up through the ranks right here." She cited as examples Neil Howard, who retired in 1995; Jack Howe, who served as superintendent from 2009 to 2012; and Maria Suttmeier, who succeeded Howe and retired in 2022.
Today, Peter Meyer, who was a member of the school board that hired Suttmeier in 2012, sent the following letter to recipients he described as "Friends of Hudson Education." Gossips received the letter and permission to publish it here.
Dear Friends of Hudson Education,
I'm happy to say that as a result of my delay sending this message out, I can include reference to Roger Hannigan Gilson's story in last Friday's Albany Times Union: "Hudson school board faces tough choices amid huge budget gap."
Unfortunately, Hudson City School District (HCSD, which includes the communities of Hudson, Claverack, Greenport, Stockport, Ghent, and Livingston) was already in crisis: reading and math test scores are among the lowest in the state; graduation rates are embarrassingly low; enrollment numbers are at a historic low (under 1,500 K-12 students); all amid administrative and classroom turmoil caused by having three different superintendents in just the last four years.
As a former board member, parent, longtime resident and education journalist, I am not happy about the HCSD crisis or Gilson's "huge budget gap" story, but, dear friend of education, you should be alternately alarmed, troubled or mad about what's happening at 215 Harry Howard Avenue. Gilson quotes HCSD board member Diana Howard saying, "I'm just in panic mode right now."
In fact, the board of ed has been a bit panicked for the last several years and I am attaching a suggested letter that I encourage all residents, taxpayers, and parents to send to Ms. Howard and her colleagues on the board as soon as possible--to help them get our dear school district back on the tracks.
There is still time for them to do the right thing: stop using tens of thousands of our dollars searching for yet another superintendent when we have one already working for us (i.e. can the consultants); set up a task force to figure out why two-thirds of our kids read below grade level (hint: it ain't the kids'--or their parents'--fault).
We all know it's not easy teaching kids. But we should also know that it's not impossible if we do what our boys basketball team just did: work hard practicing the skills that work to learn and win.
The board can get started today. And it can certainly be mostly done before May if they decide to do it. See the budget timeline here. We don't need another year of chaos. And we don't need another stack of invoices payable to out-of-state consultants.
Please send a version of the attached to to the Board of Education (via email or USPS) as soon as possible.
Thank you so much for your time and concern. The kids will thank you.
Peter Meyer
Founder & Executive Director
Makes sense. But when you have carte blanche to spend others money would you try to rein in unnecessary spending, doubt it.
ReplyDeleteI’m not in the education industry, so take this comment however you want… but it seems to me that these search firms are more like talent agencies for connected school administrators. Except that it’s the taxpayers and not the “talent” that pays the commission.
ReplyDeleteAnd why not hire from within? It’s a school district with half the enrollment of some high schools. Somebody with roots here and who is fully aware of the current challenges and won’t turn tail the second things get tough.
I personally would like to see Mark Brenneman, Principal of MC Smith (k-5)
ReplyDelete, become the new superintendent . He is a top notch administrator and his teachers and staff hold him in high regard. He may not live here, but he stays for all activities and events that support our students.
I agree he's definitely an engaged and energetic educator. He knows the people in the district infrastructure and they know him. Assuming he has the appetite for wrestling this particular alligator, I think he's a fine candidate.
ReplyDeleteOf course, as you can imagine, from my perspective, there's only one thing worse than the state of the local schools: the public's failure to get mad about it. It takes a village to raise children.... C'mon folks. Our kids are not getting educated. What are you going to do about it?
ReplyDeleteThank you for this Peter . I agree and have hope that somehow the District can get this spiraling situation under control for our kids. As a parent of a young student of the district, I have spent the past 4 years navigating both special education and general education within the district at the elementary level. My son is a Twice Exceptional student, so I have had the unique experience of having to navigate both ends of the spectrum within the district. The lack of understanding and support needs for students who are cognitively advanced have been pushed aside- which leads to lack of interest in school, eventually dropping out or if they are lucky- moving to another school with proper supports. And so many students in special education are being improperly supported on a multitude of levels including lack of access to basic needs in assistive technology for communication, lack of real opportunities to be included in meaningful ways with their Gen Ed peers. Which by the way are both requirements by law under IDEA. And now ,as a family peer advocate, I have been working with other families within the District with students spanning all of the schools- from MC Smith through high school -my area of focus in special education. Most of the families I support live at or below the poverty level and have been taken advantage of by the system in place for their lack of time, knowledge and and ability to participate and advocate on their children’s behalf. Too many barriers exist to even think of questioning the very serious decisions that will impact their children’s futures. The system is broken on so many levels- too many for me to get into here. Don’t even get me started on transportation and the fact that before our current transportation consultant who was hired under Dr. Pennyman, transportation was being handled by the schools former financial officer who had no experience to do so and cost the district extremely large sums of money because of her ignorance and the ignorance of the district to have administrators wearing multiple hats in areas they had no experience. Where else has this been occurring?
ReplyDeleteI hesitated to write because I know that this will open me up to all the nonsense that comes along with public forums but
I felt compelled to speak up when I saw multiple people here mentioning Mr. Brenneman here as an option. I have had first hand, and very recent experience with Mr. Brenneman and he is not the solution. The cover ups, lack of transparency, and overall lack of understanding that I have personally witnessed directly and under his guidance has been disturbing to say the least. The lack of professional development available to teachers on current best practices, and lack of basic current knowledge of neurodiversity affirming education is appalling. The teachers are doing their best with what they have been given but it is the people in power at the higher levels that hold the power for real change and are the ones that are holding back any progress. They set the standards. They make the decisions that teachers must follow. . So please, no! My stomach did flips reading those suggestions. Please speak to the parents and students- current - who are the ones closest the to problems! And especially speak to the parents of children who are struggling. They are the ones in constant contact with the district and unfortunately see a side that others, whose children are doing just fine, don’t see. And ask the children. Why don’t they want to go to school? Let them have a voice in this.