A high level source within the NYC DOE has shared with The Crack Team at SBSB that Carmen Farina will be named as new chancellor of the Department of Education. Another close source to The Crack Team has given Ms Farina a thumbs up and thinks naming her is a great choice.
Of course, the proof is in the pudding and we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves with either praise or condemnation. What we do like is that Ms. Farina has risen through the ranks from teacher to principal to superintendent to deputy chancellor. Just with that on her resume she has more cred than anyone in the upper echelon of the DOE.
Just as an aside, our source shared with The Crack Team that to get rid of the current evaluation system we might have to give up retroactive raises. But that is a story for another time.
One way to tell what kind of chancellor Ms Farina will be is to check what the Post, deformers, hedge fund managers, and Eva have to say in the aftermath of making it official. If their not happy, well.......
Anyway, The Crack Team has come up with some suggestions for Ms Farina to implement when she is in Tweed (Of course it goes without saying to 86 the new evaluation system and the Common Core, testing, closures, and charters bogarting resources). In no particular order;
1. Get rid of the lawyers. Too many lawyers sitting around in TPU (Teacher performance unit) and Labor Relations doing nothing other than thinking of a new way to stick it to the teachers. Not only that, but think of the money that can be pumped into the schools instead of lining the pockets of the lawyers.
2. Real Administrators. When I started teaching in 1995 the AP's and the Principals were seasoned educators with at least 15 years before one became an AP and/or principal and were experts in particular field of pedagogy. Now, you neither had to have ever taught or you start your administration courses the year you get into the system or you just write a check.
3. End gotcha. It's time. And this includes all the petty little charges in 3020a's.
4. Let teachers teach. This can go so many ways, but the person that knows the students best is the teachers, the front lines. Just like in the military, the grunts see and know so much more than credit is ever given. Let's bring the spontaneity back to teaching.
5. Put the deformers in their places. That means the Post, MichelleRhee First, Whitney, Eva, Klein, Murdoch, etc... Have a Sister Souljah moment with these people.
6. Tell Eva Moskowitz there's money to be made in North Dakota. With the prevalence of fracking in North Dakota, many families are moving to the state with "inadequate" public schools. Tell Eva she can make more money in Williston than Harlem. Give her bus money to encourage her to be on her way.
7. End the ATR system. Not with termination, but with real placement of the Lost Teachers of Israel.
8. Administrators should face the same discipline as teachers. This means that the days of a principal being arrested for cops finding a kilo of coke in the trunk of his car after he gets pulled over for DWI and a suspended license while wearing no pants and underwear while two prostitutes are in the back seat shooting smack should no longer warrant a promotion. Not saying the principal should be terminated, just not promoted.
9. Follow the contract. A contract is a two way agreement. Please, let's respect the contract.
10. Stand up to Cuomo. He has two uses for his finger. One, to pick his nose, the other to see which way the wind is blowing. Cuomo is a bully. He's trying to be the svelte Chris Christie. How do we deal with bullies? A rolled up newspaper to the schnoz.
11. Respect. Simple respect. That will go very far. It will rub off on the media, the public, and the politicians. Defend us against Campbell Brown. Against Michelle Rhee. If that happens just once, or maybe twice, you will not only earn respect and loyalty, but get that proverbial foot off our chests.
The Crack Team is sure that there are some things that were not mentioned. For that they apologize. But it's a start.
Certainly this change seems to be positive for children, families, schools and teachers. The first indication of the direction that Carmen Farina will take will be in her selection of a cabinet. If she selects a group of aging old line bureaucrats, expect politics to rule the schools as it did in 20 years ago.
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