That’s astounding! The Centralia school superintendent failed to opt out of a process for school of distinction awards not deserved, got the high school recognized for improved graduation rates, and then wrote press releases extolling the great accomplishments he and his staff have had improving the schools.
The truth is graduation rates have barely budged. An earlier article quoted him making claims of some grades getting 80 percent of students passing state tests. State test results at the state education office show no such thing.
It’s great when you’re a failed superintendent to just start making up facts about your successes. It horrendous when you let a process run through that you should have opted out of that gets another agency to honor your school with awards it doesn’t deserve. Then have the gall to write press releases extolling what great changes have been brought about during his tenure as the superintendent that have led to these improved results!
You throw all this together with all the other lies that come out of the school district and wonder when they will move this guy on. Or maybe the school board is praising him behind closed doors for creating these positive impressions which cover up their failures, too.
Just in brief, he blamed a reading program on poor reading scores (despite other schools’ successes using it), dumps the program, and buys another. Goodbye tax dollars! Thank you, school board.
He blames transitions between grade levels for lower scores, and claims there is research to support it, but nobody can find that research and he won’t produce it. He’s putting the district through huge turmoil, creating K-6 schools as though it is the next magic elixir to fix things. At the same time destroying teacher teams that have worked together for years. Thank you, school board.
The district constantly makes sure everyone knows how many poor students the district has and how many Hispanics without proper English, yet he has a school that knocks out high scores consistently, even using the reading program he’s thrown overboard and even with high poverty and high Hispanic counts. But once K-6 is done, that school will be wrecked. Thank you, school board.
How long does it take the school board to recognize a blowhard when they see one? How many years of failure to make genuine improvements do they have to see? Or are they happy with all the false information so the schools look good?
The school board is a failure here. They must like this guy. As long as the lies aren’t challenged, it makes them all look good. When it finally blows up, they’ll give him one of the biggest golden parachutes into retirement anyone in the county has even seen.
Oh, yeah, one more thing, the board was advised against, but did anyway, giving him years-long contracts that they’ll have to cash out if he’s forced to leave. Thank you, school board.
Kris Carter
Centralia
