Dear Source:
Mr. Brown needs to look more closely at Dr. Spampinato's background. The work she does is change and change is always controversial. In most educational bureaucracies there are many people who have to be served, most are not professionals, and change is frequently even more difficult than in the Virgin Islands because one serves too many masters.
Checking the statistics he would be surprised to find out that the average length of time a superintendent spends in one position in the United States is TWO years. Education is seen as a business. A superintendent has a contract and when the terms of that contract are not met by the EMPLOYER the superintendent has a right to be paid as promised. The fact that Dr. Spampinato was PAID when she was forced out indicates that she WAS NOT AT FAULT.
I might also mention that if she were not currently being 'paid off' by the Pittsburgh school system she may not have been willing to live on the pittance that we pay commissioners. If I had worked as a mere principal in the New York City system my current pension (if I never got out of bed) would be $125,000. a year. We are paying her to work about 60 hours a week in a very difficult situation only $119,000. We should keep our mouths shut in embarrassment and be thrilled that someone with her expertise is willing to take the job.
I won't even get into the 'sensitivity to our culture'. What is cultural about filth, about high school graduates reading at second grade level, about teachers who spend educational time having students copy volumes off the board, about our drop out rate, about EDC companies that can't find employees qualified to do 21st Century jobs, about ten computers to a school, about no physical education classes for teenagers and on and on and on? Our own best educators have been telling us the problems for years and no one was willing to listen or make the serious changes.
As I used to say to my most difficult students; "Shut up and listen – a real educator is about to make you a better person."
Carol Lotz-Felix
St. Thomas
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