Comments on: Teacher at Higley High placed on leave

By: MJ

MJ — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:51:13 +0000

Have we heard whatever happened with this teacher?

By: katie

katie — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:54:29 +0000

Roxy, that may be true, however my child is a peer pal which means I have to pay. My point is that I have been told by Ms. Folley as well as others in the program that she is not is charge of it. They are trying to clarify it among their department and the district. Dr. Caesar and her department have several team members as well. If there is too much on her plate to sit down and figure out how to make it work then perhaps delegation is in order.

By: Roxy

Roxy — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:36:21 +0000

Katie,
I heard that Dr Cisar runs the special ed portion of the pre-school program and that Ms Folley runs the regular ed portion. Plus I also heard that Dr Cisar has on her plate school nurses, all classroom aides, special ed teachers, psychologists, speech therapist, occupational therapist, physical therapist and including dealing with special ed classrooms and parents. Now that’s a full plate! Now I can understand why this lady is so busy. The reason I know all of this my son in a special ed classroom. Whenever I had any problems I always got my questions answered. Even though I had to leave a message but she would always return my calls.

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:02:14 +0000

Well, one person I know was an internal promotion. As I mentioned in a post back on October 28th, I have a child in the preschool program. I have tried to reach someone over and over in regards to my concerns with Preschool. When I call the office, I am told the person in charge of Preschool and Special Needs program is a Dr. Caesar. I ask for her and get a voicemail of someone named Cynthia. I call over and over and get the same voicemail. I ask for a direct line and am told that I am not able to get a number that I must go through her secretary. Excuse me? Am I not a tax payer? Why is this person screening her calls? I have asked who her boss is and am told she has been with the district for over a year and was just recently promoted to a director and is too busy to deal with parents. I was then given another contact name of a Mrs. Folly who said she is not in charge of that program, and is not sure why calls are being directed to her. She suggested the name of someone else who is in another department and deals with the billing. Finally an answer and a contact person I can actually reach.

Someone needs to address the fact that those with big important titles need training in basic customer service. This is a good example of how this district office seems to work. Nobody has answers, they just keep transfering you to another person. Very rarely do you actually get a live voice and the majority of the time if you do get a person, it is the wrong one.

By: Peggy

Peggy — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:46:42 +0000

Roxy- wait until you see this year’s audit!

By: Peggy

Peggy — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:39:27 +0000

The HR department has to submit all new hires to be board approved, and get approval for newly created positions-since these affect the budget. If anyone is looking into this- I don’t know. HR claims that the retention the rate has improved, but all their graphs and charts don’t give us a clear, accurate picture of why people are leaving, who is leaving, and why they are leaving.

The candidates who just ran for board- with the exception of Standage- said they had been contacted by numerous employees and parent groups with concerns of staff being bullied by administration, and said they cannot speak to administration without fear of being reprimanded.

As for promoting within, compare this year’s organizational chart with last year’s chart and you will see only new names in the new and higher positions. The unfortunate thing is that employees that do try for promotions within, are often times given phoney interviews so that HUSD can say that the employee was “considered” yet there was never an intention to promote them.
Considering that classified employees finally got a 2% raise after almost 3 years, and many do not get yearly reviews, it is no wonder they feel the need to tell board members and groups like Change in HUSD how things are done in HUSD.

By: Roxy

Roxy — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:17:38 +0000

I am so glad that someone came to their senses and did away with those administrators and TOSA’s. Those people did not know what the heck they were doing. I think when they hired them they were just trying to fill the positions with these peoples looks. Talk about dumb blondes 1/2 of them didn’t even know how to answer or conduct school business. This district was left in ruins when these people had our top administrator positions. I heard this year the district has been working all year to clean up their messes they left behind. Some of these people got moved to principal and asst principal positions in our district and chandler district. Why dont you ask for our audit results. The audit results go back last year and the year prior. You’ll see who wasn’t doing what they were suppose too. You all complain about all our administrators that replaced these people. Have you all seen what positions the other districts have to get these jobs done at their districts. Remember this district is growing! And more and more we will be needing more district administrators. You all need to get out of the hill billie thinking and realize this district is growing. One more thing I hope they do away with the superintendent. This lady is a joke! I have never seen this lady support any of her district staff or an administrator. She is ready to hang anyone out to dry as long as it saves her neck.

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:56:35 +0000

Is anyone looking into this? How can they continue do this? You say people are in fear, are they being threatened? How do you know they are in fear? How do you know they are not being promoted from within?

By: Peggy

Peggy — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:51:00 +0000

When the new associate super came in- she reorganized the teaching and learning dpt. She replaced the one director with 3 (all from outside, maybe they are from her previous district). All the other teaching and learning staff had to re-apply for their jobs, to date I think there is only 1 left- a teacher on assignment. All the other positions were filled with new employees, and the newly created positions were also filled with people from outside HUSD. This occured in other departments as well, no one from within was promoted, except for some positions in the HR dpt. So, now other dpts fear that this will be the case once the associate super feels like reorganizing again.
Another example of employees who know too much dirt about HUSD being forced out.

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:14:31 +0000

MJ are you saying that besides losing a good chunk of our administrators and teachers we also lost alot of district office staff? What is being done to prevent that? I know they hired alot of directors, as I read that on this blog. Did they not promote from within? What happened to all of those that were replaced?

By: Peggy

Peggy — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:55:38 +0000

Good point Keith,

Employees not “fitting their mold” maybe why half of the district office employees are new as of this school year, as are half of the school administrators and staff. HUSD just can’t seem to keep people who are not brain washable- they have to get rid anyone who thinks out side the box, or questions their authority and actions. The only people who can question their actions are the board members, but they are not smart enough to ask about anything that goes on in that district (except Ms. Anderson- who tries to do a good job, and keep people honest, but only gets accused of “stirring the pot”.
Is it January yet!?

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:47:10 +0000

I am beginning to think that they don’t want to keep anyone that doesn’t fit into the “mold” of what they want. It is like they want robots that will do what they say. It is hard enough in this day and age for children to trust and respect teachers, yet the ones that do find that connection with the students are let go. I am hoping the market picks up and we are able to move out of this district soon. This is starting to become more and more of a negative enviornment and I, for one, do not want a district that is continually forcing good, qualified, employees out.

By: Peggy

Peggy — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:38:29 +0000

Well, just last year they fired a a teacher who was also the cheer coach for doing a spirit routine- which her cheer leaders came up with- in class (5 mins away from the regular 90 min instructional period) and it was spirit week at the high school!

Just another example of how HUSD doesn’t stand up for it’s teachers or staff members. And another reason for good, qualified teachers not to join HUSD- constant threat of loosing their job.
I am suprised that there is anyone left working in that district besides the top ranking, excuse makers, who earn the high salaries that keep growing (whoever approved those salaries must have been high).

By: Katie

Katie — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:52:02 +0000

So a teacher is placed on leave and everyone makes assumptions, the paper publishes not one, but two articles, the news covers it and our own District answers nothing? Perhaps if they stated some facts, the public could form an opinion of our own. Why is this just coming to light now? If in fact this happened 4 months ago, and nobody came forth, I would question as to why it is out now? I agree with the parent I saw on the news. Her child seemed to think nothing of it, the teacher is loved and admired by the students and yet we are led to think the worst.

Either let us know the facts, or drop it.