So Ted Gardella is now fired, meaning no longer the Superintendent of Howell Public Schools. Why!?
He was doing a great job with what he had to work with. This doesn't make sense. Things were going well inside the district, as well as they ever are. Why would this happen.
Now there will be a scramble to find a new super in time for the fall. That gives us basically less than two months to find someone to run the district.
What has the board done!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Student Commentary
This is a letter that a student wrote:
Howell Public Schools is the largest district in Livingston County, both in size and number of students. Why then is Howell Public Schools falling apart from the inside out? Howell Public Schools over the past few years has been rocked with scandal, and opening a brand new, state of the art high school only to be closed one year after opening.
Coming into the 2008-2009 school year I was very excited, a new principal and a new superintendent that wanted to work for the students and tax payers. We were going to make Howell Public Schools a "Destination District", everyone was going to work together to make HPS the best district it can be, yet half way through the year we see teachers feeling even more nervous around administrators and students afraid to say anything that may offend an administrator. We have disbanded the curriculum committees made up of teachers, we have made it so administrators are told to not interact with the teachers and staff, we have a student council slowly being shut out from a voice of the students to a branch of the administration's weapons to control the student body, to make them pass the tests and graduate.
These are severe problems in this district. When we have administrators not interacting with staff and students, and telling the teachers the best way to teach we will soon have a collapse in TRUE education. If people who have NEVER been in a class room are telling teachers what and how to teach then we will have an education system that is only concerned with passing the students and not giving them an education not in academic sense but in how to be a good citizen, how to live your life, and how to make decisions.
These same administrators who claim to want to make HPS a "destination district" are the same people who tell those that disagree with there policies that they are wrong, not giving a reason, simply stating that they are wrong. What does that teach our students? It teaches students that if they get to a place of power they can simply throw off discussion and claim they are right because they said so.
We need new leadership and a new attitude in HPS, we need to make sure teachers teach education, and not teach the test. HPS has great potential, a new state of the art high school, great students and staff, and a great community, but administrators going on a power trip WILL NOT help this district.
A Student's Perspective of Howell Public Schools
March 2, 2009
Howell Public Schools is the largest district in Livingston County, both in size and number of students. Why then is Howell Public Schools falling apart from the inside out? Howell Public Schools over the past few years has been rocked with scandal, and opening a brand new, state of the art high school only to be closed one year after opening.
Coming into the 2008-2009 school year I was very excited, a new principal and a new superintendent that wanted to work for the students and tax payers. We were going to make Howell Public Schools a "Destination District", everyone was going to work together to make HPS the best district it can be, yet half way through the year we see teachers feeling even more nervous around administrators and students afraid to say anything that may offend an administrator. We have disbanded the curriculum committees made up of teachers, we have made it so administrators are told to not interact with the teachers and staff, we have a student council slowly being shut out from a voice of the students to a branch of the administration's weapons to control the student body, to make them pass the tests and graduate.
These are severe problems in this district. When we have administrators not interacting with staff and students, and telling the teachers the best way to teach we will soon have a collapse in TRUE education. If people who have NEVER been in a class room are telling teachers what and how to teach then we will have an education system that is only concerned with passing the students and not giving them an education not in academic sense but in how to be a good citizen, how to live your life, and how to make decisions.
These same administrators who claim to want to make HPS a "destination district" are the same people who tell those that disagree with there policies that they are wrong, not giving a reason, simply stating that they are wrong. What does that teach our students? It teaches students that if they get to a place of power they can simply throw off discussion and claim they are right because they said so.
We need new leadership and a new attitude in HPS, we need to make sure teachers teach education, and not teach the test. HPS has great potential, a new state of the art high school, great students and staff, and a great community, but administrators going on a power trip WILL NOT help this district.
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