Green says chiefs meet requirements
For a couple of weeks now questions have surrounded the hiring of Eric Becoats for the chief administrative officer position and Charlotte-Meck public relations director Nora Carr to replace Becoats as chief of staff.
Among the questions from the public is whether either is technically qualified for the positions. The specific issue is this section from both job descriptions:
MINIMUM TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE
“Minimum requirements would be a Master’s Degree or six-year Certificate and Administration Certification in the state of North Carolina. Experience as a Principal and Central Office Administrator required, and administrative experience as an assistant or associate superintendent preferred.”
Neither has experience as a principal. Schools attorney Jill Wilson said there’s no legal issue with the discrepancy. The state only regulates instructional positions and the school board and superintendent are free to hire anyone they deem fit for administrative positions she said. Wilson added that there are some state requirements for administrators who directly evaluate teachers and principals.
When I asked Green about it this morning he said he had not seen the descriptions online but if this was the case it is an error with what’s published online. He added that both Becoats and Carr are high quality hires for their positions and that they will be important to leading the school system forward.
I know that won’t satisfy everyone but that’s what I’ve got so far and I’m certainly open to hearing your thoughts on the matter.
Comments (20)
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If you are going to follow the job description requirements, I suggest that they be eliminated. Considerable effort is spent by HR people in carefully writing the descriptions. Also, is it true that Nora Carr position she left at CMS is not being filled? It seems her job in Charlotte was not in the heavy lifting category.
Posted on December 10, 2008 3:18 PM
Pls put a "not" in the first sentence.
Posted on December 10, 2008 3:20 PM
This is typical....
Guilford County Policies policies and practices only apply to parents and students. If a parent or student goes before the board , they will read the policy back to you verbatim.
When it comes to applying them to themselves, they ignore it and say oh it is wrong or rewrite it.
They should know their job descriptions and if it is documented on their own website....it should be correct.
What does this say for our organization?
This may not be a legal issue...
but it is "extremely poor business practice!!"
Posted on December 10, 2008 3:22 PM
How many of go back to the Ted Mack
Amatuer Hour.
It is the Ted Mack School System.
They wrote the Job description after the
selection. They still could not get it right.
Posted on December 10, 2008 4:18 PM
GCS caught with its pants down again.
Posted on December 10, 2008 6:02 PM
"Jill Wilson said there’s no legal issue with the discrepancy. The state only regulates instructional positions and the school board and superintendent are free to hire anyone they deem fit for administrative positions she said"
Of course she said that. She is their lawyer..
However there is a competence issue with the discrepancy
Also they are a public entity. Some
protocol is expected for posting and hiring for
positions.
I have been told that for many positions they require 3 interviews.
How many people would not apply if they read the
job description?
It is all a mute point any way because they never advertised.
Posted on December 10, 2008 6:47 PM
David,
I agree with you. As someone said above, when they want it their way they shove the "policy" excuse up your unowhat with no hesitation.
Well, at least Duncan does all the time.
Posted on December 10, 2008 8:30 PM
They ignore details.
The job discription for Principal says reports
to superintendent. I kid you not.
How many Principals do we have?
Mo is going to be busy.
Big deal of course not. However HR must see this every day and is too lazy to fix it for years.
Now years ago I read about an auditor for a hotel chain. His comment was that every time he visited a hotel for an audit, he checked the rest rooms off the lobby. From that he knew what the books would look like.
Old Quality saying.
Some places have a documented system.
Others simply a system of documents.
Posted on December 10, 2008 10:19 PM
i would love to hear details about the accused bus driver. How sad. I think there are days that some kids NEED to be strangled. If they had assistants on the bus the driver would not have to also be a disciplinarian. I am not saying she did this nor am I saying it would be justified. All I know is these drivers need help. I know this, i would be fearful if i had to see what goes on on these buses.
Posted on December 10, 2008 10:30 PM
What goes on on these buses?
Is it every bus?
Posted on December 10, 2008 11:59 PM
I hear kids get a real "education" on these buses... Not to mention the thugs, slugs and hoodlums that terrorize the drivers.
Posted on December 11, 2008 8:39 AM
Speaking of interviews...apparently, to become a teacher now in this county, it requires multiple interviews.
Just ask my sister-in-law, who has two math degrees from Greensboro College and is middle and high-school certified in math, and still has not gotten hired at a GCS school, for two years now. And she wants to work at a Mission Possible school.
So much for that so-called teacher shortage.
Some things at GCS aren't going to change.
Posted on December 11, 2008 9:28 AM
Bus behavior is an extension of classroom behavior. If there is no order during the day in the classroom, why should we expect order on the bus?
There is more to it than has been published. I doubt the bus driver stopped the bus and went back and strangled a kid without being provoked. She must have thought that it was a serious enough problem that she had to intervene. She had 23 years experience, I doubt she would throw it out the window without a reason. What does "stragled" mean? Did he go to the hospital? Does he have a bruised neck? Did he lose conciousness? Next, we will see teachers being arrested.
Posted on December 11, 2008 11:06 AM
The latest
"Experience as a Principal and Central Office Administrator required"
Should have been Experience as a Principal "or" Central Office Administrator required,
I think they just down graded the jobs.
I imagine a great many Principals may be
interested.
So Principal experience cuts it for Chief of Staff
or Chief of Administration.
It's a Marxs Brothers movie. HONK HONK
Posted on December 11, 2008 11:31 AM
Interestingly, a review of GCS' HR section on job descriptions, reveals that the Chief of Staff job description still is shown with the minimum requirements as follows:
"Minimum requirements would be a Master’s Degree or six-year Certificate and Administration Certification in the state of North Carolina. Experience as a Principal or Central Office Administrator required, and administrative experience as an assistant or associate superintendent preferred."
This does not appear to be significantly different, even though it states: GCS Rev. 2000, Rev. 2/2006, Rev. 11/2008, which would mean that it has been recently revised. If Supt. Green states that something that was posted online is in error, what was it that was revised?
HR experts will tell you that minimum requirements should be stated only as it is necessary for a candidate to successfully perform the essential job functions. So, if HR reviewed and revised this job description recently, and left the minimum requirements unchanged, then HR must feel that the essential job functions, do, in fact, require experience as a Principal or Central Office Administrator. If this is the case, then Ms. Carr was hired in violation of GCS' own HR policies. Is it a legal violation, probably not, but it is an ethical violation. But, then, when was the last time that this organization ever was concerned about ethics?
I suppose that Mo Green never stated that one of his objectives was to have an ethical administration, but it would have been nice if he intended to do so. Looks as though Mo plans to continue the Grier Way. He's nicer, but is he better?
Posted on December 11, 2008 2:39 PM
Further, it appears that by not posting this position, GCS violated its posting policy, as it says that "all job vacancies" are posted.
"Where are job vacancies posted?
All job vacancies are posted online here. If there are no positions posted in the area for which you are searching, that means that there are currently no vacant positions in that particular area. Please check the site frequently for the most current list of vacancies."
Posted on December 11, 2008 3:06 PM
"and Administration Certification in the state of North Carolina"
Is Ms Carr Certified by the state?
Brian, Have a look.
Posted on December 12, 2008 8:15 AM
I am losing all confidence in the new administration and the board.....
How can Mo say Carr meets all requirements when he doesn't even know what the requirements are as stated in the GCS Personnel policy. He obviously has not read them and when Chalkboard investigators know what the policies are....how competant is the Superintendant!
Of course, someone in human resources should have pointed this out if it ever went through the proper channels.
Posted on December 12, 2008 1:33 PM
"Is Ms Carr Certified by the state?"
She may well be.
I just thought that an educators degree was required
There is a job description for the superintendent.
Have a look. Good for a giggle.
Now
Actually the fault here does not lie with Mr Green.
In fact I'm starting to believe the fact he does not have an educators background is a positive.
The educators have basically ruined the American public school system over the past few decades.
Especially at the secondary level..We have many teachers well versed in how to teach subjects they have little real knowledge of.. They went to school to learn how to teach them not how to use them.
The problem with our system lies with the school board and the staff Green is inheriting.
Coaches, Instructional Coaches Assistant Principals/Principals with 3 to 5 years experience,
Talent Development Specialists, it goes on and on.
These are basically those that couldn't or didn't like teaching. Thats why they find technology and metrics in the class room so appealing.
They have no understanding that teaching takes the right mix of desire/knowledge and personality.
The 15th century Jesuits got it right. If you could not teach they sent you off to make wine and bread.
Maybe a hard nosed lawyer is what we need. If he is a good judge of talent, Ms Carr will be great.
If he is not we are no worse off.
Hell, it can't get any worse. Give him a shot.
If he would just say the place is mess and I'm going to fix it. All he need say is, right, the job descriptions are a sham and we will clean them and any other shams up, period.
Lets just stop the system from pretending and constantly telling us how good they are doing.
Whats the saying. When you're doing good people will tell you
Striving Achieving Excelling come on.
When thats true we won't need the slogan/motto
Remember Wachovia's Motto. " Uncommon Wisdom"
.
.
Posted on December 12, 2008 3:13 PM
It all begins at the top.
Mo Green is perhaps the least-qualified person to assume the position of superintendent ever in Guilford County.
Why was he selected? It's simple. Amos Quick, Walter Childs, Deena Hayes and their apologists on the school board wanted to hire a black man. You know it, I know it, and the majority of thinking people in Guilford County know it.
Now, Mo Green, after his please-tell-me-how-I-do-this-job (I mean LISTENING) tour, is practicing that grand old tradition of cronyism. Even if it means hiring another unqualified person in the school system.
In this city, race trumps all. Hands-on experience, competence and a solid track record of actually holding the position in a previous job history does not matter anymore. If anyone speaks out against the status quo, he or she is branded a racist.
Even if the News & Record wasn't eviscerated by cutbacks and layoffs, it would not matter. The daily paper is utterly gutless. Editorials were written about what a wonderful "out of the box" hire Mo Green was. Sure he was, if by "out of the box" you mean "completely unqualified and in over his head."
Rome is burning. And the Neros of our time are not fiddling, they are filling up gasoline cans.
Posted on December 17, 2008 10:38 PM