SED Critical of Academy School, ResulTech
The State Education Department has released its report on Academy School 44, and it faults—among other things—ResulTech, the Maryland firm that provides technical support for the failing school. Unfortunately, the project was turned in too late to receive any credit from the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority, who already approved ResulTech’s $1.7 million contract extension two weeks ago, on July 8. (more…)
July 16, 2008
Carl Paladino Commercial
The Buffalo School district may have officially decided to just forget all the problems regarding McKinley High School principal Crystal Barton, the dysfunctional School Board, Superintendent James A. Williams and McKinley basketball coach and accused serial seducer, James Daye, but apparently one Buffalo citizen is not going to let them off the hook that easily. Developer Carl Paladino has purchased radio spots on WBEN chastising all of the above and giving a little instruction of his own. “James A. WIlliams, it’s time for you to go.”
May 20, 2008
High School Principals to Williams: Get Out of Town
A friend called in to tell us that a friend called him just now with this news, which he heard third-hand: (Does that insulate our sources sufficiently from the fury of the Buffalo Public Schools administration?) Last night Buffalo’s association of public high school principals registered a unanimous vote of no confidence in Superintendent James A. Williams. The vote of no confidence follows closely on the heels of Williams’ announcement that he is staying in Buffalo; his contract (renewed last fall by an administration-friendly, outgoing board of education) runs through 2011. Williams had been a finalist for the superintendent’s job in Memphis, Tennessee. Word is, Williams is furious about this and has been burning up the phone lines, chewing out those principals he deems responsible for the measure. To which one might reply: Dr. Williams, the vote was, according to our sources, unanimous. UPDATE: The secondary school principals apparently asked the entire principals’ union to join them in taking a vote of no confidence in Williams. Buffalo Teachers Federation President Phil Rumore told Channel 4 News at Wednesday’s school board meeting that his executive committee might ask union members for a no confidence vote as well. If both those things happened, the only folks left in the district supporting Williams would be his cabinet and a handful of board members.
May 8, 2008
Williams Interviewed for Memphis Job
When the Memphis Commercial Appeal published details of the search for that city school district’s superintendent position on Tuesday, May 6, Dr. James Williams was named as one of the five finalists for the position.
The next day, as the story was breaking here, the Buffalo Public Schools Web site posted an official statement from Williams, which reads in part, “The Memphis City School District and their representatives recently contacted me regarding my possible interest in the position of Superintendent of their District. I was approached about this position and I have not formally interviewed for the position.”
Williams does not elaborate more on his new job prospects, but Alvin Johnson, speaking today on behalf of Ray and Associates, was able to shed a bit more light on the situation.
Ray and Associates is the executive search company that has been contracted by Memphis schools to find suitable candidates for their Superintendent position.
Johnson says that Williams was contacted by a letter sent to him from Ray and Associates headquarters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Apparently, Williams will open a letter from a “professional organization that specializes in school executive leadership searches” even if he won’t open a certified letter from a teacher in his own district. In defense of not reading that important message that was reporting alleged fondling of a young student by a teacher’s aide, Williams went on the record saying he doesn’t open any of his mail.
Somehow, this letter was different. (more…)
April 17, 2008
City Honors: The Kresse Report
Want to read the report that the Buffalo News has been writing about for the last four days, without ever quoting from it directly?
Here’s what we know about the origin of the report, which was written by Bill Kresse (pictured left), the well-respected principal of City Honors, the jewel in the Buffalo Public School District’s increasingly tarnished crown:
- Last fall, Kresse felt pressured by senior administrators Will Keresztes, Joseph Melvin, and Folasade Oladele to revert to the school’s former method for calculating GPAs. (Kresse and a task force of secondary school principals had arrived at a district-wide standard for GPA calculations in January 2007.) Keresztes’s daughter benefited from the reversion to the old formula.
- In December, Kresse felt pressured to re-admit the daughter of then deputy county executive (and current AV columnist) Bruce Fisher by Melvin, Oladele, and school board member Chris Jacobs, despite his and his staff’s judgment that Fisher’s daughter would be better served at another school.
- Kresse hastily wrote a report about these incidents in December at the behest of of Melvin and Superintendent James Williams.
- The report lay fallow until two weeks ago, when rumors of its contents began to fly and news outlets—including this one—began hunting it down.
- On Sunday the Buffalo News published a front-page story about the report and its allegations, thus identifying the two children involved—much to the consternation of Fisher and Keresztes, who both deny exercising undue influence in the affairs the report documents. (Fisher’s denial is plausible, though it’s possible influence was exerted on his behalf without his knowing about it; Keresztes’s denial seems a little thin.)
- For his part, Kresse stands by his report, though he has indicated that he never expected it to become public.
We’ll examine what the report indicates about the administration of Buffalo Public Schools generally over the coming weeks.
