Business First has released its findings on Erie County school district salaries. Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent James Williams tops the list at a base salary of $220,000. According to the See Through New York Web site, that figure was $227,427

Members of Williams’s cabinet don’t do too badly, either. Chief Academic Officer Folasade Oladele makes $159,399. Chief Financial Officer Gary Crosby makes about the same amount. Lead Community Superintendent Mark Frazier makes $129,075. Former principal, now Associate Superintendent Will Keresztes makes $127,335.

Williamsville school superintendent Howard Smith was second to Williams in terms of pay at $206,500. Business First rates Williamsville the number one school district in WNY, and they point out that Williamsville also pays its teachers the most money based on “median pay.” Buffalo ranks #28 by this standard.

But if  you factor in starting salaries for teachers, Williamsville slips to second place, while Buffalo is at a dismal 70th. Peak salaries for Buffalo Teachers are ranked near the very bottom, at 71st.

Could there be some kind of connection?

She may have lost her seat on the school board in the May 5 election, but that is not stopping outgoing board member Catherine Collins from fulfilling her duty as Chairperson of the Executive Affairs Committee.

Tomorrow, May 20, the committee will meet in room 801 in city hall, at 4pm. Among the topics addressed will be the evaluation of Superintendent James Williams. These evaluations can lead to contract extensions and raises for the superintendent. (Click here for a copy of the Williams’s contract signed by board member Florence Johnson on May 23, 2007.)

Yesterday was the deadline for school board members to submit their evaluations of Williams to Sister Denise Roche, President of D’Youville College.

Roche is scheduled to give a summary presentation to the Executive Affairs Committee tomorrow at 6pm.

On Friday, May 15, I called Sister Roche to ask about her involvement with the superintendent’s evaluation—something she has participated in before. I left a message to that effect with her secretary. I called again yesterday, and was told she was out of town.

I left a message saying I was seeking comment from her about whether she felt it was appropriate for a nun, the president of a college, to be involved in the evaluation of the superintendent of a school system that pays that college somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 million per year to house one of its schools, in this case, the DaVinci Academy. According to school district documents, the current annual cost to the district is $1.1 million, or $790,000, excluding capital improvements. The lease with D’Youville expires in August 2013, and was signed by Roche.

Repeated attempts to contact Roche have been unsuccessful. Today I left a message indicating that I was trying to get Roche’s response to a letter delivered to her yesterday by school board member Catherine Nugent Panepinto—a formal request that Roche recuse herself from further involvement in the superintendent’s evaluation.

“I greatly appreciate your willingness to coordinate the evaluation and greatly respect your commitment to education in Buffalo. However, your status as a signatory to a contract with the Board of Education raises a conflict of interest with your role as evaluation coordinator,” Nugent Panepinto writes, “Interests such as your interest in the contract between D’Youville College and the Board of Education are generally addressed in New York State General Municipal Law § 800, wherein conflicts of interest are defined.”

Nugent Panepinto took heat from some board members at last night’s meeting, for sending the letter to Roche.

It seems clear that Roche will not respond to the  inquiries of a  journalist, but maybe she will respond to the request of a school board member.

Then again, maybe she won’t.

Bryon McIntyre

Buffalo fireman Bryon McIntyre lost his tenuous lead in the three-way race for the third and final at-large seat on the Buffalo school board today, when absentee ballots were tallied. Incumbent Florence Johnson won the seat; McIntyre fell behind both Johnson and incumbent Catherine Collins.

So it’s John Licata, Chris Jacobs, and Florence Johnson in the at-large seats.

McIntyre stopped by the Artvoice offices after the voted were counted. You can watch Buck Quigley’s interview with him on AVTV in the morning.

Over at the Buffalo News, Peter Simon keeps insisting that the election was a referendum on Superintendent James Williams. I guess there’s an argument to be made there, though I think that’s simplistic.

This, though is puzzling. Simon writes:

The chances of Buffalo Schools Superintendent James A. Williams retaining majority support on the Buffalo Board of Education brightened today when incumbent Florence D. Johnson captured the board’s third at-large seat…

With Johnson, Williams has four supporters on the board. With Licata, he’s got five critics. Are things really so bright for Williams?

The Buffalo Ruse is always leading the discussion. This week: ChillDay, the compromise between Phil Rumore of the Buffalo Teachers Federation and Buffalo Schools Superintendent James Williams on the start of the next school year.

Late last night, at the tail end of one of the few weeks in the past year in which we did not publish anything snarky about anybody, someone threw two gallons of paint on our front doors. Seems a waste; we hadn’t even earned it. Nonetheless, we were cleaning up all morning.

Last week, sure, I can see that: maybe Chris Collins, maybe Steve Pigeon. But no…those guys wouldn’t stoop so low. They don’t even return our calls. It must have been someone else.

Buck Quigley had what sounded on his end like a civil conversation with Bob Gioia earlier in the week, so I can’t believe it was him. And I can’t imagine his brother, Anthony Gioia—recently confirmed as a representative to the 63rd session of the UN—would be so undiplomatic. James Williams? No, Dr. Williams loves AV. He told me so last year. And I can’t believe anything would have changed his mind since then.

Revenge, like pizza, is best served cold, but we understand that the folks at La Nova have made peace with their neighbors. So that’s not it.

George Sax is too urbane to have caused us trouble with the Public Bridge Authority or the Erie County Democrats. And though Bruce Jackson frequently draws heat down on the paper, it doesn’t seem like the Seneca Gaming Corporation’s style. Our other Bruce, late of county government and now thinking deep thoughts about public policy at Buffalo State, is generally brisk but not offensive…unless Bob Wilmers has been nursing a grudge against Fisher and occasional AV contributor John McMahon for months.

What the hell. It couldn’t have been former Buffalo News editor Murray Light.

I’m sure the vandal didn’t issue from City Hall, the good offices of which are AV’s most frequent target, because anyone who works for the city would know that there’s one of those new surveillance cameras just up the street. The blue-light specials.

When I called B District to ask if the camera might have caught the guilty party in the act, I was told that a detective would call back later today. Then, maybe, we’ll see.

The Buffalo school board held a special meeting at 3:30 this afternoon, called by board member Catherine Nugent Panepinto to “vote on pursuing disciplinary action against the individuals named in the report of attorney David Edmunds and/or as discussed by attorney Karl Kristoff.”

After the Pledge of Allegiance, board President Kapsiak began the meeting by moving to enter into executive section, which was immediately seconded by Catherine Collins, who said that she, for one, intended to mention people’s names—therefore making an executive session mandatory. Within five minutes of typical chaos, the press was again sent into the antechamber that has become their second home since issues involving Crystal Barton and McKinley High School have become public knowledge. Nugent Panepinto never even got to read her motion.

After half an hour, the door opened and BPS lawyer Karl Kristoff read a motion to share all the raw data collected by the $25,000 Edmunds report with school board members—something they’ve never had access to thus far—before deciding if any disciplinary action might be warranted.

Here’s how the vote went down: Four in favor (Nugent Panepinto, Hernandez, Petrucci, Jacobs). Perry-Cahill said she would like to “sustain.” Her colleagues corrected her use of terminology and asked if she would like to “abstain.” She said yes, she would like to do that, and she was joined in her abstention by Collins. Kapsiak and Johnson voted against seeing any more evidence.

Vivian Evans, although present in another room, would not take part in the vote.

Thus, with only four votes in favor of examining all the evidence generated by the $25,000 of taxpayer funds that were used to compensate Edmunds, the motion did not receive the five votes it would have needed to pass. Chief of Staff James M. Kane quickly observed: “It doesn’t pass!” He had the tone of a dealer at a poker tournament, interpreting all the hands for the spectators.

Next, it was time for the board to vote on new officers. Vivian Evans entered to take part in this vote.

Again, the room stood to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Kapsiak retained her position as board president, Collins replaced Hernandez as VP of Executive Affairs, Jacobs replaced Nugent Panepinto as VP of Student Affairs.

In a stunning and unpredictable coincidence, each vote was identical, with Perry-Cahill, Collins, Johnson, Kapsiak, Jacobs, and Evans voting for the winners—while Nugent Panepinto, Petrucci, and Hernandez voted for the losers.

Kapsiak, Collins, and Jacobs were sworn in to their new positions and the meeting was called to a close.

Florence Johnson was the first to move in on the cake. She and Perry-Cahill moved in for a slice after sharing hugs with Collins, Jacobs, and Kapsiak.

And even though it was a big cake, Nugent Panepinto, Petrucci, and Hernandez didn’t have any.

Without waiting for the results of a State Education Department investigation conducted two weeks ago at Academy School 44, the Buffalo School Board voted Wednesday night to extend a lucrative contract to Maryland firm ResulTech, to continue ongoing technical support. The expected outcome is to “increase student achievement, attendance, literacy and out-of school suspensions.”

After two years of ResulTech’s help, which has already cost the district $5.4 million (the new extension makes a grand total of $7.1 million), this year’s test scores show the following: Speaking to the attendance issue, only one third of these 7th and 8th graders took exams. Of the one hundred students that took the tests, 79% of 7th graders failed English, while 90% of the 8th graders failed English. In addition, 91% of the 7th graders failed Math, while 100% of the 8th grade students who took that exam failed it.

Voting to extend the ResulTech contract were (shown left to right) Mary Ruth Kapsiak (Board President, Central District), Catherine Collins (at large), Vivian Evans (East District), Florence Johnson (at large), and Pamela D. Perry-Cahill (Ferry District).

At large board member Chris Jacobs ordinarily votes in step with superintendent Williams—who advocates ResulTech despite its performance—but he voted against the contract extension. Jacobs felt the results of the State Education Department report should be considered before moving ahead another year.

The vote had been delayed since May 14, when it was pulled off the school board agenda at the last minute as stories surfaced in the media about Academy School 44. Teachers there harshly criticized ResulTech, which prompted the State Education Department investigation two weeks ago. The contract extension passed quietly this week as school ended, and as the public was distracted by the district’s inept response to the Crystal Barton/McKinley scandal, and the District Attorney’s response to the bungled handling of reported sexual abuse at school 67.

On the bright side, after two years of trying, ResulTech now has literally nowhere to go but up when it comes to producing improved results for 8th grade math.

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.

“It wouldn’t be fair to the children, ” said Buffalo Schools Superintendent James A. Williams, announcing this afternoon that he had withdrawn his name from consideration for a job as head of the Memphis schools. Upon reflection, Williams said—pulling out the regal first-person plural—”Our greatest achievements are here, in Buffalo. We’ve had a very good three years.”

Williams had been due to interview for the job in Memphis on Monday, May 19. That would have been the formal interview; he’d already done a phone interview, which landed him among the finalists. As Jamie Moses wrote in AV this week, Williams trolled for jobs in other cities while he was superintendent of Dayton schools, too. He said at today’s press conference that Buffalo was it for him; that he’s made a commitment. Moses’ article indicates that he’s said that before as well.

Williams was joined at the press conference by senior staff and the five school board members who seem to think he can do no wrong: Mary Ruth Kapsiak, Vivian Evans, Chris Jacobs, Florence Johnson, and Pamela Perry-Cahill. The four who tend to challenge Williams and his steamrolling style—Ralph Hernandez, Lou Petrucci, Catherine Nugent Panepinto, and Catherine Collins—were absent.

Williams’ performance was recently evaluated by the board, and the overall score he received—comprising an average of the individual scores given him by each board member—was reportedly pretty good. (Of course, it was an average, and there has been some grumbling that dissenting opinions never made it into his final evaluation.)

Did that vote of confidence, asked Channel 2’s Rich Kellman, figure into his decision to stick around?

“I’ve always had the confidence of the board,” Williams said. “When I say ‘the board,’ I mean the majority.”

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…)