| Topic: |
Sociology > Education |
| User: |
"Paul J. Berg" |
| Date: |
19 Jul 2007 09:57:14 AM |
| Object: |
Cathy Minchberg: Portland's Next School Superintendent? |
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From Willamette Week (Portland, Oregon) - July 18, 2007
If former Portland Public Schools Superintendent Vicki Phillips was the
district's President Bush, chief operating officer Cathy Mincberg was
her Karl Rove, the brainy insider to whom Phillips turned when she
needed "damage control" on her sweeping and sometimes unpopular reforms.
As politically ambitious as Phillips, Mincberg once ran for Houston City
Council. But she largely stayed in Phillips' shadows for much of her
boss's three-year tenure in Portland, influencing decisions, from public
relations to food service and building management, behind the scenes.
Now, as the School Board prepares to select Phillips' replacement,
questions swirl. Will Phillips' right-hand woman stay or go, just as
Phillips did last month when she left for a higher-paying job at the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation? And, if Mincberg stays, will she
serve Phillips' successor or will she be Phillips' successor?
To a large extent, Phillips' legacy depends on how the School Board
answers those questions. Hiring a superintendent who won't abandon the
changes Phillips made to school configuration patterns and textbook
options, for example that would make Phillips look good.
Phillips has already vowed to stay involved in Portland, and an ally
like Mincberg would help her wield greater influence from her post as
Gates' education director of the Gates Foundation, where she'll oversee
more than $3.4 billion, including a $2.6 million grant to PPS. (When
Phillips left her previous superintendent's job in Lancaster, Pa., she
had a hand in picking her successor, Ricardo Curry. He was sentenced to
two years in prison after investigators revealed fraudulent spending and
hiring practices.)
Several internal candidates in Portland besides Mincberg appear to be
possible superintendent contenders, even though none has been a
superintendent. The list includes chief of staff Carole Smith, human
resources director Richard Clarke, and chief of teaching and learning
Judy Elliott.
But the specter of a Mincberg administration most worries and angers the
parents who criticized Phillips' changes the loudest.
"We've seen Cathy Mincberg in action, and it was purely tactical and
without a strategic vision," says parent Ben Joy, whose experience
fighting the closure of Rose City Park Elementary School has prompted
him to plan a run for School Board.
Mincberg, 45, who makes $190,000 a year, said that she is considering
applying for the top job. "Being the superintendent for Portland would
be an honor," she wrote.
Mincberg's time in Houston as the $160,000-a-year chief business officer
raises a few red flags about her suitability to run Portland's schools,
a district one-quarter the size of Houston's.
Mincberg's projects there were grand. She is credited with generating
$20 million in federal grants to support the purchase of new technology.
But she also generated a backlash among union leaders and parents when
she supported the idea of teachers working extra as school bus drivers
for $10.32 an hour.
"Why not have us come in on Saturday and do the lawn?" Coletta Sayer,
president of the Houston Classroom Teachers Association, told the
Houston Chronicle.
Mincberg was also among a number of administrators called out by the
Chronicle in 2004 for accepting gifts from businesses with school
district contracts.
Although the practice was not against district policy then, Mincberg
accepted Super Bowl tickets from Hewlett-Packard, the recipient of a
multimillion-dollar contract with the district at the time.
Portland School Board co-chair Dan Ryan declined to discuss possible
candidates.
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| User: "Ted Mittelstaedt" |
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| Title: Re: Cathy Minchberg: Portland's Next School Superintendent? |
20 Jul 2007 03:56:32 AM |
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"Paul J. Berg" <pjberg@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:8445-469F7BCA-49@storefull-3238.bay.webtv.net...
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From Willamette Week (Portland, Oregon) - July 18, 2007
If former Portland Public Schools Superintendent Vicki Phillips
Tempest in a teapot.
Vicki was brought in to do a nasty dirty job. Close schools. The
myopic members of the past school boards first thought they could
keep every school in the system open forever and ever in the face
of continuously declining enrollment. Finally one of the non-neck-sticking
-out bunch got wise and brought in a hatchet woman. Who did her
job well, took ***** and ***** from boneheads for doing it, and when
she was done she left.
end of story.
Now we can get back to the business of educating students and
bring in an educator. The work for the hatchet men/women is
done.
Ted
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