AAPS Superintendent Patricia Green Resigns
Ann Arbor Public Schools superintendent Patricia Green has turned in her resignation, after a little less than two years on the job. Her resignation takes effect in mid-July. In a brief letter to AAPS staff and families in the school system, Green said she intends to retire after 43 years in the profession. [.pdf of Green's letter]
Patricia Green (Chronicle file photo by Monet Tiedemann)
She began her tenure on July 1, 2011 with a five-year contract and a starting salary of $245,000. According to AAPS spokeswoman Liz Margolis, a voluntary salary reduction that Green had recently offered has not yet been implemented. Under the terms of her contract, 90 days notice was required, which Green gave in her resignation letter to AAPS board president Deb Mexicotte on April 10.
A letter by Mexicotte to the AAPS community stated that the board will be meeting in the near future to discuss the leadership transition. Mexicotte also praised Green for advocacy efforts at the state level, for forging partnerships with local businesses, for making key administrative hires since coming to Ann Arbor. [.pdf of Mexicotte's letter]
Green’s resignation comes as the district is facing $17-$20 million of cuts for next year’s budget.
This is the second recent resignation by a top AAPS administrator. Robert Allen, the district’s deputy superintendent for operations, resigned earlier this year. His last day was March 22. Allen had served as interim superintendent in 2010-11 following the departure of former superintendent Todd Roberts. Allen left to take a job at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, which Roberts leads.
A natural question to ask: Why did the board select Green over the other candidates? So now I’m grateful for Jennifer Coffman’s coverage of the board deliberations on the candidates for superintendent: [link]
What is the common denominator here? Pretty obvious it’s the BOE maybe we need to start taking a hard look at them. Most feel they are not up for reelection so they can try and move their own agendas forward. Another government body at its finest.
“According to AAPS spokeswoman Liz Margolis, a voluntary salary reduction that Green had recently offered has not yet been implemented.”
Surprise.
Perhaps the kind of Superintendent you get when you try to use extremely high pay as a lure is the kind of Superintendent who leaves when faced with a budget deficit and the need to accept a salary reduction.
Let’s look for someone who loves education, who would enjoy living and working in a community like Ann Arbor and who would accept a reasonable salary.
One contributing factor may have been Green’s dictatorial style with regard to the Board. She even had the temerity to require that Board members file Freedom of Information Act requests to get information from the AAPS staff.
One contributing factor may have been [insert semi-informed, off-target speculation here].
It’s interesting that this is being discussed both here and on other sites as something negative (a problem? a failure? a ???).
That sort of perspective will remain even after Green has left the building and the state: “Superintendents can’t be trusted, and are a problem to handle, and…” Turning it around, our thinking about superintendents can’t be trusted and is a problem to handle. Is that truer? Seems so to me.
The alternative? This is perfect. If we can’t see it as such, let’s figure out why. Maybe then we can model constructive approaches to education for our kids that shows that anger and blame-placing aren’t necessary.
In the post WWII period cities like Ann Arbor have maintained somewhat high quality public school systems (as referenced against the generally abysmal quality of American public education) when reasonably prosperous and when the minority enrollment is less than about a third. When these conditions fail the systems collapse to barrel bottom in a generation or so. The collapse is characterized by waves of white flight, decline in electoral support and administrative chaos.
Ann Arbor is well into this process although most people here pretend otherwise.
The exiting administration, faced with the worst financial crisis in at least a generation, wasted most of its time and energy on pie in sky projects like closing the achievement gap. The only possible way to balance the budget, major cuts in teacher compensation, was traded off for chicken feed concessions. A new superintendent will probably come in too late and be too weak to push through new millages. One likely result is that AAPS will run out of money and the schools will close early in 2014. Another is state control and merger with wypsiRun.
The BOE needs to stop thinking the grass is greener somewhere else and look for viable candidates from within the District. Ms. Mexicotte, as well as other BOE members, would benefit with a bit of introspection that Green was the wrong candidate from the very beginning.
Because, in general, hindsight is better than foresight, I think Dave Askins is askin’(s) one of the key questions: looking back, what made the BOE decide that Pat Green was better than the other candidates? [And by the way, I heard other non-board members say the same thing.]
As we look back, does it seem that we got what we expected?
Did we get what we expected, but that turned out not to be what we wanted because we had our criteria wrong?
Did we not get what we expected because Pat Green interviewed well–but reality turned out not to match the interviews?
As my algebra teacher used to say to the class, “It’s ok to make a mistake, but it is better if you make a different one every time.” Examining the last process is a good way to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes.
Good questions Ruth. I will be asking what their process and criteria are at the working session on Wednesday.
Re #5 (David Cahill) – I’ve filed a FOIA request with the AAPS to read a log of FOIA requests. (Recursive!) You can see progress here:
[link]
@9 Ruth Kraut
“…I think Dave Askins is askin’(s) one of the key questions…”
Was that really necessary?
@12: Jealous, John?
@11. The MuckRock process and site are pretty cool.
Absolutely necessary, John! I think it’s punny! :)