Utah School Superintendent Brad Smith Resigns After a Year-and-a half in Office

Former Ogden School Board Superintent Jackass Resigns; quits his fatcat Job, after 18 months.

• Utah school superintendent Brad Smith resigns after a year in office

"I'm not fit for this job," the retiring weakling State School Board Chief readily admits.

Thanks for helping to clear out the Trash, we say, Mr. Smith, you stupid and incompetent bastid.

Dueling Editorials: Two Wildly Differing Op-Ed Pieces Concerning Brad Smith's Recent Utah School Chief Appointment

Our take? Utah's new State Superintendent of Public Instruction (Brad Smith) must be NOT be "blindly followed," but rather "closely watched"

To kick off our Monday morning discussion, we'll shine the spotlight on a couple of hot-off-the-press Salt Lake Tribune op-ed pieces, offering wildly differing opinions, revolving around the "wisdom" of the appointment of former Ogden School District Superintendent Brad Smith as or new Utah State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

First, on 11/2/14, the Trib published the below-linked Kaye C. Chatterton guest editorial, which takes fawning flattery to a whole new level. Our new Utah State Schools Superintendent "is smarter than most of us. He is a whirling dervish in his learning curve," according to the obseqious Mr. Chatterton. "He is a spiritual man who appears to have congruent values on all seven days of the week," adds Mr. Chatterton, with a particularly Utah-esque church-speak flourish. as he urges Utah Lumpencitizens to lend him their blind and  "total support," [which] "he needs to do his new job." "Suck up much, Kaye C. Chatterton," one astute Trib reader asks?

• Op-ed: Brad Smith is worth trying as Utah schools head

Happily, veteran Ogden schoolteacher and former Ogden Education Association executive officer Lisa Vipperman offers a more level-headed approach, with her 11/9/14 Trib op-ed retort. "It isn’t up to us to give Mr. Smith a chance. We were not given a choice. Now all Utahns will have to deal with what happened in Ogden," opines the ever-rational and outspoken Ms. Vipperman:

• Op-ed: Ogden schools’ problem now the whole state’s problem

Having observed Mr. Smith's bull-in-a-china-shop approach during his Ogden School District Superintendent tenure,  we're inclined to go along with Ms. Vipperman's analysis, and to adopt a posture of making sure that Mr. Smith will be closely watched, as he prepares to take a meat ax to the Utah public school system, which will most surely be the inevitable result of his new appointment.

But what say you, Utah public education wonks?

Standard-Examiner: Utah SAGE Test Results Illuminate Math Struggles - Updated

Hoping that State Schools Superintndent Brad Smith does not lead the state system to the same horrible results he has achieved in Ogden

By: Blackrulon:

The results of statewide testing of schools (SAGE) has been released. Ogden School District posted results of 28.1% in Language Arts, 20.3% in Mathemetics and 26.8% in Science:

• Utah SAGE test results illuminate math struggles

The State of Utah has selected former Ogden school District Superintendent Brad Smith to lead education in Utah. I only hope that he does not lead the state system to the same horrible results he has achieved in Ogden.

Update 10/29/14 8:30 a.m.: Interesting story from the Salt Lake Tribune, reporting that Utah Charter School SAGE test performance was merely on par with that of Utah public schools:

• Charter schools match state performance on SAGE

Click the link below to find out how your children’s specific schools performed:

• Utah Department of Education SAGE Results Database

Duelling Editorials: Strikingly Differing Utah School Board Superintendent Leadership Viewpoints From The Tribune and the Deseret News

The world-wide web eagerly awaits your comments on this thorny topic, of course

With the recent selection of Ogden School Board Superintendant Brad Smith to serve as Utah State Superintendent of Public Instruction, we're delighted to present two Utah print media editorials, commenting upon the pending appointment of this locally controversial figure to Utah's most powerful public education post. The Salt Lake Tribune expresses palpable "wariness" of this development:

• Editorial: With Smith, state school board is taking a big risk

The Deseret News, on the other hand, expresses a contrarian viewpoint:

• In our opinion: New Utah school superintendent could be the reformer the state needs

With Mr. Smith's recent Ogden School District layoffs and the D-News-cited "50 percent turnover in teaching positions during his (Smith's) tenure" fresh in Ogden residents' minds, we're of course wondering what our Gentle WCF Readers might think about this startling development.

We're already hearing groans from Utah teachers, former Highland Junior High teaching veteran Lisa Vipperman, for instance, who doesn't mince words about the "wisdom" Mr. Smith's pending appointment:

“I’m afraid of what he’ll do to schools,” said Lisa Vipperman, one of Smith’s loudest opponents.
Vipperman worked for Ogden School District for 13 years before moving to Davis School District.
“I’m frankly very upset about this,” she said. “I’m upset because I don’t think he’s qualified to do this — he’s not a professional educator.”
Vipperman believes Smith was selected because of his presentation of the way Ogden schools have made strides in scores and graduation rates.
“He has insulted teachers — he makes it sound like we never did anything until he showed up, but we did a lot in Ogden, for many years, to improve test scores and we did improve test scores long before he showed up.”

The world-wide web eagerly awaits your comments on this thorny topic, of course.

Our take?  We're inclined to go along with Ms. Vipperman.

Don't let the cat get your tongues, O Gentle Ones...

Standard-Examiner: Non-renewed Ogden Teachers Question the System

It's time for a thorough Ogden School Board "house-cleaning," wethinks

Eye-opening Becky Wright story from the Standard-Examiner, profiling the plight of former Ogden High School chemistry teacher Jennifer Claesgens, "one of 17 provisional teachers who received notices from Ogden School District that their contracts would not be renewed." Here's the lede:

Jennifer Claesgens’ resume boasts a Ph.D. in science and mathematics education, with an emphasis in chemistry, experience teaching high school, and four years as an assistant professor at Northern Arizona University’s Center for Science Teaching and Learning. When she married a man from Ogden, Claesgens left the university to become the new chemistry teacher at Ogden High School.
Before the school year was over, Claesgens received notice that her contract with Ogden School District was not going to be renewed for the coming year. She was stunned.
“I actually looked at them and said, ‘This is the first I’ve heard that there was a problem,’ ” she recalled, thinking back to a meeting with her principal and other district administrators. “I asked, ‘What’s the basis of this?’ and they said ‘goodness of fit.’ ”

Check out the full text and embedded video here:

• Non-renewed Ogden teachers question the system

Our take-away concerning academically well-qualified Ms. Claesgens’ sudden blind-siding by the Ogden School District Administration?

"Toe the line (and keep your mouth shut.)"

In our view, today's story is symptomatic of the greater problem in the Ogden School District, of course, where OSD Schools Superintendent Brad Smith has ruthlessly dismantled much of the previously existing OSD personnel infrastructure over the past few years.

Happily, there will be a remedy for the OSD's heavy-handed treatment of Ogden school teachers coming up in November, O Gentle Ones, as all three Ogden School Board incumbents who will stand for re-election in our Ogden School Board races face well-qualified challengers, who are poised to change the Superintendent Brad Smith-centric culture of the Ogden School Board:

District #2 - 4 year term
Steven L. Marker - Incumbent
Douglas B. Barker - Challenger

District # 4 - 2 year term
Jeffrey Heiner - Incumbent
Dori Stauffer Mosher - Challenger

District #7 - 4 year term
Joyce J. Wilson - Incumbent
Aaron G. Garza - Challenger

Our advice for Ogden residents concerning in the upcoming 2014 Ogden School Board Elections?

Write this down so you don't forget it, folks!

It's time for a thorough Ogden School Board "house-cleaning," wethinks.

ABC News 4: Seventeen Teachers to Be Let Go by Ogden School District at End of School Year - Updated

It gets interestinger and interestinger as the 2014 General Election approaches, dunnit?

There's more bad news for the children of the Ogden School District, as ABC News 4 reports that our Ogden School Board has followed up last year's devastating Librarian, Adult Education and Reading Coach kill-offs with a new round of sure-to-be-painful staff cuts.  Although the District's rationale is murky, what is clear is that it's 17 Ogden school teachers who'll be looking for new jobs next year:

• Seventeen teachers to be let go by Ogden School District at end of school year (w/Video)

We've also learned from a reliable source that of this seventeen, at least eleven are union members.

Coincidence?  Or is Ogden School Board management (so-called) now embarking on a new "tea party style" union-busting venture?

We're also informed that the Standard-Examiner staff is working on a followup story, which we'll link, assuming something a little more tangible pops up.

Stay tuned, folks.

It gets interesting and interestinger as the 2014 General Election approaches, dunnit?

Update 4/2/14 7:42 a.m.: As predicted above, The Standard-Examiner is all over this story, revealing, among things, that a seemingly disproportionate 6 teachers from Highland Junior High School will receive their "walking papers":

• Ogden axes 17 teachers, including 6 at Highland

Displayed within this link is an "official" roster of Highland faculty and staff.  Scroll down and do the math:

• Highland Junior High School Faculty & Staff

Standard-Examiner: Ogden School District Teacher Departures At 7-year High

"Let us hope the trend of uncommonly high departures extends to school board incumbents at the next election"

Via comment board heavyweight Bob Becker, we adopt this pointed and concise comment, which we'll shamelessly incorporate as our morning article lede:

Interesting article that finally puts some hard numbers to the many comment-board rumors of experienced teachers bailing on OSD. It seems they are, in unprecedented numbers.
Props to the reporter for not simply repeating the Supt's speculations as to the causes, and tracking down teachers who fled to ask them why. Good work.
Let us hope the trend of uncommonly high departures extends to school board incumbents at the next election.

Read the distressing full Standard-Examiner story here:

• Ogden School District teacher departures at 7-year high

And where does "the buck" stop, O Gentle Ones?

Mark your calenders, folks.

The 2014 Ogden School Board Elections are coming up a mere 366 days hence.

Alternate Reality Department: Ogden School Board Renews Superintendent's Contract for Two Years

The knuckle-headed Ogden School Board crosses over into... The Twilight Zone

Alternate Reality Dept.

Some stories we read in the Standard-Examiner simply defy rational explanation. Try this one on for size, O Gentle Ones:

• Ogden School Board renews superintendent's contract for two years

Bob Becker "nails it," down in the S-E comments section:

So, the CEO of OSD got $50k in bonuses while laying off school librarians and over-crowding classrooms. This is the Lehman Brothers model of executive compensation. This school board would likely have voted the Captain of the Titanic a fat bonus as they scrambled aboard the lifeboats.

We're filing this one under the topic label "Alternate Reality Department," inasmuch as the knuckle-headed Ogden School Board has clearly crossed over into... The Twilight Zone.

As school board elections approach in November of 2014, the lumpencitizens of Ogden City certainly have their work cut out for themselves, no?

Standard-Examiner Review: Top of Utah Districts Compensate Teachers About the Same (?)

First things first: While Superintendent Smith busily "guts" the Ogden Public School System, he's not the least bit shy about "wallowing up" to the public trough

Interesting story in yesterday's Standard-Examiner reporting on the relative salary parity of school district administrator and teacher salaries across the Ogden, Weber, Davis and Box Elder school districts (ostensibly) "showing the four districts more or less are in the same boat with base pay rates":

• Review: Top of Utah districts compensate teachers about the same

One notable outlier: Ogden School District's Superintendent Brad Smith, whose base $120,400 salary is augmented by a unique contractual "perq," allowing him "receive up to $30,000 in [annual] performance pay in addition to his base salary."

Smith has thereby banked an additional $53 thousand in "performance pay," over the past two years, the S-E article reports.

 “To my knowledge, I’m the only superintendent in the state that receives performance pay,” Smith said, regarding this one-of-a-kind "entitlement," exhibiting little effort to wipe the giant smile off his face.

We have to hand it to Superintendent Smith for his sheer gall in "wallowing up" up to the public trough, while meanwhile, he busily proceeds with his agenda of "axing" school librarians, tossing 250 "reading coaches" overboard, "canning" adult education, and otherwise driving the Ogden School system into the ground.

And in the wake of  the first round of letter-grade latest test scores, it would appear that Superintendent Smith is well on his way to a further 2013 performance pay windfall, of course.

First things first, eh, Superintendent Smith?

And the beat goes on...

So who'll be the first to throw in their own 2¢?

Utah Public School Grading Falls Under the Microscope - Updated

Critics and skeptics say failing grades speak to flaws in the system

The Standard-Examiner reports that "[t]wo Top of Utah high schools received failing grades overall from the state in the first-ever release of ratings for public schools."

• Viewmont, Ben Lomond high schools get F grades from state

Via the Democratic Education Caucus of Weber County, "here is the information from the Ogden School District on the school grades released from the state replete with Mr. Smith's explanations":

• Superintendant Brad Smith Memorandum

 More from the Standard: "Critics and skeptics Utah's grading system for its schools say failing grades for Ben Lomond and Viewmont High Schools speaks to flaws in the system rather than the failings of the individual schools":

• Utah critics: Grading system flawed, schools misrepresented

So what do you think, fellow Utahns?

OSD "Superintendant Smith"

Update 9/5/13 9:15 a.m.: In a dazzling display of political opportunism, and with a neck-snapping 180-degree flip-flop from his remarks contained in the above-linked memorandum, Ogden School District Superintendent Brad Smith now says he supports the grading system that "clobbered" OSD schools earlier this week:

• Ogden educator applauds controversial new grading system

Political chameleon, anyone?

Mr. Smith apparently doesn't subscribe to the philosophy: "The buck stops here," we guess.

Weber County Forum Question of the Day: Is It Time For An Ogden/Weber School District Merger?

Theoretically, at least, the consolidation of these two districts could save Weber County taxpayers millions of dollars

More interesting over-the-weekend news concerning Ogden School District Superintendent Brad Smith's Adult Education Program "Friday Surprise," wherein Nancy Van Valkenburg expands upon her earlier story on this topic and reports that officials of the Weber County School District, upon learning of the OSD's "decision to eliminate its adult education program Thursday morning," and being asked by the Utah State Office of Education “to assume full responsibilities,” cheerfully and immediately rolled out the welcome mat to the Ogden District's "booted" AEP students, with open arms, more or less:

• Weber district to absorb Ogden district's adult ed program

This noble gesture of course invites the question, folks:  "Is it time for the citizens of Weber County to put the question of a "complete" Weber County School District/Ogden School District merger back on the table?"

WCF readers with long memories will of course recall a 1989 proposal to consolidate these administratively-redundant school districts, a measure which actually appeared on Weber County ballots in November of that year. Weber County voters however then "muffed" the chance to drastically improve these geographically-overlapping districts' inefficient government services redundancy, succumbing instead to the pleas of vested interests within both school districts, who beat the bush "door-to-door," warning of "dropped jobs" and "loss of local (Ogden) school district autonomy."

Perhaps it's time for Weber County lumpencitizens to revisit this issue again, we'll suggest.  Looking at this issue solely from the a "bean counter" point of view, the consolidation of these two districts, and the elimination of the redundancies of the dual tiers of "fat cat" existing school system administrators alone could save Weber County taxpayers millions of dollars:

• Utah's Right to Know - Salaries - Ogden School District
• Utah's right to Know - Salaries - Weber School District

Throwin' in the Towel?

Additional sodden questions:

1. Taking into account the OSD's recent "nuclear" attacks on the very foundations of the Ogden School System, is it possible that OSD officials are actually and intentionally operating with a hidden agenda, an agenda designed to once again force Weber County voters' hands on this issue?
2. Are OSD officials in reality owning up to their managerial malperfomance and gross financial incompetence, and essentially throwing in the towel?

So what do you think, O Gentle Ones?

Would the consolidation of the separate Ogden and Weber School Districts into a single "lean and mean" Ogden/Weber School District "educational machine" be the kind of idea whose time has at long last come?

Don't let the cat get your tongues...

The Sea of Troubles Continues to Boil in the Ogden School District This Morning

The plot sickens; 250 "reading coaches" tossed overboard

OSD "Captain" Smith

The "sea of troubles" continues to boil in and around the Ogden City School District this morning, in the wakes of Ogden School Superintendent Brad Smith's Ogden School District Media Specialist/librarian Massacre and his Adult Education Program "Friday Surprise," as the Standard-Examiner runs a couple of new items this morning demonstrating that our seemingly desperate and suddenly pinch-penny OSD Captain Smith is apparently nowhere near done with cutting the Ogden City Schools' budget clean down to the water line.

Check out this morning's Nancy Van Valkenburg's story, folks, which reports that Ogden City school-kids will be suddenly doing without the services of 250 "reading coaches" who'll be tossed overboard very soon:

• More than 250 reading coaches latest casualties in Ogden School District

And here's an eye-opening Standard-Examiner video piece showing the reaction to this news from the reading coach "crew":


"Who's gonna help the kids read?" one short-timer reading coach asks.

"Will the The Captain" "go down" with the apparently sinking OSD ship?" That's our sodden question, Peeps.

We'll close up Ms. Van Valkenburg's morning OSD article series with a story about the online petition we wrote about and linked a couple of days ago:

• Mom petitions over firings

Here's another quick link to the petition, by the way... just in case you "forgot" to sign it [wink-wink]:

• Petition to the Ogden School District: Retain Certified Librarians in our schools district wide 

And please don't let the cat get yer tongues (whatever you do).

Standard-Examiner: Ogden District to Discontinue Adult Education Program

Perhaps everyone will be a mite more attentive the next (2014) Ogden School Board election go-round, no, assuming the Ogden School District isn't bankrupt and entirely dissolved by then?

More disheartening Ogden School District (OSD) news this morning, as the Standard-Examiner reports the latest public education-unfriendly act of OSD Superintendant Brad Smith, affectionately known around these parts as the author of the "Ogden School District media specialist/librarian massacre",  once again furthering his self-appointed quest to drive the OSD into the ground, this time giving the ax to the OSD's "Adult Education program, which serves more than 250 late teen and adult students completing studies to earn high school diplomas":

• Ogden district to discontinue adult education program
  

"Smith said he made his decision to close the Adult Education program because it required too much time and focus from Sarah Roberts, George Washington High School principal," leaving us all to wonder what other back-breaking hoops Ms. Roberts is actually expected to jump through to justify her very generous six-figure compensation package. Adult education, which helps struggling students to obtain high school diplomas, "simply [isn't] compatible with the mission of George Washington High,” adds Smith, with a completely straight face.

We'll also make special note of a particularly savvy comment posted by one gentle S-E reader in the Disqus section beneath this morning's story, for those who my still be wondering why Supervisor Smith still serves at the administrative helm of the rapidly-dwindling Ogden School System:

"It was abundantly clear in the last school board election that the people of Ogden prefer to sustain the current leadership rather than have change. They are getting exactly what they have asked for with their votes," Gentle Reader Monotreme sagely remarks.

Mono is of course exactly right.  And please, O Gentle Ones, don't complain you weren't warned:

• Final, Final, Final 2012 Utah Primary Election Reminder

Yep.  Way back in 2012 we warned that the Ogden School Board needed a good house cleaning.  As a matter of fact, here were our recos for the last Ogden School Board election, if only to provide a little trip down memory lane:

Ogden School Board District Precinct 1:
Don Belnap ☠☠☠
David Tanner ☝
Allen Smith ☝

Ogden School Board District Precinct 5:
 Shane Story ☠☠☠
 J. Scott Handy ☝☝
Clark Hogan ☝
Jim Hutchins ☝☝☝

Perhaps everyone will be a mite more attentive the next (2014) Ogden School Board election go-round, no?  ....Assuming the Ogden School District isn't entirely dismantled and dissolved by then?

Angry Parents Confront Ogden Superintendent Over Media Specialist Jobs

Ogden School District Superintendent/Lumpencitizen meetups:  A helpful tactic; or just another exercise in futility?

As a followup to Tuesday's WCF writeup, wherein we announced that Ogden School District Superintendent Brad Smith had issued "upset local school library-excellence lumpencitizen proponents 'command performance invitations' for additional "in-office" browbeatings," the Standard carries a story this morning reporting that "[c]lose to 140 angry parents and community members showed up Wednesday morning for a meeting with Ogden School District Superintendent Brad Smith, to urge him and district officials to reconsider the decision that, if approved in June, will cost the district’s 20 certified media specialists their jobs." Superintendent Smith caught a three-hour ear-full, according to Nancy Van Valkenberg's post-meeting story:

• Standard-Examiner Video - Angry Parents Confront OSD Superintendent Brad Smith over media specialist jobs

As an added bonus for those who are closely following developments in this riveting Ogden School District media specialist/librarian "massacre" flap, the Standard also provides this "companion" video story:


So what about it, folks?  Does it appear, based upon this morning's reportorial evidence, that  Superindendant Smith has in any manner "budged" from his decision to give our Ogden school librarians the ax? Or will yesterday's meeting, and this morning's Heather Turner meetup, amount to just another couple of more exercises in futility?

Breaking: Obstreperous Ogden School System Excellence Advocates "Called to the Principal's Office"

Torches and pitchforks will be de riguer, of course

It’s with considerable interest that we'll make note of a coupla new developments in the Ogden School District media specialist/librarian "massacre" flap, as we learn this morning that OSD "headsman" Brad Smith has issued to upset local school library-excellence lumpencitizen proponents "command performance invitations"  for visits to his office for additional "in-office" browbeatings. One additional closely-related purpose, we suppose? To receive proper indoctrination straight from the mouth of OSD's top-paid administrative bureaucrat (and a few lackey Ogden School Board cronies) on the topic of why Ogden City schools should strive to be second-rate, of course:

1) "Concerned" parents of Ogden City school-kids are "invited" to "turn themselves in" promptly at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, according to this morning's Nancy Van Valkeburg story:

Parents invited to meet with Brad Smith

There's no word, unfortunately, whether "nonparents" will be shut out of this meeting.

OSD Boss "Requests" Meetings

2) And from the "OSD Retain Certified Librarians in our schools district wide" petition website we've gleaned this tidbit of information concerning a special, individual, non-public spanking calendered for Thursday (May 9) at 10:30 a.m., as the particularly obstreperous petition organizer Heather Turner has been "called to the principals's office,, it seems:

Meeting Request from our Super Intendent
Heather Turner
by Heather Turner
Petition Organizer

Hello All,
Super Intendent, Brad Smith, has agreed to meet with me this Thursday at 10:30 a.m. I am looking forward to this meeting to discuss their proposal to remove all Certified Librarians from Elementary and Junior High schools. If you have ideas or suggestions concerning the budget, please post them on the petition website so that we can work together in this.
Thank you for your efforts.
Sincerely,
Heather Turner

Although this latter event is billed as a private, closed-door tongue lashing, we see no reason at all why school librarian-friendly Ogden School System Excellence Advocates with a little free time on their hands shouldn't plan to mill around Smith's office Thursday morning to render their support.

Torches and pitchforks will be de riguer, of course:

Time to get your lumpencitizen protest props & garb outta mothballs, wethinks.

The floor's open, O Gentle Ones, as always.

The Lumpencitizens Rise Up in Opposition to the Gutting of the Ogden School District Library System

"One small thing that librarians teach students is to properly research and document their assertions.  We call on Superintendent Smith to do the same"

Top-notch guest editorial in this morning's Standard-Examiner, wherein S-E citizen-contributor Kathy Gambles passionately and articulately leaps off Ogden Schools Superintendent Brad Smith's bone-headed decision to fire twenty Ogden School District media specialist librarians and turn over critically-important OSD library operations function to ill-trained, non-professional, part-time "staff assistants."

• Teacher librarians are too important to cut

"Twenty-four independent state studies  from across the nation now document the definite impact of teacher librarians and school libraries on students’ achievement scores. These studies show a direct correlation between quality school library media programs with teacher librarians and increased student achievement, as shown through increased reading levels, higher test scores, and general overall academic achievement," Ms. Gamble says. Hopefully, Superintendent Smith will write this all down so he doesn't forget it.

Barometer of Public Opinion?

And as a possible public opinion "barometer" of how Smith's short-sighted decision has inflamed the passions of local citizens, take a gander at the flurry of angry lumpencitizen letters which have already accumulated on the S-E website, slamming the sheer idiocy of the Smith's planned "gutting" of the OSD library "system":

• Superintendent Smith 'takes the heart out of schools'
• Passionate librarians integral part of education
• Librarians teach students to evaluate web sources
• Media specialists teach kids to love reading
• Superintendent Smith should 'document assertions'

In the latter letter, one S-E reader sets forth some good questions and makes a particularly strong point, wethinks:

How much is the budget deficit? This is the middle of Smith’s second year. What has happened?  Just how much additional monies will the Affordable Care Act cost the district? Isn’t the district saving money by cutting part-time workers’ hours so that none receive health care? How will retirement changes affect the budget?  What other cost saving measures had been taken before deciding to cut librarians? Have there been any cuts to personnel at the district level?
One small thing that librarians teach students is to properly research and document their assertions.  We call on Superintendent Smith to do the same.

Interesting sidebar story we'll link before closing. Apparently sensitive to the constant complaint that Smith doesn't have even a minute's time under his belt as a professional educator, Smith's decided to roll up his sleeves, join the ranks of Ogden teaching professionals (nominally, at least) and donate a little bit of his "spare" time to the "art" of teaching:

• School superintendent to teach constitutional law elective

It'll be interesting, don'tcha think, to find out whether Smith is more capable of teaching a course in a field which (theoretically) he "ought" to know something about, as opposed to managing a public school system, something which Smith clearly knows nothing about, que no?

So who'll be the first to throw in their own 2¢?

Thursday Morning Weber County Forum News Roundup

Sage editorial advice for Senator Christensen; harsh lessons in Utah civics for one eighth-grader; and local cops "dress up" like combat troops and pretend to be actual "tough-guys"

We've rounded up a few interesting local news stories this morning, just to give our ever-restless WCF readers a little something to chew on this morning. Here they are, reeled out in no particular order of importance, if only to set your idle tongues all awaggin':

1) Strong editorial in this morning's Standard-Examiner, urging State Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, erstwile winner of the 2013 Elmer Fudd lookalike contest, to exercise some restraint and to "chill" on his "solemn" vow "to make sure a bill vetoed by the governor — that allows to carry a concealed, unloaded gun without a permit — is passed early in next year’s legislative session":

• Our View: Christensen’s gun charge

The Standard advises "Christensen, and others who support an HB76-type bill to "avoid the attitude of 'this-bill-is-just-fine-as-it-is,'” "take the long break before next year’s legislative session," "really talk to the public about their proposal," and "provide sensible arguments as to why Utah gun laws are so insufficient that an HB76-type remedy is needed;" and wethinks the Standard is exactly right about this.

And why do we question the wisdom of a bill which would allow all Utah "adults" to pack their 2d Amendment heavy artillery concealed?  The unassilable fact that some Utah "adults" just "might" be a "mite" more "adult"  than some other "adult" Utahns  will effortlessly provide our "nutshell" rationale, we'll suppose:

Yep. That just about sums it all up, que no?

Fatcat OSD Bureaucrat #1

2) Harsh lessons in Utah civics were learned by a Mount Ogden Junior High eighth-grader this week, or so the Standard reports, as a concerned and enterprising Ogden school-kid had the audacity to tangle with an intransigent Ogden School District Supervisor Brad Smith (Official motto: dumbing down Utah schoolkids 20 librarians at a time) over Smith's gutting of the OSD library system.  What's clear is that Smith's mind is already made up, despite Emery Young's veritable laundry list of good ideas.  And Smith's solution to OSD's funding problem?  Send a pack of fat-cat school administrators on a junket  to the University of Virginia, to bone up on further leading-edge "school turnaround" strategies, we suppose:

• After walkout fizzles, Ogden student activist meets with super over librarian issue

A Weber County Forum Tip O' the Hat to the young Emery Young, however. It's quite encouraging, wethink, to observe a fresh new generation of steely-eyed Ogden City political activists rising up.

3) Mind boggling puff-piece in the Standard, featuring a small array of pictures showing local cops dressed up like combat troops and touting "the first weeklong training session of the fledgling Tactical Operations Group, which is planned to be an annual event":

• New Weber police unit practices door kicking in mockups

“We want to inoculate these guys to everything that could happen as realistically as possible,” says Weber Morgan Narcotics Strike Force and TOG administrator Troy Burnett, thus prompting this sodden blogmeister query:

"Are these fellers devoting any time at all, as part of their 'simulated' door-kicking warrant service practice, toward 'innoculating' themselves in the direction of developing the 'highly-practical' preliminary skill of finding the right friggin' 'simulated address' in the first-place?"

Somehow, we suspect not...

Just a thought...

Standard-Examiner: Ogden District Won't Lose Accreditation Over Librarian Cuts, Says Official

Meanwhile, back at local level, some local School District mouthpieces don't seem quite so sure about that

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The Standard-Examiner is back at us with a followup to Weber County's Forum's 4/28/13 story this morning, now reporting that Ogden School District Superintendent Brad Smith's mass Ogden School District librarian/media specialist layoffs aren't half as bad as they appeared to be, from the perspective of Western Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation, at least:

"While many secondary schools in Utah have licensed teachers as media specialists, it is not a requirement by the state," said Tiffany Hall, K-12 literacy coordinator for the Utah State Office of Education. “It is one of the accreditation assurances, especially at the secondary level,” Hall said. “But it isn’t enough that the school would lose accreditation,” S-E reporter Rachel J. Trotter encouragingly reports in the full story linked below:

• Ogden district won't lose accreditation over librarian cuts, says official

Meanwhile, back at local  level, some of the local School District mouthpieces don't seem quite so sure about that:

“We knew it would affect [accreditation assurances with the media specialists], but we didn’t know exactly how,” Ogden School Board President Shane Story readily admits.

“We will make sure the high schools make their accreditation requirements,” the same initially clueless School Board member nevertheless faithfully assures us.

Deadwood?

Okay. We get it: The Ogden School District is facing a funding crisis, a situation that we can blame not only on our ridiculously tight-fisted Utah Legislature, but also onto the Ogden School Board's gross financial mismanagement itself.

Yes. There's a chance that among the other multiplicity of factors influencing the granting of accreditation, the fact that Ogden Schools officials decided to apply the meat cleaver to media-specialized school librarians might get ultimately lost in the accreditation shuffle. And yes: The situation is clear; hard choices need to be made. Despite an ample amount of "blame" to spread all around, the Schools Superintendent and the Board of Education need to seriously cut some deadwood somewhere; but why throw under the bus the leading edge, technologically-savvy librarian/media specialists, we ask?

And speakin' of deadwood, check this out.  There are no fewer than forty-one (count'em 41) Ogden School District administrators who annually pull down salaries in excess of six figures, according to the wonderfully ever-informative utahsright.com website:

• Utah's Right to Know - Salaries - Ogden School District

OSD Administrator Payday

Hell's bells, people, Ogden Schools Superintendent Smith, whose accumulated Utah classroom teaching experience doesn't encompass even one single day of his pitiful and pathetic professional life, banks an annual Utah taxpayer paycheck (with perqs) is that is even in excess of the salary of our esteemed Utah Governor Herbert, ferchripesakes.  So go figure.

Something to think about when we consider Ogden City Schools budget cuts, wethinks.

And what say you, O Gentle Ones?

Ogden City School District Gives Ogden School Librarians the Ax

Notwithstanding the mountain of additional evidence linking high-quality school library/media programs with heightened student achievement, it seems that the Ogden School Board stands hellbent to move full speed ahead

Bad news for Ogden City school-kids this morning, as both the Standard and the Tribune report this morning the latest bone-headed Ogden School District cost cutting action, whereby "[t]wenty media specialists/librarians were told Friday morning they would not have jobs with the Ogden School District next year," in a move which will reportedly save the OSD $930,000 per year.

• Ogden School District notifies librarians of job terminations
• Cutting costs, Ogden School District plans to end full-time school librarians

Fox 13 News is all over this story too, with this short video vignette:


Interestingly, despite the reported evidence that "[t]hree [other] Top of Utah school districts contacted Friday say they use licensed teachers in their secondary schools," Ogden District Superintendent Brad Smith nevertheless steadfastly maintains that  "the Ogden School District is the only remaining district on the Wasatch Front to employee licensed teachers as media specialists in their libraries,"according to the above Standard-Examiner story.

And notwithstanding the mountain of research data linking high-quality school library/media programs with heightened student achievement, it seems that the Ogden School Board stands hellbent to adopt ODS Superintendent Smith's strict austerity approach. “We need to look at how we can least negatively affect student achievement,” OSB member Shane Story says.

Keep in mind folks, these Ogden School District bureaucrats who are now cutting OSD school library staffs to the bone are also the very same folks who turned down between $496 and $686 thousand in projected annual tax increment dollars, when they boarded the Boss Godfrey bandwagon, and willfully (if not eagerly) participated in the the 2009 Ogden Council bailout of the financially-failing Ogden Junction project. Needless to say, we're accordingly a mite skeptical of their financial acumen in matters such as this, to say the least. Moreover, we don't believe it is unfair to suggest that the current cash-flow dilemma amounts to one of the School Board's own making.

Unhappy with the way this matter is being rolled out?  Encouraged by School Board President Shane Story's hint that "there is always a chance things can change before June"? You can contact your Ogden City School Board officials through the OSD page linked below:

• Ogden Board of Education

Don't let the cat get your tongues, whatever you do, as in dire circumstances such as this, "silence" is definitely not "golden."