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Gorman and School Board Flying High
Eyebrows were raised last December when the C.D. Spangler Foundation gave Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman a quarter-million-dollar gift, with the money to be used for Gorman’s “personal growth and development,” or as he saw fit to help the district.
Maybe Gorman should use some of the loot to pay for flying lessons. The skill would have come in handy during the most recently completed school year, when from September 2008 to June 2009, Gorman crisscrossed the country nearly a dozen times on his way to and from various conferences and seminars, while fretting a budget that triggered hundreds of teacher layoffs and cuts to classrooms back home.
Last January and February alone Gorman racked up enough frequent flyer miles to make an eagle envious, with a two-day trip to attend the Broad Superintendents Retreat in Scottsdale, Arizona; a one-day jaunt to Chicago for a Gates Foundation conference; and a four-day stay in San Francisco for a gathering of the American Association of School Administrators.
Taxpayers can take some solace that private money paid the freight for most of Gorman’s adventures last year. The Gates Foundation and the Broad Institute, for example, picked up the tabs for Gorman to attend their functions, while CMS shelled out nearly $1,000 for Gorman’s San Fran sojourn.
Gorman’s two-day trip in September 2008 to Austin, Texas, for a Dell Foundation conference cost CMS all of $85, while a three-day trip to Houston the following month for the Council of Great City Schools Conference set CMS back $650.
Harvard paid for Gorman to meld minds with that esteemed institution of higher learning’s Doctoral Program Advisory Board during a two-day trip last April. Gorman was back in Boston the following month, when the university paid for his two-day trip to attend the Harvard Superintendents’ Internship Program.
“It blinks reality when we have a superintendent flying around the country, at the same time he’s talking about laying off teachers,” said former school board member Larry Gauvreau, who during his time on the board frequently clashed with Gorman over spending priorities. “It doesn’t matter who is paying for the trip. Instead of attending conferences to learn new ways to expand CMS bureaucracy, Dr. Gorman should be working to contain costs and improve student achievement.”
- The Aspen Institute retreat at Harbor Court Hotel in Baltimore
The powers-that-be within the U.S. Department of Education picked up the tab for Gorman to pay them a one-day visit last March, and he found himself back in DC two months later when the Center for American Progress paid for him to attend its two-day conference in the nation’s capital.
Gorman’s high-flying ways haven’t missed a beat for the current school year. Last September saw the superintendent in Washington, D.C., to attend the Broad Prize for Urban
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CMS needs to investigate the technology of remote conferences…duh…why fly across the county when most conferences can be accessed via the web!
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You’re exactly right, Tech. The technology to do so is real and available now. I see commercials on television showing a classroom in the US and a classroom in China communicating via the web. Even free online software, like http://www.shovio.com, can literally put dozens of people together in a live environment with full interactive capabilities. Not meaning to sound too cynical, but I would hope the administrations guiding the education environment of youngsters could be just a little more creative and “out of the box” thinking. We pay these administrators like they are the CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies “for competitive reasons”. When the CEO’s are cutting back their cross country flying, seems only right to expect public servants to do the same thing.
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“Last September saw the superintendent in Washington, D.C., to attend the Broad Prize for Urban
Education awards ceremony. CMS didn’t win, wasn’t even one of the finalists, and Gorman’s trip set taxpayers back $300.”
And this year we are a finalist? If you scratch my back with support, I’ll scratch yours with making you a finalist the next year? Can’t help but ask that question. All the system winners of this award over the past few years have had a Free/Reduced Lunch percentage of 75% or more–one system was 98% Latino. Well, at least with CMS as a finalist, one or two white kids might earn some of the 15 scholarships allocated as a finalist–maybe a few more if CMS wins the prize and gets about 50 scholarships allocated. Broad and Scholarship America won’t release demographic data of the more than 800 scholarships awarded since the program started–but I bet less than 1% have gone to whites. Maybe that’s good and desirable–but its hard to even discuss with folks hiding information.
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This man – Gorman – when does he come up for re-election? I can’t believe the things I’m hearing about him, and I don’t even live in Meck. Co. My dad teaches there, though, and apparently this superintendent is one ultra-incompetent toad. Almost makes me wish I did live in Mecklenburg, just so I could cast my vote against him. On a side note, I’d vote against Leake, too. What a nitwit! Where in God’s name are the competent politicians? I’d sure like to know that there are at least some out there (maybe that’s an idea for you Christian: a new column on Pundit House – something that highlights the capable ones, since everything else seems to point out the buffoons).
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The Superintendent is actually hired by the school board, not elected. Until the boards change, don’t expect much movement on the Superintendent-City/County Manager front.
Agreed with you on Leake, luckily we have Lee Ann Patton to vote for in November.
While a capable politician is a rarity, we do do our best to point them out. Take Huntersville Town Commissioner Charles Jeter for example. He led the effort to be the first town in NC to pass a resolution asking the Attorney General to join the lawsuits against Obamacare. Kudos.
There are some great candidates this year on a number of fronts. Hopefully we can get them elected and have more positive things to talk about!
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