Comments on: Noteworthy news links

By: PrairieCelt

PrairieCelt — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:54:53 +0000

A recurring theme one hears about Broderick is more about his style – he is alleged to be very confrontational with an almost prosecutorial mentality. The HR classes in my background were part of the School of Business, and those classes emphasized one critical point about HR; that is, the main function of HR is to keep the employer out of trouble. If Broderick does not have effective people skills or is not skilled at problem solving and conflict resolution, grievances will escalate. That appears to be what is happening at the district.

However, to give him some benefit of the doubt, he does not set the administrative tone – that is established by Hinton, Cahill and the BOE. Broderick takes his orders from them. Cahill was rumored to be tough with unions before he ever joined #150 and he doesn’t appear to have changed.

Broderick also was dealing with some unusual issues within his office that could have affected office morale and turnover. His assistant was Hinton’s son-in-law, Charles Davis, who recently made a hasty departure. Whether real or perceived, people could be uncomfortable working in that environment – it would be easy to develop an attitude of mistrust when one of your supervisors is the son-in-law of the superintendent.

By: serenity

serenity — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:40:41 +0000

All I can say if you have ever taken a HR class (educational administration) the district’s HR dept. is not run appropriately at all. Broderick may have background knowledge but he sure does not now how to apply it correctly. He has mishandled situations therefore causing pending lawsuits. That is all I am going to say about that.

By: Frustrated

Frustrated — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:00:55 +0000

Prairiecelt – As you pointed out David Walvoord is the point man for the District but Tom Broderick and another associate at KSSWF did the labor & employment work for the District after Cannell retired. This I know for sure. But . . . you certainly have much information regarding KSSWF & the District . . . makes me wonder exactly who you are.
Serenity, I believe Broderick has quite a bit of knowledge relating to education but in any event, I know he has knowledge of employment and labor law and many of the HR issues and practices that needed addressing were (are) not unique to an educational setting.

By: serenity

serenity — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:07:08 +0000

Many meetings Broderick sits in with O’Brian are not that serious. She just does not know what she is doing. My understanding is the HR dept. is a disaster, that’s why all of their clerical quit except one. Broderick has zero knowledge of a school and the culture of the students in Dist. 150. I also ask, just how successful was Broderick while working for corporations, such as CILCO?

As far as SPED at Manual, I am uncertain, but I know O’Brian wants to run it and she is in a personal conflict with the SPED administrator there. I know the SPED administrator is very good but O’Brian won’t let her breathe unless she says she can. O’Brian’s traumatic brain injuries are revealing themselves again. She is not rational and is not familiar with inner city schools except to read a journal article about them.

By: PrairieCelt

PrairieCelt — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:29:30 +0000

Frustrated – your idea of an “education czar” is intriguing. Paul Vallas, perhaps? The District was given the opportunity to work with him by the Mayor and rejected the idea out of hand. I believe Hinton’s comment was something like they were already doing what Vallas proposed so why bother with him? Based on the BOE’s & Hinton’s administrative track record, if that statement wasn’t so sad it would be funny.

Although Broderick worked for KSSWF, the main attorneys representing the district were Cannell, Walvoord, Lenzini, and before he became a judge, Dubicki. Broderick didn’t get much play with KSSWF and the district.

By: Sharon Crews

Sharon Crews — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:14:31 +0000

I was in the district for 43 years and I never, never remember a time when employees felt that HR was the place to go if they were having problems with administrators, etc. In the 1960s & 1970s all sorts of horror stories related to the HR (Personnel Dept at the time) method of handling disgruntled employees. Personally, I believe HR (Personnel) has always been the right arm of the superintendent, not support for employees.
I hate to open this topic but here goes–since you have brought up Mary O’Brian. Does anyone know how Special Ed is being handled at Manual. I have heard that all or most special ed students are in regular classrooms–and that special ed teachers are serving only as “mentors,” going from classroom to classroom to sit beside high school special ed students (not exactly what I would call good for self-esteem). The parent who spoke at last week’s BOE meeting seemed to be complaining about this situation–but I’m not sure of that. I’m not sure of any of this. I would like to know if the special ed students actually meet in classrooms with special ed teachers any time during the day: how often, what subject matter? Then, of course, I want to know if special ed kids are receiving the services mandated by school law.

By: Frustrated

Frustrated — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:55:13 +0000

I am not familiar with Ms. O’Brian or the circumstances to which you refer, however, I think it is definitely typical that an HR representative be present at a dept. meeting if there are “issues” involving personnel. It appears from post by Serenity that there are “issues.” Broderick served as a lawyer for the District prior to assuming the HR position and would be able to assist Ms. O’Brian with the interpretation of spec. edu law and it sounds like she made need some help.

By: ImaSwede

ImaSwede — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:31:06 +0000

So, Broderick’s job is to intimidate? Why else would he have to be in practically every meeting Mary O’Brian has with her underlings? Or is she simply too incompetent to handle these meetings on her own? Since when does a “company” have to have HR in every meeting that supervisors have with their employees unless they are trying to intimidate them? HR used to be a place where employees felt free to go if there were problems at work. This is certainly not the case any longer, and especially with District 150.

By: Frustrated

Frustrated — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 09:24:41 +0000

Broderick the cause of problems?? I guess that depends on your perspective. Broderick is an employment and labor relations attorney with years of experience in the corporate setting. Perhaps there is more trouble a brew since he arrived because he is holding more employees feet to the fire than previous HR administrators. My impression from years before he began working for the District is that the unions were running the school, not the administrators. As PrairieCelt states, in part that is because many of the principals and administrators are not leadership material and are unable to make decisions or create a vision for their staff. I am not certain if Hinton has everything it takes to be Superintendent of such a troubled institution but, for sure he is spread thin because some of his direct reports offer so little to the mix. The Board should give Hinton an ultimatum just like Congress intends to give to the Big 3 Automakers – find a sense of urgency, cut executive staff, reduce executive pay, gain concession from your unions or else we will appoint an “education czar” to do it for you. Like the Big 3 Automakers, the District has been in a slow decline for 20 years but continues to operate with a mindset “business as usual.”

By: Sharon Crews

Sharon Crews — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:00:00 +0000

I’m not letting Hinton off the hook–didn’t mean to be too simplistic about his administration’s faults. However, I think other things were at work in the 70s and 80s. Harry was a strong superintendent–but all was not well then either–the problems actually began in Harry’s era (not at all implying that he was the cause). In my opinion, two bad things happened under Harry’s regime: high schools went to a 6 hour day and eventually industrial arts and home ec and many electives were dropped; K-8 schools were replaced with middle schools. The other two superintendents weren’t especially strong. However, things ran relatively smoothly–they were pretty much status quo superintendents; nothing new really happened in that era. Discipline was eroding, however–many causes and I don’t know exactly who or what circumstances to blame, but nobody was ready for what happened. Recalling board members of that era–few of them really new anything about educational issues either. Then came NCLB–and I believe that has created many of the problems while at the same time calling attention to academic problems that had been ignored. But NCLB hasn’t provided any solutions–it just shines the light on the problem. And now everyone is playing the blame game because no one knows how to solve the problem.