David Quolke Board Meeting Speech
Good Evening Board Members, CEO Gordon, Chairperson Link. I am proud to be joined here this evening by the hundreds of dedicated CTU members, community leaders, parents and students all of whom are so passionate about their profession, their schools, our families and our students. Two weeks ago, I spoke of my concerns regarding SBB and asked you to send the CEO and CFO back to the drawing board so you could tell our community, our parents, our educators and our students that the funding in each school's budget reflects what you value for our students.
Since that has not occurred, tonight, I’m not going to dwell on my frustrations with SBB, rather I want to focus on the Cleveland Plan, the promises made and the promises that are not being lived up to. You see, every time someone goes on the district website, the first thing they see is a ticking clock….counting down the days until the levy in 2016, but when I read through many of the documents on that same website talking about our progress….it reminds me of Student Based Budgeting and the fact that the rhetoric in those documents, doesn’t match reality.
Statements like:
Investing In Our Workforce: ….education is a people industry with teachers and leaders serving in the most crucial roles of the district….
Statements like:
Execution of our Plan….This will require re-engineering our entire system’s business processes from a traditional “top-down” organization, to a shared-services model.
Statements like:
We must implement each of the tools of The Cleveland Plan, our recruiting and hiring strategies, …our professional development and evaluation systems, our compensation and rewards systems,….in a way that allows us to invest in our workforce.
I ask you to visit schools, I ask you talk to these teachers, ask them if they feel like this district views them as leaders and with respect. Ask them if the district is delivering on the promises they made.
Ask them if this district has a shared service model or if it is more top down and heavy handed than ever.
Ask them if they feel our teacher evaluation system, our compensation system or professional development system “INVEST” in our workforce and are being implemented fairly.
Go out to Ben Franklin and ask them if their principal, Rachel Snider, who made a mess of the evaluation system last year at Lincoln-West and is back at it again this year. Ask her staff if she is treating them as professionals like your website rhetoric would have us believe.
Go out to John Marshall where dedicated staff waited years to have their school rebuilt and are now going to be displaced and put through a re-interview…..Ask them if they feel respected.
Go out to Robert Jamison, an Investment where staff signed a commitment letter, did extra PD, put in extra time, and lived up to their promise. Yet Principal Cooper does not submit paperwork and her staff has not been paid for over 2 years. Ask them if they feel that this district treats them with respect and dignity.
Believe me, I could go on, but I’ll because I’d rather you go speak to our members. They came out strong tonight, they want you to listen, they want you to deliver on your promises.
I am speaking here tonight wearing the same T-Shirt I wore in 2009 at the Q when I spoke at Gene Sanders infamous Convocation. The theme “With US Not TO Us” is as true today as it was in 2009. Oh, your website also talks about “our groundbreaking Collective Bargaining Agreement’ how the Cleveland Plan wouldn’t have happened without our partnership. But what it doesn't talk about is how the district has abandoned that partnership and with that, many of their promises.
As I speak, we are at roughly 592 days and 12 hours on the ticking clock. But there is another ticking clock, (no not the one leading up to the RNC) it is one that is about 130 days shorter, one that is roughly 462 days away, one that is directly linked to the promises you made to Cleveland teachers, paraprofessionals, and related service providers. It is the clock ticking on the expiration of our contract in June of 2016. There is still time to Reclaim the promises made - but the clock is ticking. Whether it is with our evaluation system, our compensation system, our Investment schools, or the needs of every school in this district - ————— Everyone in this room needs CEO Gordon and our board members to live up to the promises you made to our educators, our community, our parents and our kids. The Clock is ticking, but we still have time.