The Steamboat Pilot & Today

outsiderlookingin (anonymous)
December 2, 2007 at 8:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Don't waste any more money. Please use the money to keep the GOOD TEACHERS we have. My son doesn't need a 2nd math teacher. We would like the one we have right now. However if the $$$ doesn't start rolling in.....we just might loose her. It would be the first time that we lost valuable staff due to low wages.

steamboatlover (anonymous)
December 3, 2007 at 11:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Please let us keep our money in house and not hire yet more consulting firms, especially those from outside of our community who do not know our needs personally. I have three kids at two of the schools, and we need to keep the funding that we have - not waste more time and resources. I believe that the people of this town are smart enough and resourceful enough to find and hire our own superintendent. Why do we feel that we have to throw money away to prove a point??

soccercstate (anonymous)
December 3, 2007 at 3:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)

What about hiring a full time consultant that works for the city.....no outsourcing anymore!!!

felix (anonymous)
December 3, 2007 at 3:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)

how about keeping dr smyser who is great, smart, accessible... give the $20K to clean the schools and increase salaries of support staff!
these new board members are over their heads!

thefarmer (anonymous)
December 4, 2007 at 6:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)

That is what the school board is for. Let them get up off their butts and find a superintendent.

steamvent (anonymous)
December 6, 2007 at 9:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)

We have volunteer non-elected boards in this city and county who work hard and make decisions that obligate serious money. Why can't an elected school board do that? Our school administrators are some of the highest paid people in the area ... maybe they should dig in and do more without whining. Look at your tax bill ... school funding is the biggest ticket item by far. That's fine, but why do we need to spend more for outside consulting if we've hired good people?

marthalee (anonymous)
December 7, 2007 at 6:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)

We have plenty of local talent. Use that instead of spending money unnecessarily!

sportzmama (anonymous)
December 7, 2007 at 9:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I tend to agree that we don't need to spend tons of money on consultants, however, keep in mind that our volunteer boards have other responsibilities in their LIVES - they have other jobs etc. How would any of you propose this gets done? Many people say that principals, asst. principals are over paid and should do more work - and to a point I agree. What I argue here is the skill-set to "recruit" a potential superintendent for the long haul. There is a significant amount of work required to effectively recruit and if the current administrators & board are charged with that task, other critical things MAY be put aside. Let's let these folks continue to focus on the kids.

Wouldn't it be nice to at least have an outside party perform the preliminary search, come up with a strong list of say 5-7 potential candidates, THEN turn it over to a chosen administrative team, along with parents, teachers and support staff who would be more than competent to choose the proper superintendent for the district.
That can be done for much less than $15-20K.

Also do you realize that professional recruiters make 10-20% of the 1st year salary when they place a successful candidate in a job? Let's keep that in mind when talking about this issue.

sportzmama (anonymous)
December 7, 2007 at 11:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)

IF that person is the best qualified - of course that would be best, being the Superintendent of a growing school district takes more than just living in the area. This community is growing so rapidly that the issues facing it are changing just as fast. A proven leader from a district that's faced that kind of growth would be best. Communities such as Windsor and Eaton have experienced similar growing pains to what we're currently going through, so it would be wise to make sure our next Super. has that kind of experience.

Personally I would like to see Ms. Smyser stay as I've heard she's doing a fantastic job!