How totally out of bounds is it for Board members to get involved in a staffing dispute!?!?
The board’s role is to provide top level policy and fiduciary governance for the district. They hire the superintendent who deals with staffing.
If Halipern is approached by a district employee with a grievance the appropriate response is to forward it to Horton and say ‘deal with it.’
If they don’t like the way Horton deals with employee relations you get a new superintendent. You don’t undermine them by getting involved in these disputes.
Not surprising that Halipern and other board members would get involved, but totally inappropriate.
I find myself torn on this. On one hand, I think both the D65 and D202 Board too often views their role like the US Senate, "advise and consent" and should be willing to get a little deeper into operations. With that said, I think getting involved in internal HR disputes is a recipe for disaster.
It's also possible none of this happened, the District claims as much in their settlement agreement. So who knows.
I thought Halipern was just out to get our principal. Two parents independently told me that, after separate bullying/violent classroom incidents, they emailed and met with our principal and were later contacted by Halipern to see if they were satisfied with how the principal managed the incidents (the principal followed district guidelines but there are only so many peace circles a person can go to). I suppose Halipern could have had good intentions but the parents said it felt like he was trying to find a way to get our (pre-Horton) principal fired. These two parents run in different circles, don't know each other, and I didn't bring up one person's incident to the other or mention Halipern -- they just independently volunteered all this info to me.
How totally out of bounds is it for Board members to get involved in a staffing dispute!?!?
The board’s role is to provide top level policy and fiduciary governance for the district. They hire the superintendent who deals with staffing.
If Halipern is approached by a district employee with a grievance the appropriate response is to forward it to Horton and say ‘deal with it.’
If they don’t like the way Horton deals with employee relations you get a new superintendent. You don’t undermine them by getting involved in these disputes.
Not surprising that Halipern and other board members would get involved, but totally inappropriate.
It’s amateur hour from the top down at that place
I find myself torn on this. On one hand, I think both the D65 and D202 Board too often views their role like the US Senate, "advise and consent" and should be willing to get a little deeper into operations. With that said, I think getting involved in internal HR disputes is a recipe for disaster.
It's also possible none of this happened, the District claims as much in their settlement agreement. So who knows.
I thought Halipern was just out to get our principal. Two parents independently told me that, after separate bullying/violent classroom incidents, they emailed and met with our principal and were later contacted by Halipern to see if they were satisfied with how the principal managed the incidents (the principal followed district guidelines but there are only so many peace circles a person can go to). I suppose Halipern could have had good intentions but the parents said it felt like he was trying to find a way to get our (pre-Horton) principal fired. These two parents run in different circles, don't know each other, and I didn't bring up one person's incident to the other or mention Halipern -- they just independently volunteered all this info to me.
Are you referring to Donna Sokolowski?
https://evanstonroundtable.com/2021/12/01/donna-sokolowski-why-i-retired-from-district-65/
No, someone who is still a principal. Interesting (and disheartening) read you linked to though
Of note, the district just posted open positions for principals at Dawes, Orrington, Willard, and Lincoln.
https://www.applitrack.com/d65/onlineapp/default.aspx?Category=Administrative
Wow I still can't believe they haven't filled the HR or the CFO positions yet. By the summer it will have been a year on both those positions..
All of those positions are interim for this school year (23-24) so they may have to be posted to hire them officially.