Quoted from The Marshall Chronicle
October 23, 2006
"Fact is, since I've been here, I'm told I'm the most visible superintendent Marshall's ever had. I attend more student events, more sporting events, more of the arts performances and more community events than any other superintendent. I take that as a compliment. Because I care about Marshall."
-Joyce Phillips, Superintendent MPS
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37 comments:
I wonder what Lou G. has to say about that quote?
From what I have heard I doubt this is true! Unless she counts Schulers lunches with Brian Metcalf as a 'school event."
Does she bring her lawyer, that she hired, around with her to threaten lawsuits against anyone who criticizes her failures?
And the Marshall School Board wonders why no one trusts her!
Sounds like another whiney teacher's union trying for retribution for what they didn't get. Face it folks, life is different in 2K6. Change is good? You're damned right it is. Why don't we make some staffing changes, benefit changes, and rules changes that make this district solvent for the future. So a prescription co-pay goes to $10. Boo-freakin'-who! Realize that the future of school districts is being run as a business by business people.
Is that you Joyce? Nice to see you posting and reading comments.
To 'boo freakin who': Don't make your stupid statements unless you know what you are talking about. Employees at MPS have not had a raise equal to the cost of living increase in over 6 years..(1.5% on average)..with the exception of Joyce (9%), Brian and Amy. (the 3 top administrators). Want to talk about insurance? Joyce gets $1300 per month in place of insurance....don't have to be a business major to know that is more than the monthly premium for MESSA insurance. Now - walk in my shoes before you tell me what to say...cause I can hardly afford shoes anymore!
I hope the school board is as concerned about the actions of the Superintendent as the rest of us are. I am concerned that they are always defending her no matter how many complaints are made.
Why do they do this? I heard they quickly go after Hulkow, Behrenwald and others on far more minor issues but seem to let Joyce, Brian and Amy off the hook no matter how many major blunders they make. I hope they start taking some action soon on this matter. The schools have suffered enough!
To "boo-freaking-who"......you don't have all the facts.......Dr. Phillips RAISE was approximatly 4/5's of the employees in one group's YEARLY wage! Is that type of change good for the morale of the employees?? And for another board member to make the comment that no one in the MPS makes less than $30,000 clearly shows that she has no idea what the employees of MPS makes.
In terms of a raise, a good administrator would not ask for more than what they would be willing to give to their employees (obviously not the superintendent); the county commissioners are a good example, they turned down a raise! (BC Enquirer 10/20/06)
Also a good administrator would not be a full-time PhD student on school dime and time for a year. A good business manager would not blow $20,000+ by failing to cancel an insurance policy. We need to clear out the top three before real improvement can begin. The students are right! Fire Phillips, Metcalf and Jones!
I find it very hard to believe that neither Joyce Phillips or Amy Jones lost their jobs when the exposure of the administrators double insurance coverage 'mistake'/'oversight' was settled for $20,000. Amy just totally forgot to do her job in Junly 2005. She also forgot to let the bus drivers know their insurance portions had increased. They found out about that error - initially costing them all lots of money....just another mistake for Amy Jones. Let see: her title is: Director of Finance and Operations. That scares me alot. In fact, check out the June 2006 board meeting tape and see them both dance around the truth instead of 'TELLING THE TRUTH'. Reminds me of the Air Conditioner Day all over again Joyce. Just say "sorry, I made a mistake". OOPS - kinds late for that now.
Were you aware that Dr. Phillips total salary and benefit package totals approximately $195,000.00 yearly? Is she worth this much? In years past the superintendent would receive the same pay raise that the teachers and support staff would receive - what happened to that practice!?!
I would like to speak to the board member whom stated that there is not MPS employee that makes less than $30,000. As a family member of such a spouse it would make for an interesting conversation. They really don't know much about the employees. The insurance benefits are the only thing that support staff have to even get close to having a good salary. MPS has the LOWEST paid support staff in Michigan for this size school district. But rather than work on that they just suck more and more from them. The little guy is the one that suffers. All the paper articles say the MTA, there are more employes that this affects than just the MTA. The custodians, the bus drivers, the teachers aides, etc. I think that the Board need to get the FACTS before opening their mouth!
Vic, Janice and Paul were practicly gushing and trying to outdo each other with praise for Joyce and offering her more and more last spring. Sam and Bob were opoosed to extending her raises and contract beyond an additional year without knowing what her performance would be. Now that we know that her performace is terrible and that the board was clueless, foolish or both, we are in a tough bind to get rid of her. Like Judy Bailey at WMU, Joyce will likely want a big payoff if she is fired, before she returns to Indiana for retirement. She did boldly lie about the MHS hiring process at the June board meeting, maybe that would be enough grounds to fire her without paying off her extremely generous contract. Thanks Vic, Paul, Janice, etc.
Do we need a recall? Those three would be at the top of my list!
They have about two weeks to turn around and do their jobs. If they do not take action soon, they will be causing great harm to the Marshall Public Schools. When the city election is over, the attention will be fully focused on the school issues. I hope Phillips has her resume up to date.
Has anyone been curious enough to FOIA those "wage increases" the top administration received last year after changing to the managed health care. Better question: Why didn't all the people who had to change to handled health care receive "wage adjustments" instead of only the top administrations? What about the bus drivers who got it forced down their throats. They didn't receive "wage adjustments" either. How fair is this? This is borderline corrupt and the people of Marshall should take offense to Joyce and the Board deceiving them. Since when did this community back this type of spending. Make yourself aware. Let's not paint a pretty picture of Marshall - let's fix the problem this time instead of paint pretty colors over the problem.
Everyone reading this....Tomorrow - Tuesday - November 7, get out and vote! It is how to make this system work.
It is a good day for Marshall. Joyce was not able to shut the Chronicle up (eliminate their freedom to publish) nor was she able to shut the save the marshall schools web page down - I am happy to see our constitutional rights are still intact here. Good question: Why would someone have the strong need to hire an attorney to try to stop our rights from being exercised?
She is clearly desperate and trying anything to save her job. She is even sending pathetic e-mails to the staff as if she is trying hard to be "sort of" nice, in a very condescending manner. How sad! The writing is on the wall (or maybe this blog and elsewhere) that her time is up. Joyce, please do us all a big favor and move on to another job or retirement. You and us will be much happier!
I am so replused by her emails - I have read the internet agreement and feel her 'personal posts' are not in compliance. But besides that - I have not been in contact with one employee who cares for the emails. Damage control - come on - we are educated people. Is this supposed to erase our entire memory bank and cause us to 'trust her again'? 99.5% unlikely...
Hey I am sure we can do just like Indiana did....we will come up with a wonderful letter of recommendation. Law says you can't blackmail a candidate for employment. Do you think we could get all the employees to sign the letter of recommendation if the board can do their job here. I'd much rather have Joyce move south - and let our Board get back to the business at hand.
Can citizens file a complaint about her abuse of the policies?
I believe you can speak up at the public comments of the board meetings. First i would pen a letter to each board member and let them know you do not appreciate you abuse of policy. What some citizens don't know is Joyce changes school policy to fit her management needs. School policy is supposed to be for the better governoring of our district. Not so she can do as her evil self wants to do. Ask about the current changes beginning in April 2005. (better yet - ask why the changes were needed)
To angry citizen - I would ask your question of Paul Beardsley. He is an elected board member with legal background. I hope he can help you. There are alot of school policies...a good one recently about harrassment I heard.
Paul supposedly aspires to higher political office. He was wise to back out of the board President job as he most likely was smart enough to know a firestorm of controversy was brewing. Now will be be smart enough to side with the staff and most of the community to play a leadership role that is needed to remove Dr. J?
I believe Paul to be very intelligent. I have hopes in him. I was let down that he stepped down and let Vic be President. We really needed someone with enough compassion to do the job. (as I see it our board thinks 1=joyce=right and 300=employees=wrong)
I have high hopes in Paul, Dan, Chris and John! I know all four and they are great guys. I do not know Ali, but I do know Vic and Janice. I like them but I am not happy with their board performance. They can do much better! Please board, don't let us down! We need you now to get the job done.
I have been reading the entire blog today. It has occurred to me there are MANY blogs begging the board members to do what needs to be done. I take alittle offense to the fact we have to beg (here in Marshall) our elected board members to do what they ask me for my vote to be able to do. I gave my vote to them - what are they giving me?
With the amount of begging that is being done towards the board members (with no results), makes one wonder the type of character each individual board member has...........
Do you suppose the board just thinks something so dumb as 'not giving Phillips a raise in the spring' would make everyone feel better. I actually had that thought - that that could be the reason they are doing nothing about the survey. I wish they would mail me another survey...this time attach pages with their names on it.
This school board has not proven their "smarts" this past year. They have done many dumb and foolish things.
My favorite was joyce trying to quietly slip through that double insurance 'coverup' settlement. Even Bob kept asking questions...(at june board meeting) He asked "Why was the board not aware of the settlement before that board meeting" Yes...go back and watch that board meeting. She was rude and Amy couldn't figure out how to answer...and joyce kept butting Bob off. This was before she was rude to Sam...and kept trying to butt him off. Why do we allow this type of behavior. I know a student that treats someone that way faces OSS. I think our superintendent needs some Out of School Suspension time. What do you think?
OSS for Joyce, maybe 10-20 years of OSS. Bob Lyng called her on that too at the June board meeting. Bob and Sam are honest and did not let her get away with some much crapola. If all of the board members were that smart and courageous Joyce would have been long gone by now.
We need some strong men and women on the Marshall School Board!
I hope each and every citizen has told Bob and Sam exactly what I am reading in these blog messages. They did an awesome job - it is a thankless payless job. Joyce - we beg you - do the right thing and move south!
Everyone reading this....Tomorrow - Tuesday - November 7, get out and vote! It is how to make this system work.
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