Longtime - No post. But we are back. We would sure love it if people can fill us in on the following items. Joyce: Maybe you can send out a Rumor Control e-mail informing people what the truth is.
Charlie McDonald - MPS Head of Technology
It is "rumored" that in the past 4 years he has received a total raise of close to $20,000. He is "rumored" to be making in the low $80,000 range.
Joyce Phillips - Superintendent
3% raise and buying of years at the past board meeting. Also MANY perks in her contract - We wish we knew what her "perks" are.
Custodial Staff
They are on the chopping block. The board is currently looking into privatizing our Custodial Staff.
It is hard to believe that people at the top keep getting FAT POCKETS, and the ones towards the bottom keep getting things taken away. Please fill us in on any information you may have.
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«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 387 of 387He has one skill that keeps him employed, loyalty to Joyce! In every other way he is very unimpressive at best.
The Marshall schools have been plagued by leadership problems for years now. When most of the current school board members and the new Supt. Phillipps took over a few years ago I had high hopes for improvement. But all we have had is problems as things have only gotten worse. I am very disapointed in them. We need some good changes soon.
The comments under the thread "Election Results are Final" about the Foreman case are quite interesting. A year ago at least one of the building principals, who is a Phillips supporter, supposedly said something to the effect that the only people who were upset with the superintendent were Foreman supporters, but that now (this was last summer he said this) they knew the truth about Jody, all the opposition had died down. This has been the "partyline" from the very beginning of this blog: most people are not really unhappy with the administration or the superintendent, only Foreman supporters.
The facts seem to indicate that perhaps the Foreman situation was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak: it got people at least speaking out on this forum.
It also seems to reveal an awful lot of the character of the superintendent. The reason this case has dragged on for so long is because it appears that it has become a personal crusade for her. Even if someone believed the original charges, that Mr. Foreman had some former students, (over the age of 18, but under 21; who were graduates) at his apartment, where alcohol was consumed, why was the superintendent so involved in the investigation? Why was she present at all the court hearings? Why did she push so hard for prosecution? Why did she not just sit back and wait to see how the case worked out in the courts. In most situations similar to this, I think that the school would try to remove itself from the criminal investigation, and take a wait and see approach.
But it appears to me that once she heard the original charge, she assumed the worst. She decided that this popular teacher needed to be gone based on these charges. Once she decided that she was going to fire Mr. Foreman, nothing would alter her conviction, not questions about the character of the original accuser (who may have been angry at Mr. Foreman for some reason); not the prosecutor dropping the charges for lack of sufficient evidence; not the pleas of many members of the community and former students who spoke on Mr. Foreman's behalf. She would not back down; she would not consider any other course of action except firing Mr. Foreman. Rumor has it that she has even said that if the tenure commission ruled in his favor, she would appeal all the way to the supreme court.
Doesn't this strike you as very bizarre? The district has probably spent over $300,000 so far on this case in legal fees and substitute teacher cost. There are other ways this situation could have been handled that would have been less expensive and less divisive for the community.
If she continues to try and finalize the firing on the basis of a "he said-she said" story about him buying a beer, at a lunch at a conference, for someone who was 20, but not yet 21, five years ago, is that rationale? It has become a personal vendetta for her, and that tells me that that lady is mentally unbalanced. And that is the type of person Marshall wants in charge of its school system?
But you see that is how she operates. All the while she is putting the hatchet to someone that is well liked, visible and energetic for the district - she is spinning a different tale for the board members.
Upon reading the Chronicle article and seeing the salaries of joyces loyalists I must ask this question. Does anyone remember when Amy Jones was hired to replace Brad Haines? I believe she was 27-28 years old. Of course, Brad had been here for year and Lou had given Bob Currie and Brad titles of Assistant Supt. to Business and Assistant supt. of Instruction - yes - therefore validating the higher pay range for these individuals. But - I had thought Amy Jones was hired under a Director of Operation title and believed her beginning salary to be somewhere around $60,000 due to lack of experience etc. Now, can anyone tell me how and why she is at a salary of $94,000 after the repeated mistakes and costs to this district through her miscalculations, under budgeting, and just plain not getting the job done (ie cancelling the admin double insurance). If I am mistaken on the above I surely want someone to get me something more factual. If the above - as i believe it to be true - is at all factual would it not appear she has been paid for her loyalty in spite of her errors and costs to this district. I would be interested in knowing what she hired in at in I think 2002 (?)
I think you tell what Amy was paid her first year, along with what Brad was paid his last year, if you could see a copy of the budget. Most budgets go back five or more years, so you could just look under the category of administration and figure it out.
I think any citizen can request a copy of the budget, but I am not sure. Maybe they are allowed to charge you a copying fee.
If the high salaries of the JP loyalists are true, this is outrageous! The performance of the top leaders is pathetic. They do far more harm than good.
Kudos to Johnnie for being brave enough to use her name!!! First off, it is not just the custodial jobs we are fighting for, it is the safety of our kids! I am not trying to minimize the effects of Lear, Eaton's and State Farm closing and the impact it had on our community, but we are talking our children's safety. JP likes to hide things that involve the safety of our kids. Once instance is when there was an alleged attempted abduction of a girl near Gordon School. No notes were sent home, it was kept hush hush! To my understanding it ended up being a false claim, but as a parent of a child that walks I would liked to have been made aware of it. I am tired of all the drama with this school board. I think it is about time to get back to the main issue of our schools...to educate our kids and keep them in a safe environment. The custodial staff if a very vital part of our kids' day. They are people our kids relate to. Get rid of this school board and Phillips and get back to caring about our kids educations...I agree with the other poster...School of choice is looking pretty good...Get a grip on things...I will seriously consider taking my child out of Marshall Public Schools if I cannot feel comfortable about her safety while she is at school. I never thought things would become this ridiculous...I am sure there are much bigger areas that can be cut. If the school is in this bad of shape maybe Joyce should offer to decline the pay raise...Think about our Kids!!!!
our govanor just gave back 5% of her salery to help out the state,why cant our adm do the same!
I am outraged also. I understand at the May 21st emergency budget workshop when the talk of firing our MPS local custodians and hiring private companies with God knows who working around our kids, cutting back on a secretarial position and some program cuts that no one seems to want to make public ----- Joyce Phillips was given an approx. salary increase (3%) of $13,000 for the upcoming year. This I understand did not include her beefed up perks. Also, at the same meeting Charlie MacDonald, tech supervisor, was given an extension of his work year amounting to an $8,000 raise. Is it true that this person has been upped to the sound of $20,000 over the past 5 years. I have also heard he is the most inept tech person MPS has and that the two under him have tech knowledge that would make the supervisor's head spin. Why didn't that money get spread to the two that actually are out doing the work. And I have also heard the most of the district employees cannot get the supervisor to even return their phone calls or emails addressing tech issues in their classrooms but it is the two lower paid employees that do all the work. What has this district come to? My kids are also looking at 'school of choice for their children'. Harper is looking really good to them right now and not just because of their proximity in regards to district lines.
The safety concerns I have heard about around the buildings, on the buses, and after school lets out scare me alot. Does anyone know what is going on here?
Harper Creek has really come a long way and is an excellent school district now. Marshall could be that good if we had good leadership. After this past year I am considering sending my kids elsewhere too, HC is a possibility.
Supeintendent Joyce Phillips and the school board have had many chances this past year to effectively work with the teaches, parerents, community leaders and other citizens this past year. I thnk that John, Chris, Ai and Dan have tried to some extent. I sense they are learning how they were used and duped by Phillips these past few years. I admire those who have spoken out and have exposed many of the problems and inconsistencies going on. Trust and faith have declined dramaticaly and many, myself included, are quite unhappy with the decisions and actions they have taken. They need to work bette with the teachers and support staff. They need to treat everyone much better. They need to put the Foreman case behind them and let the poor guy go back to work. Two years and $300,000 have proven nothing. They need to hold Philips and others at the top accountable. We need a new Superintendent soon so we can truly move forward. We need to keep our custodians and find other areas to cut. Thee is too much at stake here. Lets do it for the kids!
I'd like to remind everyone that Foreman is being PAID while he is not here. A double expenditure!!! Also Harper Creek is now full...they can't take any more school of choice students. What a definative statement that makes in regards to the monumentally bad leadership at MPS.
Yes, MacDonald did get two whopping raises within the last three years. No other tech director in the area makes anywhere near $85,000.00 or deserves it the least.
If your technology director is earning $85,000 a year, your taxpayers are really getting ripped-off! Harper's tech director will be making $76,337 next year, according to the proposed budget. That reflects a raise of 1.5%. She was named the MACUL Technology Director of the year for the State of Michigan this year. She has been in that position for seven years, (although she did the job as a teacher for a number of years before it became an administrative position) and she is responsible for the incredible technology in ALL of Harper's classrooms. There was no budget for technology in Harper's bond issue; yet every classroom in the district has a ceiling mounted data projector, linked to a teacher's desktop computer, TV, VCR and DVD player. Most of the classrooms also have document cameras. Every teacher has a phone on their desk, etc. It is state of the art. A majority of the teachers have also been trained to use technology in the classroom effectively through INTEL training. All of this is because of the technology director's excellent leadership. She deserves $85,000; but how in the world could Marshall's be worth that? What has he done?
I see these signs that say privatization hurts..where can I get some of these?
New signs are coming. Probably next week. The privatization signs were left over from another school district. The new signs will be 'No Strangers In Our Schools'. Will post when they arrive - hopefully the 10th of July.
I'm not sure that I favor privatization of the custodial services, but tired old union fear tactics won't work.
Unions better get with the program because they are fast becoming irrelevant.
Thanks for the info on the signs..I am interested in some!!
I talked to some buisness owners on saturday, and although they are supporting us they are afraid to put signs in their windows,because of the threats they would get!I know of 1 buisness out by Buds Wrecker that had a sign ,and removed it because of threatning phonecalls.how far will this school board go to keep Joyce and Potter happy? This is America,have a safe holiday! Johnnie.
The next Board of Education meeting (the same people that were elected by this community and is suppose to be working for the community to JP) is scheduled for Monday, July 9th at 7pm in the MS Community Room. Everyone must attend and let the board know how they feel about the firing of the custodians. This community is the one that will sway the board to the right way to think, the employess of MPS have absolutely NO VALUE to the board members or the top administration. I hope to see you at monday night's board meeting!
Joyce, Vic, Paul, Janice, and others are planning to fire the custodians during the summer in a sneaky manner when the community attention is least focused on the schools. They will likely claim that what they are doing is "best" for the schools. Looking at their decisions and actions this past year, they are not working in the best interests of the Marshall schools. If they were it would be Phillips who is being fired.
I have talked to several school board member in recent months and I think they may be ready for some positive changes. I do not think they are as supportive of Joyce Phillips as many think. The ones I talked to were highly critical of her adn felt they are trapped by her cotnract (which was a huge mistake last year!). They are sympathetic to Jody Foremans plight and I hope they are finally ready to put this to rest and return Mr. Foreman to his teaching job. They would be fools to try to fire him for such minimal unproveable reasons that are clouded in controversy. Also I heard that Mr. Foreman will likely launch a big lawsuit if they do fire him. If they feel they must move the custodians to privatization the least they can do is phase it in over time so the current custodains, especially those with at least five years of service, can hopefully keep their jobs, pay and benefits. I think the board is worn out from all of the problems and conflicts in the Marshall schools. They know the staff and community are very unhappy. This summer is the best time for them to start turning things around before they get much much worse.
yeah but will they do it? They are all going to have to fight the DR. you can't do it with "some" of the board.
Check out the agenda for the board meeting on Monday. Apparently Mr. Hulkow is retiring and being hired back as a contract employee. This is becoming more and more common for administrators (teachers cannot do it). Its a win for the retiree, (gets a pension and salary); its a win for the district because they don't have to pay retirement, FICA or insurance costs for the employee; but the loser is the retirement system. There is a bill in the legislature that would suspend the pension of a person who is doing this, because it is becoming so common.
Here's a prime example of why the employees of the MPS do NOT trust the Board of Education....at the June board meeting it was VOTED ON to table the sending out of the RFP's until AFTER the July 9th board meeting -- at the Site Committee meeting THIS WEEK Joyce was given permission to send out the RFP's on custodial work. Now more than ever, we need EVERY community member to attend the monday night July board meeting and voice your disgust at the firing of the custodians!!! Monday night, July 9th, 7pm at the Middle School Community Room.
If you need any questions answered talk to a ESP support member!
AND PLEASE SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE CUSTODIAL STAFF AND COME TO THE JULY 9 BOARD MEETING. We need people in the seats!!!
was the site commity opened to the public? and tha school board is elected by the public, not payed by JP. if they start standing up for whats right, she'll leave that much quicker.also, we're all getting tired of mr. beardsley having to tell potter how to run the meetings ,potter should have learned all of this by now, dont ya think!
Hey news everyone...the phone calls were coming into the Central Office 3 weeks ago and still are. So, did someone in Central Office solicit bids by fax or phone and not wait to get the board approval? Something seems terribly wrong here. And some people wonder why there is such distrust. Unfortunately, about 10% of the people in any community actually care about what their school board is doing. I would guess that rate to be higher here in Marshall at this point in time. So, did someone solicit bids before the actual July vote was to take place. If you haven't phoned your board members yet you better get busy. They work for the taxpayers here - NOT JOYCE
What happened at the board meeting?
The front page of the BC paper will tell you what happened.
The Marshall School board claim they are only getting bids to replace the custodians to learn the facts of this option. Since Phillips wants the custodians fired and is pushing for it, and the board takes orders from her, figure its a done deal this summer.
At the June board meeting phillips sounded and looked like a pit bull used car salesperson. She wants to bust up the only union she thinks she has power over and the support union is it. She is seeking revenge on anyone that she thinks has made it public what type of manager she is. How sad for Marshall that this community is so uninvolved that this will happen, joyce will finally leave, and Marshall will wonder what happened to their school. As Doug Burger stated at the board meeting, 'Thanks to John Coulter for putting humanization into what is taking place' (not a direct quote). John wants any information he can get before being asked to vote on such a 'life changing' decision for 23 families in Marshall. How compassionate! I wish more on the Board were seeking all the knowledge. My fear is this: When the top administration seeks private company information and the board is seeking information from other school district business offices - HOW ACCURATE CAN THAT BE. Shouldn't someone be asking the persons that are in those buildings? Maybe teachers, MEA consultants, support staff members. Am I the only person that thinks the information solicited from other business/operations directors is going to be quite biased? People need to speak to the 'hands on staffers' that will tell you the buildings are not the same without community members doing the work. Community members that are school employees HAVE VESTED INTERESTS in their jobs. Sorry Paul, your statement that everyone is a stranger as in 'everyone has a first day at school or on the job' does not apply to a school employee setting. Private company employees WILL NOT CARE WHO YOUR CHILD IS - but secretaries, media aides, food service, bus drivers, and custodians do. Support Staff Persons are ALL CUSTODIANS TO SCHOOL CHILDREN. Look up the definition of custodian: : one that guards and protects or maintains ; especially : one entrusted with guarding and keeping property or records or with custody or guardianship of prisoners or inmates
I checked Webster (see above) no where does it define custodian as a cleaner of buildings and that folks is what you are tradeing. The above "one that guards, protects and maintains"....(custodian) for a PRIVATE CLEANING COMPANY EMPLOYEE. Well - that should say it all. Call you board members and don't forget to phone joyce, brian and amy. Let them know you do not want to replace 'guardians, protectors' with mere cleaning persons!!!!!!
Main Entry: cus·to·di·an
Function: noun
Pronunciation: "k&s-'tO-de-&n
: one that guards and protects or maintains ; especially : one entrusted with guarding and keeping property or records or with custody or guardianship of prisoners or inmates
Phillips will be spending the next two year doing all the harm she can to Marshall school employees and community critics. She has goten away with bad management, lies and general incompetence now for three years. The only limits to her harm and bad management are what the board chose to implement to stop her or slow her down. Keep up the pressure on the board! Three years of scandals, lies, major problems, low morale and bad leadership are enough and have drained most good employees. We need to turn this around or keep suffering the consequences. I am tired of being embarrassed about living in Marshall!
What's new with the Foreman case? I heard the charges related to the criminal charges that were dropped were also ruled in his favor by the tenure board. I also heard that Phillips is spending big bucks to appeal them. Will he be back this fall? Has the Chronicle covered this yet?
Keep his family in your prayers too! Mr. Foreman has four children in the Marshall schools and their future is at stake here too. They have all suffered way too much and as suspected early on, Mr. Foreman has been the victim of false allegations.
Like most people when the Foreman case hit the newspapers I thought it was an open and shut case adn that he should be fired. Since then I have learned that the original story was not true, that the case was likely mishandled by Supt. Phillips, and that other motives and personal vendettas are involved. Recently I learned that Mr. Foreman has been exonerated again on the criminal charges that were originally so highly publicized. But a third charge involving a former assistant tennis coach that claimed he bought her a beer many years ago when she was 20 is quite suspicious. Apparently she has a close connection to a school board member that wants Mr. Foreman gone no matter what the truth is. This is all the school board and Phillips have now as a reason to fire Mr. Foreman after two years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in their investigation, from what I am hearing. I hope they can all settle on something that everyone can live with before it gets much worse. Mr. Foreman was one of my favorite teachers and I hope my kids someday can have him as a teacher too!
The interesting thing is that the money spent so far on the Foreman case, is more than will be saved by outsourcing the custodians. And if the rumors are true, and Phillips wants to appeal the tenure ruling, it will continue to cost more. Are these priorities in line with what the majoity of the Marshall community wants?
***This is all the school board and Phillips have now as a reason to fire Mr. Foreman after two years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in their investigation****
Who says that this is what the legal fees are? Is this published somewhere? Or is it made up?
I'd like to know why Mr. Foreman put himself in that position to be accused of something. True or not, he should hold himself up to a different standard as a married individual other than "he didn't break the law." I wonder what his kids have had to endure because of his poor judgement, not to mention his former wife who must be humiliated at his antics. I'm not impressed with him at all and I'm glad the schools want higher character people teaching than those that engage in after school activies with students and recent former students.
I know all the Foreman supporters are going to jump on me and shout me down, but quite frankly, his actions say volumes about him.
As a colleague and friend of Mr. Foreman I know he made some mistakes and exercised some poor judgement. Dr. Phillips, Brian Metcalf and Amy Jones have made many more mistakes and have done many bad, in my opinion worse, actions. The main charges have been cleared now, twice! There is much evidence that Mr. Foreman has not been treated fairly and that there is nasty politics and dishonesty involved in the investigation by MPS leaders.
If there was solid evidence that resulted from a fair and honest investigation, then there would be no controversy. This is why there is so much controversy. While every effort and tactic, no matter how unethical, was been used against Mr. Foreman, great leniency and huge pay and perks are lavished on Phillips, Metcalf and Jones. Why the doublestandards? Phillips has been caught lying many times, just watch the school board meetings and compare what she says to the facts. Why isn't she ever held accountable? We all know she is an terrible superintendent who has caused great harm to the Marshall schools! Phillips, Metcalf and Jones deserve to be fired far more than Mr. Foreman based on known facts and job performance. From what I am hearing, the worst may be yet to come.
Where's the evidence? If Phillips had the case she claimed she did against Mr. Foreman then why did the courts drop the criminal charges before a pretrial? Remember that no students were involved and there was no connection to the Marshall schools. I talked to Jody Foreman about this and he said a former student whose parents are also personal friends of his asked to stop by and say hello while home from college. She brought two others over (he knew nothing about) knowing that he was playing cards with a 30-something male friend friend. One of those other people is known for making up elaborate stories for attention. Apparently when these stories and rumors got to Phillips she was called in for questioning and threatened with legal action unless she said bad things to help fire Foreman. Then Phillips went to the papers and the police on multiple occasions to ruin Foremans reputation in the media. Of course it all fell apart when the facts came out. Now even the tenure board has ruled in Foremans favor on this issue. It should be obvious why this has caused so much anger in the community. Mr. Foreman has suffered way too much for the "sin" of being too kind to allow a former student to stop by and say hello. I know for a fact that he was close to solving is marital problems when this case blew open and Phillips went to the press. Yes, this mess has cost him his reputation, his marriage and last February nearly his life! How many more "pounds of flesh" does Phillips want from him? She is the one who should be fired over this entire fiasco!
"I know all the Foreman supporters are going to jump on me and shout me down, but quite frankly, his actions say volumes about him."
I would agree with you if the evidence was solid that he engaged in wrongdoing that would deserve firing. If all he did was play cards for a few hours with three adult former students then I do not agree he should be fired for that.
I knew Megan Wolf (now Megan Jackson) when she was in high school. I knew her form tennis also. She had a crush on Mr. Foreman for years. She pursued him relentlessly and was hurt when he did not reciprocate around the time she now claims he bought her a beer in 2001. Yes, she was in college then and the assistant girls coach. She often talked about and certainly exhibited a strong interest in Mr. Foreman. If he was like the board probably thinkgs he is, they certainly would have had an affair. He spurned her affections and now she is getting revenge. Also I think she is somehow related to Vic Potter. I can tell you she was no angel in high school.
This case was the final straw that started the backlash against Joyce Phillips. From last summer through this summer a huge amount of bad things have been exposed about Joyce, her top co-leaders (Amy, Brian Charlie, etc) and her board supporters. From what I am hearing, there will be a lot more to come in the coming months.
You mean like an insurance scandal, very low staff morale, lying about the MHS hiring process, forcing good people out like Mr. Behrenwald, forcing out Sam and Bob, scripting school board meetings so they are little more than 7-0 rubber stamp votes in public with no real discussion or debate anymore, big pay raises for poor performance (Phillips, MacDonald, Jones and Metcalf), giving Metcalf basically a year off with full pay to get his doctorate and pay his whopping 24 grad credits, electing a school board President with an arrest record, lying about the threat to MHS studens who were shot at with a BB gun, buying flowers for Phillips the day the teacher surveys were delivered, largely ignoring the teacher surveys, threatening lawsuits against the teachers (MTA) and the Chronicle, targeting Hulkow, Hanson, Voight and Townswned- in addition to Behrenwald- for their excellence, not firing Joyce Phillips who has been a disaster for the Marshall Public Schools, ignoring the pleas of staff, parents and students for change, rewarding and protecting bad leadership at the top, etc etc.
It's been a great year for the Marshall Public Schools! Now two more to go, thanks MPS school board!!!
Hey idiot, thanks for making my point:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Don't trust Megan said...
I knew Megan Wolf (now Megan Jackson) when she was in high school. I knew her form tennis also. She had a crush on Mr. Foreman for years. She pursued him relentlessly and was hurt when he did not reciprocate around the time she now claims he bought her a beer in 2001. Yes, she was in college then and the assistant girls coach. She often talked about and certainly exhibited a strong interest in Mr. Foreman. If he was like the board probably thinkgs he is, they certainly would have had an affair. He spurned her affections and now she is getting revenge. Also I think she is somehow related to Vic Potter. I can tell you she was no angel in high school. >>>>>>>>
SO ITS THE VICITMS FAULT that a married teacher bought her beer and did God knows what else with her an others? LOL, what a crock. If he cared for his wife, (and no they we're not close to getting back together), repected his position and didn't just think he was big sh*t, he would have never even been in the position to have her descirbe what happened and we then wouldn't even be discussing this. When he knew, "FOR YEARS", that she had a crush on him, he should have shut her down immediately, documented it in a letter and sent it to the Principal. I think he kept the flirting game going and kept her just interested enough because it made him feel like such a big man. He should have told her the minute he realized she liked him, that their relationship was strictly professional and wasn't going anywhere--EVER. Yet, he finds himself at a conference, having dinner, with just her. Bad move Foreman. You just gave her a reason to either out you, or lie about you. Its kind of like how they tell teachers to never find themselves alone with a student so they can't make up some story. I feel bad for Michelle and the kids. They don't deserve that level of disrespect--neither does the community. I certainly don't want him teaching my daughter, and will have her moved out if he is back in school and teaching her.
Great teacher--yeah right.
I only hope the above poster is never on a jury. Conclusions from conjecture. What an ass.
To two posts up, the facts do not support your views. This may be your prejudice preconceived notions, but there is much more to the story that you have chosen to ignore or reject. Of course insulting someone that you merely disagree with does not give your views much credibility.
A few questions about Megan Wolf's allegations: Why did she wait until 2006 to report them? Was it a coincidence that they came out when the criminal case fell apart? Bob Crandall was at that same lunch (check the testimony, a friend of Foreman let me read a copy of the testimony), why doesn't he remember it? Is Megan a relative of a school board member? Could she have been pressured to make up a story to get Foreman because the rest of the case has fallen apart as the facts emerged, twice? Who is the actual victim here- Mr. Foreman?
Knowing Phillips and her supporters, this type of plot would be typical of how they pursue their personal agendas.
So if I understand this case, all that the Marshall Schools could get on Mr. Foreman after two years and perhaps $250,000 was that MAYBE he bought a beer or two for a 20 year old assistant tennis coach- 5 YEARS AGO - while attending a tennis clinic in Detroit? His life is ruined and his kids will likely lose their home over this? How tragically sad!
Will Mrs.Joyce Phillips be fired for her dishonest mishandling of this case?
Friday the 13'th: there must have been at least 25 people other than Brian, Amy,Bill(why would they put him through this),who did the site walk through all the schools.This should show allof you that jp all ready had this in the works, and thats why she was SO adiment to push this through in June!!!!! Tine line proves it all!!!!
The district's anticipted timeline:
7/10 rfp's sent to bidders.7/13 mandatory per-bid meeting and site walk walk through.7/17 deadlinn for submitting questions.7/23 deadline for submitting proposals. 7/27 evaluation of proposales and interviews.7/23-8/2 refrence checks on contractors.8/2final interviews.8/13 board action.
This town is not stupid, we know that once again lide to all of us about all of this . Remember that over spring break, jp had some one from a company to measure all the schools . the measurments are in the bid packet for each suilding!
Whether it be the insurance scandal, the forcing out of Mr. Behrenwald, the Metcalf scandal, huge undeserved pay raises for MacDonald and Jones, support for Joyce Phillips by the school board no matter how bad she is for the Marshall schools, the way the Foreman case was unjustly handled, the plans to fire the custodians and on and on. The track record is very bad. Bad management, dishonesty, meanness, secrecy, 7-0 rubber stamp votes, punishing good job performance while rewarding bad job performance, lack of real debate and discussion at board meetings, hidden agendas, personal vendettas, all have become the norm for the top leaders of the Marshall Public Schools. Do we want this dark, creepy, secretive, incompetent and harmful leadership regime to continue?
After reading the Marshall Chronicle out this weekend 7-14, it is obvious there are cracks in the unity of the Marshall School Board. John and Ali admitted publicly how the stress of being with the current school board and Phillips has really gotten to them. By all reports they are both excellent people who are probably very unhappy with the numerous problems and pressure to support bad things that they have to endure. Dan made a criticism of at least some private cleaning companies, saying he would not trust them to clean his garage. Another positive sign by someone that we have been hoping would take a greater leadership role for positive changes. Chris is not mentioned but some who know him say he feels similar to John, Ali and maybe Dan that things have gone terribly wrong and it may be time to quit following the die hard JP loyalists- Janice, Paul and Victor.
Remember to wear your GREEN !!!!! People are asking lots of questions, about shirts and signs. I have signs in my car and wear my Green shirt when I am out in the public. Lets all do our part and help save our school from becoming privitised.
Lots of coverage in the new Chronicle about firing the custodians. Unfortunately Paul Beardslee comes across as uncaring and very arrogant as if this is a done deal. What a shame, I expected much better out of Paul when he ran for the school board. Oh how he has let us all down!
I would like to thank John ,Ali, Chris,for asking more questions about the custodial issue, and taking the time to listen to both sides of the issue. This is what good school board members do.Dan , thank you also for your comments against some of the privet companys.I voted for every one of you thats on the board, Iknow that you feel thats it's a thankles job, BUT ITS NOT!!!! We need people like you to listen to your hearts. It should never ALWAYS be about the money.One Lady inthe walk through site group walked out of Hughes school saying," well, i guess were not strangers any more"".Walk throughs took less than 10 min.John, thank you for putting togather the fact finding committe.Thank you all once again .
Johnnie
I feel bad for the custodians that their jobs may be in danger. But I question why none of their talking points are how clean they keep their buildings. Is it because at the high school, some may spend more time doing crossword puzzles rather than cleaning. Or, officiating - swimming - lifting weights rather than cleaning. How many times do you see the custodians at the high school watch the basketball or football games instead of cleaning? How about some middle school custodians who would rather watch baseball games or other sporting events on tv or search the internet instead of cleaning. I travel the buildings, and is it so hard to clean the dust bunnies off of the top of displays or coke machines? Is it hard to run a rag over the top of the lockers? I am NOT talking about ALL of the custodians in general. But there are a good handful of custodians who milk their jobs as much as they can. But if your buildings are super clean - then hey - start adding that to your talking points. But I'm afraid you won't be able to do that.
to the above: I know for a fact, that my school is clean. We have a list of things that we are responsible for, cleaning coke machines are not one of them.I thought coke machines were taken out of the schools.Have you seen the shape the elementry classrooms are in at the end of the day?Trash , mud and dirt every where , not to mention the famious water bottles they leave in the floors for us to through out.i clean at 2 schools.This is all about the money! They already know if our schools are clean or not.Board meetings were held in them to check them out.If for some reason you think were not doing our jobs right, than by all means, come show us ways to improve, and than leave us the man power to get the task done right!I dont even take my breaks most of the time until all my works done, just to make sure i've got everything finished.Theres not enough hours in any shift to do it all. we're always short handed, we dont have the amount of people it takes to do everything.
But regardless of whether you are shorthanded or not that doesnt explain why so many of the custodians can be seen "on break" so very often. Or why the high school supervisor can swim,referee,ride bike,lift weights etc. Or why they can be seen watching the games or sitting in a room watching tv. I know first hand that many on the job do not work very hard and some of the day custodians wander aimlessly much of the day when they are not sitting in the break room and then complain when they are asked to do something that "it isnt my job". They are all nice guys but not very hard workers. And that has othing to do with being understaffed. Sorry but true.
so, why do you hav so much time to wander the halls?must be your not working very hard either!
Maybe you should try asking any of them exactly what they are doing, what they have been doing or what they are waiting to do. You might be surprised at what the answer will be.
If there have been any performance issues with one or more custodians, then what has the chain of command done to address this? Ultimately Joyce Phillips is responsible for everything and she just keeps getting praises and pay increases because she has done such a great job, according to our school board. The only argument I have heard form her and the school board to privatize is to save money. From my understanding all of this falls under Amy Jones. Has she been making sure that all cleaning and maintenenace has been getting done? Or is her specialty locking up pianos and entertaining construction supervisors late at night?
Once again,If your so busy at your own job, why do you have the time to wander the halls trying to figur ouy what everyone ealse is doing?Or are you on break?If your asked to do something out of your job description,I would guess thats up to you if you want to try to do it or not.
Many people are in and out of the schools everyday who are not on the job. Once again back to you, why isnt your main talking point the great job you guys do? The whole strangers thing doesnt fly since every worker is a stranger at first so why dont you push the work ethic angle? Just asking.
I support keeping the current custodians. But there have been some issues with the performance of some of them. I agree that they need to make sure that ALL of them are doing their job. That will make it much easier for those of us who support keeping them and not firing them. Yes I know they have been understaffed, so I do not expect them to do miracles. But some do have a bad rep for doing their job and that hurts all of them and those of us who do not want to privatize the custodians.
We can't cling to old ways. The state will continue to screw us, and administrators seem only interested in themselves. If we are to protect the quality of our schools we have to change. The custodial issue is just one example. You have to know that if we lose students, elementary consolidation is coming, too.
There's only so much money. We need to spend it in the classroom.
If you want to protect something, fine. Just decide what else goes in its place
Having bad leadership at the top that has lost the trust and support of the staff and community is by far the biggest problem in the Marshall schools right now!
I am very offended reading the above post. To the person who may not know the facts: Every group has those that go above and beyond the call of duty as well as a member or two that slacks. Let's not be too hasty to point a crooked finger at the custodians. Amy has neglected to get them the proper cleaning equipment and to fill vacant positions to the point that I am pretty sure not even the top notch employee can do the job some people expect of them. On the other hand though. The district employees have not watched Joyce with her bad performace, cruel management style, lies and deception get rewarded with 3% increases which I must add are equal to 1/2 of on custodial wage working 8 hours a day 52 weeks per year. When the Board decided not to demote Joyce they should have thought about the consequences involved. The morale that was at a record low has dropped to new depths. The handful of misdirected loyalists that will never be able to perform to expectation under a new and much better superintendent have decided in their own best interest that they should help Joyce in her efforts to target and stomp on the deflated staff at MPS. I cannot wait until Joyce is actually gone to see how some of her handful of underlings are going to maintain their jobs. They have now alienated themselves from all the good, hard working employees that have worked YEARS around them. I predict when the fall of joyce finally comes she will most assuredly take her little loyal pals down before she goes down!!!! Until then - it is my hope and prayer that the board continue to try to reign joyce in and try to understand the obstacles that have been purposedly placed in the paths of good employees like the custodians. Once again: unless you know a custodian personally - you really don't know what they are expected to do from day to day. don't second guess it because you will most certainly be wronge. And, don't base your opinion on what joyce, brian or amy tell you....good lord .... they know less about the employees at MPS than anyone. Ask them a question of two that you know the answer to regarding employees and you will see for yourself! They are only informed on things that are ready for their money grubbing hands - not KIDS FIRST. I assure you...without our local custodians our kids will not be first!
I found a copy of the "secret plan" that Joyce is implementing. Apparently there are way too many excellent employees in the Marshall Public Schools. This makes Joyce, Brian, Charlie, Amy and the like look bad. So they are trying to make things worse so they look better. Excellent building Principals- force them out! Teachers- ignore and treat them badly. Custodians- fire them and hire third-rate temps to fill their place. It is all about power and money at the expense of the community and the Marshall schools. I think John and Ali have seen the light and they are tired of being a part of such a mess and said they nearly resigned multiple times this past year. Its even hurting good board members. The "gang of four" at the top are like a cancer eating away at the Marshall schools. Radical surgery or strong chemo may be needed to defeat it. And the cure is needed soon, not in two years!
But we all know that nothing will change since many of us have been saying the same old stuff for the past year and we are still here saying the same old stuff. Everyone is just too afraid to really come together and take a stand. How sad since it just seems to empower the top leaders to continue on with their agenda. Two yrs from now when the dust settles I will have no sympathy for the good people of Marshall who will be decrying the sorry state of the Marshall Public Schools. Can we all say "we told you so"?
Hey, but we past a school bond making big changes to improve education! The administration offices at MHS will be moved from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor. Joyce, Brian and Amy didn't like having to go to the 2nd floor on their rare visits to MHS. Then the neglected bathrooms that were never properly updated now will finally get updated along with a few other improvements. Why wasn't the normal school budget used for such updates? Because it was paying off insurance scandals, finanacing Brians doctorate, giving all of them big raises and perks, sending them to conferences, hiring consultants, firing teachers, and paying legal fees. Let's see how Amy and Joyce planned this, borrow 8 mil over 29 years for mostly routine maintenenace that should have been paid out of the general budget. Will the Marshall taxpayers end up being out say $15 mil for some minor updates that should have been done over the years out of the general budget?
Since jp has already said she will resign in 2 years, and we have already bought her retirement, than why dosnt she just leave?Nothing she says has any clout.Ask your self WHY she is so eager to get rid of the custodians.When we are gone ,our union is broken. That clears the way fo her to do the same to food service,secretaries,para pros.Bussing will fallow after that.If I did'nt love my job so much, I would not be fighting so hard to keep it!Now is the time for all of us to stop being afraid of what she thinks she can do to us! She cant fire us all, it would make her look bad!She is out to destroy this school system! She has done a dam good job so far. So, do we lay down and die or do we fight back??????????????
Joyce Phillips is in fact targeting many groups and individuals. Unless they fight back she will keep getting away with lies, scandals, bad managment and causing harm to the Marshall Schools. I am pleased to see signs popping up all over town against privatization. I hope this spirals into a board recall of JP supporters and JP getting fired. I know some good people who may run for the board if Vic, Janice, Paul and maybe Dan get recalled for their loyalty to Joyce at the expense of the Marshall schools. I used to like these board members but they have told me one thing and did another too many times. Chris may be added to if he does not start doing something good publicly. I think they know what needs to be done but do not have the courage to do it. Lets do them a favor and let them "move on" and bring in people that can "clean up the mess."
Since liars they are....why would the board believe any of the credible information that this staff has shared or is willing to share. It seems to me the taxpayers should have a revolution. We are paying over $300,000 for the top administration to lie and deceive everybody with maybe the exception of a board member or two that is likely in cahoots. I have tried to get people to listen - even when it is grave, serious safety issues. But the people that get asked questions still lie - what will it take - the death of a student before someone in charge actually takes the reigns here? The only consolation is that God will repay these corrupt people for what they are doing to this town and it's good people. What goes around will come around.
New signs are out!!! Green of course.Aug.13 is the next board meeting, I hope that jp will hold the meeting in the auditorum and not set up the confrence roon.That way we can all be in the same room.Wheather you are for us or against us, Please attend.I look forward to hearing both sides.
The question was asked ,why our key points ar'nt how clean our buildings are. Well, we've been told that its to save money, no one on the boare has said that its because our schools are dirty!Am i perfect? No, but i know that my school is emaculate. And the board said this when they were having their meeting there.So, if its because of dirty schools,retrain us!Did any of the board stop and think to ask us if we were willing to give up something to keep our jobs? NO, jp didnt even give them a chance to speek to us as a group.She just wants us gone, BUT WHY????? I wish i new the answer to that one!! If money be the motive,than why pick on the porest employs she has?I for one have never even been writen up.So she has no grounds to fire me!!!
Joyce Phillips has proven herself over and over to be dishonest, cold, uncaring, spiteful, hateful, petty, incompetent, a bad communicator, a bad motivator, a bad educational leader, bad at public relations, lacks trust and support from staff and community and is overall a disaster for the Marshall Public Schools. And I am being kind using these words, many use far worse, which may be more accurate.
Since central office has become so expensive with big pay raises, generous extras like years toward early retirement, legal bills for scandals, insurance payouts, etc, Phillips and Jones had to reach as low as they can go to grab money to cover their failures. Of course they targeted the custodians first to fire. Soon they will target bus drivers, teachers aides, secretaries and maybe even teacher and coaches down the road, Will the Marshall School Board keep rubber stamping every stupid or bad idea they push on them?
Does anyone know for sure what the whole Foreman debacle has cost our district in legal fees? Why has it been kept so quiet? Where can one find out what is paid to our top leaders lawyers? Has the tenure case been decided? Word was it was to be finished back in March so why has there been no mention officially? Isnt it a shame that we the taxpayers arent told what it has cost us beyond paying Foreman his salary all along as well as what his sub costs us. The districts lawyers are not cheap and I and many others want to know what it costs us and where that money might have gone if we hadnt pursued the case. Just asking for many. That would be a good "rumor" for Joyce to speak to.
I have heard that the tenur board droped the case due to lack of evidence.Also that Forman has a law suit against the school.Only rumor, maby jp can answer this for all of us.Some one should ask her at the next board meeting.
All of the criminal charges (those that were widely reported in the papers-thanks Joyce- but dropped by the prosecuter) have been cleared by the tenure board. The Marshall schools have launched an expensive appeal (so much for fair and honest treatment of employees!). A late added highly suspicious charge by Megan Wolf, a 20 year old asst tennis coach in 2001, claims that Foreman bought her two beers during a lunch while attending a tennis clinic- in 2001! This was never reported until last year when the phony criminal charges fell apart. A friend of Foreman's said that he had heard from Potter's wife that Megan was going to do this when the other charges fell apart. Apparently they are related somehow. Why was this never reported before? Mr. Crandall was there too and supposedly testified that he does not remember it. This is all on appeal until the fall from what is going around in an e-mail update. If Mr. Foreman gets fired, unjustly, expect a lot more information to come out about the scandal about how this was handled. For now Foremans close friends want things somewhat quiet until the final decisions are made. The school district and Megan Wolf can avoid being sued if Mr. Foreman gets reinstated. There is a lot of evidence being collected against them. Apparently many things that have been said can be proven as untrue. Any of Megans friends who have information need to ask around to find out who they can share it with ir send it to attorny Shaffer. Apparently several have come forward from what I have heard so far. This should get interesting but for Mr. Foreman I am asking that we all quit posting after this update for a while.
But back to the original question. How much is all this costing our district? Dont the taxpayers deserve to know? Joyce, you really need to be open about all this dont you think? Not the details of the case but what the bill has been so far.
I would guess that Joyce's Lansing lawyers charge the Marshall Schools about $400-$500 per hour, and that counts their time in the car driving to and from Marshall! The actual costs will be nice to know if the Chronicle or someone can find the accurate costs. The legal costs, court costs, paid leave, hiring a sub teacher, etc should easily cost between $200,000-$300,000 not counting any lawsuits or other legal costs that may occur after the proceedings are all done. I got these estimates from a knowledgeable source with inside connections.
Now I think we know why they want to fire the custodians. There is so much waste and fraud at the top that they need to find money somewhere to pay for the problems caused by bad leadership.
The protest signs are spreading fast all over town. Maybe this will be the beginning of the end of the "Phillips regime"?
Hopefully there will be a couple undoings for Joyce Phillips - her time to go has come and gone. People need to contact their board members and let them know the top abuse of powers and money needs to be stopped by the board members. They were elected to work for the citizens and if they do not intend on doing that a recall will be started when the timeframe is right. Demote Joyce out of power. Keep looking into the outsourcing if there are enough reasons to do so. but I would suggest - 'this district does not need nor have funds to pay for an assistant superintendent nor do I feel the taxpayers want to continue paying joyce to further damage our schools, community and reputation. Demote Joyce. Keep custodians until figures/data are gathered by next June 1st. This would also give them time to carry out their duties this year and get looking for other employment. There are many ways to save money without firing 24 custodians, 2 supervisors and possibly their director...all because we were looking at an emergency budget crunch when the state was talking about cutting $122 per pupil. That ended June 1st. Why shove these kinds of ideas down the throats of this community right after they vote to extend the bond...which should have been inclusive of the custodial pay and pensions.
Bond money can't be used for operating expenses
Apparently some board members are going around telling people that the custodians will be the first hired by whatever company they choose to "privatize" with, that they will have no loss in pay and benefits and that all will be just dandy! That of course is not true, but as has happened all year when they cover for JP, they do not let the facts get in the way of a good story.
The board only goes by what jp tells them.She only tells them part of the story.So, to be fair to them(the board) ,please understand this .This has always been the case.The boare is asking lots of questions,and getting answers to things that didnt know about.They have not said that we wouldnt have loss of pay,they said that they heard some pay $7,$10,or more, plus benifits, if i remember right.And that the companys are willing to hire us. But thats what they were told by the companys.I thank we ,and the board know that the hiring back is not going to happen. read the chronical. I dont know of any one of us, that ive talked to will even consider working for them anyway.
>>>>The protest signs are spreading fast all over town. Maybe this will be the beginning of the end of the "Phillips regime"? >>>>
Ohhhh yeah, all 10 of them look overwhelming...whoo daddy.
JPs dishonesty is well-known and well-documented (for a planned upcoming lawsuit). She has a track record of lying to the school board and/or trying to get them to lie to cover things up (just ask Bob Lyng, he exposed the insurance scandal coverup). She has blocked information from the school board to get them to support things she wanted. She has issued directives that they cannot consider facts or evidence that does not come from her (ex. the Foreman case). When questioning people she has was dishonest to them and did not honestly report what they told her. She was very dishonest about the hiring procedure last year at MHS for the new assistant Principal. She was openly dishonest about the BB gun kids harming an MHS student. Read her Chronicle columns this past year, do they resemble accurately how she leads in the Marshall schools? Most staff do not recognize that falsy friendly persona she occasionally pulls out to dupe others. She has made fools of the school board for three years and they keep rewarding her! For what reason? Cowardice or corruption?
To two posts up: Do you ever get out of the house? There must be at least 20 sings within two blocks of MHS! Are you one of those cold and heartless Phillips supporters?
there are exactly 200 signs total, 100 red, 100 grean. and every one of them are up!!!!
Please remember the next school board meeting:Aug.13 at the Middle school.Bring your yard signs, without the wire,and make your voice be heard!
I have no doubt that the custodians and fine people with good families.
But, how do I get laid off from my teaching job and have them make the same medical and pension benefits without a degree?
They do not ge the same medical and pension benefits that teachers do.
Whatever. Do you think it's commensurate with skill and education?
I do not have a degree, so would you please explain the above comment."commensurate with skill and education
".
To the poster who said there were only 10 signs; I have been driving around Marshall quite a bit this week and I have seen dozens of signs.
To the laid-off teacher:
If you teach for 10 years and are vested in the system, you will get a pension that is about 2.5% of your average pay for your highest three years times your years of service. A custodian would get a pension based on the same formula; but obviously since their average pay is significantly less than yours, and they had the same number of years of service as you did (minimum 10) their pension would be considerably less. Right now you would get the same medical benefits; but my guess is that will change in the near future. Anyway; what was your point?
Don't you realize that if the district privatizes custodians, then they will look at other support groups next. Before long, the only unionized employees in the system will be the teachers, and how much clot do you think they will have then? This is about power and control and getting revenge at one of the groups who did the survey last summer. If Phillips succeeds with this action, it will only motivate her to continue to purge the district of any and all employees who stand up to her.
Phillips, Jones, MacDonald and Metcalf all are terrible at their jobs and look at the long list of pay increases and benefits they get. What a waste of money on such poor employees! If anyone is concerned about waste and employees being overpaid, start with this group!
My point about skill and education is that if you have more you get paid more. Teachers get more cash salary, but the same (almost it appears) other benefits. That's skewed inappropriately. The school retirement plan is defined benefit. The custodial group should be defined contribution, if anything.
Yes, other groups will be, and should be examined. It's not about unions it's about the way the schools spend our money.
There will be no more revenue; not per student and likely not from more students. So, where do we cut?
I suggest we stop doing things the old way and do things a new way.
I'm not saying I like this. I'm saying it's inevitable. Anyone who does not have a role that is central to education better be on alert.
I think that includes building principals. The day is not far off when we may do with fewer.
The old days - in schools or factories - that a high school education or a non-licensed skill is enough, are gone.
Dr. P has botched everything she's touched, but that doesn't change the reality. The new person will have to try to deal with the same mess we have now, because it's sure she won't fix anything.
I may agree with you if say the custodians were making $40,000 per year and great benefits. But they only make $24,000 per year. Could you live on that and raise a family? The real problem is that the state of Michigan has dumped more expenses on teh schools and has not sent enough money to cover them. Also when they let CMU (Englers hometown school) and a few other politically connected schools start rubber-stamping "charter schools" that are for profit institutions, that drained billions from the public schools and enriched the charter school businesses. It works like the, the state gives say $7,000 per student. The cost to educate students vary widely, with elementary non-special ed the cheapest at say $3,000-$4,000 each. Then these charter schools target these profitable groups and usually offer substandard staff, programs and facilities under a slick marketing campaign. The result is they spend perhaps no more than $4,000 per student and pocket $3,000 per student in profits. They avoid special ed students, technology, extensive programs, and expensive good high schools (along with bussing and many other support services). Why was such a bad system set up that hurts the regular public schools so much? Corrupt politics as usual, or politicians that wanted "reform" on the cheap without knowing what they were voting for. The the Bush admin sends a long list of requirement with no funding to pay for them. More financial problems for Michigan schools. Our economy? Washington takes far more from Michigan in taxes than they give back, the South adn West benefit handsomely. Free trade? With Canada it is ok, with Mexico, China, etc it has been a disaster for Michigan. The war in Iraq? It has cost over $400 billion so far with Michigan's share at least $35 billion! Imagine what we could have done with that money here in Michigan? And I ama pro-military conservative who agreed with General Shinseki when he said the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld plan would not work (he was fired, but now he has been proven correct!).
I connect these other issues because they all affect what happens locally. We would not even be discussing the custodians if it were not for all of these other problems that have hurt the Marshall schools. And yes, that does not even count the very expensive bad leadership we have in Marshall. What a tragedy and the poor custodians may be the next set of victims! We should be getting $8,000=$10,000 per student from the state, we are way underfunded. Politicians like to brag about our universities, and they spend $30,000-$60,000 a year per student.
The Marshall Charter School is a very bizarre place. Owner/founder/dentist Eric Heidenreich started it as some sort of business, I heard with his sister in Hillsdale who works for the "management company" that runs it for profit. They keep firing people to keep costs down (Hey Joyce, you would like it there!) and things have gotten so bad that even Heidenreich has decided to homeschool his kids instead and pulled them out. I think they should pull the plug on all of these shady charter schools and put the money back into full-service nonprofit public schools. Somebody is getting rich at the expense of our kids!
Please visit www.peopleforstrongmarshallschools.com
This site is dedicated to the fight to keep the MPS custodial staff part of MPS.
Charters exist because public schools were seen as ineffective. Truth is, they are. Charters are not a solution, but a reaction to a deficiency. What about schools of choice? Same idea.
If you want to talk unions, let's do it. How can professionals belong to a union? Sure, they balance political power, but at what cost? Unions exist to perpetuate themselves. Teachers have paid a high price for whateve they've gotten. Districts have been saddled with fixed costs - like pensions.
As I said, cling to your old beliefs, but be honest. Doing so will cost. It only remains to be seen who will pay.
I do not think that good teachers are overpaid. Actually I think most people think that good teahers are underpaid. A 20+ year teacher with a Masters degree makes about $60,000 per year, hardly a windfall. Yes, benefits have gone up and the teachers have taken very small (way under inflation!) pay increases to make up for it. The state has dumped costs onto the local schools that were supposed to be covered by the state. Former governor Engler raided the teachers pension fund as much as he could get away with and started pushing more expenses on the local schools. Proposal A has failed to lived up to its promises to provide enough revenue for the schools. The lottery has put money into the schools only to be removed on the other side of the budget by the state government. Teacher's unions rarely go on strike (its illegal now), their pay increases-if they get them- average under 2 percent per year for the last decade, benefits have been cut and newer teachers have a worse pension plan. Teacher unions are needed when their is a bad and abusive administration liek we have here in Marshall, though they cannot do much about it if the school board backs the abuse.
Teachers have to take more classes and cover more expenses out of pocket as budgets have declined. If a teacher does not perform well the unions work with the admins to get rid of them if it is justified. Good teachers do not want bad teachers in their buildings anymore than anyone else does. And if you read what the teacher's unions push for in Lansing and Washington it is 99 percnt very moderate and reasonable solutions to the problems.
There is a huge amount of disinformation out there blaming teacher unions and public schools for things that simply are not true. The main cause of education problems in the US is broken and problem-plagued homes- no the public schools. Just ask the students who do well in most any public school and they will tell you the school is not the fault of their peers who choose not to study or take education seriously, which is usually true in their homes too. This is the area where we need to focus our attention if we are to make big gains in education. As long as too many Americans are too lazy to study math and science at higher levels, we will need to keep bringing in hundreds of thousands of foreigners to fill our the demand high tech and high paid jobs in our country.
To two post up: "How can professionals belong to a union? "
Did you ever hear of the AMA? One of the most powerful unions in the country.
+++Please visit www.peopleforstrongmarshallschools.com
This site is dedicated to the fight to keep the MPS custodial staff part of MPS.+++
Just an FYI to people out there. I visited this site through-out the evening and was reading through the guest book. There was a good messaging back and forth. Some for the custodians and some against the custodians. Now I go back, and the 3 messages that were against the custodians are deleted. This group is not for a "stronger school or community". If they were, they would allow open comments no matter what side of the issue you are on. You have lost any credibility that your "committee" had.
I would not hold that against them beause they do not promote themselves as a site for open dialogue on the issue. Would Joyce Phillips allow critical comments on the Marshall Public Schools web site?
This blog does encourage and allow open discussion and whoever set this site up I commend them on that! But some sites are meant to be on one side of an issue and that should not be held against them. Maybe those who want to fire the custodians should start their own blog or web site?
I agree. Parents are not involved enough in education. Unions can't fix that.
I agree that good teachers are underpaid. Unions are a partial cause of that. In a union, all are paid according to the least productive person. There is no room for initiative or the rewarding of excellence.
We could debate unionization and never solve the current problem. My main point is that the entire system needs change. Unions will have to change for things to get better overall.
If they don't change, some other area will suffer to compensate.
As a union teacher and insider there has been tremendous change during my 20+ years in education. For the better or the worse (depends on your views), teacher union power has been largely diminished to the point that the MTA for example is very weak and cannot do much about anything. I used to think that with good leadership we could move to a system of more pay for better performance, etc etc. But with such a bad Marshall top administration that is notorious for rewarding loyal but bad performance as this one (yes, I am talking about Joyce), it would be a disaster! I have worked in private industry before becoming a teacher and the supposedly pay-for-performance system did not work the way it was supposed to. Like the Marshall schools, it was political and many bad empployees were handsomely rewarded and excellent workers were punished. We had a boss that saw good workers as a threat to his leadership, as they made him look bad. So he promoted the weaker less competent workers so he would look good. Does this sound like Joyce? Bad managers are in public education and private businesses!
If unions are so powerful then why does our average pay increase fall 2-5 percent BELOW inflation each year AND we pay a larger part of our benefits each year? Also for comparable degrees and work it is well-known that teachers make about 30-50 percent below their counterparts in private business. Should the best students and potential teachers look elsewhere for employment?
Face it, you're in crappy circumstances. You can't influence the revenue stream (sell more), the upper management system is publicly elected, and the professional administrators have no real management training.
What's the solution? A complete change of system. Going to happen? Not soon. Are unions the answer. Not.
BTW, I read about a school administrator who got fed up trying to change the system and quit, citing CAVE. Citizens Against Virtually Everything.
If you know of a better system that works well under the realities that are likely to occur, please share it! I have yet to find the perfect solution in any institution.
I tired going to:
www.peopleforstrongmarshallschools.com
but could not find the webiste; is there an error in the address?
Also HB 4533 just passed the House and it would remove the prohibition of outsourcing as a subject of bargaining. It will have a tougher road to passage in the Senate, but it is a positive move.
Try the website again, it works for me. www.peopleforstrongmarshallschools.com
I heard that Mr. Foreman won his tenure case and may be returning to work this fall! if this is true, thats great news! I heard the same phony charges the prosecuter dropped, the tenure commission ruled in his favor on. But Phillips is supposedly appealing and spending big $$$$$$ to try to cover this all up. I talked to someone who was interviewed by Phillips about the Foreman case and she said that Phillips lied to her, threatened her and wrote wrong stuff down. She said Phillips had one goal- to get bad stuff on Foreman and she did not care if it was true or not!!! Isn't this illegal? Now I heard too that three women interviewed will testify for Foreman when he files a big lawsuit. I hope he gets his job back and wins a big lawsuit against Phillips too.
Here is what I received in an e-mail update about the Foreman case...
Joyce Phillips is at the center of this controversy and the evidence is very strong of wrongdoing. Did she take a few wild stories and falsely try to mold them into false charges? Did she lie to and threaten witnesses? Did she go to the police and the papers with a case that had no connection to the Marshall schools? Why did she push for tenure charges when the case fell apart, the truth came out and the prosecuter dropped all charges before even a pretrial? Why did some school board members go around talking about the case with the public saying things like "if you knew what we new you would want to do what you can to fire him too"? Is this a violation of his rights? Did one school board member encourage a relative who was a former tennis coach to come forward at the last minute with false 5-year old charges of buying a beer at a luncheon with Bob Crandall and Jody Foreman as a last ditch effort to get him on the unproveable old charges that involved a 20 year old former asst. tennis coach Megan Wolf? Foreman and Crandall said this did not happen. Is there a whole story of Megans bizzarre behavior stalking Foreman in which Foreman's wife had to ask her to quit coming around their house? Is the board supporting Phillips in a coverup to keep this whole mess from blowing up in their faces? Did Mr. Foreman nearly lose his life and family over this set up?
This case is clearly back to the forefront of MPS scandals. Now the actions of Joyce Phillips have surpassed the charges against Mr. Foreman as the main topic of discussion in the community. If Mr. Foreman is not returned to his teaching job I would expect a lot more information to come out with Joyce Phillips (unfortunately the MPS along with her) targeted by a big lawsuit in the near future. This case played a big role in exposing the bad and dishonest leadership which is so well-known now in the Marshall community. Why is she still employed here?
I have heard the same thing. All the school has left against Foreman is Megan Wolfs claim that he bought her (1) two beers (2) at lunch (3) at a tennis clinic (4) with Bob Crandall present (5) in 2001- never reported until 2006 (6) Megan was 20, several years out of high school and that (7) Megan is a relative of Vic Potter.
Yes, this is the entire case the Marshall School shave to justify there firing of Mr. Foreman. It is on appeal now, but the deck is stacked heavily in favor of the Marshall schools (Foreman would have to prove here is about 95 percent innocent in an unprovebale case). Foreman testified it didn't happen, Mr. Crandall said he has no memory of this ever happening. Would Joyce Phillips and the Marshall School board go so low as to use this highly suspicious and unlikely charge to justify firing Mr. Foreman, thus runing his life and that of his four children? Or will honesty, integrity, fairness and justice prevail and will they decide that Joyce is to blame for mishandling this case and the wise things is to restore Mr. Foreman who is an excellent MHS teacher and put this entire mess behind them?
We will find out in the next few months what happens. Almost everyone I have talked to wants to see Mr. Foreman restored and this entire ugly situation put to rest. No one will win if their is another year of controversy, scandals and lawsuits.
None of this is a surprise to anyone affiliated with the Marshall Public Schools. Joyce and her chronies could care less if Mr. Foreman is a good teacher, is innocent or what the truth is. It is very political and very personal now. When Mr. Foreman's supporters publicized how Joyce was being unfair to him, that made it personal for Joyce, if it wasn't already. Mr. Behrenwald was targeted in much the same way. It did not matter how good or popular he was, he was not loyal enough to Joyce. He would not lie or abuse people on her behalf. So time for him to go! Now if you are loyal to Joyce it does not matter how incompetent you are, or dishonest, or if you have been arrested, or even have a felony conviction- its the loyalty that counts, and you are ok then!
Now lets support the poor custodians who are next in line on Joyce's and her supporters hit list. Like with seeking justice for Mr. Foreman, expect no mercy on August 13th unless Dan, Chris, John and Ali can muster the courage to start an anti-Joyce/pro-Marshall schools majority! Dark days are upon us, hope is fading fast.
See how to support the cusodians and keep in them in our school at www.peopleforstrongmarshallschools.com
The Mr. Foreman supporters appreciate the widespread support in the community and on the staff. However the final appeal is not over yet and there may still be an opportunity for the school board to resolve this issue in a positive way. We hope now that the Marshall School Board understands that there is another side of the story that has been largely kept from them and now supported in the legal system and the tenure system (double jeopardy for Mr. Foreman!). We are hoping and praying that the school board comes to their senses for a resolution. If this positive change occurs, it will prevent the need for a further squandering of precious school resources and a drawn out and costly lawsuit that may result due to injustices that may have occured against Mr. Foreman. For the time being please refrain from public postings about this case until the appeal process is over.
In the meantime lets all put our support and efforts into helping the custodians keep their jobs as part of a community effort to do positive things for our schools. That is what Mr. Foreman would want! His four kids are in the Marshall Public Schools too!
Support our kids!!!
August 13th is coming up soon! I am greatly impressed by the 200 yard signs around Marshall. I hope this is the start of a turning in which the custodians jobs are protected and more good things are to come. We certainly do not want things to keep getting worse.
Please come if you can to the school board meeting on Monday August 13th at the Marshall Middle School. Write or talk to board members too.
on aug.13th please bring your yard signs (without the wire) to the school with you. line up accross from the school and show your support. lets all help to regain unity in our community!!!!,save jobs,and above all, KEEP OUR KIDS FIRST!!!!!!!! we will meet at 6:30 . thanks to all! johnnie
saturdays paper: In no way did i mean to offend any one with my comments about the reasons i left food service.It has nothing to do with food service staff.so i do apologize to the food service staff. johnnie
Dr. Phillips has lost the trust, respect and support of the vast majority of the MPS staff and the community. She has shown herself over and over to be cold, heartless, vindictive, mean, incompetent and a very poor leader of our schools. What's even worse is that she never even tried to be a good leader or to work effectively with the staff and parents from the beginning! Having someone like her in charge has made it nearly impossible for honesty, fairness, teamwork, cooperation and goodwill to prevail. She is at the center of every major problem I can think of in the Marshall Public Schools. The parents, kids, community and staff do not deserve this. I urge the Marshall School Board to do the right thing and remove or demote her immediately and find someone that can provide the good leadership we all need so badly at this time!
As a Marshall Public Schools teacher I was shocked that after she started on the job that Joyce Phillips made no effort whatsoever to sincerely get to know the staff, meet regularly wit the staff, seek viewpoints on various issues or to do anything that would foster a good working relationship. She was cold and hostile from the start and only has gotten worse over the last three years. I have no idea why the school board still supports her! As far as I can see she has done nothing good and has only created many problems that have caused great damage our school district and our community reputation.
I'll say it now and I'll say it again later, expect the worst out of Mrs. Phillips and her school board lackeys. I have expected the worst all year and have never been let down. Or should I say I was right but always let down! They do not give a damn about anything or anyone but themselves and their friends. This is the worst group of leaders I can ever think of running the Marshall schools. I used to criticize Lou and the boys, but by comparison they did a fantastic job!
I hope I am wrong but watch old Joyce fire the custodians with her arrogant smirk and coldly go celebrate with Dan, Chris, Vic, Paul, Ali and Janice. John, I don't blame you or Ali if you quit. You should either quit, or take a stand and fight! Did Vic order flowers for August 13th yet?
Maybe this will be the last straw and the community will start a recall of the school board. It is overdue and very justified.
I would support it! I think it could succeed easily after this past year.
Every time I complain to Vic about Joyce Phillips he tells me I am one of the few unhappy with her performance. He has told that to everyone I have talked to who said they talked to him. The whole town knows that she has hardly any supporters left. Staff are afraid to talk to Vic fearing their career is on the line. Apparently Ron Behrenwald tried sharing with the board how Joyce was doing a poor job and making things worse- and the board decided, against all logic, to back Joyce! No wonder no one trusts the board anymore! I would not blame John and Ali if they quit. Their reputations have been damaged severely as they have voted as part of the "7-0 Rubber Stamp" that emerged after Sam and Bob left. Are they pressured to support bad ideas and policies? Come on John and Ali, speak out! Chris and Dan have let us all down too, we had some faith in you too. I have now given up on Vic, Paul and Janice. What a big ugly mess we have on our school board!
The school board know exactly what they are doing and they know very well how bad the situation is in the Marshall schools. Therefore their actions protecting Phillips, Metcalf, Jones and McDonald are inexcuseable and unforgiveable.
August 13th is less than two weeks away! Please contact school board members in support of our custodians!
Phillips most likely has Potter, Darling and Beardslee in her pocket. The only hope for the custodians is to get Coulter, Webb, Stulberg and Varvatos to vote as a block against Phillips. If I were a bookmaker I would say the odds that all four would summon the courage to stand up to Phillips publicly, after a year of rubber stamping everything she wanted, is about 10,000-1! :-(
Has there ever been anything but a 7-0 vote for anything Phillips wanted since Sam and Bob left the school board? I don't think so! I don't think they hardly debate anything anymore at the actual board meetings. When are the real decisions being made? Who is making them? I agree, it is a "rubber stamp board."
this is the day that jp pickes her company that will thke over our jobs.she will have three presentations(but we know she has already chosen),and will enform the board of that choice. also rumor has it that we have enough maintinence men to carry on for us, we only have 1.and thats for all the schools,.now you tell me how were supposed to fix everything.
does anyone know what happened today?
Obviously Joyce does not care what gets cleaned or fixed, its all about the money (for her, revenge and power. She will be long gone in two years (I hope much sooner) and will not give a rip how much damage she did in Marshall. If anything she will enjoy doing as much harm as possible and leave with her arrogant smirk as she pockets big pay, perks and a second Michigan retirement at our expense! The people of Marshall are being screwed over big time and the school board are as much to blame as Joyce!
intervues with the 3 companys were re scheduled for 8/7 at 5:00 pm in the community room.also, if anyone would like to help with survay, pleans contact johnnie weakley,on river rd.
There is no doubt that Amy Jones and Joyce Phillips are plotting the demise of the custodians. Metcalf is likely helping too. They have failed so miserably as leaders and have wasted so much money on themselves and mismanagement that they seek to recoup some losses, exact revenge and divert attention by firing the custodains. They should not be allowed to get away with this and all three should be fired for bad performance and causing great harm to the Marshall Public Schools.
The leadership of the Marshall Schools is a big mess and an embarrassment.
If Dr. Phil is so keen on saving money why is it that she is willing to force others to sacrifice their benefits, their jobs, their pay and everything else, when she and her cronies receive cash for NOT using their insurance. I know that this is a common practice, but it would seem that a little sacrificing should start at the top...fat chance!
Perhaps Dr. Phil is trying to outsource the custodial staff so she can't be demoted to a custodian if the board ever wakes up!!
if the adm. would do our jobs for just one day,they would know how hard we work and they would think difrentaly , maby!
First they could not do your jobs on any day. They cannot do their own jobs either. If they could we would not be in the big disaster we have now in the MPS.
The word on the street is that the few decent and caring school board members are stressed out because they know what they will be pressured to do next week (Aug 13th), and that is to vote to fire the custodians.
Joyce, Brian and Amy are moving full-speed ahead to fire the custodians as part of an ongoing assault on the Marshall Public Schools. It is a very mean-spirited war-like atmosphere as this awful regime makes its revenge for public criticism and exposure of its dishonesty, corruption, scandals and other wrongdoing. The school board is being ordered to vote 7-0 for the firing, as they always do since Sam and Bob left the school board. John and Ali, if you can't summon the courage to stand up to Joyce for the sake of the schools, then it would be better if you resigned in protest rather than join the 7-0 rubber stamp. Dan and Chris, like the scarecrow you need courage to take a stand if you two are the decent leaders we all hoped you would! We have been let down repeatedly by your support for Joyce. We have already given up on Paul, Janice and Vic. They have been nothing but cold, mean and hostile towards the entire MPS staff and the PCOs. We know they care nothing about the staff of the MPS and have enthusiastically embraced Joyce, Amy and Brian for reasons that no one can figure out except their must be some personal vendettas involved. Can there be any other rational explanation? Any good school district would have fired Joyce, Brian and Amy two years ago, you guys gave her a contract as long as she wanted and big pay increase for what? She is by far the worst Superintendent the Marshall schools has ever seen and 99% of the staff want her fired! Why are you, the Marshall school board, doing this?
You may now sign the public survey to keep MPS custodians or Privatize the custodians online at www.peopleforstrongmarshallschools.com Go to the SURVEY page to fill out the survey. Please click on send Private message so your name and personal information does not appear to the public on this site.
Two posts above, you make excellent points!
Firing the custodians is a done deal and was discussed, debated and decided a long time ago and way out of the public eye. This sleazy administration (JP, Metcalf and Jones) and their board supporters have hidden agendas and make all of their decisions in private. Board meetings are a charade and a planned PR event at best, that have very little substance and likely no real debate. The decisions are made well in advance and the outcome is known before the meetings begins. The entire school board has not only let us all down but has engaged in far worse! Expect no mercy, the custodians will be fired on August 13th, JP may get flowers and they will all celebrate behind closed doors while they fake sympathy at best in public. Expect at least two more bad years unless their is a board recall and JP is fired!
I agree with the above post. They will show no mercy and will fire the custodians. I was at the last board meeting when Ali said "it sounds like JP has already make up her mind." or something like that I agree..she had her mind already made up long before the RFP's. GET RID OF THE BAD DOCTOR OR 2 MORE YEARS AND WE WON'T HAVE A SCHOOL SYSTEM!!!
I'm back from Safari enjoying life in the good ol American South, Coldwater of course!. Hey now, we have the best school board and the best leaders ever! They show great generosity and mercy! They are so warm and understanding to Joyce, err Dr. J, Amy and me, oops, a friend of mine. When Joyce gives them order, errs communicates with them, they always say yes- err I mean they communicate back in a positive manner. When Amy needed extra hours from a contractor in her office late at night, they supported meeting her needs necessary for doing her job better. When I, err I mean someone I know, needed a year off with pay and tuition paid to go to school full time- they understood and showed much generosity. As far as job performance goes, I can assure you they are very understanding and no matter how many people think we, err some people, are doing a lousy job they keep showing their support and generosity with big pay raises! We work hard! Just this month I made a phone call to order textbooks. That phone call was of course to my secretary to do it (he he he). My friend Charlie (I know most of you have no clue who he is, where he works or what he does- neither do we!) has saved this district big money- he says, buy not buying anything or fixing much in the last ten years. He tells me that the 80s and 90s were the golden age of school tech and there is nothing wrong with pencils, paper and chalkboards. He desevers his $8,500 raise after saving the district thousands by not doing anything- err by following order- er hiding- who knows what? Now why is everyone complainin'? Our charming Dr. J make many mistakes, for example she often forgets to tell the truth, and look at our kind and supportive our school board have been? Heck, we screw up, err make honest mistakes, all the time! I think the school board should all get raises! Oops, they are unpaid. Goody, now more money for me and AJ and JP and CM! Thanks Marshall School Board for your "excellence," whatever that is, or was! Did we hire a new Princpal at MHS after forcing out Ron? Who knows- better call my secretary to find out! He he he. ;-)
to the above:this is a very serious matter, and your comments are stupid!we're working hard to save our jobs, this is not a big joke to us!
The following is from tonight's interview and this info is posted on the Chronicle blog site.
Paul Beardslee, Dan Stulberg and John Coulter of the Marshall Board of Education are currently interviewing the three finalist firms for a potential private custodial services contract with Marshall Public Schools. Also conducting the interviews are Director of Finance and Operationa Amy Jones, Supt. Dr. Joyce Phillips and custodial supervisor, Bill Armstrong. Grand Rapids Building Services impressed Board President Vic Potter, he said after their representatives were the first to speak. Next at 6:15 p.m. is United Commercial Services (UCS,) followed by Enviro-Clean at 7:30 p.m. GRBS said it has 16 school districts in Michigan as clients, 800 employees and has been in business for 92 years. They said they would take applications from local community members and that only on average, two existing staff lands a job with their firm. The firm's president, Rex Kuhn, sidestepped a question from Beardslee, however, about whether John Q. Public could call him with questions and concerns, saying only that his office is open to questions from their clients. After the interview, Kuhn was quizzed about his lack of response to the Chronicle's calls for comment last week and replied that he simply felt it was not a good time to comment. Regarding John Q. Public, Kuhn said his staff does not have time to field calls from anyone and everyone including parents of students though client school district questions and concerns would receive responses. See this weekend's Chronicle for more on this process. The board is slated to vote on whether to privatize custodial services Monday, Aug. 13.
http://www.chronicleadvisor.blogspot.com/
The two biggest concerns for me from the above information are:
1) They said they would take applications from local community members and that only on average, two existing staff lands a job with their firm.
2) The firm's president, Rex Kuhn, sidestepped a question from Beardslee, however, about whether John Q. Public could call him with questions and concerns, saying only that his office is open to questions from their clients. After the interview, Kuhn was quizzed about his lack of response to the Chronicle's calls for comment last week and replied that he simply felt it was not a good time to comment. Regarding John Q. Public, Kuhn said his staff does not have time to field calls from anyone and everyone including parents of students though client school district questions and concerns would receive responses.
In response to three posts up I think you missed the point. There is a lot of serious truth in this type of satire. Things are soooooo bad in the Marshall schools at the top that despite the humorous satire, the MPS are a tragic laughingstock (in the serious sense of the word) in this area!
Do you think by being nice and cooperative you can save anyone's jobs? Many have come before you trying to work with these "leaders" and have been ruthlessly shot down and lied to over and over again. The track record of Joyce Phillips, Amy Jones, Paul Beardslee, Vic Potter, Janice Darling, Dan Stulberg, etc is sooooo bad at leading our schools that I fear there is no hope with this group in charge. Good luck custodians but your group is just the latest victims on their "hit list." You are dealing with an extreme right-wing, arrogant, self-centered and revenge-loving regime that has shown its ugly true face time and time again. I do not think anything short of a recall will save your jobs. The decisions were made long ago and in secret meetings. The public meetings are just a public relations spectacle.
Either way- good luck in your efforts against great odds against this cold, mean, foolish, and heartless regime.
Seeing the 8-8-07 BC Enquirer this morning it appears (no surprise) that the decision to fire the custodians is a done deal and Amy, Joyce, John, and the gang are now enthusiastically picking their replacement company. John said that he has thrown out the low bidder so money is certainly not the main issue.
its not over till the fat lady sings, and i havent got started yet!!!!
They seem to be shoving John to the forefront of this fiasco because the reputations of the rest of them are so bad after this past year. John is one of the few board members that still has a decent level of trust and support among the MPS staff and community members. I feel bad for him because he is probably all stressed out and having sleepless nights. At the same time Joyce, Amy and Brian are sleeping very well and enjoying every minute of their revenge. Much more to come until the people of Marshall fight back and put an end to this corrupt scandal-plagued regime.
I am appalled at the speed with which the Central Office is trying to push through the custodial outsourcing. Notice that it is being done during the summer when many Marshall residents are gone. People need to look at this....if the companies that are giving bids know that the Admin is in a big fat hurry to get a contract, they will not give the best price. They know MPS will settle for anything that "looks" like a savings will happen. In the Admin's haste to shove this through, have they really thoroughly broken down the jobs that the custodial staff does to a degree that we will get an accurate quote for the bid. In other words....what is going to get left out of the bid that will result in more charges when the year ends for services not anticipated? Also, what about unemployment? I know that will be a hefty chunk (maybe upwards of $150,000.00)that the spin Dr. is not mentioning to the public. Why doesn't MPS post the projected bids on their web page, as other school districts have, so the community can see why their fellow citizen's jobs are leaving Marshall. There have been too many jobs leaving Marshall already and know also that some of these staff members have kids in our district that will be leaving...that's $7000.00 per student per year! It appears that we are "not in the cleaning business", but we SHOULD be in the "people of the community business" and not outsource these jobs in a rush just because they are yet another group that JP knows do not support her. Right there you probably have enough to offset the "supposed $250,000.00 savings we have been told about by the spin Dr.
I am also incensed that, at the high school (I have students there), all classes that had under 20 students were canceled. If a student wanted to take an advanced language class which was needed to get into a better college, and there was 18 students signed up they were out of luck! There are many other classes where this occurred. In this day and age with the "School of Choice" mentality, Marshall Public should be doing everything to make the district attractive to out of city students and families. Larger class size and less variety of classes is the EXACT OPPOSITE of the direction we want our district to head towards for the future! What appallingly dismal leadership this shows for our district and I , as a parent, will be at the board meeting on Monday to say just that....as long as I can stay up late enough to be heard.
at least 1 of the board members that we thought was for us, has had a mind change,new equiptment and money talks!!!!!
You can imagine the enormous pressure by Phillips and Jones on all of the school board members to rubber stamp what they want. In response to two posts up, you make many excellent points! Why do you think they forced Ron Behrenwald out, an outstanding educational leader? Because he went to bat for what was best for MHS and the kids!
As far as school management goes, Phillips is an idiot and everyone know it! She cannot communicate, lead, motivate, tell the truth, or do anything good well! That is why she is a tyrant! Mean and incompetent leaders are often tyrants. There is a debate in our community and amongst my fellow MTA members and many concerned parents (I am one of those too!) as to whether the school board is evil, duped, fools or cowards? I have seen examples of all the above! I have had it with the way they are harming our schools! It is not about money, I will gladly take a pay cut if it meant bringing in new and competent leaders! I want excellent successful schools! I want high standards for all- top admins too! I want honesty, openness and cooperation at ALL levels! I am envious of Lakeview, Pennfield and Harper Creek where this all exists! We cannot wait two more years for change, for the good of the kids and the community we need change desperately now!
we now have tv adds on millinoun cable and 2 radio stations ,we need every one to come out in support of the custodians on8/13.as we try to put a stop to the distruction of our school system, REMEMBER"that michigan education started here in marshall".if you remember the oak tree in the loby of the middle school,than you'll remember that we are the birth place. lets take back our schools and REALLY put our KIDS FIRST.!!!!!!!!!!
the board wants us to trane the new company,boy,are they in for a big supprise!!! if this new company is so great, with their new equipment and they brag how much better they are than us,let joyce, aimy and brian trane them.
Of course Joyce, Paul, Janice, Vic, Brian and Amy want the custodians to train the new contractors. They are just that mean and cruel and will do all they can to make the Marshall custodians, the poorest employees in the district, suffer and be humiliated as much as possible!
Obviously the people at the top (including the board) have never needed our MPS custodial staff to do anything extra for them. From my own experiences and reading comments from others, not only do the custodians do their job, they do extra things that the private companies will not do and cannot do under the RFPs. Will they feed a gold fish? Help someone find a key to lock their desk (no, but will MPS pay for a lock smith to come out and re-key their desk? doubt it), help staff carry boxes to and from school? lift things that staff cannot? help a student with their locker? will the private workers be able to point students and parents in the right direction of a classroom? Be able to address staff and students by name? Be a big buddy to a student who has been having difficulty? Will the private staff know when strangers are in the building? Will the private staff know the rules of the school and address students, say when they see them running down the halls? Let a student in the building after hours to get a forgotten book or assignment? Will the private staff know how and help teachers with video equipment? These things are just a few examples that OUR MPS CUSTODIANS do on a most daily basis!! My understanding from the RFPs is that the things our MPS custodians do for us will not be allowed by the private companies. The RFPs state that the private employees will not be able to "fratonize" with the students or staff.
Part of being a GOOD school is having a cohesive group of people who work together and can count on each other. If the board chooses to privatize it will damage the school life for students, families, and staff as they know it. A "cost savings" is not always worth the non-monetary things that will be lost. The things I mentioned above have no price tag attached to them but are all part of running a good school.
While I understand that times are tough financially for many disrticts. What I do NOT understand is how a school board who is elected to represent the people of a district can go against what the people of the district want. While I understand that you need to look at the best interests of the school district's financial situtation, there are many cost saving ideas that have not been explored. I could understand the board voting to privatze if only a few in the disrtict wanted to keep MPS custodians. However that is not the case here, the number of people who want to keep MPS custodians employed by MPS, is far and above the number of people who want to privatize. So again I ask the question. Aren't the school board members supposed to represent the people of the district? If the answer to that question is yes, then the board needs to start REPRESENTING!!!
I was at the administration building today, and saw postings for four special board meetings; one for tonight, one for 7:30 am Monday morning, one for later in the day on Monday (sorry I cannot remember the exact time) and one for Monday night. I sure hope that there are many community members there to monitor what is going on.
The Marshall School Board is not planning to fire the custodians solely over money. They have squandered hundreds of thousands on waste, scandals, undeserved pay increases and perks, undeserved contract extensions, personal vendettas against staff, insurance screwups, etc. There is always plenty of money for anything that Joyce, Brian and Amy want!
On a small positive note, the pressure in the community to save the custodians from Phillips is spreading and growing. Phillips and the gang chose the summer, when they do much of their dirty work, to fire the custodians hoping to avoid much publicity. Anti-Phillips and Anti-Jones feelings are growing higher by the day! I wouldn't be surprised if a recall does not come out of this targeting the pro-Phillips board majority.
The pro-Phillips radicals and JP herself will not tolerate the opposition to their evil plans and will do all they can to carry out their evil agenda. Yes, they want the janitors fired and they will be very happy when they accomplish this! Look at what cowards Joyce and her friends are? They try to hide into the summer to do their dastardly deeds! They did this last summer too! Any school board members who keeps supporting the evil phillips and jones and votes to fire good custodians deserves to be recalled and riduculed for their cowardice and their anti-kids actions.
Well said! Enough is enough!
From a source at MMS I guess that "the good doctor" and Amy Jones are in a tizzy over their planned firing of the custodains. Apparently they thought they could get away with it with out much opposition. They had gotten away with so much in the last few years, they view themselves as invincible. Well now they are going around with an attitude of "the nerve of those custodians to challenge us" and are very very upset that the people of Marshall would dare question them or try to help the custodians. No one in the schools can figure out why Phillips and Jones have not been fired yet, they do not have a clue how to properly run a school district. And yes, as a former school board member recently told me, they are as cold and heartless (or worse) than everybody thinks. Did Amy Jones really get caught having an affair, in her office, with a building contractor, and Phillips helped cover it all up? What an immoral duo!
I agree whole heartedly with a previous post about a school being a unit and having a family-like realtionship among it's employees. Dr. Phil has systematically and purposfully broken up any cohesive unit of individuals from all the schools any time she can. Moving staff around against their will, creating an "us against them" mentality between admin and staff and creating chaos and derision are a few of the red herrings she has thrown out there to try to deflect attention away from all of the mismanagement and scandal she has created.
The revenge is in full-swing against the entire MPS staff, as it has been since last year when brave staffers, Principals, former board members and concerned citizens started speaking out. I have known Vic Potter for over 30 years and I have no idea why he has gone to the "dark side" of Mrs. Phillips supporters. I know he is not perfect, and yes he has had some scrapes with the law and other moral problems, but I used to think he would at least try to put the interests of the schools first. But with Marsha Franke and others pulling the puppet strings he seems in a daze as he enjoys the attention of some rich citizens who would normally never give him the time of day. Vic, you are being used, so are the other school board members. If you got an ounce of integrity left. Take a stand and start with helping the custodians. The people of Marshall and the MPS staff need all of you to support them, not JP! The teachers, custodians and parents are not your enemies! They are your neighbors and friends, the salt of the earth. Those who use you and will eventually throw you away when you are no longer needed are your enemies. Dan, what happened? We had such hope in you. Chris, I know you are something of a newcomer, Ali too, but you are nice people who have been lied to and are being used for bad purposes. Janice, Joyce is making a big fool out of you and talks about you negatively behind your back. Paul, are you duped or a leader of the problems? John, they are using you too, speak out or quit, you do not need them ruining your good reputation too!
I know most on here are stupid, but the genius 10 posts up (8:51pm) takes the cake. Let me guess, you're a custodian right? Oh my god you're an idiot. Trane? Supprise? Aimy? You could at least come close to spelling the words right couldn't you? And people wonder why the custodians are being replaced. Actually, they could interview and work for the new company, but why would they hire a dumbass like you. I'd love to see your resume. Yeah, the students will be missing out on a lot with the custodians gone. There goes their test scores. I mean, thare goz thir testess scorrresss. Git r dun!!!!! Oh yeah I guess I'll be anonymous like every other coward on here. See ya losers.
I just learned lakeview outsourced janitors. I Wonder why no big fuss over there. Union is using us marshall janitors fer some reson. Why did union not fight ther. We look stupid spending all thus time.
2post up!
KISS MY ASS!!!!!!!
is this spelled good evough for ya!!!! how young and foolish you must be.I hope you dont get hired by the new company, they dont need smart asses!
To two post above: Lakeview outsourced ONLY its high school custodians, a year and a half ago when the new high school opened. I think only two custodians lost their jobs. There was a fuss. The union did protest. I was at the board meeting where the decision was made and there was a great deal of public comment. In the end, the reason the community accepted it was because the elementary schools and middle school custodians were not outsourced. People were more comfortable with a cleaning company coming into the new high school at night to clean. But had they outsourced all the custodians, there would have been much more of an outcry. I have also heard that they did have a significant problem with theft of equipment in the school after the new company took over; but that is just a rumor--I have not been able to verify if it is true.
2 posts up...
They'll hire a smart ass before they hire a stupid, lazy, non-spelling, dumbass like yourself. Also, I'm not a custodian so don't flatter yourself by thinking I want your job.
We already know you do not want their jobs, Joyce!
Forget the janitors, lets talk about something important. How many games will Marshall forfeit this year because Hulk is a lazy prick and doesn't do his job? I say only 3 this year. Thoughts?
The people that work for the schools from Admin, to teachers, to custodial staff all have one thing in common (except for Dr. Phil, Methalf and Jones)...they are a family! They respect each other and only a feeble minded, retarded, foolish, idiotic, imbecilic, moronic, ignorant, illiterate, lowbrow, uneducated, uninformed, untaught, unthinking, asinine, cockeyed, unwise, fallacious, illogical, irrational, unreasonable piece of garbage like the person that penned the post 4 spaces up would not understand that. I'm sure your intolerance is only second to your ignorance.
LOL, you got me. It's me Joyce. Man you're good. You are a genius!
to my dearest mps parent:
How dare you call me foolish! Hey Mike R., I am offended can you remove this hurtful person please? Oh that's right, you have nothing to do with this blog. (wink, wink) Oh, and Mike, when you come on here to refute any association with this blog, try to wait for a while to respond so it doesn't seem so obvious that you live on here.
Well bloggers, if your efforts to support the janitors goes as well as your quest to vote out Darling and Potter, which I'm sure it will, will you realize what a bunch of fools you are, or will you find another cause that nobody outside of your "family" supports you on? I mean for god sakes, you couldn't even find one person to run for school board, NOT ONE! I'm always up for a laugh so I'll be in the audience on Monday to see the feeble turnout and watch the proceedings. Man you guys SUCK!!!!
It was a shame that no one ran against Vic or Janice. No one, as the newer board members will attest to, wanted the headaches and heartache associated with the positions. Too bad MPS employees can't run, you would have enough people to fill three boards. Oh...just so you know I am not Mike Rio.
The person on this site who is critizing others for their spelling, is just trying to take the focus off the real issue here. What our "perfect speller" doesn't understand is that those who critize others and pick on and bully othersis that they suffer from low self-esteem and he/she has difficulty feeling good about him/her self unless they are making themselves look better than others and putting others down. Also I know many with Mensa level IQs who do not spell well, and I also know many who can spell well but who cannot hold a job. I would personally rather be known as a poor speller than a bully with low self-esteem.
To the mean, cold, heartless and uncaring Phillips supporter who made fun of a custodian's spelling, here is a reality check. You likely do not know or care, but it is a fact that many people have learning disablities and some of these people take tough low paying jobs such as school custodians, who top out at about $24,000 a year. Could you do a tough job and live on this? Most people cannot. Many of these learning disabled students and adults are smart in other ways, such as manners and common sense (hint hint). Most are very kind, loving and hardworking. Why you Phillips' supporters choose to ridicule and make fun of these poor sweet people I will never understand!
Is there any word yet on the outcome of the board meeting tonight?????
To the person 3 posts up talking about bullying and low self-esteem. This must be a joke.
This whole site, since its inception has been doing nothing but name calling and bullying the people you are against. I just read some very nasty stuff about one of the adminstrators a few posts up and another post using terms like "retarded." But alas, that is ok.
The moderator (joke) has accepted this. The moderator only called for a cool down when things went against his/her obvious bias.
Maybe, following your logic, many MPS employees and teachers ought to just as much check their self esteem levels as those who you are preaching to.
I don't agree with what the poster was posting about the custodians, however, if you are going to complain about that post, then hundereds of others on here should be complained about as well. But you won't, because those nasty posts serve your purposes.
A quote from the Battle Creek nquirer:
"What I'm trying to do is be proactive instead of reactive," board President Vic Potter said. "If we don't do something now and the state cuts in October and May, people are going to say we had the chance and didn't do anything. Even though this is not the most popular, it's one way to get started on that."
Was he and others being PROACTIVE whe Joyce got her big FAT raises and other goodies????
How many times can you be arrested and still serve on the school board? Answer- three at least!
i dont think that any one on the board knows what they are talking about they all need to go when there term expires but as for some of them there might not be a school left be for they leave if they dont stop doind what they are doing!
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