| Wow, the foul-mouthed Missoula school board member has finally stepped down (excellente!). Hilariously, following her resignation, she blamed her departure on a Missoulian reporter who's "the one who fomented this." 100 Bonus points to Ms. Pickhardt for the dollar word, but let's subtract a few hundred thousand for ducking responsibility.
Just as great, before blaming a reporter for reporting, Ms. Pickhardt apparently sarcastically said that her resignation email was not authentic. She seems like a real mature individual.
Separately, I'll just wonder why Alex Apostle is getting a 20% pay bump. Was it needed for retention? Is Mr. Apostle being so amazing that this was due?
Managers and executives are important. I shouldn't denigrate the discipline too much since I'm one myself. But at the end of the day, education happens in classrooms. We underpay new teachers in this state, but we have expanding management operations.
I've been a critic of hard-and-fast rules regarding classroom spending in the past since I don't think statewide, one-size-fits-all solutions are a good idea. But school boards and administrators need to be working hard to cut fat, move resources into classrooms, and build better schools more efficiently.
For all the bitching I hear about teachers, it is important to remember that these systemic measurements fall on managers and executives. Alex Apostle has laid out some big goals. Let's see if he can hit some targets before we start giving him big dollars. |
