Rewarding Failure
By Mitch Berg
After four years of abject failure, the St. Paul public school district renewed superintendent Valeria Silva’s contract earlier this week.
And it’s a nice one, indeed:
Photo courtesy Bob Murphy
8% over four years – which, with compounding, is over 10%.
People who are actually accomplishing anything aren’t getting raises like that.
Lousy graduation rates. Unchanged achievement gap.
Money well spent.
March 19th, 2015 at 11:27 am
That’s an $1100/mo auto stipend. She could lease a 2015 Cadillac CTS-V ($72,195) for $701/mo and that’s plenty left over for gas, insurance, oil changes and tires (which would be a yearly need if she drove like I would drive if I had one of those).
*sound of slot machine at Mistake Lake hitting the big payoff and the clatter clatter of the tray filling with coins*
You’re welcome, St Paul Taxpayers.
March 19th, 2015 at 12:42 pm
Did she make any effort to teach the kids in Saint Paul that Brown was shot with correct legal force? Did she teach the kids that it isn’t okay to steal? She doesn’t deserve a cent. I guess she didn’t get my letter a couple of months ago since she didn’t respond to it.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
March 19th, 2015 at 12:43 pm
Mitch:
You can point out that Brad on his show on Sunday had somebody talk about how Saint Paul schools have kids with reading levels bellow 30% if I heard it correctly.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
March 19th, 2015 at 12:48 pm
Pffft. Merg, you poor, deluded sot; you’re measuring her against the wrong side of history. If you’re referring to graduation rates, or the test scores, sure it doesn’t look good; but that’s the white man’s fault…check your Eurocentric privilege, cracka.
Enlightened folk know that SPPS just passed the bathroom free-for-all policy. You get to choose your gender identity, and your bathroom, at will….no tuck and roll job necessary.
http://www.twincities.com/education/ci_27732080/st-paul-school-board-approves-transgender-policy
She deserves every penny.
March 19th, 2015 at 1:30 pm
Walter – he was on my show Saturday, too.
March 19th, 2015 at 1:42 pm
Well, if the school board couldn’t figure out that the promises she made a few years back were (politely speaking) BS, good luck persuading them to reward the superintendent appropriately for failing to meet the BS goals she’d set for herself.
(there are nonsense because she was assuming she’d take an urban school district to test scores like those of wealthy suburbs and such)
And with that appreciation for reality, good luck helping confused eight year olds to realize their actual gender. No, confused young man, it is not acceptable that you should be asking to use the same bathroom as my daughters. Nothing against you, but there are over 700,000 reasons not to allow this–each one a person with his (her) name on Megan’s List who just might use this policy to take advantage of someone.
March 19th, 2015 at 3:13 pm
Mitch:
sorry for not knowing you had the person on Saturday. I was busy working since unfortunately I normally work the two hours you’re on Saturday.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
March 19th, 2015 at 3:22 pm
Walter – I wasn’t chiding you! Just pointing I’ve interviewed Devin Foley a couple of times now. He’ll be back on both of our shows.
March 20th, 2015 at 5:22 pm
I didn’t think you were chidding me. I was just trying to point out if people didn’t know another standard for her failure!
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
March 25th, 2015 at 12:48 pm
Mitch:
An interesting thing to show how badly run the schools for Minneapolis are. I drive by Loring Elementary all the time (my former elementary school by the way). Last week when I drove on 44th ave there was a sign up that said that there will be a pancake breakfeast on Saturday. This week I drove by on the 45th ave side and there was a sign up that said that there will be a pancake breakfeast on Saturday, but none on the 44th. Looks like the people in charge of the school either don’t know what day the pancake breakfeast was or they don’t care about their job good enough to get all of the signs removed. Wonder what that means for the poor kids that go to Loring.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
April 8th, 2015 at 9:40 am
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