How exciting!!! I wish her well. Congrats to all those who worked so hard to complete this selection process.

We have lots of problems here in town, but we have GREAT teachers and administrators (though too many) who care about our schools and know that we continue to offer one of the finest education high NJ taxes can pay for (just look at the colleges our grads go to).

I was at the meeting and noticed the NAACP fired a shot across her bow demanding more jobs for minorities. Wonder how she will respond. I hope quickly.

Any concerns from the community that Ms. McCormack is from the Broad Superintendents Academy? Seems to be somewhat of a controversial group. Wonder how that vision fits into Mtc.

Believe her salary will be $177,500.

Some concerns (legit, I believe) about the Broad Academy.
http://parentsacrossamerica.org/2011/04/how-to-tell-if-your-school-district-is-infected-by-the-broad-virus/

Interesting....thoughts anyone?

The Broad Academy is not an accredited unit but is handsomely financed by billionaire Eli Broad whose many dollars buy great influence in placing privatization advocates in the public education sector. Some Broad graduates have done enormous damage to notable school systems as TF posting above indicates, going to war with teachers and teacher unions, which may explain the appeal of a Broad grad to our current BOE. NJ Ed chief Cerf is a strong charter-privatization advocate, so choosing one of his deputies as new Mtc Head is out of step with the liberal, pro-public education majority in this town. Once again, BOE is out of step with this town, as if Turner had won the election in May instead of losing big-- Turner politics continue to dominate the BOE which has made an ominous choice for school chief.

I'm relatively new in town (two years) and my son is entering Kindergarten in Sept. Been concerned from the recent goings on and with several outgoing top admins in key spots (and now we have a new Superintendent). The handling of the Morra Assist. Principal situation is also deeply disturbing. All that definitely makes me concerned as to what's going on in town with public school education. I'd never heard of The Broad Academy, but reading the above link posted by Twitter Fan and with Ira Shor's comment---Yikes! Guess we'll have to pay close attention. I know that's not what my family was "sold" about how great Montclair schools are; a key reason we moved here. And I still don't understand why the aides have not had their health insurance restored, why foreign language has been cut, etc. I'm planning to be open minded and hopeful. We'll see how it goes.

Dr. Shor is exactly right. This could potentially be a serious mistake for Montclair. The autonomy that MTC schools have historically had, where trust was placed in the hands of highly skilled and caring educators, may now be at great risk due to the corporate, top-down mindset that comes with this breed of leadership. Not that someone needed to be hired from within, but I don't know that someones experience in a series of private educational entities is something that should be lauded.

Of course it's a mistake. When was the last time the Board of Ed. made an educational decision that was purely educational? Exactly.

Believe that this article is a more balanced point of view-giving voice to pro's and con's. While we all should be involved and question what's going on with the schools-lets' give this new superintendent a chance.

http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=341900017

While the Broad Academy has received criticism, I think we need to read all sides of the story. One of the biggest criticisms that I have seen is the people coming out of the program's leadership training with little or no educational experience, It seems that this is not the case with Dr. MacCormack

From the article it sounds like merit pay is percieved as a bad thing by teachers?
I was wondering why that is the case.

Great question "tryingtosurvive". From what I have gathered it is partly because it creates competition rather than collegiality among the staff. Also, how does one define "merit"? Is it student achievement? Then you have either a situation of teaching to the test (which is RAMPANT and will continue as long as there are things like "common core" and NCLB standards that have to be met for funding, etc...) or you have teachers afraid to give lower grades in fear that it is connected to documenting student "achievement". These are just a few of the things teachers have said in opposition to merit pay.

Merit pay for teachers has failed many times, most recent in Chicago, NYC, and Nashville. Best source on this is the eminent historian Diane Ravitch, but the failure of meirt pay to raise student test scores is a matter of record. Merit pay fails b/c teaching is a collaborative, professional, labor-intensive, human service whose rewards lie in autonomy, creativity, close mentoring of students, and close collaboration with colleagues and parents, things which no high-stakes standardized test can evaluate, despite the great push for testing by the billionaire foundations of Broad, Gates, Walton, etc. Where teachers are respected, given professional autonomy, extended workshop development, and resources needed, they bring out the best in their students. Where students are impoverished(the US has the highest child pov rate in industrial world--25%), the task for teachers is immensely harder.

This sums it up perfectly!

"Merit pay fails b/c teaching is a collaborative, professional, labor-intensive, human service whose rewards lie in autonomy, creativity, close mentoring of students, and close collaboration with colleagues and parents, things which no high-stakes standardized test can evaluate" -Ira Shor

Everyone badgers teachers re: merit pay...none more so than the Broad Academy Supers...look at their track record in NYC, Chi, Newark, etc.
Put that aside for a moment, why are there three former admins currently working and drawing a paycheck at Mr Hebron? Mrs. Scales is the interim Principal and they have brought back retired MHS VP Mr. Lebida for scheduling purposes and now I was just informed by a MH teacher that Dr. Jennings is back at MH doing scheduling as well? What gives? Is all this necessary? If Jennings and Lebida are scheduling what is Mrs Scales doing? Patch can you confirm?

The BOE seemingly got what they wanted in a new Super with Broad Academy credentials: someone who will not collaborate with teachers, but someone who will create further anti-teacher sentiment in an already divided town. Look out Montclair schools...maybe that Quest Charter may go through after all.

Ira Shor, thanks for the thoughtful answer about merit pay.

I think I now understand. The answer is to pay teachers at the same salary as physicians and not evaluate them at all because of the problems stated above. Tenure is fine the way it is because any teachers that are not suited leave the profession on their own. We should also have twice as many teachers as we do now and at least one aide in each classroom so that class sizes can be greatly reduced and so that more focused attention can be paid to each student. Benefits should not be curtailed in any way and should probably be increased.

.....aaaaaaaaaand there you have it! A new record for the shortest honeymoon period for a new Superintendent. 12 hours!
Let's recap for those of you away from your desk for a day.
Monday evening new Super is announced 7:30
Monday at 7:45 the NAACP demands more jobs for black folk
Monday at 7:55 a town councilwoman demands a staff member be fired
Tuesday at 9:00 the BRoad Academy link is revealed
Tuesday after 9, the townspeople revolt at the thought of privatization of public schools, charters, vouchers, for profit, etc.

Good luck to the new superintendent and thanks to those that were involved with the interviewing and hiring process! I wish her well and a shot of immunity to the nay sayers in town, because there are more of those who generally post! We have a new Superintendent and new town council that I wish the best in improving our town for the students and the residents!

Now that the board has bestowed a $177,000 deal on its new superintendent, will it empower its anti-union and paid-by-the-hour negotiator to make a fair-minded offer to its teachers and classroom aides? Or is fair-mindedness only something the board recognizes when it is moving into Central Office or demoting its failed administrators?

Excellent point MTC Public.

"....to make a fair-minded offer to its teachers and classroom aides"

I guess this means that there is not yet a new contract in place with the MEA. That is not something that most townspeople have heard anything about.

Nope, the faculty and staff of MTC schools are entering this school year without a contract in place. (which is not uncommon, by the way). I believe that negotiations have not been initiated yet. The BOE has hired a very costly arbiter to negotiate the contract on their behalf this time rather than doing it in-house. Not sure why exactly.

Seeing how the BOE essentially gave Ms. Morra a raise in exchange for her fraudulent behavior, the money spent on an arbiter is certainly something I could get behind.

It seems to be prudent given the dollars at stake over the life of the contract. The arbiter may save the town a significant amount of money.

glad to see the Broad issue is getting traction here.... i wonder what the union will have to say about it....

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