John Ramos - Ex Super of Bridgeport CT choosen as new Super

pickwick said:

I do believe that given our considerable budget constraints in our district we need a strong fiscal manager and someone who is very adept at executing and implementing programs and strategies. I don't care so much about the big ideas or the vision having lived through Horoshak and Osborne.

+1

If that means the demise of that wasteful initiative, well there's a plus right there.

FFB said:

It's obvious the BOE was committed to hiring a person of color this time, laudable in a vacuum. It's also obvious this decision colored the quality of the candidates we evaluated.

I request that you temper this line of thinking.
I know of another strong leader in the education world, and person of color, who had his resume submitted. The board had good options in this regard.

Ramos was who they wanted to pick.

ctrzaska said:

mammabear said:

ctrzaska said:

mammabear said:

deborahg said:

Bridgeport is a completely different community. Let's get all the facts before we break out the torches and pitchforks.

Right? Come on people...he has quite an extensive resume. One job situation does not define who he is. After the Bridgeport thing, he was hired by Groton.

As an interim. He apparenty didn't get the FT job.

Do you know that he wanted that job? Or are you just assuming?

I have no idea. Maybe he didn't. Wasn't assuming anything one way or the other. Given that he remained a consultant for one of the search firms that they used for the new FT hire (who has since resigned after a year+, incidentally) he couldn't.

Who knows what Ramos wanted. We have a close family friend who has been a sup for many years. He's seen crazy adversity in certain districts...political division, crazy Board of Ed peeps, etc. Most recently, he has taken temp roles in struggling situations. He comes in, cleans up, then turns it over to the permanent sup. He has recently been contemplating his last permanent job. Maybe Ramos is in the same boat.

Wow...pitch forks come out pretty early. Let's look at all sides shall we? He did inherit and work in a district full of "gap" issues. Some good comments written about him as well, he stands up for what he thinks is right for students. Pitchforks down for now? The Board isn't packed with idiots...they probably took more time evaluating these issues than the one-hour and 8 minutes it has taken this thread to condemn him.

mgl22 said: "This guy may be brilliant...did he figure out a way around the NJ super salary limit? With both salaries, he would be around $400k per year."

And quoted from ??:

"Ramos will collect his $229,204 annual pay and health insurance for him and his wife until he is 65. He is 59." (in 2011)

But given this quote from the CT Post (posted above by ctrzaska), it doesn't appear that the salary is ongoing:

"Ramos will collect a full year's salary -- $229,204 -- when he leaves the district, plus paid health insurance for him and his wife until he reaches the age of 65."

Which seems to make more sense.

I don't think anyone is condemning him, just examining his record and the existing analysis of it which, even in light of mammabear's fair points above, should at least give pause. Presumably the BOE went into some detail as to why they made the choice they did. I'm anxious to know.

sprout said:

I request that you temper this line of thinking.
I know of another strong leader in the education world, and person of color, who had his resume submitted. The board had good options in this regard.

Ramos was who they wanted to pick.

Interesting, who was that other "strong leader"?

...

I'm keeping an open mind. Though I agree with others that we need a fiscal manager, rather than a pie-in-the-sky visionary, I think it's very hard to evaluate how good someone is based on a few news articles.

The guy certainly has been in some tough situations. Bridgeport is a struggling city.

ALee said:

sprout said:

I request that you temper this line of thinking.
I know of another strong leader in the education world, and person of color, who had his resume submitted. The board had good options in this regard.

Ramos was who they wanted to pick.

Interesting, who was that other "strong leader"?

Not a big name (yet), but someone I have crossed paths with, and been impressed by, in the Newark school system.

AliGrant said:

It seems that this is what he has also been doing:
http://www.equityandexcellenceimperative.com/about-eei.html

A page out of the Brian Osborne playbook.

Ah, "equity and excellence". More pedantic, overused eduspeak. Lovely.

Another op-ed. I promise, I truly am looking for something positive. Will post when I find it.

Bridgeport glad to see Ramos go to Groton

Published September 30. 2012 4:00AM

By CARMEN L. LOPEZ
Publication: The Day

Regarding Groton's decision to appoint John Ramos as interim schools superintendeng ("Groton schools pick another interim super," Sept. 25), the people of Groton should send a thank-you note to the taxpayers of Bridgeport.

The note should be addressed to Barbara Bellinger, the former president of the Bridgeport Board of Education, and to Patrick Crossin, Leticia Colon, Dolores Fuller, Nereyda Robles and Thomas Cunningham, who were board members in the fall of 2010.

The note should be sent in care of Mayor Bill Finch, without whose foresight and intervention the note would not have been possible. The note should read as follows:

"Thank you for your contribution to our municipal education budget. We, the people of Groton, have just hired John Ramos to be our interim superintendent of schools through June of 2013.

"Without your generosity and compassion for our taxpayers, we would be forced to pay benefits for both Superintendent Ramos and his wife. However, due to your visionary decision in October 2010, the taxpayers of Bridgeport will defray the costs of those benefits, while Dr. Ramos serves as our interim superintendent of schools.

"It is indeed comforting to realize that Bridgeport has agreed to help the hard-pressed taxpayers of eastern Connecticut in spite of your city's recent tax increase.

"This gift is in the best tradition of your former mayor, the great showman Phineas Taylor Barnum. Perhaps we can send you a decommissioned submarine as a token of our appreciation."

As incredible as it sounds, our Bridgeport tax dollars are now at work in eastern Connecticut.

Some may remember that three members of the Board of Education in October 2010, Maria Pereira, Bobby Simmons and Sauda Baraka, voted against this largesse. That is why they were omitted from the proposed thank-you note.

You see, they had this strange dysfunctional notion that their first responsibility was to the students of Bridgeport.

How quaint!

In the article, The Day quoted the Groton Board of Education chairwoman, Kristen Hoyt, as saying that Dr. Ramos' departure from Bridgeport "was based on nothing more than a difference in strategy with a new school board."

Observers in Bridgeport will recall that Dr. Ramos was very good at "strategy."

He successfully strategized a sweetheart deal for himself and his wife obligating Bridgeport taxpayers to pay his and his wife's health benefits until they reached the age of 65.

He was complicit in a strategy orchestrated by Mayor Finch to flat fund the Board of Education for four consecutive years.

When that strategy could no longer be justified, he adopted another strategy. He recommended that the Board of Education refuse to adopt a budget in light of a projected deficit.

When this strategy was executed by a near-unanimous board, Ramos strategized a means of using that refusal to label the board dysfunctional.

He then strategized and conspired behind the backs of some of the members of the elected Board of Education a takeover of the school system by the state of Connecticut.

The night that his strategy was executed, he was doing his best Pontius Pilate imitation by presiding over a religious retreat, while the six-member board majority, most of whom had voted him his benefits, was voting to abdicate its responsibility and request a state takeover of the elected board.

For Groton's sake, let us hope he has a different strategy in mind for them.

Carmen L. Lopez is a retired Superior Court judge. She lives in Bridgeport.

This is more nuanced article about what happened.

http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Bridgeport-school-board-votes-to-fire-2214799.php

As best I can tell, the elected Bridgeport school board was dissolved. The state appointed a school board. When the new Bridgeport school board came in, they decided to make a clean break with the past. From the article:

Superintendent of Schools John Ramos, whose six-year reign over the cash-starved district culminated with the unprecedented replacement of the school board this summer, has been fired, effective Jan. 1.

Board chairman Robert Trefry, said it was a difficult decision, but the best thing he and the board could do for 20,000 students in the district.

Trefry insisted the replacement of the school superintendent was not part of his charge and was not a foregone conclusion.

"It was our responsibility to evaluate the superintendent ... after a lot of discussion and soul searching we felt this was an appropriate thing to do," he said.

The board, which was hand picked by the state, voted unanimously Wednesday in favor of the termination.

The action caps a tumultuous four months for the district, which has some of the worst test scores in the state and is still without a balanced 2011-12 operating budget.

"We felt, in our estimate, it was time for a change, a new leader," said Trefry.

...

During his tenure, more than 20 schools in the district were failing by federal achievement standards. The district also struggled with an operating budget that hadn't seen an increase in four years, pushing the district to consider laying off hundreds of employees. The issue came to a head in June when Ramos convinced the board to delay passing a budget. The lack of a budget was then used as evidence by state officials of the board's inability to function effectively and the need to appoint a new board.

Critics said Ramos was a lackluster leader who had lofty goals but didn't have a handle on finances nor could execute effective change.

After voting to terminate his contract, Trefry acknowledged a list of Ramos' accomplishments. He mentioned that the district was twice named a national Broad prize finalist as an improved school district and the opening of seven new schools.

"Many great things have happened in the district for which the district will be forever grateful," Trefry said.

Board member Kenneth Moales Jr. said it will be difficult to see Ramos go but added he had taken the district as far as he could.

"I applaud what you've done ... You will be missed," Moales told Ramos.

Hernan Illingworth, a board member and immediate past president of the District Parent Advisory Council, said he knew from the start that Ramos' "heart was in it." Ramos, he said, often dealt with parents personally when he could have designated someone else.

Peeling back the onion on the previous school board... there were some really acrimonious relations, including members calling each other scumbags, etc. Here's some video and context.

http://onlyinbridgeport.com/wordpress/hennessey-elected-new-school-board-chair-pereira-were-coming-for-ya/

As for this...

davidfrazer said:

AliGrant said:

It seems that this is what he has also been doing:
http://www.equityandexcellenceimperative.com/about-eei.html

A page out of the Brian Osborne playbook.

Everyone is for equity and excellence. The difference lies in how we get there.

pickwick said:

So no experience with IB? That is a shame given the shambles that the roll out of the IB program has been in the middle school.

Who knows...since Groton he has been leading a school in Qatar (but it doesn't seem to be an IB school from what I see online).

I'm hoping he is much more impressive than suggested by a first glance at his press clipping file.

I'll keep an open mind and wait to hear more, since he is is the choice of our hardworking BOE volunteers, who presumably have asked all of the questions that come to my mind, and weighed our many needs in the balance.

Here's another solid article that gives more insight into Ramos. (This article came out before the state-appointed board decided to terminate him.)

http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Ramos-thinking-big-as-officials-call-for-his-1610227.php#page-1

John Ramos sits precariously atop a school system in upheaval. After a turbulent month in which he encouraged school board members to shoot down a $216 million budget -- calling it unfair for students -- and then encouraged board members to hand over their powers to the state -- hoping for a financial lifeline -- his six years of leadership are coming under the microscope.

His critics say it's time for him to go, that he has been a lackluster leader and an even poorer manager, squandering taxpayer money for six years already, with little to show for it in the classroom.

His supporters call him a visionary educator who's made progress in improving an impoverished school system riven by a dysfunctional bureaucracy.

Near term, his job probably is safe: With the school board out of the way, he can't be fired until the state-appointed replacement board is in place.

Long term, his future is more murky. Ramos insists the Bridgeport schools have a chance to revamp the system, pulling in private and public funds like never before, potentially creating a new model for urban education. He wants to lead it.

Ramos, who has made a career of defying conventional thought, said he's waiting for a higher ruling.

"I'm a man of faith," he said, reflecting on his tenure. "I believe this is a mission, not a job, and I was placed here for a reason. If and when it becomes apparent that God would have me move on, then that's what I'll do."

HOME TO BRIDGEPORT

On a recent afternoon, Ramos walked through his expansive City Hall office to retrieve a 1960s photograph of his Lincoln Elementary School class in Bridgeport. Signatures surround the picture.

"Best of luck in the future life," someone signed. "May everything you do turn out right."

Much has. Today, Ramos is considered both a genuine scholar and an advocate for needy city schools.

"He is extremely highly regarded by his peers, and lots of people look up to him," said Fred Bateman, executive director of the Urban Superintendent's Association of America, the network of 175 small and medium city school districts for which Ramos is now a vice president. "He has a challenging job in Bridgeport, and he is seen as a real leader in our profession."

Ramos sees the American public education system as inherently unjust, with the students most in need of resources afforded the least. He has spent years finding hidden biases that propel this inequity and exploring how school systems can uproot them. His views coalesced as he moved from studying in Bridgeport public schools to elite institutions and carved his career as an educator.

I hope our BOE knew what it was doing...

Yep.

What????? - " I am a man of faith....I believe this is a mission, not a job.....If and when it becomes apparent that God would have me move on, then that's what I'll do". This is what we get for having faith leaders be part of the focus groups on a Saturday ( I am being tongue in cheek). We have picked a preacher, not a superintendent.

h4daniel said:

What????? - " I am a man of faith....I believe this is a mission, not a job.....If and when it becomes apparent that God would have me move on, then that's what I'll do". This is what we get for having faith leaders be part of the focus groups on a Saturday ( I am being tongue in cheek). We have picked a preacher, not a superintendent.

I am similarly upset by that statement. Smh.

:-|

Me too, Purple Monkey. Will our district be part of Ramos' "mission" too?

At first glance, it is disconcerting. However, from several things I have read, it looks like he knows how to bring in funding, work in partnership with neighboring districts, speak out against unnecessary spending on tests, and focus on how states can support teachers to support students.

http://onlyinbridgeport.com/wordpress/groundbreaking-for-magnet-school/
http://education-executive.com/index.php/school-districts/702-bridgeport-public-schools

A big concern for me is:
"Another departure from the traditional is at Warren Harding High School, which is being “restarted” with Global Partnership Schools, an educational management organization running the school." (article link above)

Speaking for myself, I'm over the vision thing. I'm looking for the management thing, and someone who will make changes based on real data rather than ideals and aspirations propped up by power points devoid of evidence.

Because who wants ideals and aspirations all mixed up in education? )

FFB said:

It's obvious the BOE was committed to hiring a person of color this time, laudable in a vacuum. It's also obvious this decision colored the quality of the candidates we evaluated. Ramos has shown he can destroy a school district, leading to a state takeover. Hopefully "state takeover" isn't our BOE's "genius" plan to get around the local spending cap.

Totally uncool statement. Discuss this on the merits.

On the surface it sure seems like a really odd and controversial choice but it's insulting to everyone to say that the reason they chose him is the color of his skin.

dave said:

Because who wants ideals and aspirations all mixed up in education? )

I agree. Here's one: Every kid should get a pony.

ctrzaska said:

The CT post, however, has this: "Critics said Ramos was a lackluster leader who had lofty goals but didn't have a handle on finances nor could execute effective change."

If my opinion of ctrzaska were based on what the critics said ...

deborahg said:

Bridgeport is a completely different community. Let's get all the facts before we break out the torches and pitchforks.

One thing that seven years as a parent in a district that was taken over by the state made clear is that intrusive politics and personal agendas -- not to mention the poverty and history at the foundation of the struggle -- can undercut even the ablest of superintendents.

h4daniel said:

What????? - " I am a man of faith....I believe this is a mission, not a job.....If and when it becomes apparent that God would have me move on, then that's what I'll do". This is what we get for having faith leaders be part of the focus groups on a Saturday ( I am being tongue in cheek). We have picked a preacher, not a superintendent.

PurpleMonkeyDshwashr said:

I am similarly upset by that statement. Smh.

MarianR said:

Me too, Purple Monkey. Will our district be part of Ramos' "mission" too?

It's hard for me to raise my heathen hackles over a statement that, in context, simply sounds like an expression of a man's sense of purpose.

Well, to be fair, I did post the whole article, good and bad. And I never believe my critics. :-D

DaveSchmidt said:

h4daniel said:

What????? - " I am a man of faith....I believe this is a mission, not a job.....If and when it becomes apparent that God would have me move on, then that's what I'll do". This is what we get for having faith leaders be part of the focus groups on a Saturday ( I am being tongue in cheek). We have picked a preacher, not a superintendent.

PurpleMonkeyDshwashr said:

I am similarly upset by that statement. Smh.

MarianR said:

Me too, Purple Monkey. Will our district be part of Ramos' "mission" too?

It's hard for me to raise my heathen hackles over a statement that, in context, simply sounds like an expression of a man's sense of purpose.

Personally, I think the man could use a bit more Hegel than Aquinas to run this district where, in but one example, 100+ posts were dedicated to an uproar over holding meetings with religious leaders (on a Jewish holiday no less, IIRC) just to get search input.