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

Luckily for Dr. Ramos the bar was not set very high by the previous super

At least this new super won't be encumbered by a honeymoon period since the pitchforks and torches are out in force.

Funny this superintendent salary cap - one of CC's smoke 'n mirrors stunts - I look at what a superintendent has to do as compared to what a person in private industry has to do and there is no comparison. The superintendent's job is much harder. In private industry, for example, you aren't beset daily by mobs of parents who are experts in your field and know your job better than you do.

Tell that to my colleagues.

It seems the salary cap has really had an impact on the superintendent candidate pool. It appears we're either going to get people toward the beginning of their career or at the end. It looks like many of the folks in between are either staying put or are jumping out of state.

Summit just hired a new super as well. He's a 34 year old curriculum director at Midland Park.

It strikes me that the choices are probably going to pull up A LOT of different stuff on an Internet search or nothing at all. I wonder which one is better... If I really think about it, I might be inclined to a candidate with a lot of vetted pros and cons versus someone without.

I didn't get to watch the BOE meeting. Is there dissent among the board with this selection or do they all agree?

This article sheds some much needed light on the thinking behind the hire:

http://villagegreennj.com/schools-kids/south-orange-maplewood-hire-ramos-superintendent/

Somethingz_Fishy said:

I didn't get to watch the BOE meeting. Is there dissent among the board with this selection or do they all agree?

It was a unanimous decision.

No disrespect but Coventry is no way comparable to SOMA. Norwalk yes, Bridgeport and Coventry, negative.

mantram said:

This article sheds some much needed light on the thinking behind the hire:

http://villagegreennj.com/schools-kids/south-orange-maplewood-hire-ramos-superintendent/

Frankly, I think this hire sounds promising.

mamabear said:

Somethingz_Fishy said:

I didn't get to watch the BOE meeting. Is there dissent among the board with this selection or do they all agree?

It was a unanimous decision.

Ms. Wright had to recuse herself since she has a relative that is employed by the school district.

The article does portray him a lot better than this thread. Assuming he is somehwere in the middle of the two - I think we can put the pitchforks away and give the many a chance.

If it doesn't work out, his contract is up in just under 5 years and the BOE can hire a consultant again to look for someone new.

Even if we like him at first, there will be a very vocal contingent who hates him in five years. That's just the way we roll in SOMSD.

Life is complicated, especially for someone who takes on a challenge like trying to run a district like Bridgeport.

I think it's kind of insulting to our BOE members to assume that somehow they 'missed' issues discoverable by a simple Google search. I would turn that around and say its troubling that so many would rush to such harsh judgment based on just the results of a quick Google search.

Give the BOE and the super candidate the time to make the case about what he wants to do with the district, where his priorities lie, etc... Our last super was a real polished guy and I'm sure he had an awesome and perhaps spotless resume when we hired him ... but IMO his lasting impact has not been positive. Too much theory and experimentation and too little management.

I'm going to keep an open mind and form my opinion after I know more about Dr. Ramos's priorities and plans.

I am going to trust the BOE for now. I believe that they have our interests at heart and I know that they are more able to oversee district operations than am I.

ice said:

Life is complicated, especially for someone who takes on a challenge like trying to run a district like Bridgeport.

I think it's kind of insulting to our BOE members to assume that somehow they 'missed' issues discoverable by a simple Google search. I would turn that around and say its troubling that so many would rush to such harsh judgment based on just the results of a quick Google search.

Give the BOE and the super candidate the time to make the case about what he wants to do with the district, where his priorities lie, etc... Our last super was a real polished guy and I'm sure he had an awesome and perhaps spotless resume when we hired him ... but IMO his lasting impact has not been positive. Too much theory and experimentation and too little management.

I'm going to keep an open mind and form my opinion after I know more about Dr. Ramos's priorities and plans.

+1

It would have been nice to seek community input BEFORE a hiring decision rather than introducing him AFTER they've made a decision. In this day and age to think that people are not going to Google people to find out all they can is crazy. No BOE should be adverse to sourcing input from wherever to insure all rocks are turned over. The BOE could have thrown out the names under consideration, gathered the public info, then made a decision. in the information age, the old secretive ways of doing things does not advantage the public they are supposed to work for. It only advantages the candidate.

jjp - how many BOE/consultant forums did you attend to provide input regarding the search? There were many opportunities for the public to make its priorities known.

The reactions I see so far on MOL and at last night's board meeting demostrate exactly why throwing specific names out to the public in advance of a selection would be a terrible idea. We elected the Board to make this decision, and they have done so. We should hold them accountable for their selection, but the process you suggest would be an ugly circus.

jayjayp said:

It would have been nice to seek community input BEFORE a hiring decision rather than introducing him AFTER they've made a decision. In this day and age to think that people are not going to Google people to find out all they can is crazy. No BOE should be adverse to sourcing input from wherever to insure all rocks are turned over. The BOE could have thrown out the names under consideration, gathered the public info, then made a decision. in the information age, the old secretive ways of doing things does not advantage the public they are supposed to work for. It only advantages the candidate.

The BOE solicited feedback from the community multiple times in the fall including meetings and surveys. This was prior to finalizing a list of candidates.

We are electing BOE members to lead the school district. If you aren't happy with the way they have proceeded then make sure you vote in November.

They did get input. Tossing out names for public referendum would lead absolutely nowhere. For every potential candidate there would be those for and against, those with grounded opinions and those whose comments fit only their own agendas. It's not any way to hire someone. That, and the fact that we elect a BOE to do exactly this, is why that's a non-starter.

I think that jjp expected and is probably entitled to a private audience with the BOE.

Asking for input in what you want in a candidate and an unwillingness to share those names of those you feel embody that is the problem. You make people feel you want to know what they think but then close off the process. Nothing says it has to be this way.

Just out of curiosity, does this make you queasy?:

http://www.ctucc.org/news/20080513_livingwaters.html

Or what about this from the Connecticut Post:

His critics argue that he's simply not up to the task of managing the money that does exist; that, having spent so much time dwelling on how the schools would handle unlimited funds, he hasn't maximized the resources at hand.

"He could sell you the Brooklyn Bridge," said Bobby Simmons, a 10-year school board member and certified public accountant. "But when it gets down to financial operations, the key word would be `incompetence.' "

Under previous superintendents, Simmons was used to getting monthly financial reports. Not so under Ramos. That, Simmons said, is one reason why, two summers ago, Ramos was surprised to find out that the schools had finished the year with a $2 million surplus.

"One thing I advise people moving into this," said Bateman, the urban superintendents' association director, of assuming such a job, "is to find yourself someone who knows finance like nobody else and put them in charge of it and watch everything."

jjp should probably just be allowed to pick the Super himself.

jayjayp said:

Asking for input in what you want in a candidate and an unwillingness to share those names of those you feel embody that is the problem. You make people feel you want to know what they think but then close off the process. Nothing says it has to be this way.

Just out of curiosity, does this make you queasy:

http://www.ctucc.org/news/20080513_livingwaters.html

It does. I am going to start of petition demanding that anybody who attends church/temple/mosque or worships outside of the privacy of their own homes be banned from public office.

From JJP's Urban Waters link:
"The urban challenge is to create that lift, to find those levers, that will in fact change the trajectory of the students who are forced to live and abide in substandard systems across the country, substandard because of the way they're financed, substandard because indeed in places of intense poverty systems need more, not less."

Yeah, JJP, that's really troubling stuff. So the guy asks congregations to pray for the schools, while taking more concrete political and fiscal actions to try to help them.... I'm so queasy now.

Actually, thanks for the one link that actually shows this guy may have healthy priorities. I encourage all to read it.

When you run a district like Newark or Bridgeport, you need all the help you can get from the community.

Just because someone is unpopular and googles poorly does not necessarily mean they were an ineffective or bad Super. It might even be the opposite. The right decisions are not always the popular ones. It's possible to get negative press by doing the right thing. That said, it's also possible to get negative press by doing the wrong thing.

I have to have faith that our BOE is able to distinguish the difference. The fact that the vote was unanimous—especially considering the BOE is currently made up of a mix of opposing viewpoints—says something to me. Remember, they didn't choose Dr. Ramos in a vacuum... They chose him over a group of other candidates.

yahooyahoo said:

When you run a district like Newark or Bridgeport, you need all the help you can get from the community.

And more than a little help from God.

I'm with this "page" of the thread - let's give the guy a chance first. Whether I typically agree or disagree with them on specific issues, I have absolutely NO doubt that every BOE member wants to do what is best for our district and they are all intelligent people so it isn't like they weren't aware of the things that people have been googling.

With all this talk about a unanimous vote by the BOE, has any super ever been hired without one? I don't know, and maybe so, but curious to know whether this is true before I put any weight on that fact.
ETA: OK, I'll put some weight on it.

Venting aside, John Ramos is now the most important person in Maplewood and South Orange. There is nothing "meh" about the Supt. of our schools. As our schools go, so go our two towns. If our schools go to crap, they will still cost the same amount of money as they do now but our homes will be worth one-half as much, at the most.

That's a little doom-and-gloom doncha think? No they won't. The super is but one piece of the schools puzzle, albeit, yes, an important one. There is also a BOE (who, one presumes, will act if they see them going to crap as you put it), and the scores of dedicated professionals working in them. This is not to say he couldn't bring forth programs and initiatives that become problematic or money drains, or engineer a total rework of the underlying structure of levels, access, classes, whatever, etc, but one hopes the BOE will have the backbone to stand up against anything too severe, too costly and/or too problematic, and not just cave to the give-it-a-chance lazy mentality.