The battling 'Bickersons' of Cincinnati schools

The Cincinnati Board of Education – also known as the Bickersons for their resemblance to the classic radio show about the eponymously named family – argued for 75 minutes last week about something as basic as giving the superintendent her review.

As Ben Fischer’s story noted Monday, the finger-pointing and back and forth “disrespecting” accomplished exactly nothing. The board is expected to do the same thing again this week.

All this revolves around giving Supt. Rosa Blackwell her annual performance review. Bear in mind that she has a contract that spells out that she is supposed to get an annual review. Annual means once a year. Blackwell didn’t get her first review until she had been on the job for 16 months. She had been on the job a full eight months before the board could even provide her a set of goals (on which her annual review would be based).

The board hasn’t even gotten around to arguing about whether to give the superintendent a good review or a bad one. What they are bickering over is how to read the calendar. President Eileen Cooper Reed suggests honoring a pledge for quarterly progress reports on how Blackwell is doing, with a full review next March. That would be only 14 months after her previous “annual” review. Member Catherine Ingram argued that would put the review too close to when the board has to decide whether to extend Blackwell’s contract. Won’t the review be the basis for that decision?

Can you just imagine the disciplinary chaos we would have in the district’s kindergarten classes if we let the kids see how well the grown-ups running the schools play together?