Cincinnati School Board follies

Following up on yesterday’s post about the bickering Cincinnati School Board and its inability to figure out that Superintendent of Schools Rosa Blackwell’s “annual” review is supposed to be given every 12 months:

At a Monday meeting the board settled the question of when to give Blackwell her next review – August – seven months after her last “annual” evaluation. A couple of interesting twists in the August review are that it will cover the entire 2006-2007 school year – in other words it will cover a period going back five months before her last review. The review also will be based on criteria that won’t be finalized until later this month. I wonder if one of the criteria the board will set for the superintendent will be mind reading.

In a footnote to my previous post on this subject, Board Member Melanie Bates called to argue about my characterizing the board as “bickering.” Bates said in the past such discussions were usually held in closed-door executive sessions, but she has worked hard to get the board to have such discussions out in the open. Bates felt the board deserved credit for openness. I am all for openness, but I think moving from private bickering to public bickering is only a small sign of progress.