The governing board of Gilbert Public Schools evaluated the performance of Superintendent Christina Kishimoto in a super-secret executive session that apparently was held in spite of the fact that board member(s) were absent. We don’t know what really happened in the secret meeting … that secrecy is set out in the superintendent’s 2014 contract because her previous evaluations in Hartford, Connecticut were so abysmal.
This secrecy is nothing new for Gilbert Public Schools: the best we can say about the previous administration is that it was, perhaps, a bit less secretive than Kishimoto’s administration filled with carpetbaggers and scalawags. Many citizens believed then it was an abuse of the public trust to obstruct the ability of the public to know what the public school administration was doing behind closed doors. Oh boy, that was minor league compared to the administration under the *leadership* of Christina Kishimoto now that Her Three Votes sit around with their thumbs … have given Kishimoto carte blanche to do all kinds of evil deeds in the name of *reforminess.*
Christina Kishimoto has a good life now, and with Her Three Votes locked in, she can do anything she wants to do. That includes spending Million$ of taxpayer dollars on ill-fated *reforms* that blow up in her face. However, Superintendent Christina Kishimoto is NOT accountable for those failures … not as long as Her Three Votes run interference for her! All is well and good, until common sense prevails and Christina Kishimoto’s reign comes to an end, as it did in Hartford when her bosses finally realized she was the problem, not the solution:
The failure of the GPS governing board to hold Christina Kishimoto to account for performance has led to stunning failures that cost MILLIONS of dollars and erode public trust. For example:
(1) New Software for Payroll and Human Resources: It’s still not completely functional, and birdies chirp that some employees have not been fully paid. This has been the status quo since January 2016. Birdies chirp that instead of paying employees when GPS knew that paychecks had been shorted, well-meaning folks in HR … er, the Talent Office run by Slimebucket Suzanne Zentner, offered forms to apply to the GPS employee charity known as Reaching Hands for a short-term loan to pay the rent or the mortgage that was endangered because GPS was indifferent to the plight of employees who depend on being paid promptly. We know that GPS, instead of actually PAYING employees whose paychecks were short or non-existent told them to wait for another pay cycle (“We have encountered a glitch…Unfortunately we do not have the resources to personally respond to each email about this matter,” and in the meantime, GPS offered letters to take to their bank begging for forgiveness of overdraft charges. Sheeeeeeesh.
Keyboard: There ought to be a law requiring an employer to pay their employees immediately after they perform their jobs. What’s the point of a regularly scheduled payday if the employer can blow it off?
Westie: Obviously, the GPS Top Dogs with their six figure salaries don’t know what it’s like to live from paycheck to paycheck.
(2) Massive Turnover in Key Departments: This is related to #1 above. Birdies chirp that the employee turnover rate in Business Services Department is more than 70% for the past year. Some of this turnover is self-inflicted; under Christina Kishimoto’s *leadership,* a large percentage of long-time employees in various departments in the GPS district offices in the White Castle was cast out. Employees were sent to various locations around the district for a one-year position. The day of reckoning arrived as the 2015-2016 school year ended, and experienced employees found themselves without jobs. That was the purpose of the turmoil. And turmoil it has been! Just about every function that has contact with *lesser* employees, such as teachers and support staff, has been plagued with incompetency. That bright shiny new technology isn’t working very well on its own. And the remaining human interface is obviously inadequate, even though Kishimoto thinks “they have done an amazing job working through the glitches.”
(3) New Chromebooks for junior high school students. This fiasco became The Worst Technology Rollout EVER! under the *leadership* of Superintendent Christina Kishimoto … what we didn’t know at the time was that her *alleged* inappropriate relationship with her subordinate Charles Stevin Smith, the Director of Technology must have blinded Kishimoto to what was really happening with Chromebooks. Bottom line: birdies chirp the damage level is something like 70% of all the Chromebooks that were issued to junior high school students. Who could have known those kids would be so irresponsible with those freebie 1:1 devices? R-i-g-h-t. <dripping sarcasm>
(4) “Seat of the pants” management and uninformed board decisions. Time and again, Christina Kishimoto told the board to vote for what she wanted, and she refused to provide *dater* backing up her recommendations. When pressed by the public, and especially when the public provided available data that Christina Kishimoto didn’t like, she back-pedaled and rationalized and promised to seek more information … which was never forthcoming. For example, the board is absolutely convinced that charter schools are *stealing* GPS students by the thousands … based on exactly no information. That’s because the GPS administration doesn’t give a flying flip about those student losses. They’re just adding more, more and more administration positions at the White Castle of Doom. How hard would it be to simply ASK families why they leave the district? Answer: it wouldn’t be hard, but Kishimoto’s administration doesn’t even bother. In that environment, why would families that reject GPS bother to explain? It would be a waste of time. And so here we are, watching the GPS governing board follow the Ready – Fire -Aim model of management. Sheeeeesh.
Watch as board member Daryl Colvin explains about Kishimoto’s self-fulfilling prophecy of student losses, based on refusal to acknowledge the facts in front of the GPS administration and governing board:
Perhaps the biggest loss in all this is the loss of public trust and public respect … which leads to more losses of students and teachers and staff. The public, especially citizens who formerly applauded board members for showing up and backed whatever the superintendent wanted, have awakened. They rate Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s performance as failing.
It seems that just about everyone in Gilbert, Arizona has become accustomed to Lies Christina Kishimoto Tells. Concerned residents realize that the GPS governing board is too dysfunctional to do anything about it. Legal problems mount, with exponentially exploding legal fees. But, hey, those legal fees go to some of the superintendent’s and the board’s best buddies in town, so it’s all good. <wink, wink>