The board already blew its chance to do an appropriate job. Just as our "rogue adinistrators" did.

Betty S is right. the school board had a chance to do its job. They were supposed to be doing it ALL ALONG. Both Sherman and the board shirked their responsibilities. Sherman should resign and the board should be ready to hand over the reigns after the November election. A special election in the interim would just cost taxpayers more money.

Again, why is the School Board going to bat for the Superintendent? I mean, other than the fact that they made the decision to hire him, what has been the result of his time in ACPS? Central office staff leaving, administrators leaving, teachers leaving. Turmoil in almost all areas of the system. Questionable programs run by long-time friends of the Superintendent implemented in the district. And on top of that millions of our tax dollars mismanaged at a huge cost to our city. The School Board has the authority to call for Mr. Sherman's resignation or to outright fire him but they lack the courage to do either. This issue is a black eye for our school system and distracts from ACPS' ability and duty to focus attention on the educational needs of our children. As such, Mr. Sherman should resign or be fired. End of story.

I sat through a School Board meeting last year and was shocked to see that the School Board did not even know the district's own homework policy when it was raised by speakers and school administrators. And this is the same school board who wants us to believe it is fiscally aware of what is occurring with our education funds? According to an article in the Patch, Councilman Fannon had to point out that school board members were in the dark concerning large tax sheltered annuity payments to senior staff of the Superintendent. “Some board members were not aware of these annuities,” Fannon said, adding that it’s a problem when the School Board “doesn’t know where the money is going and how it’s happening.” It was right for the Vice Mayor to speak out on behalf of concerned citizens. The School Board must seek the resignation of the Superintendent or it remains part of the problem.

Thank you Vice Mayor Donley for saying what others will not say. ACPS and the School Board now need to have the courage to do right by the students, children, families, teachers, tax payers and the Alexandria community at large. It is time to be honest about what is working and where we are failing our kids. There is a perfect opening and opportunity for bold actions - perhaps to include high level staffing changes to resolve performance and/or perception issues that are not meeting our needs or expectations. There is no reason for ACPS families to feel that they have no choice but to leave the City schools to find integrity and the standards and education our students deserve. And, how can our principals and teachers thrive under these conditions? We can do better. We look forward to soon seeing what the School Board and our academic "leaders" are really made of...

The second smallest school system in this region and the technology for the students has not improved since Chris Sieger left. He implemented the Laptop Initiative Program not Elizabeth Hoover, The students or staff can't get on blackboard, the network work is patch together. The teachers can't teach for attending meeting. There are no written policies on anything and if they have created any they are NOT enforced. The supt. Sherman using his credit cards and Margaret Byess and he decided he did not need to retain and forward the receipts to the finance department. Mr. Mark Krause is NOT a crook and never has been this is the mastermind of Margaret Byess and Morton Sherman. Get rid of them all and if the previous employees administrators, support staff will return who were forced to retire, resigned, positions eliminated or restructured the position requirements to eliminate the person(s). Hire people who have a true passion in education and the future of ACPS students and staff. All the directors, administrators and those promoted from 2008 until present need to go immediately or no later than June 30, 2012! The school board members need to resign, be fired or out of office by November never to return! Supt and board are getting there heads together now to correct there wrongs. Supt has many different faces and he uses them all to increase his ego. THEY ALL ARE STATUS QUO,Title freaks and have HARD cold hearts. Education HATERS! I support Mr. Donley 100% you have my vote.

This board is delusional ,.. they need to request that the lawyers interview every single Central Office staff member from every department with the promise of no repercussions to find out what is truly going on. The CIP report is just the tip of the iceberg of the mismanagement of funds. Staff know if they question anything under this superintendent and executive staff it means the loss of their job. In a desperate attempt to save his job, the superintendent is throwing Mark Krause under the bus, when Mr. Krause was NOT the problem. DIg deeper City Council ... but you'll need a backhoe to get to the bottom of this mess.

Mort Sherman has been up to his contractual shenanigans since at least 1997. I was talking about this back in 2009 but no one wanted to hear it and I was made out to be the bad guy for blowing the whistle.

http://www.counsel.nysed.gov/Decisions/volume39/d14274.htm

The last two paragraphs are especially prescient:

"...although respondents assert that the board was aware of Dr. Sherman's negotiations..., they provide as purported proof of such knowledge only one set of minutes dated two months prior to execution of the Cimple contract, which contain a recommendation to award the contract to another party, and admit that the district's attorney did not review the contract prior to execution. ... I urge respondent board to review its internal policies and procedures... to ensure that all procurements made without public bidding are made in a manner to assure the most prudent and economical use of public moneys."

NPD Blue, the employee is not gone. Resignation is not effective until May 25. The Deputy Superintendent in question continues to draw a salary from the school system at great expense to the taxpayers. The report issued by the firm was not an independent audit and did not comb through all CIP funds to carefully examine discrepancies. The Superintendent has been here for almost four years. This problem is his problem. There were controls in place before he arrived and through systematic changes under his leadership those controls were removed and ignored. The responsibility falls squarely in his lap. He must go.

Be SURE you all read the website Gail Gordon cited on March 15th! History repeats itself, even BAD history. All you have to do is change a few names and programs and now you know what happened at ACPS.

History repeats itself on our dime. The School Board would be beyond irresponsible for allowing Mr. Sherman to remain employed by ACPS. There is a documented history of Mr. Sherman and budget woes. Let this be the last stop on the Sherman gravy train.

From 1999 Philadelphia Inquirer article: "Mayor Susan Bass Levin, who came out publicly in favor of the bond proposal, also was critical – but of school administrators for a budget process that by all accounts has been ugly. She criticized the first draft of the budget, presented a day after the bond vote, as “stupid.” That draft was for a $102.8 million budget, with an 8-cent increase in the tax rate. `It was a colossal mistake,” she said Friday. “People are very angry, and I think they have every right to be angry.” The budget was pared to $99.9 million before board members gave initial approval, but the backlash to the proposed 4.5-cent increase in the tax rate that it contains has caused discontent throughout the community, which will vote on the final budget April 20. “The timing was definitely off-base,” said N. John Amato, vice president of the Township Council. He said the delayed release of the budget draft caused a credibility problem for Superintendent Morton Sherman. “Even if they had waited until the eleventh-and-a-half hour, but the day after a bond issue? He cooked his goose, in my opinion.”

And repeats itself.

From 2006 Philadelphia Inquirer News.com article: “Sherman departed the district late last year. This week, Cherry Hill announced it may have to cut programs and lay off as many as 50 teachers to balance its budget.”

And repeats itself. May this pattern end on our watch.

From 2011 CourierPostOnline.com article: "In Cherry Hill, he found a district where 19 schools were moving in different directions, creating inefficiencies and affecting student achievement. It was the same story on the business side, where streamlining was needed to cut down on inefficiency and waste. He was following several superintendents who had polarized the community. The previous two were Morton Sherman — a man whose showmanship and bold ideas often left little room for other opinions — and interim Timothy Brennan, who combined abstract educational ideology with concrete but unpopular academic moves.
During their tenures, the school board became increasing fractious and galvanized over one issue in particular — the International Baccalaureate Programme. The rigorous, inquiry-based curriculum — like its proponent Sherman — was either loved or despised. The controversy over IB and how it was implemented in Cherry Hill exacerbated dissension among those who believed students on the west side of the township were being shortchanged."

And repeats itself:
A long-time friend of Alexandria school Superintendent Morton Sherman has been paid thousands of dollars and shared meals with the Alexandria superintendent on the district’s dime before ever signing a formal contract.

One in a wave of new consultants hired since Sherman came to Alexandria, Bena Kallick was the second highest-paid individual contractors paid during last two years and has recently signed more contracts to hold teacher training this year.

Adding all the payments together, she’s on track to earn $124,000 from the Alexandria City Public Schools.

Kallick’s ties to the superintendent began four decades ago and have extended through every school district in which he’s worked since. She has stayed at the Old Town home he shareswith his wife, Debbie, at least once. And she was paid $21,000 by the district before ever coming under contract.

http://virginia.watchdog.org/1562/alexandria-superintendent-pays-thousands-to-long-time-friend/

Thank you, Simon !! I've been trying to figure out how to bring back Paige Cunningham's excellent articles which detailed how the supt STARTED his career here. This is only one of them, I believe. This "warning" came LONG ago - somebody should have paid more attention back then! Although it did get him to stop abusing the credit cards.

Actually, it is time for Kerry Donley to retire...oh, that's right, he is! He did nothing good for the school when he worked at TC and he has done nothing good for ACPS when on Council. The Superintendent and the School Board are doing very well under adverse conditions. I applaud them.

I agree under the leadership of Dr. Sherman -- T.C. Williams High School has transformed -- its Language Arts and Writing scores are in the top 10% of all high schools in Virginia; its math scores are the highest in its history

OMG! None of you above will believe the latest from the Board regarding their approval of the supt! Absolutely unbelievable. Obviously none of them have been reading Patch. I was just contemplating making a comment about perhaps not being so hard on a new (baby) board because they probably didn't even know 90% of what M&M did and there were no Digilio's or Kenealy's or Hennig's (and some others) there to set them straight! However, either Mort "has" something on all of them or, unfortunately, they really are stupid. My apologies to the Board. But we just don't understand your constant refusal to face reality.

I forgot to refer you to www.alexandrianews.com for the article.

And please don't forget that Mort "mistakenly" used his ACPS credit card to pay for his daughters wedding.

Huh? Criticizing The Vice Mayor who had 5 kids graduate from TC Williams - at a time when it actually made sense to send kids to public school without the fear of academic risk/embarassment/chaos. There is no greater fan of Alexandria and ACPS than Kerry Donley. Let's be honest about what is best for our students. It is possible to have excellence in Alexandria - but not with the current structure...or excuses. Unacceptable.

This whole issue is really about MUCH more than an ignored CIP control system that had worked for over a decade. If we're stuck for 3 more years, we'll reap what we let get sown.

The School Board needs to hold those involved accountable once it gets to the bottom of exactly what happened but it is rich that Donley is attacking SHerman and the School Board like this. No one in City Hall, including the Mayor and Vice Mayor, has been held accountable for so many city employees indicted for criminal wrongdoing in the last year, and one hired after he had been fired for funds mismanagement in Buffalo. Unlike the city, it is a fair point that no one in the schools has been charged with a crime. The gall of anyone on Council whining that the schools ignore and play fast and loose with the rules breaks the hypocrisy scale. Notice no other member of Council has called for heads yet. They are wisely waiting to see what the investigations reveal.

And it is important to consider that the schools CIP budget is a local version of "pork." That is where the construction money is from the local government and it gnaws that Council has little influence over where and to whom it goes once appropriated. That may be what this is really all about.

What this is really about is fiscal responsibility and administrative accountability both of which are lacking in Alexandria's school system at present time. Do you honestly suggest that what is occurring within ACPS is on the same scale as the "scandals" which have "rocked" City Hall as of late? I mean a petty thief putting his hand in the till at Chinquapin and a city HR employee fudging overtime sheets are quite scandalous, but most would argue that they pale in comparison to the gross mismanagement of millions of taxpayer dollars. What is of great concern here is that the Superintendent met regularly with Mrs. Byess and had her continue to be in charge of finances even when she was personally admonished for substantial cost overruns during a simple office refurbishment of HER OWN office. The criminal actions of the employees within the city government were found to be a result of individual greed and corruption. As determined by the report from the outside firm, the mismanagement of our tax dollars by ACPS employees was due to the "dysfunctional" system which is allowed to operate under the current administration. Calling into question the effectiveness of present leadership is not bold nor is it whining, it is appropriate given the state of the schools and the lack of confidence from citizens of Alexandria and members of City Council.

I'm really puzzled by the office remodel. I've been in those offices, including Mort Sherman's private office. I think the last time I was in his office was in the spring of 2009 so that would be three years ago. The ACPS set up at Beauregard was a perfectly nice office suite on par with many small law firms. For what reason did they need to remodel? And $80,000? FOR WHAT?

I encourage people to look at Sherman's earlier career escapades. He was admonished by an administrative court in New York for improper contracting procedures at a school there, and I'm told by someone in Tenafly, NJ that Sherman was ousted from that school district for some other shenanigans but I'm unable to confirm exactly what happened. Sherman hired former Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd's wife to do some consulting here in Alexandria for around $100K I believe. Sherman worked at a private school in CT and has some political aspirations connected to Dodd, who was either running for governor of CT or planning a run at the time Sherman put Dodd's wife on the ACPS payroll. Bottom line - Sherman is all about himself and his image and his prospects and he doesn't give a damn about anyone else.

I echo Chuck's comment that "What this is really about is fiscal responsibility and administrative accountability..." but in addition, it's about ethical behavior and compliance with standard local government contract and accounting procedures. That is a big part of the superintendent's job,and Sherman didn't do it.

The city employees are accused of criminal activities and have been charged. No one in City Hall has been held accountable for any of it. The schools are charged with mismanagement, and 4 employees are being held accountable, and the jury is out on Sherman. Yes, criminal charges are just as serious, if not more so, than mismanagment.

All this really means is that no one in City Hall, including the Mayor and Vice Mayor, are in any position of moral authority to demand heads roll. THey need to take care of their own business first.

Haunches misses the point of the previous posts. The city employees in question were all low level employees who committed crimes which were detected and reported by their superiors. They were not on a first name basis with members of the City Council, did not attend weekly meetings with members of the City Council, and were not defended by members of the City Council for previous questionable actions. The same can not be said for the relationship between Mrs. Byess and Alexandria's Superintendent. Mrs. Byess was part of the Superintendent's inner circle. http://www.alexandrianews.org/2011/2011/09/new-faces-old-focus/ Mrs. Byess was also reprimanded for going double over her budget and spending $72,000 of the district's money on an office renovation. She was allotted $30,000 for the project. http://www.alexandrianews.org/2011/2011/10/acps-administrator-on-the-hot-seat-over-office-renovations/ Someone who is in charge of your budgeting department can not properly budget their own office renovation? This should have been grounds for immediate dismissal from her position and potentially from the school system for such inept behavior. Yet, she was allowed to stay, drawing more money from her enormous salary and apparently continuing to add to the dysfunctional nature of the school's budgeting. It is right for the Vice Mayor to call into question the leadership in ACPS. Things are occurring literally down the hall from the Superintendent and he claims ignorance. He must go.

Let's not get sidetracked here about whose sin is worse. We should be addressing what has to happen at ACPS to get it back on track. Since the Board will not, or perhaps cannot, make the Supt "go away," it can only be UP TO THE CITY to stop the misuse of funds that IT is suppose to be safeguarding. And who IS it that is running the shows now? No purchasing agent, no CFO, no Deputy Supt of finance (although I've heard rumors she is still calling the shots???) - will positions be posted and advertised, interviewed (but by whom?) and selected (again, by whom?). That policy also seems to have been discontinued. Friends of friends just "appear." Let's get back to the problems of the school system - there are many!

Just saw a new article in alexandrianews.org which identified a current employee as the Chief Financial Officer...I would imagine they mean "acting" CFO, since the position needs to be posted, etc., as I suggested above on 3/22.

Yep, JM, you've got it absolutely right. I believe the Supervisor/ Director of Finance position (it was upgraded to director and then backed down to supervisor under M&M's "leadership") was "filled" w/o required posting. lots of friends of Friends.

Does anyone think a state takeover of ACPS is likely? It's possible, but I'm not sure how close we might be to that.

Gail -- the level of academic problems an area must have for any kind of takeover is huge. We are not even close. In fact, our academics are getting better so that isn't in the cards.

Mr. Krupicka, you continually state that the academic situation is "getting better" and point to one improvement area, math, or the situation at one school, T.C. Williams, as support for your claim. If the academic situation is examined district-wide it becomes apparent that the academic achievement of our students is in decline. Reading scores have decreased, history/social studies scores have dropped off dramatically, and science scores are flat across ACPS. Being that you sit on the State Board of Education and have access to updated SOL results you are surely aware of the true state of Alexandria's academics. Why are you and the school system continually painting a different picture for our citizens? Citizens can go to the Virginia Department of Education SOL Report Card and examine academic results for the last three years https://p1pe.doe.virginia.gov/reportcard/ They may find it interesting that while most elementary schools were showing only slight gains over a three year period (4%-6%) in their math SOL scores, Cora Kelly saw a dramatic jump of 12% in math SOL scores. Some may applaud that or some may find that level of improvement to be suspicious. It is too bad that as of late we are focusing on the negative aspects of ACPS but that is the reality of where we are as a school system. Talk to almost any teacher and listen to their concerns and you will see that many just don't see staying with ACPS as being in their cards. What kind of system will we have?

Suspicious results at Cora Kelly, eh? It's just not conceivable to you that a very dedicated, positive and talented group of math teachers could get our students up to grade level in math? At our STEM focus school? I assure you that if you had met these amazing young women, you would not be so skeptical. They work their butts off with those kids and they absolutely love and believe in what they are doing. Your insinuation is highly insulting, in addition to being ignorant. I am offended on behalf of our teachers, students and entire school community. I certainly hope the teachers who are as negative as you are do not see sticking with ACPS as "in their cards."

There is nothing ignorant about the facts. Cora Kelly saw a 12% gain in SOL math scores over the past three years, roughly double that of any other school in Alexandria. It would be a testament to strong teaching, leadership, etc. if there were those types of gains across all academic areas at Cora Kelly, but there were not. So the question should be asked as to how the math scores were achieved? Was it due to hard work as some assert or was it in part due to ignoring other academic areas and only focusing on math instruction to bolster math scores at a STEM school? If the latter were the case, than that is what would be insulting to our students, not the questioning of what is working and what is not working within our system. Some members of our community repeatedly seem to take all results and information presented by the school system at face value. Why? Why do they not ask insightful questions for the betterment of our teachers, students, and entire school community? Do they not want to know exactly what is working to meet the needs of our students and what is not working that we should no longer fund? A quality school system utilizing effective programs which continually demonstrate measured results should not have to be defended so vigorously and should be open to questions.

When you assert that an academic result is suspicious without any knowledge of the effort or resources behind it, that is ignorant. I mentioned the talented instructors already. We have also had the benefit of a two day a week after school program--don't worry, we found grant money to fund it, so no need to fret about your tax dollars--that helped the kids see the practical application of what they learned in the classroom through hands-on activity. My problem with Ms. K's statement was that she was not trying to understand what might be working at CK, she was trying to place in question that something possibly COULD be working. And that IS insulting to our students. Administrators and school board members have been through the school to observe how we teach math at CK, which is a different model from those used elsewhere. I assure you we spent plenty of time on reading as well. Obviously we need to do better there.

I totally agree that we should be focused on what works and place our resources there. It is hard to do that when community members casually call into question the validity of any success.

I would check to ensure that grant was private before making such a statement, as many grants used by ACPS are state or federal grants which are paid for by...your tax dollars. And the validity of the results should be questioned. There was in fact a 14% increase in math results since 2009 (84% 2009-2010 compared to 98% 2011-2012). This is a dramatic jump and does not fit the pattern throughout the district. As such it would be important to scratch heads and better understand the cause of this dramatic increase in test scores. Other schools in ACPS have after-school programs which specifically address the math needs of students and saw nowhere near such gains. Almost all schools throughout ACPS use practical hands-on activities to teach math in the classroom and apply real world experiences to math lessons. Again, this does not appear to be the reason for such gains. It is interesting that there is a "different model" used in Cora Kelly compared to the rest of the schools within ACPS. Since this "different model" may be the cause for the dramatic increase in scores, why has this model not been shared and/or applied to other schools within ACPS? Clearly, when something is producing such gains it would be commonsense to share the method so other students may benefit. After announcing the dramatic results of CK, ACPS made not one mention of any "different model" in use at CK or plans to implement such a model district-wide. There was silence. That silence is suspicious.

I'd never heard that Sherman "mistakenly" used his ACPS credit card to pay for his daughter's wedding. Does anyone have a link to a story about that?

Math was taught at CK instead of anything else except Language Arts(those results were dreadful.)( Math coaches and any non CK personnel were not allowed in the school.) So while some gains should be expected due to that intensive instruction, the fact that all groups and subgroups had the exact same pass rate is suspicious. In fact, is that even statistically possible? Perhaps there is something suspicious there...... Maybe that is why this fantastic model is not in all the other schools? Hum??? SMH

The CK grant was from DOT, awarded competitively for afterschool enrichment in STEM areas -- it was a great success. And there is no surprise in CK math scores, considering the strong focus on both math/reading at CK in effort to have every child achieve at the appropriate level. STEM concepts are understandable even without great reading skills -- look at MVCS, where they teach math in Spanish. Why do this if we don't accept that you can grasp math concepts in any language? The CK approach to math/science allows students of all abilities/backgrounds to succeed in an important school subject, and the hope is that this translates into language arts so that scores increase there too. As a CK parent, I look at the improvement between 3rd and 5th grade reading scores anyway -- ELL students are just getting the hang of English reading/comprehension by 3rd grade SOLs, but hit their stride by 5th. I also see new non-Eng speaking kids entering the grades each year, and while these kids may pull down the scores, they are taught by committed teachers and are learning. So I personally don't worry about AYP -- we may never achieve high scores in reading/writing bec of these students, but I don't care. They learn and by 5th are making the grade. I see the emphasis placed by our terrific CK teachers on both reading and math, and I applaud them. You should too. Success in STEM areas is completely normal -- and provides a sense of achievement that will spill over to other areas.

Mr. Glen-You are looking at the column representing the percentage of students tested. Look one column to the left for the pass rates. (Note the headings at the top--passed, tested, not tested)

http://virginia.watchdog.org/1663/cunningham-on-tbds-capital-insider/

Please see the above website for confirmation of what we've been saying. Video and 3 reports.

Thank you, Leslie, for correcting my website error! It was SO important to get it right - I'm glad you noticed it!

Better check the numbers and I don't mean the lottery. http://alextimes.com/2012/03/possible-irregularities-found-in-acps-adult-ed-program/