Tammy Lacey’s Retirement: Good News Or Bad News?
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Now that Great Falls Public Schools Superintendent Tammy Lacey has announced her retirement at the end of this school year we’d like to make a couple of observations and ask a couple of questions.
The success of our local public school system should be judged by the quality of educational outcomes for students, not how enthusiastic administrators are, how many community events they attend, how many school levies/bonds they “get passed” or how many raises and benefits they get for district employees.
The success of our local public school system should be judged by the quality of educational outcomes for students, not how enthusiastic administrators are, how many community events they attend, how many school levies/bonds they “get passed” or how many raises and benefits they get for district employees.
So in the coming months we will be focusing on measuring and evaluating the actual results GFPS administrators and our elected school board have achieved “for the kids”. Good intentions, big smiles and outgoing personalities are nice qualities but they don’t mean much if we are seeing poor test scores, declining enrollment, fewer learning opportunities for students and declining graduation rates.
We’ll be paying extra close attention to the GFPS school board and focusing on what they do and how they do it. What is the school boards mission? Is it to be a rubber stamp for the education union and the administration, or should they be more representative of the taxpayers?
It seems that Lacey, other district employees, and the school board have been living in a bubble of back-patters and sycophants so long that they’ve become out of touch and tone deaf to the taxpayers. How else does one explain comments from the superintendent like these recent ones from Lacey:
“Part of the reason why (the average income in Great Falls) is low is a lack of the will of so many people in our community…”
“Sorry Great Falls…the gap just got wider. By the way, Billings and Butte, the other AA districts, didn’t run levies. That makes us the only losers.”
Finally, in light of Superintendent Lacey’s retirement announcement we have a poll question:
[poll id=”14″]
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Polls on partisan websites are a waste of time.
Right on the money, Mr. Hodges.
I guess the polls on Hillary’s partisan websites that said she would win in a landslide was a waste of time? At the same time, polls from Trump’s people and websites said otherwise? I guess whether they are a waste of time depends on if you are on the winning side.
Oh Happy Day!!!! Get out the “Dancing in the Streets” song. Polls are NEVER a waste of time. Only those who have been defeated and have or will become insignificant have that view. So, like all comments and votes, we will see who supports the now outgoing (about time) head of the system, and those who are glad…no…ecstatic that she is going away. Although, one must ask… why not now?
It doesn’t give me a place to vote- but you can put me down as a Good News vote.
Maybe the teachers will get a break when she’s gone, I don’t think they realize how much they have been stymied by her and her overpaid administration.