Wardynski Resigns (Huntsville, Madison, Butler: appointed, real estate market, house)

[zenjenn]

Just 6 weeks into the school year...

EXCLUSIVE: Huntsville Superintendent Casey Wardynski announces resignation | WHNT.com

[dijkstra]

Well there goes the school system. It will be broke within 3 years and have a payroll full of slackers again.

[NoleFanHSV]

Originally Posted by dijkstra

Well there goes the school system. It will be broke within 3 years and have a payroll full of slackers again.

I know several parents who didn't like him or his administration. I don't have a dog in this fight though.

[catfishin2000]

His girlfriend, soon to be new wife, is part of some contract negotiations that would have been a conflict of interest for him if he had stayed. It was the right thing to do.

[dijkstra]

Originally Posted by NoleFanHSV

I know several parents who didn't like him or his administration. I don't have a dog in this fight though.

Yeah, but you could say the same about every teacher, principle, coach and pretty much everybody else. Some people didn't like him because he was straight forward to the point and didn't take crap. He was more business and he cut the waste and cleaned house of the sponges who were just there to get a paycheck. He wasn't into the glad handing and patting the cry babies on the back. If they replace him with a former educator instead of someone with a business/finance background, the school system will be right back to a mess and stone broke in just a few years.

Whether you like him or not, I don't see how you could not respect the job he has done turning Huntsville City Schools around.

[NoleFanHSV]

Originally Posted by dijkstra

Yeah, but you could say the same about every teacher, principle, coach and pretty much everybody else. Some people didn't like him because he was straight forward to the point and didn't take crap. He was more business and he cut the waste and cleaned house of the sponges who were just there to get a paycheck. He wasn't into the glad handing and patting the cry babies on the back. If they replace him with a former educator instead of someone with a business/finance background, the school system will be right back to a mess and stone broke in just a few years.

Whether you like him or not, I don't see how you could not respect the job he has done turning Huntsville City Schools around.

I still think an educator is the better way to go, and leave the money and finances to the education board. Much of the financial turnaround was from a grant given to the city. Old Roy Moore was terrible, no doubt. There should be high standards regardless of who comes in. Comparing him to her really isn't enough reason to say he's done a great job, or anyone who comes in for that matter.

[maillemaker]

Well, that's a shame. I went to one of the school board meetings once to discuss issues I had with Common Core grading and did not know you had to sign in to speak to the board. Dr. Wardynski spoke to me after the meeting anyway and got me in touch with the assistant superintendent who was in charge of it.

I don't know if it was because of my complaints but the implementation of the CC grading has changed since I spoke to them about it.

Dr. Wardynski seemed like a very straight-forward person and I liked him.

Steve

[Southlander]

I have a close friend who's an elementary teacher who hates him.
She does, however, admit that the system is in better financial shape, a lot of the "slackers" are gone, and he removed a principal that had major mental issues.

[zenjenn]

I have issues with some of the decisions made by him, and I've heard he has an abrasive personality and is not much of a team player, which I can believe. I actually have been to a couple board meetings and I found him a bit hilarious because he's visibly get irritated and roll his eyes any time a board member or member of the public would say something idiotic. Amusing for me, probably not the best approach as a public servant.

Of course the interesting bit is he resigned suddenly for love... for LOOOOOVVVE! An interesting end to the story of the man who has been made out to be a veritable demon.

His predecessor was certainly worse, and I'm not holding out much hope for someone better. There are some awful things that have happened under his watch, but he has been demonized so much that some people have forgotten the whole other kind of awful the district was in under his predecessor.

I hope they can find someone who is both fiscally responsible AND is also tuned in to the day-to-day realities of teachers, parents, and students. With the current emotional climate, I fear we may see-saw back to the other kind of awful.

[cooldiver]

Originally Posted by NoleFanHSV

I still think an educator is the better way to go, and leave the money and finances to the education board. Much of the financial turnaround was from a grant given to the city. Old Roy Moore was terrible, no doubt. There should be high standards regardless of who comes in. Comparing him to her really isn't enough reason to say he's done a great job, or anyone who comes in for that matter.

Good points. Not to mention that Ed Richardson actually did much of the work to get the school system's finances back into order.

The Huntsville business community loved the Colonel. They built lots of shiny new school buildings, and erased some low performing schools from the record books (like Butler and Johnson). But of course the clock will start ticking on the "new" schools, and the low performing schools will come back just like a bad penny. You can't solve every education problem with tablets, electronic textbooks, and enormous payments to consulting firms like Pearson and LeanFrog. (Not to mention that the Colonel has been dating the head of Pinnacle, a contract to the HCS. That's a conflict of interest and there is no way to make that look good.)

And a certain family in SE Huntsville is quite happy that Grissom is moving to the west side of the Parkway, adding huge value to their land holdings.

But I can't cast stones. I live in Madison, and our school system is just as much a tool of the developers as is the Huntsville city system. I am convinced that the developers drove the decision to divorce from the Madison County school system. And as they hoped, the Madison schools are value added in the real estate market.

Our school board is somewhat less political than Huntsville's, because it is appointed and not elected.

David