--Mrs. Campbell wanted an update on the applications for the Human Resources Director.--
The above phrase, that was obtained via THESE Executive Session Minutes through a lawsuit, is one of a small number of phrases that started to unravel what I used to see as a mess. Today, a year later (from the time I read it), the phrase makes perfect sense as we now know that the district was facing what look like a storm on May 2007 when the above phrase was recorded. What looked like a storm back then eventually did become a storm less than two years later.
On December 2006 the state did send the district notice that a full review of the district was going to take place. The state started its review of the district, QSAC, on January 2007. Four months later Mrs. Campbell, along with more members of the board, were recorded at Executive Session questioning qualifications of key positions hired personnel. One can only imagine that by May 2007 the school board was fully aware that there were certification/job title issues found with several employees. State findings were released on August of the same year, by then the superintendent of the time, Ms. Howard, had already resigned and we were under Mr. Carter's administration.
Anyway. The job descriptions that were questioned by the NJDOE back on 2007 were (all documented by the QSAC personnel files):
Chief of Staff
Chief Financial Officer/Board Secretary
Chief of Academic Services
Director of Human Resources
Director of Special Projects
Facilities Operations Supervisor
Plainfield High School Content Supervisor
Supervising Coordinator of Special Education
Supervisor of Financial Management
Supervisor of Staff Development
Supervisor of teacher Growth and Development
Speech Therapist
Teacher/Elementary/Secondary
These titles, and more, were abolished a year later, on May 8th, 2008, this time the district was under Dr. Bailey. More than one blogger raised questions, but... there were no definite answers. Going back to the list, let me give you HERE the link to the state recognized titles list for that 2006-07 school year (can't find the 2007-08 years, maybe later). QSAC reviewers were right, all titles above, except for one, were non-recognized by the state. The title that can be found is that one of Director of Special Projects, you may want to remember this one for a later post.
To add to the worries of back then the district had one other problem. A good number of employees were given titles to which they didn't posses the state-mandated certifications. Two easy examples were the two positions brought to the Office of Administrative Law by their holders for legal resolution as both employees were under the impression that they had what was needed. The Office of Administrative Law ruled against these employees because they were found lacking the state mandated certifications. Both cases can be read HERE and HERE.
So, for the 2006-07 school year, challenges were many. Between the 2007-10 Comprehensive Equity Plan mandating the district to make its Affirmative Action Officer a certificated one; the state QSAC reviewers finding the district had a number of job titles and descriptions that raised concerns and the misplaced understanding of the district on what the state required when it came to certifications and titles, you can bet that things were not looking too peachy for those who were aware of these conditions. As for us, plain residents of the city? We were blessed by ignorance back then. Many still are.
Still more to come. Tomorrow.
*This is a gramatically revised post. Additional links were also added for those who like to see the longer version of data sources used for this post.
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