I met Mr. Goldman and chatted with him about 3 months ago. He is well spoken and intelligent, and I think will do a good job for the district, if he sticks around.

That being said, he seems largely focused on the improvement of ESL students. While clearly laudible, it concerns me that this could potentially lead to greater problems in the general student body. The Title I funding decision seems a bit dicey. But he deserves the opportunity to succeed and I hope he does.

Of far greater concern to me was his unwavering support for his predecessor, whose actions I personally found to be utterly reprehensible. By the numbers I was given by Mr. Goldman and his staff, the buyout of our former superintendent equates to roughly 1.5 years of funding for all extra-curricular activities in the district. I sincerely hope Mr. Goldman will recognize the horrible damage caused by misconduct of district administrators and disallow this brand of behavior in the future.

When was the last time you heard someone say they have done a bad job at something? He is perhaps saying this to get a nice $50K or $100K raise, perhaps or get a big pension payout , may be he wants to retire, because they all play the same game to rip tax payers. If things are not so good, he would have blamed the economy and everything else.[Portion removed, terms of use.]

I think Mr. Goldman is very capable and can breathe new life into this district finally if he gets rid of the dead weight we've been carrying for years - the Associate and Assistant Superintendents. They have not performed well in the past years - as he has pointed out we've been struggling with issues for years . Time to get some new, energetic and innovative people at the top to help Mr. Goldman rather than carrying them. This district is sorely in need of good leaders at the top to set good examples for the rest of the Admin. This district is also in need of some good mentors for teachers and principals too.

Wheeler, as I recall, had a hard time letting go of Ghysels and turned a blind eye to a lot of really underhanded tactics that went on under his tenure. Her opinion counts for very little in my opinion. Goldman would do well do drain the swamp that the district office has become. Lairon should know all about poor performing district since she spent most of her preivous years in Redwood City. I guess she learned nothing there. Assist Supe Totter needs to come clean on how much Polifrone was bought out for, since she remains the highest paid teacher in MVWSD in 2010, even though she never worked for the district.

@ Sean. There was no buyout of Ghysels so you could not have been given information from Goldman and his staff regarding a buyout. Ghysels resigned.

Well, Someone who knows, then maybe you could us about the buyout of Patty Polifrone which for 2010 was around $112,500, even though she never put in a day of work. Web Link How much was the total buyout for? How much was paid in 2009? How much will be paid in 2011? How many other buyouts and back room deals have been made? How about some transparency in the district? Why is Mizell, the principal who made up the other half of the Ghysels scandal the second highest paid elementary principal in the district? Please do tell if you know.

Sean,

Just wondering about something here. So, in your first post, did you make up this part entirely?

"By the numbers I was given by Mr. Goldman and his staff, the buyout of our former superintendent equates to roughly 1.5 years of funding for all extra-curricular activities in the district. "

There's a story about summer school on Bloomberg Edu (Jane Williams) show on Bloomberg Radio, says kids loose skills over the summer, particularly the less priviledged.