Re: Information on Amato and Harvey?

[Art Burke <aburke@VANSD.ORG>]

Frustrated is right.  My kids were told at school that if there are more budget cuts the school would be full of strangers who don't care about them (due to contracting out the cusodian jobs) and that there would be less food for lunch.  A certain amount of credibility is being lost here.  Art

>>> Humes-Schulz@ATTBI.COM 03/08 8:44 AM >>>
Dear ARN:

Portland (Oregon) Public Schools just announced that the
two finalists for Superintendent to replace Ben Canada
are Anthony Amato, now of Hartford Public Schools
(before that New York City) and Patricia Harvey now of
St. Paul, Minnesota (before that Chicago).

What do you all know about these folks?  By way of
background, Portland is an urban school district of
54,000 students, declining enrollment, ~83% of the city
still sends their kids to public schools (although this
is declining significantly in some neighborhoods now).
District is bipolar -- very high achieving schools and
very low achieving schools.  Significant "achievement
gap" issues.  Greatest challenge could be managerial --
profound budget cuts for the past 10 years, this year a
10% cut from General Fund budget.  "School reform"
characterized by fits of stops and starts, multiplicity
of programs, lack of focus or coherence.  Positives
include a generally supportive, but frustrated, local
community.

Any thoughts you have would be helpful.

Thanks,

Kathie Humes

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