9486 in the collection
School board evaluation criticizes Amato's management style
Look at Amato's curriculum recommendations.
Maybe now Kansas City wishes they'd done a thorough background check, as in asking Hartford or New Orleans teachers, principals, and parents what they thought. In Hartford, Amato introduced the concept of the Power Hour after school four days a week and for three hours on Saturdays, to train kids for the die-on-your-sword exam. In The Children in Room E4, Susan Eaton writes, "Tony Amato sent the Literacy Enhancement and Test Sophistication Program Teacher's Resource Guide to Schools. To parents, he sent home "test-taking 'enhancement' memos."
Eaton reports that "from about 8:30 a.m., until nearly 5 p.m.--finally the end of Power Hour--[children] sat and drilled for the test."
By Joe Robertson
The Kansas City school board is worried about Superintendent Anthony Amato’s management style, his leadership skills and his communication with the board and the community.
A confidential performance evaluation obtained Tuesday by The Kansas City Star described a difficult first year for Amato, with some individual board member comments criticizing him as “arrogant” and too reliant on intimidation as he has attempted sweeping changes in organization and programs.
By a 7-0 vote, the evaluation noted, the board declined at this time to extend Amato’s three-year contract to a fourth year. It also declined to give Amato a raise in salary. Amato’s contract required that he get a satisfactory performance review to get the early extension and a raise.
The board also is bringing in outside auditors to review district finances and programs.
“This is a serious shot across the bow,” board member Joel Pelofsky said.
Amato launched his aggressive agenda a year ago warning that the road would be rough. Many of his performance measures are tied to the state’s student tests, which won’t be reported until late August.
“We’re focused on outcomes and performance,” Amato said. “The timing (of the evaluation) is off. They’re just waiting, and I’m waiting, to see the standardized tests.”
The board acknowledged in its evaluation that it would be willing to review new data from the district and retroactively give the performance raise if Amato met the board’s standards.
But he has a lot of ground to make up.
On most of 14 standards measured by the board, the panel rated Amato as making some progress but not significant progress. In some areas, including the hiring of an executive staff and furthering the district’s high school reforms, most of the board members said no progress had been made.
In many of the academic performance evaluations, the report noted, it’s “too preliminary and inconclusive to establish that goals have been met.”
The evaluation is confidential, and board members contacted by The Star have declined to talk specifically about the report, but some shared concerns about the district’s progress under Amato.
“I think some of the changes — while they may have been necessary — were implemented in a disruptive manner,” Pelofsky said. “I don’t think he’s developed allies in the school community, that’s patrons or the teaching staff. And the difficulty in hiring and retaining talent at top levels is very disturbing to me.”
“We’ll see,” board member Claude Harris said. “I have no confidence. I’m waiting to see it.”
Harris and Pelofsky were among the seven board members who voted not to give Amato a contract extension or raise. Two board members, Ingrid Burnett and Harriett Plowman, were not present.
The board is bringing back the Council of the Great City Schools to review the district’s operations, with requests to evaluate some of the new programs Amato has installed.
The council, an association of more than 60 of the nation’s largest city school districts, conducted a peer review before Amato arrived that laid a comprehensive groundwork for the district’s current strategic plan. The council will return next week.
The board also is asking the administration to build a stronger case on the success or potential success of some of the programs as it begins appropriating money for the coming school year.
In the board’s evaluation of Amato, the board declared that it would withhold authorizing expenditures on new or expanding educational programs until the board is convinced the programs fit with existing curriculum and the state’s standards.
New programs the board previously approved at Amato’s urging include the reading program, Success For All; I Can Learn math labs; Pitsco science labs; and the Read 180 program.
Bill Eddy, chairman of the board’s education committee, balked at supporting new appropriations at a recent committee meeting, saying, “I believe we have been oversold on prepackaged curriculum. I’m not going to approve them until we have outside validation.”
After the meeting, Eddy said, “We are just saying, let’s see what we’ve got.”
Amato, through a spokesman, declined to comment specifically regarding details in the evaluation after it had been obtained by The Star. But he did talk earlier Tuesday about general concerns raised by the board.
He said he was close to filling the three major vacancies left in his executive cabinet — a human resources director, a chief business operations officer and a director of technology.
“I’ve been interviewing all summer,” he said.
His management style has also been criticized by some board members. Some of the comments from individual board members — unattributed in the evaluation — included descriptions of a “runaway ego,” and of someone “arrogant and aloof” who “has eroded all community relations.” One comment said “he forces teachers to accept his programs and they fear him.”
Other comments, though, praised Amato for “infusing passion and energy into the instructional area” and cautioned that board members usually hear negative opinions from staff and community members. It’s difficult to know if an apparent “pessimistic” culture represents the majority of the district.
Amato said he was confident his administration would succeed and that student performance would rise.
“The first year is always the most difficult,” he said. “That’s when the most change occurs. I told the board if we made moves this first year, it would make a difference.”
While Amato’s contract with the district remains intact, the board wants to see stability, better communication and real improvement in student learning beyond an anticipated bump in test scores.
Amato said he believed he would be able to work with the school board and produce the results the panel wants. His contract commits him to five years as superintendent if the board is willing to extend it, and he said he intended to stay at least five years. His adopted children are enrolled in district schools.
“I’ve invested in a home here,” he said. “My kids are in the system. They came from hard backgrounds and the last thing I want to do is move them around.”
He said he’s not discouraged by the evaluation.
“It’s the normal procedure,” he said. “We’re waiting for the results. I feel fine moving forward. I know the results will speak for themselves.”
To reach Joe Robertson, call 816-234-4789 or send e-mail to jrobertson@kcstar.com.
The Kansas City Star
2007-07-24
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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