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Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Shine just can't quit Vitti, complains about Becki Couch and Paula Wright

The Times Union did a piece today which I think started out a bit misleading.

 Two of the people who hired Duval Schools Superintendent Diana Greene last summer are set to be hired by her and the rest of the School Board.

Reading that I was a bit taken back, thinking here we go, more high priced special assistants but the thing is if you read the article you find they took positions that they were more than qualified for. What just because someone leaves the board they can't work in education any more?

I think it was a sad day when Couch and Wright turned off the lights. They had really come to be great advocates and fierce defenders or our schools. I would say they are going to be missed but it turns out we are lucky to still have them.

Scott Shine though had a different take.

From the Times Union:  

Former board member Scott Shine, who sometimes clashed with Wright and Couch on board matters over the past four years, said he recently emailed Greene warning that hiring former board members would be “frowned upon by some in the community.”
“This is a colossal conflict of interest,” he said.
“I know of board members in the past who had sought out positions with the district and the superintendent said no. I’m shocked that the superintendent would do this. We haven’t even gone four weeks since (our) last board meeting.”
Shine said the timing of these hires is important.
He, along with some business leaders and members of the Jacksonville Civic Council, urged the School Board not to hire a new superintendent last spring, but to wait until November, when new board members would fill some of the seven seats.
But a majority of the board disagreed, including Wright and Couch, and voted unanimously to hire Green to replace former Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, who now heads Detroit schools, and outgoing interim superintendent Patricia Willis. Greene’s first day on the job was July 1.
“These two individuals were largely responsible for the departure of Dr. Vitti and now we’re going to reward them with a job,” Shine asked.
Hoo boy, Shine never got over Vitti leaving did he, this shook him. I wonder what is he going to do with all those notebooks that he wrote "I heart Vitti" on.  
The thing is where Shine may not have known how bad Vitti was for the teaching staff, I doubt he ever talked to a teacher, he had to know the shambles and mismanagement that Vitt left in his wake.  Vitti spent like the proverbial drunken sailor and was interested in parlor tricks, moving kids around and changing schools, rather than real solutions. Shine had to know that but there he is still bemoaning him leaving.
Also I think there is some jealousy there, the realization those two women were respected and appreciated while nobody misses him. I wrote it was a sad day when the ladies left but it was a good day for the district when he did.
Also don't forget he conspired with the business community to hijack the superintendent process. The white, male, and uber rich business community that is. If it was up to Shine we would just now be looking for a super,  and who wants to bet an independent minded African-American women wouldn't have fit their bill.
Scott, it's time to move on, the rest of the city has and we are the better off for it.

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