Redo redux

April 7, 2008; 2:58 PM • by Hills and Heights

RPS Superintendent Deborah Jewell-Sherman announced this afternoon that she won’t seek to have her contract renewed when it expires next year. I think that’s a good start, but is “next year” soon enough? It seems to be that the school board would be well-served to step in and encourage her resignation a bit sooner, even if it would be fairly hollow gesture at this point. I think it’s also key that she’s not the only “turnover” in central administration; again, I’m not holding my breath.

And while we’ve yet to hear a public comment from Mr. Braxton, at least one other school board member has offered up some thoughts (and it’s probably not the member you think it is):

I don’t often use the first person in school board meetings because every decision we make must be a collaborative one. Taking personal credit doesn’t do too much to advance our work, but taking personal responsibility does. I want you to know that I am responsible as a leader of an environment where corruption, incompetence, fraud or waste can pervade such a major function of the system. I am responsible for having the internal controls in place to catch errors before they become regular practice. And to the thousands of kids, parents, mentors, teachers, principals, and support staff who show up everyday to do their best to build something worthy of pride, I am sorry.

The School Board will tonight board produce its audit response plan; Thursday, RPS administration will update the school board and public about its improvement steps at a special meeting of the Facilities and Operations committee.

Will it make a difference?