how is the job performance evaluation of this principal part fo the culture wars?

On Anybody Seen Dick? Where's Jeff Gannon When you need him? lol

Culture wars, there are those that like to keep a certain kind of separation between students and teachers and principals. It is characterized by you the can't be a friend and maintain discipline crowd. I percieve there is something like that going on here.

hmmm....i don't think this article has enough information for that. when we were students, i don't think we even knew what the principal's job was - just whether he was funny in assembly...i think more information is needed...

"Howard has been an educator for 20 years...he has never received a formal evaluation approaching any level of dissatisfaction or concern...there have been no grievances filed by staff, no overt displays of student vandalism and no litigation filed by parents."

In most kinds of employer/employee relationship, the rules go like this: strike one, warning; strike two, discipline; strike three, you're out. If an employee has an unsatisfactory performance review, they are customarily given an opportunity to address said issues before being canned, as it were. While this is not the case in all jobs, it is the case in most decent ones. Many businesses have it as a policy and can be sued if they do not comply. I have a great deal of difficulty believing it is not standard in the Ohio school system...

I think the important thing will be to see what happens with his rebuttal. If they choose to ignore it, then they are very likely trying to force him out.

again, how is this a skirmish in the culture wars? where's the culture part? we don't know the politics of any player here.

Just a hunch on my part. JB is correct it is too early to know for sure one way or the other. anon, I don't know your politics either but I can sure make an educated guess. Could I be wrong about this principal and the administrator, sure but there is no harm done in speculating.

On Where the Public Wants the Money Spent - That is actually very encouraging and disturbing. Encouraging because of what people want to see money spent on and disturbing because it points out a LARGE gap between the people and the government. Hmmmm....???

Here's a picture of the Superintendent: http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_fullstory.asp?id=31522

I'm not one to disparage the way people look, but just compare that with the picture of the principal and its clear where the Culture Wars description comes from.

Nice civics lesson here for the 600 kids at Hudson High. They stage a protest lasting just under an hour in which one kid climbs a tree, for which he was arrested, and a couple of others throw snowballs. The picture in the local papers show some kids standing around with their hands in their pockets - not exactly the Tennis Court Rebellion, is it? - as an officer sprays one of them point blank range in the face with what was presumably pepper spray. The police also apparently felt the need to call for back-up support from six neighbouring counties. WTF?

norm - don't be so quick to believe you can guess the politics here. here's a little link to perhaps broaden your mind to other possibilities:

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2748616,00.html

Actually, anon, Norm didn't say anything about the "politics" of the people in the story. He said he thought he could guess yours. Possibly because you insist on being contrary to anything he says. This is what he said above:

"Culture wars, there are those that like to keep a certain kind of separation between students and teachers and principals. It is characterized by you the can't be a friend and maintain discipline crowd. I perceive there is something like that going on here."

This says nothing of liberal/conservative issues. Culture involves much more than your partisan stance. I've seen more references to race on this thread than politics, too. So I don't think the story you linked to is really that relevant (except to say that people of all types can be discriminated against). Incidentally, I've Googled the hell out of that story, and I wish I could find a story somewhere that was hard news and not editorializing.

I myself have worked as a manager and taken flak for getting along too well with my employees (who I didn't spend time with outside of work). Ironically, the boss who took me to task for it was screwing one of the staff... some things never change.

I don’t suspect that this is a culture war in the conservative/liberal sense. Hudson is a suburb between Cleveland and Akron; in general this is Blue territory. Yes, it still could be a culture problem, but there is a bigger issue at hand.

Hudson has had tensions with its school system in the past. There have been teacher strikes and student demonstrations. This is why so many police crews were rushed to the scene, and it is certainly not surprising nor excessive. Though I no longer live in the area, it appears that the principal became quite popular with both students and fellow teachers. I suspect that the Administration distrusted such a threat and made a case to dismiss him for this reason.

Or there was simply a clash between the principal and someone on the Board... Remember, the simplest explanation is often the best.

The superintendent gave the principal 'a "needs improvement" rating on his last evaluation and stated concerns in the areas of building management, planning and instructional leadership'

Is this a small district? It is not the principal's job in most of the districts I work with to oversee building management (that would be the superintendent), planning-what?, and instructional leadership is usually run by a committee on teacher improvement. I suspect a budget cut at the core of this. Newer employees are cheaper. Less pay, less benefits.

On the other side, the fact that there has been no parent litigation does not mean that there have not been incidents. Most problems don't get written up, but solved outside of due process. And many parents don't rock boats.