La. superintendent reorganizes staff

State Superintendent of Education John White announced his executive staff Thursday and said that, even with the six-figure salaries, department costs have dropped and the agency has fewer employees.

“These are not additional positions,” White told reporters.

The salaries on the superintendent’s team range from $110,000 per year to $225,000 annually.

Some of the 15 officials have been announced previously, including five “network leaders” who will oversee the efforts of 10 or so school districts each in setting up new teacher evaluations and tougher courses.

White, who is paid $275,000 per year, said department spending has been trimmed by nearly 11 percent amid state revenue problems and that payroll has been reduced by about 50 positions.

Department officials also said that the department’s ranks have dropped from 659 from mid-2008 to 446 for the current financial year, a 32 percent drop.

Critics have questioned some of the salaries, especially since state aid to public schools has been generally frozen for four consecutive years.

“We are going to do a better job with fewer resources,” White said. “We have created a leaner, more efficient organization.”

The mostly new lineup comes at a time of sweeping changes in public schools, especially because of new policies pushed by Gov. Bobby Jindal and approved by the Legislature earlier this year.

About 60,000 public school teachers will undergo new evaluations this year, and those who fail to meet state standards can lose their jobs in a few years.

Nearly 5,000 former public school students are using state vouchers to attend private and parochial schools.

In addition, the state is preparing to make classes more rigorous — it is called the common core curriculum — to improve student performance and make state-to-state comparisons easier.

White said that, under the department’s old setup, state officials in charge of literacy, science and technology, innovation, college and career readiness and other areas were all dealing with individual schools and school districts.

“I heard a lot of different voices telling me to do different things,” said White, former superintendent of the state-run Recovery School District.

Under the new plan, he said, the five network leaders will be the key conduit between local officials and the state Department of Education.

White’s executive staff, their title and salary consists of:

• Erin Bendily, assistant superintendent for policy and external affairs, $140,005 per year.
• Ken Bradford, assistant superintendent for content, $110,000.
• Hannah Dietsch, assistant superintendent overseeing teacher evaluations and other areas, $130,000.
• Patrick Dobard, RSD superintendent, $225,000.
• Warren Drake, network leader, $160,000 per year.
• Joan E. Hunt, executive counsel, $125,000.
• Gary Jones, policy liaison with local superintendents, $145,000.
• Kerry Laster, network leader, $155,000.
• Dave Lefkowith, assistant superintendent overseeing vouchers, charter schools and other areas. $145,000.
• Stephen Osborn, assistant superintendent for student programs, $125,000.
• Mike Rounds, deputy superintendent for district support, $170,000.
• Beth Scioneaux, deputy superintendent of finance, $132,830.
• Gayle Sloan, network leader, $160,000.
• Melissa Stilley, network leader, $135,000.
• Francis Touchet, network leader, $130,000.

Comments

1) Comment by 1ryben - 13/10/2012

Someone, anyone, please tell me I'm wrong. The assistant superintendent overseeing vouchers and charter schools is a freakin motivational speaker?!?! I hope I'm wrong. Ill admit, all I did was a little googling. No matter how I changed the search, the results were the same though. How many Dave Lefkowiths are there anyways? To add further insult (if it is him) he doesn't include his position here in Louisiana on his Bio. Ashamed? C'mon Advocate, do your freakin job! After previous reports of dubious hires we just print up the list their $12k/mo part time PR person puts out? L-A-Z-Y. LAZY!

2) Comment by 8.3 - 13/10/2012

Wonder if "Cousin Dave" commenter is Dave Lefkowith referenced above. Interesting bio there for an assistant superintendent of state education.

3) Comment by Spudaroonski - 13/10/2012

I'd like to see what the actual duties are for each one of these so called "positions". That way we could determine if some of these positions could be eliminated or combined which I'm sure they can. Aren't the John Whites of the world always telling the working stiffs they must do more with less? Well...

4) Comment by 1ryben - 13/10/2012

One more missing person. Jessica Baghian. Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of revamping pre-K. No teaching certificate, no experience in early childhood education, TFAer.

5) Comment by 1ryben - 13/10/2012

Please, please, please Advocate keep the pressure on the LADOE. This, like so many other press releases from this department doesn't smell right. Can we do an investigation on the influence of Teach for America, the Broad Foundation, and other outside influences? What about those 2012 reports? What are they hiding? This doesn't seem right, Ms.Hortsman still lists her job title as Compass Director on LinkedIn. When was she relieved of that position? Something is rotten.

6) Comment by 1ryben - 13/10/2012

Please, please, please Advocate keep the pressure on the LADOE. This, like so many other press releases from this department doesn't smell right. Can we do an investigation on the influence of Teach for America, the Broad Foundation, and other outside influences? What about those 2012 reports? What are they hiding? This doesn't seem right, Ms.Hortsman still lists her job title as Compass Director on LinkedIn. When was she relieved of that position? Something is rotten.

7) Comment by monsignor - 12/10/2012

icorange: "These new hires will be long gone when all of these disastrous decisions by Jindal and the legislature come to a head." ---- We must hold the appropriate feet to the fire: Gov Jindal and the 2012 Louisiana Legislature. White is just Jindal's string puppet. The 2012 Legislature seems to realize that putting too much power in Jindal's hands was bad. As we know, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Please mark my words: if Gov Romney is elected president, Gov Jindal will be somewhere in his cabinet.

8) Comment by deutsch29 - 12/10/2012

Coachblades, sorry to hear you are leaving Louisiana. I write my comments knowing that other will read, and no telling who is reading for the first time. I will keep writing.

9) Comment by lcorange - 12/10/2012

A colleague of mine is a neighbor of an LDOE employee. This LDOE employee told my colleague that the day the story broke someone in the dept. shared the article about Horstman with everyone in the building. By the end of the day Horstman was escorted out of the building. However, she was apparently replaced with another Teach for America alumnus/a. According to the LDOE employee the dept. has numerous people from out of state who have little vested interest in the state - no understanding of the communtiy and no ties to the state. These new hires will be long gone when all of these disastrous decisions by Jindal and the legislature come to a head.

10) Comment by deutsch29 - 12/10/2012

Support Karran Harper Royal, New Orleans School Board District 3-- she's fighting RSD. Please donate to her campaign at http://karran4kids.com/. She's up against corporations who want to buy the board. Thank you.

11) Comment by 1ryben - 12/10/2012

What happened to Molly Hortsman. She was in charge of teacher evaluations a few days ago.

12) Comment by Riroon - 12/10/2012

To know how screwed up John White's teacher evaluation plan is, check out: http://slftblogs.net/2012/10/10/put-the-c-o-w-to-pasture-mel-tears-apart-the-compass-observation-workbook/

13) Comment by wroughtironandbrass - 12/10/2012

If it were not so painful, and so terribly destructive of the lives of caring and quality people, we could chuckle at all of this. "White lies" and all, we could have a good laugh about this. But, and this is important, this administration cannot be trusted for one minute. John White, who simply carried with him the deceitful practices of Joel Klein (see http://www.epi.org/blog/joel-klein-teacher-quality-poverty/) from New York City's failed educational experiment (see http://dianeravitch.net/2012/10/02/after-a-decade-bloomberg-reforms-still-failing/) then led the failed New Orleans Recovery School District (RSD), the lowest performing district in the state. White has systematically eliminated most highly respected educators in Louisiana's Department Of Education (LDOE) replacing them with much higher paid individuals with little to NO educational training, background, and experience in the fields they are supposed to be leading. In his place he has hired ideologically pure candidates who, with the exception of the former Superintendents who were willing to sell their souls for a cozy retirement benefit, have no practical knowledge of education. Why do you think White needs so many top executives to help him "communicate" with Superintendents? It is because he actually does not know squat about education! I find it outrageous that the media and the legislature continues to give him carte blanche to operate the LDOE as though it were a personal political campaign, but then, that is exactly what it is. Complete with a bevy of high-priced "message spinners" from the political camps of Jeb Bush and Joel Klein and the ideological backrooms of Broad Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, John White is fully prepared to lie, cheat, and steal until his "reforms" are fully in place. What is the dream world of White? He will, like Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee before him, go on to extremely high paid positions with lots of responsibility and no real accountability, leaving death and destruction in his wake. Sounds a bit dramatic? Actually, the death of great institutions and the lives of so many of the neediest students in our schools will be destroyed by the false "choice" of these deformers of the public good. They are concerned with one thing. The profits they and their friends can make off public education. Even teachers themselves are being asked to "hawk their wares" to politicians and counselors according to one of the highly paid former hawker of "Enron," Dave "Lefty" Lefkowith (see the incredibly bad example of his "expertise" in this video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfFoeQFoduM). Under White lies, John and his taxpayer-funded menagerie of Teach For America and Broad Foundation and "see off the government" folks will see to it that, if they are not stopped ASAP, there will be nothing left to put back together. What "Uncle Dave, otherwise known as "Lefty" of newfound video fame will have you believe, is that all of the experienced, certified, credentialed, and mature people working in the department were evil, blood-sucking vermin populating the LDOE for their paychecks (All of which were lower than the paychecks of this crop of carpetbaggers). What neither he nor John-Boy White will tell you, is that that old group of professionals had led this state to unprecedented gains in scores on nationally normed tests right up until the arrival of Paul Pastorek. What you don't hear from John White, is that the positions actually doing the work of assisting districts, providing staff development, and ensuring that the neediest students were receiving services, along with ensuring the quality of programs that were actually helping to improve real student learning, are the positions being cut. What we really need is communicators, someone who can sell you stock in Enron, you know, charlatans and spinners to weave a net of deceit and destruction from which we will never recover. Wake up Louisiana. Take back our schools. Send these rats packing, and all who have sold their souls to ride the gravy train of privatization. John White, your days in Louisiana are numbered. We don't really care where you go. Just go. As others have said, White lies. Joel Klein’s false stories | Economic Policy Institute www.epi.org The Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit Washington D.C. think tank, was created in 1986 to broaden the discussion about economic policy to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers,

14) Comment by wroughtironandbrass - 12/10/2012

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15) Comment by wroughtironandbrass - 12/10/2012

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16) Comment by wroughtironandbrass - 12/10/2012

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17) Comment by coachblades - 12/10/2012

Deutsch29, the sad thing is everyone nows all that you said about following the money. Unfortunately the only newspaper that stands up to this idiocracy is the News Star in north louisiana. The teachers and unions have attempted to speak out against this but they just get called "greedy thugs" (even though teachers and unions havnt asked for a single raise in over 6 years) We stood up for good programs that are being cut. Programs that give no teacher any more money but help the student directly, programs that actually cause more work for the teacher but we didnt mind as long as it helped the student. But they just called us selfish and greedy. Its the main reason god willing that this will be my last year teaching in the state of louisiana

18) Comment by deutsch29 - 12/10/2012

John White, it all sounds so good on the surface. However, those with REAL teaching credentials and experience know that you operate via "sleight of mouth." You hide information to keep the public in the dark. Where are the 2012 School Performance Scores? Still doctoring them to suit your agenda? How about the criteria for voucher school selection? How about acknowledging that "voucher success" is really only a paltry 2% of all students eligible for vouchers? HOW ABOUT THE VOUCHER LAWSUIT TO BE HEARD NEXT WEEK? NOT ONLY TWO UNIONS BUT ALSO 41 SCHOOL DISTRICTS ARE SUING OVER UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF VOUCHERS. How about hiring the TFA alum with 10 years of classroom teaching experience? Wait.. such a person doesn't exist.... In fact, YOU don't even know what it is like to experience the 5-year mark as a classroom teacher. For a two-dimensional administrator, you sure are blowing a lot of money. Aren't you concerned that those who have cast their greedy lot with you will eventually fold in the face of formal investigations and turn state's evidence??

19) Comment by deutsch29 - 12/10/2012

From a former DOE employee: There is a lot that I can say about this (John White’s appointment). You are right follow the money. A lot of deals were made to get Lord John White his position. I remember the controversy when he was appointed to the RSD. Pastorek and Jindal wanted to hire him but the old BESE had an issue. Little Lord Johnny did not have a Master's degree, which was a minimum requirement for the job. He was hired on the provision that he get a Master's degree before he began the job. TWO WEEKS LATER, the Boy Wonder had a Master's degree and was given the keys to the RSD. If you recall, Paul Pastorek (crude, loud mouth attorney) was asked to step down by Jindal. It turns out that key senators told Jindal to get rid of Pastorek or he would have a hard time getting his agenda passed. Well, Pastorek left and Jindal demanded that BESE appoint Mr. WHITE as the new superintendent. BESE said No. Jindal had a fit. He them told BESE that after the election he would get his way. In the meantime, Ollie Tyler was named acting superintendent. She was good! Problem was Jindal did not like her and pouted because his man-crush was not in office. Here is where the money comes in: Each of Jindal's BESE candidates somehow got a lot of cash funneled to them. Holly Boffy was dumb enough to brag about having such a large bankroll. Also, Bloomberg sent down money. He had a vested interest in getting White approved. Bloomberg is heavily invested in charter corporations. John is a charter school kind of guy. Do the math. Also, Arne Duncan had a vested interest in this. He groomed Mr White. He also pushed White on Jindal and Pastorek. Remember the final round of Race to the Top? LaDOE said they would not submit an application during the final round. Well, right before Mr. White's appointment, Louisiana DID submit an application and received race to the top money. To make a long story short, BESE changed into a Jindal play toy (with the exception of Lottie Beebe). John White converted all but one RSD school to charters during his short tenure as RSD superintendent. Duncan and Bloomberg are happy. JINDAL has a stupid grin on his face. And finally, DOE received Race to the Top money after John White was appointed. Funny how things work out.

20) Comment by Vernonbrew22 - 12/10/2012

White is just another crony in the long line of Jindal payoffs. Legally bleeding our state. Soon, the teachers will be evaluated so much, they will decide to get a real job. Like teaching in the private schools. Jindal has taken a ridiculous education system and done the impossible; blighten it! Great job you sweaty burlap Indian of fake moral code!

21) Comment by Traveler - 12/10/2012

Remember the old joke that began, "How many Aggies does it take to screw in a light bulb?" (no offense here to my Texas A & M cousins). Just how many minions does it take for John White to do his job? I've been scanning the web sites of State Departments of Education of our neighboring Southern states. There are some differences in structure from state to state, but the job titles for administrators/directors in the SDE's of our neighboring states look fairly straightforward and self-explanatory and logical. In comparison, Louisiana's SDE organizational plan looks top-heavy, with lots of "creative staffing" on the administrative side (and lucrative salaries to go around). While John White's minions may be congratulating themselves on their manipulations that have maneuvered them into the cushy seats they now hold, many Louisiana teachers will be doing one or more of the following today: (1) reaching into their wallets to purchase necessary teaching materials that their employer is not able to buy for the classroom; (2) sending out resumes in hope of finding a job in the face of faculty cuts; (3) trying to give individual attention to students in classes of 40 or more students, in a 50-minute instructional period (because our classes are over-crowded). Some of these teachers will be working in run-down buildings with electrical problems, plumbing problems, and peeling paint. Where is the conscience in a superintendent who surrounds himself with sycophants (servile, self-seeking flatterers) while our teachers and children go unheeded?

22) Comment by civitasiveritas - 12/10/2012

“I heard a lot of different voices telling me to do different things,” said White, former superintendent of the state-run Recovery School District. Wonder who the voices were? Mayor Bloomberg whose contributions to (or bribery of) BESE Members ensured his coronation as the second most unqualified Superintendent ever to be in control of Louisiana in the modern era. Was it Eli Broad, whose secretive training program and lucrative network greased the skids for White's arrival in Louisiana? Was it voices from ALEC, A+PEL, BAEO or BRAC or BRAF? Was it CABL or the cabal at LABI? Just who were these voices, perhaps the ones above, pulling the strings of the boy wonder puppet? Will the puppet-masters drop John-Boy when he no longer has the ability to deceive, because his long nose gets in the way of their privatization progress? At some point even the media will catch on, and the web of deceit will ensnare White, even when his handlers try to pull him up by their puppet strings. As Pastorek was so fond of saying... "At the end of the day," White lies. And everone will soon know it! White lies.

23) Comment by civitasiveritas - 12/10/2012

And if you believe the lies of John White, I have some high land sound of Grand Isle to sell you! Are my eyes playing tricks on me, did White claim he was saving us money? Heaven help us! Would it not be interesting to actually see the Advocate actually look into these claims? After all, it was White who falsely claimed that vouchers would save districts money. That he never intended that "Letters of Approval" sent to schools requesting voucher students were actually going to be taken as "approval" of the schools. That he was going to release the information requested by the media on how the process worked for determining the approval of such schools (how could he agree to that, there WAS NO PROCESS) before telling the media, with a straight face, no less, that he never intended to actually release the information. It was White who admitted that he needed to "muddy the narrative" when going before a legislative hearing. It was White who ordered that no information was to be provided to researchers looking to validate his claims (or more likely, to expose more lies) about the success of his Recovery School District. The people of Louisiana need to wake up to one truth about White. White lies.

24) Comment by NewsReader - 12/10/2012

Without being politically incorrect, the old English expression of "All chiefs and no indians" springs to mind in describing this strategy.

25) Comment by Frustrated - 12/10/2012

All those high paying executive positions and I'm willing to bet that half don't have the credentials, certification, and experience to be even called educator. Including Mr. White.

26) Comment by spqr - 12/10/2012

Dave, you have also insultedvteachers and administrators invthe schools where budgets have been slashed, paychecks have been frozen and/orcut due to rising health costs while class sizes rise. Why does your arguement not work with this fact?

27) Comment by Traveler - 12/10/2012

Cousin Dave, do you have any idea how many fine former employees of the State Department of Education that you have just insulted? You have described those dedicated individuals as "second-rate people" who put out "a lousy product." One must assume that you are including former state superintendents in your broad swipe. Since you are one of the new minions mentioned in the article who is in line to benefit from John White's largess, you are hardly in a position to speak objectively. Your idea of the "best and the brightest" includes some people who do not have the professional background or the experience to merit the salaries they are being given----and I do mean "given" rather than earned. And as for your stab at The Advocate: journalism is the only occupation in the country that is protected by the United States Constitution. When reporters ask hard questions and do not settle for canned answers, they are doing their job of protecting the public's interests. If your boss had nothing to hide, then why is he refusing to provide The Advocate with requested information----information that the taxpayers have a right to know?

28) Comment by Cousin Dave - 12/10/2012

Supt. White's philosophy is obviously to hire the best and the brightest, and to do that, he has to pay them more than the deadheads that have historically staffed the Dept. Of Education. That flies in the face of the Advocate business model which is to hire second- rate people to put out a lousy product. The bottom line is that education is too important to skimp on.

29) Comment by spqr - 12/10/2012

Another "White" lie. Do not believe it.

30) Comment by realworker - 12/10/2012

“We are going to do a better job with fewer resources,” White said. “We have created a leaner, more efficient organization.” That is a joke. There used to be LDE staff that would come out to the schools and district offices and assist with professional development and technical assistance. Now, you must call a network team leader to see if that is something that they can help with - right now it's only COMPASS-the evaluation system and the Student Learning Targets. And when they do show up, the help they can provide is so limited that it isn't worth the time for them to come. Teachers and other education professionals have lost all respect for the Louisiana Department of Education. Some of these people listed are strong education veterans, but they are not providing direct services to districts and schools, they are pushing the White/Jindal agenda with absolutely no deviation. Ask any of their staff, they were recently told that they don't have opinions about policies and their work. White's opinion is the only one and it must be followed or there will be consequences.

31) Comment by Traveler - 12/10/2012

The salaries of John White's "executive staff" (a.k.a. his "inner circle") total $2,187, 835 annually. Add White's salary to this figure for a total of $2,462, 835 that Louisiana taxpayers are coughing up. This sum doesn't include travel allowances, "conference costs" (Have you ever known one of those "conferences" not to be held in some luxurious location?), and the expenses related to running posh offices for each of these people. Going further, one wonders whether each of the individuals named in the article does not have his/her own staff, with comfortable salaries for those people as well. The article also does not mention White's new "spin doctor" and her huge salary. Yet school systems around the state are being forced to reduce the number of teachers they hire, because there's no money to pay for them. Those same school systems are crying out because they can't purchase the textbooks and the technology that our students need to be competitive in today's complex world. What State Superintendent of Education in Louisiana history has needed such a big "safety net" of minions to get his job done?! This is disgraceful.