By Uncle Irvin
The recent announcement by Unionville-Chadds Ford Superintendent Sharon Parker that she is retiring “to spend time with the family” is difficult to digest on face value.
Two years ago, Ms. Parker negotiated a new contract with a substantial pay raise with a lame duck school board a year before her contract expired.
She resigns now with 2 years left on her new contract.
It doesn’t make sense that Ms. Parker would have signed a new contract with all the rigors that went with it knowing that she wanted to spend more time with family.
It is more likely that Ms. Parker decided to retire because of the new paradigm of mass public support for cutting spending and not raising taxes, along with the inability to negotiate a new contract with the U-CF Teachers Association Union.
Maybe Ms. Parker “got out of the kitchen because she could not stand the heat”– good advice courtesy of former U.S. President Harry Truman.
Regardless, we hope Ms. Parker enjoys her retirement and the school board searches for a new Superintendent with a business background.
2 comments
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MJ says:
May 28, 2011 at 6:58 am (UTC -4)
Uncle Irvin, don;’t give the school board bad advice. This is EDUCATION you’re talking about, not BUSINESS. What Mrs. Parker understood is that it’s all about the kids. That’s what the Board, the teachers, and folks like you, Uncle Irvin–but never Mrs. Parker–have lost sight of. A stuffed shirt Ph.D. who does little but the Board’s bidding, sits in the office and crunches numbers is a superintendent for the 20th century, not the 21st. The Board’s expectation needs to be that the new superintendent will continue to walk in Sharon Parker’s shoes–by being involved in the community, going to school activities, and “getting down and dirty” with students when need be. Too many times adults get too wrapped up in their own needs–see local rec baseball as an example–and forget it’s the children who count. Sharon Parker never forgot that it’s all about the district’s students. Those students–and their parents–will find anything less in a new superintendent unacceptable.
Harry Miller says:
May 28, 2011 at 7:09 am (UTC -4)
I believe your assessment about Supt. Parker’s exit is right on the money . Her performance during both last year’s budget process and this years would not cut it in the business world. Fiscally, her tenure has been a disaster from the fiscal albatross (UHS) under construction, thru unjustified tax increases to support an over compensated, overstaffed district. The latest fiasco is the way the Transportation outsourcing process is being handled, the waters have parted and the administration has miraculously found a way to subvert the process with a undefined $200,000. last minute cost savings. The real problem is a School Board that talks austerity but doesn’t know/understand what the word means. If the district would streamline its operation then a 10-12% tax reduction would be a reasonable outcome. The public who pays the bills is also asleep at the switch along with two political parties who can’t seem to find viable candidates for the school board.