The DPS "Ship of State" Continues to be a Distraction

Detroit schools chief in trouble

Calloway is hit with reprimand

BY CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY • FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER • September 12, 2008

A majority of Detroit school board members say they are unsatisfied with Superintendent Connie Calloway's performance after just one year on the job and voted to reprimand her late Thursday for "inappropriate behavior.

One board member, Reverend David Murray, said the board is building a case for dismissal.
The board voted 6-4 in favor of a reprimand requested by board members Annie Carter and Tyrone Winfrey, who wrote memos last month questioning Calloway's competence and stating that she is rude, among other complaints.

The impact of the reprimand, the details of which will be spelled out in a letter to Calloway, was unclear, as board members did not specify what penalties she would face.

Murray, however, called the measure progressive discipline, saying Calloway's immediate removal would send the district into a tailspin.

In addition, the board panned the superintendent in her first annual review, with five or more of nine board members giving her unsatisfactory ratings in nearly every category. The board rated her performance in academic objective, safety, finances and operations.

The worst marks related to her leadership. Eight board members gave her unsatisfactory marks for establishing cohesive and trusting relationships. Murray said Calloway doesn't communicate important information to board members.

Earlier this year, she hung up the phone on him in a conversation, leading him to ask for a public apology.

"Staff is literally scared of her," he said.

Murray said he gave her mostly unsatisfactory marks.

On a more positive note for the superintendent, five board members gave her a satisfactory mark for developing processes to monitor academic achievement.

Parent Tamara Wills said the board has never given Calloway a chance.

"They were planning on hanging this woman the day she got here," said Wills, who has a daughter at Sampson Webber Academy and a son at Chadsey High School.

But activist Helen Moore said, "The board was too kind."

When asked for comment about her review, Calloway simply said she will continue to work in the best interests of children.

The action comes after months of increasing tension between the board and the superintendent.

Since the spring, board members and Calloway have clashed over a litany of issues: the $400-million budget shortfall announced in June; the board's vote to remove the chief financial officer's duties as treasurer responsible for reporting information to the board; amendments to the new auditor's contract, and the board's evaluation of Calloway's performance.

Carter and Winfrey are among at least four of the 11 board members who have complained in writing about Calloway's poor communication with the board and questioned her skills.

Carter is among at least four board members who have suggested that the district has cause to fire Calloway. Her 5-year contract goes through 2012 and stipulates that if the board fires her for poor performance, no payment is due to her. However, if a court finds the firing was without reason, the district would have to pay Calloway a lump sum equal to her salary, vacation and sick time from the date of firing to the 3-year anniversary, which is July 1, 2010.

In an Aug. 18 "written reprimand" Carter wrote that Calloway was rude to her at a principal's meeting, indicating Calloway's "business as usual" and "unprofessionalism."

Winfrey's confidential Aug. 1 memo requesting a reprimand cites concerns that Calloway failed to monitor the chief financial officer and give the board timely notification about the deficit, failed to properly assign the correct number of teachers and accused her of having a "condescending managerial approach" that has caused "improper morale and almost irreparable harm."

"I have become disheartened, disillusioned and definitely disappointed in her extremely controlling, unnecessarily condescending and utterly repulsive grandstanding demeanor," Winfrey wrote. "I am deeply saddened by the perhaps unconscious or apparently covert dismantling of the Detroit Public Schools under the leadership of Dr. Connie Calloway."

"It's an employee, employer relationship. Reprimands happen all the time," Winfrey said, adding that the current flap is reaching epic proportions.

The two board members join at least two others -- Murray and Marie Thornton -- who have written letters demanding that Calloway apologize for being rude to and uncommunicative with the board.

Contact CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY at 313-223-4537 or cpratt@freepress.com.