Connecting the Dots: Cartel Public School Privatization—the Stealth Attempt to Place another Broad Superintendent in Trenton, New Jersey, Part XVIII

There it goes again; the Cartel of public school privatization advocates has targeted Trenton, New Jersey for the appointment of another Broad Superintendent Academy (BSA)-influenced candidate to head its schools. Broad’s objectives are to: demonize teachers and their unions; promote virtual and bricks and mortar charter schools; run public schools through a corporate business model; reduce the number of union jobs in school districts; privatize school services; promote high stakes testing; and push as much money into the private sector as possible.

Due to the Cartel’s control over Gov. Chris Christie (via political contributions), it descended on the State of New Jersey like a vulture, employing a Broad graduate (Chris Cerf) to head the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) in 2011. Cerf, in turn, placed Broad superintendents in Newark, Montclair, Bellville, Jersey City, Highland Park, Trenton, and Camden, in serial order, in an aggressive, well-funded effort to dismantle and privatize public education in New Jersey.

When Dr. Francisco Duran was appointed Trenton’s superintendent in 2013, he was deft in hiding his Broad connection. He was mentored by the late Dr. Arlene Ackerman, former Broad superintendent in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, California, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who was serving as scholar-in residence at the Broad Superintendents Academy in Los Angeles, California prior to her death. Duran, who was a Philadelphia area superintendent under Ackerman, slipped into Trenton undercover and brought along his sidekick, Lucy Feria who was also mentored by Ackerman. (She is currently serving as Trenton’s interim superintendent and had also applied for the job.)

Duran and Feria systematically implemented several of Broad’s principles: spending, without measurable academic benefit, millions of dollars with Broad-related technology companies; laying off hundreds of teachers and school staff; launching a full-scale attack on paraprofessionals by sending their jobs to a private contractor recommended by then NJDOE commissioner of education, Chris Cerf; and increasing the number of charter schools. These collective actions created a huge budget deficit which they tried to solve on the backs of public school employees.

Now the current Trenton School Board (TSB) is poised to repeat the same mistake. Their search efforts have yielded two deeply flawed candidates: Dr. Sergio Paez, former superintendent of the Holyoke, Massachusetts School District and Dr. Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard, former superintendent of the Albany, New York Public Schools.

Dr. Paez was dismissed from Holyoke in the summer of 2015 after a State-takeover of the district for chronic underperformance and a budget deficit. On his way out the door, he was facing a lawsuit over the school system’s abuse of students with behavioral and emotional special needs and a criminal investigation of the scandal.

The Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) made Dr. Paez their top choice to head MPS in December of 2015 and brought him to town for final negotiations in early January 2016. But by that time, news of his overall performance and the special needs controversy had reached the MPS board members and the broader Minneapolis community. After sending a team to Holyoke to investigate the matters further, the district terminated contract talks with Dr. Paez at a volatile January 12, 2016 Board meeting.

What is interesting about Dr. Paez’s selection as a finalist is that the Trenton School Board has recently accepted a recommendation from its assistant superintendent for special education to eliminate 92 special education paraprofessional positions; several speech, occupational, and physical therapists; and three child study teams.

This is occurring in a district where 19 percent of students have special needs and where these employees have been delivering effective services to date. Such austerity actions will likely push the district out of compliance with federal mandates. Was this the attraction to Paez because he ran roughshod over special needs students?

Meanwhile, Dr. Vanden Wyngaard, a Broad-trained superintendent, was under scrutiny for awarding a contract to a firm with whom she had previously worked that was a spin-off of the Michigan Leadership Academy where she received her Broad superintendent’s certificate. This is an ongoing pattern of Broad graduates who immediately establish financial relationships with Broad-connected businesses after becoming head of a school district. Dr. Vanden Wyngaard was forced to resign or be fired by the Albany Public Schools after a teacher raised the issue of her contracting process.

In New Jersey, Broad superintendents in Newark, Montclair, Bellville, Jersey City, Highland Park, Trenton, and Camden together have given more than $10 billion dollars to Broad-affiliated corporations and consultants from 2011 to the present. Dr. Vanden Wyngaard, who has never held a senior school district post more than three years, has compiled a mediocre administrative record at best. She was undistinguished during her time as a deputy in the Paterson, New Jersey public schools as was Dr. Paez in Holyoke.

So the essential questions are: Did the Board make these final selections, or were they submitted by a search firm? If the Board did employ a search firm, was it in anyway linked to the Broad Superintendent’s Academy or its allies (as was the search firm that gave Trenton Dr. Duran)? How did these questionable candidates emerge as finalists for the Trenton superintendent’s position? Who are the other candidates in the pool of applicants? Had all of them been fired from their previous positions, or were Paez and Vanden Wyngaard the only two who were applying from home?

These are troubling issues that should be carefully examined, and no offer should be extended to either candidate. Given their woeful inadequacies, the search should be extended or started over.