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Tulsa World - Fire Zolkoski
Today's Tulsa World Editorial Board fires with both barrels at Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Michael Zolkoski.
Until Monday, most of the voices making the accusations in the Tulsa Academic Center scandal were people directly involved in the situation: students, parents and teachers. Because of that, the Tulsa World suspended final judgment on the problem and on Tulsa Superintendent Michael Zolkoski.
All that changed Monday night when the school board released a summary of the school district's internal investigation of how the district's alternative school so quickly got to be in such a mess....
In short, the summary describes the school as violent, overcrowded and out of control. It wasn't a school. It wasn't even a zoo. It was a madhouse, and no one behaved as if it was his job to stop the madness.
That's a failing grade from an objective source, and an immediate, severe response is needed.
It's time for the district to fire Zolkoski.
He either knew, or should have known, that the school was in chaos. Either possibility is unacceptable.
Dr. Z's salary clocks in around the $200,000 mark.
Many will argue for that level of compensation, Dr. Z should not be allowed to be rewarded for sub-standard performance with a contract payout. Make him fix this problem.
It is also worth examining the performance of the other schools in TPS. If TAC is a disaster but the rest of the schools are improving, it might seem unwise to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Either way, people who pay taxes into the TPS system have every reason to be chafed by the seemingly endless flow of troubling news that comes from them.
What others are saying
- TACHere is a question. How many of you have actually read the report? There is A)Nothing SHOCKING in that report B)Nothing that goes on at TAC that does not happen at many other TPS schools. TAC is short of textbooks? So are many TPS schools. TAC has fights and discipline issues? So do many TPS schools. The students at TAC spend an inordinate amount of time sitting around doing nothing? So do many others in many other TPS schools. Why? Discipline problems and budget constraints. Welcome to Public School! If you are not familiar, let me introduce you. The schools are overcrowded, the teachers are overburdened and many students fight and are disrespectful. There is nothing new here. Edison, with one of the most affluent tax bases has not enough books, not enough chairs, and not enough room. So boo-hoo for yet another school with the same problems!!!Zolkoski did not create this public school mess. It has been created by parents who abdicate raising their children and want the government to do it for them; then whine and complain when they disagree with the manner it has been executed. Oklahoma needs to free itself from the "no expel" laws and thus free itself from the dead weight parents exserting a stranglehold on education.
- EducationDr. Z is not to blame. I like the sayin' "Stop Bitching and Start a Revolution!"
- Tulsa World -- Fire ZolkoskiThe Tulsa World has made a shameful mistake in publicly demanding Dr. Zolkoski's firing, undoubtedly having been influenced by individuals in City Hall. Dr. Z is eminently qualified to head the Tulsa Public School system (look at his credentials: http://www.tulsaschools.org/district/admin.shtm ); but he is not qualified, and wasn't hired, to run a TPS Prison system. Let's face it, most of the problem students are criminals and need to be under the guidance of a penal system. TPS/TAC needs to be run by an entirely different person, one having experience and training in dealing with criminals and thugs. Furthermore, the autocratic Tulsa City Government has exerted influence in the Zolkoski debacle that no TPS Superintendant could abide and function under.
- TACLove item 29 in TPS/TAC part2. Amen. The parents of the TAC students are there to complain , but where were they when the conferences were held, when PTA meetings to improve education [and the life of their child] were held. I would bet the TPS budget, they were nowhere to be found. Then when someone finally has the audacity to discipline their precious, chair throwing, foul mouthed ,disrespectful child all hell breaks loose and it is everyone's fault from the Federal Government to the Superintendent. No personal responsibility, no parental responsibility, just blame. Those of us who did not create these problem students are paying for it though; we pay with our checkbooks and with our own children, whose education suffers because of the chaos that is created in the education system. Throw out Zolkoski? Who in their right mind will take his place? We chased off Dr. Sawyer. No one will want to supervise this district. Who can blame them? It is a no win proposition. Let these parents and the Tulsa World continue this witch hunt and we will have every school filled with TAC problems. Yes, I'm sure that's the solution.
- TPS, TAC and Dr. Z (part 2)17. Dr. Z is only human. He's allowed to make miscalculations, even on the scale of TAC.
18. Mistakes are only opportunities to learn, improve, do things better.
19. Dr. Z has the professional background and experience to learn from this experience; or, the school board should have never hired him.
20. His hands have also been tied by limited funds for education. He doesn't control the money. He has to work within the TPS budget.
21. Who determines the TPS budget? Our state legislature.
22. How does the state legislature appropriate more funds for the TPS budget? Taxes.
23. Who wants to pay more taxes? I'll assume that no one WANTS to do so.
24. What are our priorities as parents, teachers, legislators, neighbors, citizens of not only Tulsa and Oklahoma, but also of the United States of America?
25. Are we going to bite the bullet as our grandparents did and be willing to pay more taxes for our students' futures?
26. Are parents going to SHOW their children that they and their futures are valued by being involved in the raising and educating of their children?
27. But I digress, in my opinion, we don't need to fire Dr. Z. He has had many good ideas implemented and good influences and I anticipate that he has many more within him.
28. We need to stick with him and not attempt to make him the scapegoat for one, albeit serious, mistake.
(29. I won't entertain any thoughts from any parent who is not an active PTA member and who did not attend both parent-teacher conferences the 2007-2008 year. That is, I won't entertain whiners and complainers. I am an active member of an active PTA and attended both parent-teacher conferences in 2007-2008.) - TPS, TAC and Dr. Z (part 1)1. In my opinion the idea of TAC was good.
2. In my opinion conditions at TAC were baaaaad.
3. In my opinion Special Ed students who disrupt the learning for others need a different program and site for the safety of all.
4. It is my understanding that no public school student in Oklahoma may be expelled.
5. It is my understanding that truancy cases are not prosecuted in Tulsa County.
6. The courts ruled that corporeal punishment is illegal.
7. What do the schools have to work with????
8. It is my experience that very few parents seem to care enough about their child's education/future to attend two parent-teacher conferences a year.
9. It is my experience that very few TPSchools have active (or even alive) PTAs.
10. What does this seem to say about how the parents value education?
11. What does this seem to say about how the parents value their child's education/future?
12. What does this seem to say about how the parents value their children?
13. Dr. Z seems to me to perhaps have been over eager to immediately tackle some of TPS' most dire problems that he INHERITED when he took the job a little over two years ago.
14. The dropout rate and suspension rate that Dr. Z inherited warranted swift attention too. He did give it his attention.
15. His hands have been tied in many ways, in my opinion.
16. See items 4, 5, 6. - Whatever happened to unbiased newspapers?!
- TACI am OUTRAGED with the comments from the Tulsa World. When did we get out of the business of educating children and become social workers? I have two students in TPS and I do not want them sitting in a class where the teachers have to spend all of their time and energy dealing with these discipline problems. If the students won't behave in a regular classroom, then how can we exepect the situation at an alternative school to be any different? If both the faculty of a regular school and the faculty of an alternative school are unable to maintain control of these students, it is obviously NOT the fault of TPS. Perhaps the responsibility of disciplining and educating these students should be returned to the parents (or the Juvenile Detention Center) by bringing back the practice of expelling students from schools.
Since students of alternative schools are the source of these problems, maybe it is time to do away with alternative schools altogether...and not Dr. Zolkoski. - TACI think it is interesting that the Tulsa World feels qualified to editorialize about Tulsa Public Schools,when the Lortons, who own the world have not attended public school in over 50 years. Let them editorialize about Holland Hall. Oklahoma cannot , by law, expel it's students. The students who were sent to TAC were by no means angelic. We have taken away every means of discipline from our teachers. These kids continually disrupt the majority , who are trying to teach and learn. Where is that side of the story?
- It's funny that the World blasts Zolkoski, but the board members that hired him are nearly all candidates that they endorsed.
- tpsWhole system in tulsa in bad shape board and dr z still not tellinpg all! Ask tac parents
- dr. zThey want him gone because the mayor does not like him . And we all know what the mayor wants the mayor WILL get.
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