Did Elie Gaines, the former principal at Black Mountain Elementary in Cave Creek Unified leave for Ventana Academy?
According to her Linked In page, Ms. Gaines is now employed by Challenge Foundation Academy (CFA). CFA is a national network of 7 charter (gasp!) schools.
Ventana Academy is a struggling (in both academics and enrollment) charter school, that leases classroom space from Cave Creek Unified in the heart of Cave Creek proper. Ventana has enrollment of around 120 students. The school was independent, but recently joined the CFA network and it uses the Core Knowledge curriculum, of which Ms. Gaines is a consultant of.
Ms. Gaines’ Linked In profile does not identify the school that she will be the director at (only says New School, of which Ventana is new to the CFA network).
The implications for Ms.Gaines being the director at Ventana are interesting. She will be directly competing against Cave Creek Unified for students and teachers, and like we said Ventana rents from CCUSD. Ventana draws its students almost exclusively from within CCUSD’s boundaries so the game is on. A growing Ventana will only further add to the list of competitors for CCUSD.
CCUSD has many issues but rest assured no one and I repeat no one will be jumping ship to follow Ellie Gaines...They may jump for many other reasons and many already have but no not for this.
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe that there is a School District in the State of Arizona that would hire her after her reputation at BMES. Also, lots of talk from her old school she was not that loved there either. hmmmm
ReplyDeleteEllie Gaines is a professional educator who should have received more respect that she was given by both the Cave Creek community and the school administration. It is absolutely disgusting how the district and community treated her.
ReplyDeleteA professional usually acts in a professional manner...I will agree that the hiring of Ellie Gaines was a colossal mistake on behalf of the District. The district furthered the destruction of the Black Mountain community by ignoring the concerns of the teachers and parents regarding ms Gaines inability to lead. My condolences to the families that stuck it out...One would hope that the damaged can be repaired but with declining enrollment, falling test scores and a serious lack of leadership from the Deb Burdicks district administration, Black Mountain will need a super hero to get back on track
ReplyDeleteAnd the Oscar goes to June 17, 2011, 5:17 PM.
ReplyDeletePlease! A superhero is needed to get BMES on track? You had an excellent leader at BMS in Ellie Gaines. The problem with the staff and the community there is the problem with CCUSD overall. When an administrator the school likes leaves - and they leave because of the poor leadership at the district office - you can't let it go. You're like lovers who can't deal with the fact that your ex dumped you.
BMES never gave Ellie Gaines a chance. The teachers and parents - mostly the staff - were so upset that Pam Sitton moved on to bigger and better things in her career that they could not accept anyone else in that spot. From what I understand, that's what the CCUSD teachers do when a "beloved" administrator leaves their school. They make the new administrator's life a living hell.
The staff and parents at BMES should be ashamed of themselves of how they behaved toward Ellie Gaines. Then again, that's how CCUSD teachers operate when they don't like the principal who's replaced one that was "beloved".
11:22...
ReplyDeleteThis is really SAD! There was a real lack of leadership, a major amount of insecurity, a desire for total dictator-like control and a fear of collaboration with Ms. Gaines.
Of course, the victim card is being played. It helps the district and her to play that card and then they do not have to take responsibilty for the challenges she has, personally as a leader.
There were many parents at BMES who went out of their way to work with her--to give her the benefit of the doubt--who told those who were concerned that "she is our principal now, we need to work with her and move this school forward." Only to be frustrated and thwarted by her at every opportunity--eventually ending the year saying they had no desire to return to the school and help. They did not work to derail what others did. They just left. They did not volunteer and they did not help.
It was not so much that Dr. Sitton was "beloved" it was that she was a good principal who put her school first (much to the chagrin, I imagine, of her bosses who seemed to think she was hurting them by doing that). She knew every child by name, she embraced the volunteers at school and encouraged them to try new things or think creatively about solving the schools problems. She had her office at the FRONT of the main office so she KNEW what was going on in that school and was aware of issues before they festered. She pushed teachers to be the best they could be, encouraged professional development at every opportunity, encouraged and supported the instructional coach on campus and didn't accept limitations when she heard the word "no". In fact, she was so good at her job she is now providing professional development to all the elementary principals in the Scottsdale School District. So at least THAT district has solid professional development for their school leaders in place. THAT is my definition of a professional.
One thing I will agree with you on...many leave because of the poor leadership on the district level. However, that means that when someone like Ellie comes in who has very little actual experience as a principal and is put in charge of a school with high expectations, she has nowhere to turn for good, quality, professional advice. What we end up with is what happened at BMES. She stays there, does not know how to (though I would contend, honestly, doesn't have the skills to) solve the challenges she faced, and has no one to turn to for advice but Dr. Burdick or Dr. Miller.
The teachers would have happily accepted a principal that believed in strong professional development (and wasn't threatened by the instructional coach on campus), listened to their concerns and suggestions, supported them with parents and students, didn't force them to take positions or change grade levels when they didn't want to, and who didn't yell at them in front of their classes or yell at parents in front of the students.
If that is the sign of a professional, then, 11:22 you and I have extremely diffferent ideas of what makes a professional.
Perhaps you will be "lucky" enough to have Ms. Gaines at your school.
While I would like to thank you for the award it's really Ellie that deserves the Oscar...Best Impersonation of an Elementary School Principal! While you can hurl all the opinion and assumption you want I guarantee you my distaste for her comes from personal experience. I am a parent first, I advocate for my children and what is in their best interest...You may have enjoyed "The Ellie Gaines Experience" however our family has higher expectations and won't settle for such shortcomings from a "Professional"
ReplyDeleteJune 18 1:32 PM
ReplyDeleteWhat evidence do you have of these incidences with Ms. Gaines? Have you personally experienced any of these incidences and issues you have stated? I would think with the way Debbi Burdick is so focused and concerned with public image and opinion that she would have replaced Ms. Gaines the moment she started hearing about complaints from the parent community.
Dr. Sitton was an excellent administrator, and she led BMES to greatness. However, she left for greener pastures, and it seems as if BMES could never separate from that fact. I'd also speculate Dr. Sitton left because she has the intelligence and foresight to see where the district was headed under the leadership of Dr. Burdick, who truly was calling the shots even when she was only second in command.
As for the staff, CCUSD is a place notoriously known for the inmates running the asylum, and they run out the administrators whom they do not like. CCUSD teachers like to say how the students are spoiled and petulant. However, many of the teachers were just as bad. This is not to say all the teachers and school staff are like this.
DAMS teachers were notorious for this, which is why they have had so much turnover with their assistant principals. Unfortunately, they also had a principal in Ann Orlando who enabled that staff to do whatever they want and act as unprofessional as they did. Only in the end was she held accountable for her leadership when the district decide to close the school and not renew her contract (which was the only smart decision Debbi Burdick has made as superintendent).
DSES teachers have also been acting this way since Nancy Shaver left. DWES teachers have behaved because Jana Miller is at the district office making sure Spanish Immersion doesn't get cut. HTES and STMS teachers have been very loyal to their administrators and given newcomers or rookie principals a chance.
Lack of experience on Ms. Gaines part is an excuse. How much experience did Bill Dolezal have when he was appointed the principal of STMS? That selection happened and the transition occurred smoothly because he used to work at the school and had already established relationships with the staff there. However, notice the petulant behavior of the DAMS staff who were forced to merge with STMS after the district shut down DAMS with their "protests" at the district office.
The problem at BMES was not solely Ms. Gaines's fault. Many are to blame. The district office did not give her the support she deserved and abandoned her when the going got tough. The teachers could not and refused to accept a new leadership style. The parents wanted nothing to change, which is impossible. Both the teachers and parents could not let go of the past. This may have been a mess, but more than Ms. Gaines caused it.
If Ms Gaines was any kind of a leader...she could have taken control of the situation and those who did not conform would have moved on. Pam Sitton was new once too and once she chose a direction and a standard teachers who did not comply moved on. The instances I am referencing are personal,while I respected Pam Sitton, I did not always agree with her and felt that I could raise my concerns without being blackballed. I gave Ellie the benefit of the doubt and after two years had to make drastic changes in the best interest of my children. Ellie was an absent minded professor who had Knee jerk reactions to everything. I don't think I need to share my instances with anyone but I can say she lacked any ability to be professional, the district office was made aware of my concerns and after months/years of effort we chose to move on. Deb Burdick is only concerned with her own image! The disgust that resulted in the districts lack of management when it came to Ellie reflects badly on Deb and her staff. It stains her name and her reputation so of course the district fan club is out here blaming the parents and the teachers! While Ellie was incompetant it truly was a colossal mistake by the distric to hire Ellie Gaines, but even more detrimental was the districts reluctances to take control as things got so out of control. What did the district do to ease the situation at BMES... Nothing... oh wait they did something After Ellie resigned they terminated her admins contract...Brilliant! Just Brilliant!
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to blame the problems on Ms. Gaines. However, how much of a chance did the staff give her?
ReplyDeleteCCUSD teachers are notorious for making the lives of administrators whom they did not like a living hill. DAMS teachers and parents were notorious for such behavior. Then again, BMES did feed into DAMS, so at least now it's clear from where the behavior first arose.
BMES needs to take responsibility for their behavior toward Ms. Gaines. The posts criticizing her are clear evidence of the unprofessional and unmerited behavior of that school community.
and I suppose you will fault the american citizens if/when Obama fails. I think you need to have a better understanding of what it means to be a leader. We can fault the district administration and the board, but not the faculty. Leadership comes from above, respect is given when earned and when failure occurs you should always look up. If the faculty was out of control and Ellie could not bring them in, she was not ready for a principal's position and someone should have offered her some training. Being "THE BOSS" is not a popularity contest... her test scores fell, her enrollment dropped and she alienated her community, Let's hope the district does a better job with their next principal
ReplyDeleteSo you're comparing Ellie Gaines to Obama? Hmmm...
ReplyDeleteI will agree with you that being "THE BOSS" is not a popularity contest, which means some hard and unpopular decisions need to be made. Sometimes a decision doesn't have to go to committee or to the masses. You have to trust your gut and do not only what is in the best interest of the people you serve but also feel good about the decision you make.
The faculty and parents of BMES also needs to take responsibility for their behavior and actions toward Ellie Gaines, which were driven more by personal than professional motives. Ellie Gaines may have not succeeded in being a leader, but the faculty also failed in that they could not separate there was a new "BOSS" who led differently than their previous, who did a remarkable job and truly made BMES the school it is.
CCUSD is a district where the inmates run the asylum. The teachers like the principals who just leave them alone and do whatever they do. There is little to no accountability for staff, and when something is addressed, it's addressed as a blanket statement instead of with the individual.
I will agree the district dropped the ball by not providing the guidance and leadership Ellie needed as a first time principal. However, that's indicative of Debbi Burdick's poor leadership style. Instead of working with her school leaders, she lets them hang themselves and provides no mentoring. Poor leadership is to blame both at the district and school level.
Look at the school leaders the district has lost over the years and why they left. How many high school principals did CSHS go through until they found a "yes man" in Steve Beebe? How many assistant principals had DAMS gone through under the leadership of Ann Orlando? Only one of these principals, Janiene Marlowe (another "yes" person to Debbi Burdick), actually moved on and up in the district? The others all left. How could the district chase off Monica Barrett as they did after years of successful service? What about the mass exodus of school administrators the year Burdick took the helm? Why did the STMS assistant principal resign under a cloud of secrecy after being in the position for years and being the assistant principal for both middle schools? Rumor has it she was forced to step down by Burdick. She didn't go somewhere else.
The fact is that CCUSD is failing from the top down. Debbi Burdick provides no leadership or guidance. She is an ineffective superintendent, and the evidence is clear not only in the leadership choices and decisions she has made but also in the performance of the schools she oversees. Ellie Gaines may have failed BMES, but Debbi Burdick failed Ellie Gaines.
We do have common ground here! The District is falling from the top down... Deb Burdick, her staff and this board are running the district into the ground.
ReplyDeleteI fault Deb for the hostility towards Ellie as well. Families and teachers went to the district when Ellie's shortcomings were interfering with education and their work environment. But when she refused to address the issues, and BMES continued to spiral out of control people took issue with who they had access to, Ellie. 100% of the BMES destruction can be blamed on DEB Burdick but Ellie's actions are what caused my distaste for her and also caused e to remove my children from her care. I was a parent who gave her the benefit of the doubt, a parent who advised others that this was our principal and she deserved our respect until proven otherwise...Ellie proved otherwise.
And no I am not comparing Ellie to Obama, it is the mindset of the people that I am comparing, Leaders are responsible for carrying their communities/nation to the best possible outcome. When the people are failing you look at your leadership and question their abilities as well as their policies.
You speak of leadership. Now that Ellie Gaines has been run off, instead of wasting time and energy showing her Linked In page and commenting how she has moved on to other opportunities, the BMES community - and the district as a whole - should express their concerns about Debbi Burdick's leadership and do what they can to convince the Board that they need to reconsider her contract as the district superintendent.
ReplyDeleteDebbi Burdick is the worst thing that has happened to this district since the position was "handed" to her by the previous superintendent. Look at all the things that have happened since she took charge:
- The closure of DAMS
- The failure of the Desert Sun K-8 Academy
- The failure of the accelerated high school within a high school program
- The departure of up to 11 administrators (including the mass exit of administrators who resigned the same year she was appointed)
- The appointment of school leaders who were handpicked by her, and the removal of school administrators who did not "fit the [i.e. her] vision"
- School administrators who resigned or were asked not to return for "mysterious circumstances" (e.g. CSHS athletic director, DAMS principal, STMS assistant principal)
- The drop in performance of three schools - one of them dropping from Excelling to Performing Plus
- The failure to pass a bond override
- A lawsuit over misappropriated funds
Overall, the district has shown more losses than gains since she took the helm. She is not an effective leader, and the CCUSD community should hold her accountable for her poor performance. The CCUSD community has proven that they can rally when they are concerned - the complaints about Ellie Gaines and the protest over the DAMS closure showed that. Isn't it time the community comes together and says enough is enough when it comes to Debbi Burdick and her poor performance as a superintendent?
Ellie Gaines is only an example of poor leadership - Debbi Burdick's poor leadership.
So where do we start..I second the motion to remove Deb Burdick from the helm...anyone else out there care to back this up?
ReplyDeleteInteresting, i heard the school just received a significant state education award. Was that not true?
ReplyDeleteI agree with a number of people here. Those criticizing Gaines, seem like personal hostilities toward a person they don't know, just like they don't know Obama, but make all kinds of preposterous claims and generalizations as if these are actual and fact. Really too bad for the kids, when the supposed adults are acting less mature than even the most immature of children.
ReplyDelete@ "You speak of leadership".
ReplyDeleteI submit the motion we remove a number of you from having any voice whatsoever Move aside and let the grownups make the decisions. Please. Your hostility and small mindedness are just in the way of the children's education. I know you believe you mean well, and that you believe you're acting in the interest of the community, and thank you for that. But it should be more clear to you as an adult that your field of view is one mired in a filter through which you seem unaware is covering your lens.
Actually, it seems a politically motivated vendetta, that has nothing to do with education, yet that isn't being separated from it. It's an anti-Obama crusade, you're now projecting onto educators. Have you stopped taking your meds? Just concerned.
ReplyDeleteMust have struck a nerve Team Burdick seems to be out in force
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that if your not a fan of this district your expertise is negated...Ellie lacked the ability to lead this is fact not a personal vendetta, Deb Burdick has run this district into the ground that is a fact supported by lost enrollment, low test scores, loss of the excelling label, unsuccessful overrides.
Leaving it to the "Grown Ups" sorry but I live in America and last I noted I can voice my opinion, I can Vote no and can point out why I am disappointed in the current condition of our School District.
If you are satisfied...great....You can be Team Burdick....The rest of us support the children who are being robbed of an education!
The grown ups? Okay...well many of those folks who have cared and worked for years and have given up on fighting for positive change or who have brought positive change only to watch it disappear a year later, have left the district as the "grown ups" have taken more control and things have headed in the wrong direction.
ReplyDeleteSo the "grown ups" can continue to take it in the wrong direction. When your test scores fall further and your bonds continue to fail and you continue to chase your tails in offering fad curricula you cannot support into the future...maybe then you will recongize that though you are smug, you do not speak for everyone NOR is your vision the right one.
The hostilities toward Ms. Gaines are coming from people who worked with her. Many of whom felt strongly that they should work with her because she was the new principal and all needed to work together. Unfortunately after a year of trying to "work with her" they gave up and said they didn't want anything more to do wtih her and would no longer volunteer on campus. These were people who had only the BEST of intentions and who really went out of their way to work with her only to find her lack of leadership, desire to dictate, insecurity and poor management to be more than they had the patience/desire to put up with as volunteers. Those of you who feel sorry for her are towing the district line who, it seems, decided that rather than providing leadership training, evaluating the situation further, etc. they would convince themsleves that she was a "victim" and that everyone else at the school was just so horrible.
I imagine that after a few more jobs where the same happens people will realize that it was Ms. Gaines herself, not the BMES families that caused the problems but, sadly, it will be too late and those families/teachers, etc. whose complaints were ignored will already have been disenchanted by the lack of leadership at CCUSD.
So where do we go from here. I lived with Elie Gaines and tried to support and make her successful. I knew Pam Sitton was NOT coming back, that was a fact. As a parent at BMES very active I did NOT fault Pam for advancing her career. I was proud of what she, the teachers, students and parents had built. They did it as a team and it was never about Pam. We all embraced Elie that she would have that same mentality. It was clear from the very first day of school her first year, it was not a core value. But frankly that is the past. Those of us have left after meeting after meeting trying to bring it to the Adminstrationhat do we do. Because even though we left, we could not stop the blood, sweat and tears we poored into our school and District. What do we do? It is crystal clear with the poor leadership at BMES it showed to us as parents the poor leadership at District office, which then brought to light the poor leaders on our School Board. I will admit I gathered signatures for one of them, really embarrassing. What do we do? Start over? I would love to hear constructive comments and no District Cheerleading. You are talking here to very ACTIVE parents, we know the reality, we have lived it. How do we fix it?
ReplyDeleteWe do not have a board that respects the community concerns...I'd like to start there...We need to get behind three candidates for the 2012 election that understand they are the governing board...not yes men to the district administration!
ReplyDeleteDeb Burdick needs to go...she has done nothing for this district/teacher/parents/students. If there were any accomplishments on her part I would consider them however all I have seen is a district run into the ground on her watch.
July 7th @9:13
ReplyDeleteI'd start with the board in 2012 and getting behind three candidates that will commit themselves to being the "Governing Board" not yes men to the district administration.
Deb Burdick and Jana Miller need to go! There are no accomplishments to consider under their leadership. I don't know how we can remove them when we don't have a board that recognizes their incompetence so that brings me back to getting behind three qualified candidates for 2012.