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Thread: ARTVOICE: Who is James A. Williams?

  1. #1
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    ARTVOICE: Who is James A. Williams?

    This is an excellent profile of controversial Bflo School Superintendent James Williams by ARTVOICE publisher Jamie Moses.

    It should be required reading for school board members in Bflo . . . & in Memphis, where Williams is interviewing in several days.

    The lengthy article is important enough to copy & past, but SU non-readers would be upset, so here are a few excerpts:

    http://artvoice.com/issues/v7n20/james_williams

    Who is James A. Williams?

    by Jamie Moses


    Twenty years ago, when James A. Williams was appointed deputy superintendent of the Dayton Public Schools, Time magazine ran a cover story about a bat-wielding high school principal from Patterson, New Jersey, named Joe Clark and a school board that was threatening to fire him. Clark, a “take charge” kind of guy, had created a controversy because he was determined to clean up a troubled Eastside High the way Wyatt Earp cleaned up Tombstone or George W. Bush was going to clean up the Middle East: Throw out all the bad guys and make everyone one behave. . . .

    James A. Williams, whose mother, wife, and three sisters are all teachers, has a lot in common with Joe Clark. They both have intimidating personalities, and, before going to Dayton, Ohio, Williams did pretty much the same thing at Cardozo High School in Washington, DC that Clark did at Eastside High. As a result, like Clark, Williams has a bewitching appeal to community leaders looking for a person who promises to come in and shake things up, and to parents who are desperate for someone who promises to keep their children off the streets and teach them to learn. Yet, both have failed to realize much student improvement. . . .

    Dayton: Ready or not, here I am!

    In 1991, when Dayton’s superintendent of schools took another job, the Dayton Board of Education decided their replacement would either be James A. Williams, who had a reputation for being brash and aggressive, or Assistant Superintendent Jerrie McGill, a friendly consensus maker who oversaw planning. They chose Williams, who moved up from his $75,000 salary as deputy superintendent at Cardozo to $112,482 plus benefits as Dayton’s superintendent.

    The Dayton News reported that Williams was visibly moved in accepting the position: “Leading a school district has been my dream. I will take a 20-year contract if it is offered.”

    Williams moved quickly to make changes, . . . But his brusque style and autocratic decision-making created enemies quickly. . . .

    The teachers strike

    By 1993, teachers registered a no-confidence vote in Williams’ leadership and began a 16-day strike. The teachers’ blamed Williams’ obstinacy for precipitating the strike.

    With no teachers, students were shuffled to cafeterias and auditoriums in an atmosphere of confusion. Many just walked out after seeing the chaos.
    . . .

    The ideas man

    In spite of the fact that he was secretly putting his resume out and would soon be trying to land the job of superintendent in Atlanta, with the Dayton teacher’s union strike behind him, Williams showed great enthusiasm for the new school year ahead. . .

    Truancy was a problem; Dayton had a lower attendance rate than any other district in the state. Williams held a press conference with Dayton’s chief of police to announce truancy patrols. . . .

    A candidate for all seasons

    Williams didn’t get that Atlanta job in 1994. But in February of 1997, amidst his $400 million campaign for the Dayton district, Williams became one of three top candidates for a job in Durham, South Carolina. There were reports of racial tension in the Durham selection process, but Williams said he was unconcerned about the controversy, because he was now focused on how he could improve Durham schools by bringing people together.

    “The mark of a good leader is to rise above those issues and try to do what’s right for children,” he said.

    Williams didn’t get the job. Two weeks later, Ohio state auditor Jim Petro demanded Williams repay $39,000 to Wright State University because he couldn’t document services he was paid to perform. That amount was in addition to $8,000 he’d already repaid two years earlier for teaching duties he also did not perform. . .

    . . . Williams claimed he had brought financial discipline to the district, indicating that the district had balanced budgets for seven straight years. However, in August 1998, a special state audit concluded that Dayton Schools made $250,553 in improper payments to a consulting firm tied to the same company that had been hiring Williams for the “work” for which he already had been directed to repay $39,000 to Wright State University. The owners of that firm went to jail. Nevertheless, that same month the board extended Williams’ contract, but this time by only one year, and included accountability measures, which did not sit well with him.

    But Williams was job-hunting by that point anyway. In January 1999, Williams was announced as a finalist for the top job in Dallas, which shocked the Dayton board. In February, Dallas announced he was pretty much their choice. Only, unlike Buffalo, before they signed the dotted line, the board wanted to see the man in action. The entire board flew to Dayton. They met with Williams, they looked at his schools, they talked to people. They flew back to Dallas and they didn’t hire him. Having seen Williams’ handiwork, the Dallas board of education opened a new search.

    Immediately afterward it was announced that Williams was a finalist for the superintendent’s job in Hartford, Connecticut. That news also caught Dayton board members by surprise, though you’d think they would have realized by then that Williams was trying to run out on them. “First time I ever heard this one,” Dayton school board vice president Ricky Boyd said of Hartford. But, like Atlanta and Dallas, Hartford also decided that they didn’t want Williams.

    Oh my, what’s this?

    It soon became clear why Williams was so anxious to leave Dayton. In May 1999, the budget that Williams said was balanced was suddenly looking at a deficit of $19 million; by Ohio law the district’s budget had to be balanced by June 30. In a panic, the district canceled all non-essential purchases and sought to borrow money, transfer funds, and put off financial obligations to make it through the end of the school year. School officials scrambled to figure out how they’d spent $213 million instead of the $181 million budgeted in June 1998. A city legislator proposed the Dayton City Commission take control of the school system.

    The district had hired a new budget director, Jan Schultz, in February, and she discovered the shortfall immediately after taking over. She told Williams about it in March. But Williams kept the problem quiet, according to records and interviews with district administrators. Meanwhile, he was trying to bail out of Dayton and leave them to discover the mess after he had a new job elsewhere.

    Schultz said she didn’t know how the looming deficit escaped school officials’ notice.

    State auditor Jim Petro slammed the district’s financial planning, record keeping, and business practices. County auditor A.J. Wagner said, “We’ve never encountered a surprise like this,” expressing disbelief that Dayton schools did not have a system of checks and balances to catch budget mistakes.

    School board members told the Dayton News that Superintendent Williams had been continually assuring them since January that financial problems were under control. . . . .

    Budget director Jan Shultz said the district also drew on a cash reserve fund until it was completely depleted. Schultz said the problem became evident to her soon after she arrived in mid-February and analyzed trends for the past seven years. She saw that the district’s fund balance—resources left after all obligations are accounted for—had declined annually since 1994 and was on course to be $114 million in the red by 2002.

    Williams wouldn’t say when he knew about the deficit. He couldn’t explain why he never made the staff cuts he promised to the board, nor why he failed to notice that spending was 19.02 percent over budget. After failing to convincingly blame anyone on his staff, all he said was “I take full responsibility.” . . . .

    What me worry?

    On May 31, 1999, a few days after the financial bomb dropped on the school district, the Dayton News wrote:

    James Williams leans back in his office chair, smiling and joking with reporters just a few hours after listening to a Dayton board of education member publicly call for him to be fired.

    Williams assured all within earshot that “I’ll be here, I’ll be here a while.” . . . .

    Williams attends last board meeting

    In July 1999, Williams attended his last board of education meeting as Dayton Public Schools superintendent. He spent most of the meeting guiding the board through items requiring its attention during the upcoming school year. The last item of the meeting spelled the end of Williams’ tenure: The board approved a resolution 7-0 to authorize a search for Williams’ permanent replacement.

    Williams left a closed-door meeting that followed without indicating his future plans.

    “He’s pretty much destroyed Dayton schools and their credibility in the community,” said Lori Crank, parent of a former E.J. Brown Elementary School sixth grader.

    . . . “He doesn’t care about kids at all,” she said.

    Next Week: ARE LUNATICS RUNNING THE ASYLUM… and the Buffalo Public Schools too?

  2. #2
    Member Linda_D's Avatar
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    Dick, if the folks in Memphis read this, they'll never hire Williams, which seems the only Buffalo is going to get rid of him without paying out big $$$ in a settlement!
    Your right to buy a military weapon without hindrance, delay or training cannot trump Daniel Barden’s right to see his eighth birthday. -- Jim Himes

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    Secret Resume of James A. Williams

    Here is another innaresting read on Williams (please scroll down to second headline, I did not want to copy & paste here)

    http://www.altpressonline.com/

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    “Secret” Resume of Superintendent Candidate James A.Williams

    DaPew: Thank you for the ALT link . . .

    This Alt Press article written three years ago exposed much of the troubling information again exposed in Jamie Moses' article in ARTVOICE

    http://www.altpressonline.com/

    The “Secret” Resume of Superintendent Candidate James A.Williams

    Wednesday, 20 April 2005

    We can’t be sure whether this information is deliberately being kept secret or is unavailable due to administrative problems. We do, however, know something of Williams’ track record through our research.
    No one seems to be paying much attention to the fact that Mr. Williams was fired from his job in Dayton because he kept the true financial state of the district a secret from the public.

    The Buffalo News has downplayed Mr. Williams resume, perhaps out of fear that the public will realize that the man they are paying to lead public education in Buffalo, has not only shown himself to be a zealous disciple of those who wish to privatize public schools, but has courted controversy in other ways as well.

    Here is a brief timeline of some of the more controversial aspects of Williams’ career . . . . MORE

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    Didn't Robert Wilmers have M&T bank partially finance the search for this guy? I have heard it said Williams had Wilmers behind him. That pretty much stacks the deck in Williams favor. Makes him untouchable. I haven't seen much negative stuff about him in the local media other than the alternative press. So I guess it could be true.
    Who in their right mind would hire this guy? I hope Memphis grabs him, and quickly.
    "If you want to know what God thinks of money just look at the people he gave it to."

    By the way, what happened to biker? I miss the old coot.

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    I think Williams should leave. There's nothing he can do for Buffalo schools, which -- like the city (and the region?) -- just seem to be determined to self destruct.


    By the way: Does anyone know how much he makes annually?

    Never mind. Found this in The News:The Memphis job is expected to pay about $260,000 a year. Williams makes $220,000 in Buffalo.

    Frankly, compared to what suburban school administrators make, Williams' salary is nothing to brag about.

    Consider Clarence, which has about 5,000 pupils. The superintendent there makes more than$200,00 when you add in the cost of his benefits etc. And I think that job is probably a lot less stressfull.
    Last edited by atotaltotalfan2001; May 15th, 2008 at 05:50 PM.

  7. #7
    Member Linda_D's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by citymouse
    Didn't Robert Wilmers have M&T bank partially finance the search for this guy? I have heard it said Williams had Wilmers behind him. That pretty much stacks the deck in Williams favor. Makes him untouchable. I haven't seen much negative stuff about him in the local media other than the alternative press. So I guess it could be true.
    Who in their right mind would hire this guy? I hope Memphis grabs him, and quickly.
    Probably some buddies of Wilmers from the Dayton banks recommended him ... the businessmen in Dayton were hot for Williams even after it was revealed that the schools had a huge deficit.
    Your right to buy a military weapon without hindrance, delay or training cannot trump Daniel Barden’s right to see his eighth birthday. -- Jim Himes

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