No one has covered the Hamilton County Department of Education drama better than Roy Exum. Thank you, Roy, but I take issue with your unnamed sources. Professional jealousy and sour grape darts should not be anonymous.
HCDE is so dysfunctional, and there is good cause to place this public organization under a microscope, dissect it into pieces and discard all that is not in the best interest of the mission of education. So, keep reporting Roy.
As the same time, HCDE has extraordinary and proven talent. Jill Levine is part of the extraordinary educator group, a wah whoo, real deal educational trail blazer. So, I am certain there is much professional jealousy regarding her proven accomplishments.
Roy Exum quoted an unnamed principal as believing that the promotion of Ms. Levine was “political.”
Principal Jane Doe, it is not political if you earned it.
First and foremost, I am not aware of any other principals in the HCDE system, other than Jill Levine, that have taken two schools that were listed the state of Tennessee DOE critical list, and turned them upside down and completely reformed into an award winning model.
Remember Chattanooga Middle School, it was a dreadful and dismal environment to send children that apathetic HCDE leadership allowed to continue, because they were too afraid to take on the union and empty that building and start from scratch. This school rightfully owned its place on the state’s awful school list.
This school was such a dismal failure and dangerous that starting from scratch to reset from a culture of failure was the only option, including getting rid of the teachers. Jill Levine did that.
Every successful operation has a driver, a person pulling the team in the same direction for the same mission. Only extraordinary unifiers could have completely restructured one of most grossly failing middle schools in the entire HCDE system and turned it into a true vision of community and educational achievement.
Professional envy and jealously seems to be the agenda of those feeding Roy Exum comments while hiding under a veil of anonymity. These folks have not reformed any schools. So, eat your hearts with professional jealously.
Jill Levine is still an educational rock star.
Reform a school, Principal Jane Doe, then you have earned the right to throw sour grape darts.
April Eidson