We can’t help but laugh at the stupidity of the Berkeley Board of Education! Ha!
By John R. Alston Trotter, EdD, JD
The Berkeley School System is much more stupid that I ever gave them credit for. Edmond Heatley is by far the worst superintendent that the Clayton County School System has ever had. The worst. I am sure that the people of Chino Valley, California have similar sentiments. You want to know what is wrong with public education? This is a case in point. The Gypsy Superintendents (I am using my nice phrase here!) trot from one school board bed to the other, reaping much taxpayer money and wreaking havoc wherever they go. The first thing that we need to do is get rid of the appointed superintendents and give power back to the local people to control local education. Then, and only then, do you get rid of these superintendent-clowns like Edmond Heatley who are the Elmer Gantries of Public Education.
Joe Hairston, William Chavis, Barbara Pulliam, the Thompson fellow (can’t even remember his first name), Edmond Heatley. I was opposed to all of them. They all did terrible jobs as superintendents in Clayton County. I pushed for the Clayton County Board of Education to select Dr. Sam King as superintendent. He, as superintendent of Rockdale County Schools, was selected Georgia‘s Superintendent of the Year. No, Pamela Adamson and Alieka Anderson kept pushing to go along with whomever education attorney Glenn Brock brought to them. Ha! What a joke! And, Mary Baker, Ophelia Burroughs, Wanda Smith, and Carlton Bivins just went along with the program, so to speak. Edmond Heatley has been a disaster in Clayton County, and his selection in Berkeley, California just shows how are public education has sunk in the U. S. of A.
It is actually hard to fathom that this superintendent clown is actually about to be offered a job by the Berkeley United School District in California. The people of Clayton County are jumping for joy to be getting rid of this clown! The Gypsy nature of these “national” superintendents only points to the depths that public education in the U. S. has sunk, as I just said in the previous paragraph. And people actually wonder what is wrong with public education! Ha!
Stay tuned for a forthcoming book that I am writing (along with Norreese Haynes) entitled The MACE Manifesto: A Declaration of What is Really Wrong With Public Education wherein we discuss what we call “educational sluts“ – those superintendents who just jump from one school board bed to the next, depending on what they are paid.
Georgia Teachers Speak Out! 
Doc,
You have great taste in suits and great judgment about not-so-super-superintendents.
Thanks, Dr. Craig!
Berkeley is home of arguably America’s greatest public university. It will also be home of one of America’s inarguably worst public school superintendents.
I had a look into how the Broad Foundation operates and what it might mean for Heatley coming to Berkeley. Have a look:
http://www.basiscraft.com/berkeley-almanac/2012-09/04-busd-the-billionaires-and-the-new-superintendent.html
It begins…
“Billionaires such as Bill Gates and Eli Broad (pronounced brōd) use charitable donations to school districts, schools, and education professionals to change public education policy nationwide. Berkeley feels its share of influence from these billionaires.
“In 2003, the Gates Foundation helped Berkeley High School transition to a small schools model, a policy Gates was aggressively pushing nationwide. Today in 2012, the Broad Foundation has influenced the school district’s choice for a new superintendent.”
[more at the link]
Thomas: You are preaching to the choir. You are right. Broad and Gates have been very detrimental to public education and have been spending their monies trying to get their way in public education, including choosing sorry superintendents like Edmond Heatley.
A lot of Berkeley parents are speaking out, anonymously, regarding this appointment. Problem is, we have to be anonymous or there will be retaliation by prinicipals and other administrators. In Berkeley, it is THEIR way or NO WAY. Sad but true.
@ Berkeley Parent: We know what you mean. Many educrats can be very vindictive!
Now that I’m a retired teacher, I love to deal with educrats who want to be vindictive.