Parma Ohio school board rescinds superintendent job offer to Rhonda Saegert... One of her letters of support came from Barbara Byrd Bennett...
Headquarters of the Parma Ohio school district.Less than a week after a Substance report questioned the wisdom of Parma Ohio's hiring of former Chicago "Chief of Schools" Rhonda Corr Saegert as "interim Schools Superintendent," news comes out that Parma has taken back its offer. This is the first time a school district facing the hiring of a former Chicago official has managed to get out of the deal before being stuck with the controversies that have almost always followed.
In a brief press release issued on August 7, the Parma school board said: "The PCSD Board of Education passed a resolution in a special board meeting last night to rescind the support for and authorization of the employment of Ms. Corr-Saegert as Interim Superintendent. Parma Senior High Principal Dr. Chad Coffman, was named temporary interim on August 1, and will continue in that capacity as the process continues."
Saegert was one of dozens of administrators imported from Ohio by Barbara Byrd Bennett between 2012 and 2015. Saegert was originally hired in secret by the Board of Education in the summer of 2013 (the hiring motion was not on the Board's public agenda, and the Board members voted after Closed Session unanimously and without debate to approve the appointment of Saegert...) and then made a "Chief of Schools" by another unanimous but secret Board vote in October 2013. She served at "Chief of Schools" for "Network 10" on the city's Southwest Side for a year and a half, bringing substantial controversy into that part of the city, where veteran principals and sophisticated local school councils are a norm.
Like most of the out-of-town hirelings by Barbara Byrd Bennett, Rhonda Saegert commanded top dollar from the day she was brought into Chicago Public Schools. In October 2013 (see Board Report above), the members of the Chicago Board of Education voted to make Saegert a "Chief of Schools" without discussion or debate. Saegert was finally eliminated during the early purges of the Board's administrative hierarchy during the summer of 2015 -- again without discussion or debate. Substance has not information about how she came to be considered for the post of "Interim Schools Supt." in Parma Ohio.
The news reported as follows:
Parma school board rescinds Rhonda Corr-Saegert's superintendent offer... Parma schools, By Maura Zurick, Northeast Ohio Media Group, on August 07, 2015 at 3:09 PM
PARMA, Ohio � In a special meeting last night [August 7, 2015], the Parma school board decided to rescind its offer to Rhonda Corr-Saegert, the former Cleveland principal and Chicago school chief who the board last month unanimously agreed to hire.
Corr-Saegert was supposed to start as the district's interim superintendent Monday [August 10], but her background check wasn't complete.
Instead the board today issued a statement: "We are continuing the full process thoughtfully to ensure the right person is on board for the start of the school year." District officials did not say whether Corr-Saegert's ties to former Chicago schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett were a factor their decision.
Corr-Saegert was laid off her job as the chief of 36 Chicago public schools in June, the day after Byrd-Bennett resigned. Byrd-Bennett, who headed Cleveland schools from 1998 to 2006, had been on leave since April amid a federal investigation into a controversial, no-bid $20.5 million contract with a principal training academy, where she once consulted.
Byrd-Bennett wrote one of Corr-Saegert's letters of recommendation for the Parma job. They worked together in Cleveland and Chicago.
In total, 14 people applied for the job; Parma Senior High School Principal Chad Coffman was the only in-house applicant.
Coffman, who the board named the interim superintendent for up to 10 days, while it performed Corr-Saegert's background search, will continue as superintendent while the board continues its search for Jeff Graham's replacement.
Graham started at Lorain schools this week.
The board will begin a full superintendent's search at the start of 2016 with a committee made up of community members, parents, staff, and business leaders, said district spokeswoman Erin Gadd.
By: Lee Alexander
BBB kiss of death
Payback time. All the underhanded dealings with hard working real teachers by BBBs posse should make Saegert and more unemployable. Who will be sent packing next... Markay?