Thursday, January 13, 2011

Paladino's five points for education reform


Carl Paladino showed up at the Buffalo School Board meeting Wednesday. He outlined a series of changes he deems necessary in order to improve the Buffalo school system....

"My remarks are directed at the collective board, which should be ashamed for its functional paralysis and inability to implement change necessary to deal with core problems," he said.

Paladino gave board members 30 days to deal with the issues he spelled out or resign. If they do neither, Paladino says he will do everything in his power to persuade the Common Council to withhold its funding for the school system.

"I'm giving them 30 days, and then I'm mobilizing people," he said. "I'm good at that."

I know for a fact this is not an idle threat. Please stay tuned, as I hope to relay information to regular readers of this blog as to how they can become involved in the reform efforts. Paladino outlined five areas he feels need to be addressed:

1.) Too many children in special education.

2.)Too many costly state mandates.

3.)The inability to require School Board members to meet certain educational requirements.

4.) State laws giving unions too much of an upper hand in contract negotiations.

5.) Superintendent James A. Williams. The board, he said, should fire the superintendent and launch a national search for a replacement.

South (Park) district board member Lou "Pinocchio" Petrucci offered a diplomatic response to Paladino's demands...

"Carl comes here, and he routinely beats us up," said Louis Petrucci, who represents the Park District. "I don't always agree with everything he has to say. But he speaks because he is passionate. [I think] we could take away the sense of urgency he has, to get kids achieving as well as possible as soon as possible."

In other words, " I have a low opinion of myself, and I'm really afraid of Carl. He prints his own money and could squash any one of us like grapes if he wanted to. I do whatever Phil Rumore tells me to, so I hope Carl doesn't recruit someone to run against me." It's funny. Petrucci was not too supportive of Paladino when he was overheard at the Bishop Timon 5K race in September telling one of Paladino's volunteers he was "on the wrong side" in the gubernatorial race. There are a lot of canaries down by the docks and many of them report to their neighborhood blogger. Don't you think I hear things, Lou?

Petrucci is a recent graduate of the Ray McGurn School of Fibbers. He will lie or exaggerate anything if he thinks it makes him look better. At least McGurn is smart enough to tell believable lies. Pinocchio tells so many whoppers, even he has trouble keeping track of all of them.
(Link) View more Pants On Fire Sound Clips and Liar Sound Clips I don't think it's something Petrucci would have had the guts to say to Carl's face, but I guess that's where we come in. I can't wait to hear what lie Pinocchio uses in denying what my reliable source overheard him say. Looks like Lou's lips continue to sink ships...

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6 comments:

  1. That was me,ahahahaha,Petrucci's a rat fink!!

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  2. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

    MAN you are a funny cat, Mike. Yours is my favorite Buffalo blog.

    And, right on the money here. Carl's just getting started.

    Keep writing!

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  3. Lou messed up first when he should have gotten rid of that principal and superintendent who covered up the abuse charges at school 67. Why doesn't he just vote to lift the residency so that Kane can stop getting abused by you? LOL

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  4. Thank you Michael. I definitely appreciate your kind words. When they throw me in jail, I might be calling Carl to bail me out. (hahaha). Just kidding. I have a feeling big things in the future are going to result your efforts.

    Anonymous, you are correct.Lou does what's best for Lou at that particular moment. He's the classic follower. I like the Kane family. However, after 20 years of coaching, I'm not going to sit back and watch Jim Kane get Phys ed interviews and jobs for kids I coached 15 years ago. If he's looking for competition, he came to the right place.

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  5. Carl offended every parent of a child in special education in Buffalo. the state keeps raising the bar and many kids are falling behind.

    I am working my ass off to raise my kids right and I happen to have one with adhd. I am putting in way more effort than most parents of public school children and because my child is special education I get lumped in with parents whose kids mask adhd because they are abused or neglected. I meet with specialists, I am a freak about diet and my child gets disciplined. I believe in the philosphy of the world won't adapt to my child I have to teach my child to adapt to the world as best as I can. Yet again I get mixed in with dysfunctional families.

    Also I would like to point out something that Carl's charades blocked out of the coverage for the meeting, the wisteria waldorf charter school putting an application in. How about giving that some coverage. Also Waldorf schools can cost less per student and have better results than most conventional approaches. They also have success in special education and again cost less per student. Look it all up, studies are out there. Please pass the word around about wisteria waldorf charter.

    wisteriacharterschool.org

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  6. Anonymous, I can't speak for Carl but I'm sure he's all for helping students with special needs. His plans sometimes offend people because he cuts right through the political correctness most are used to hearing. Others will make warm and fuzzy speeches, yet are never serious about making real changes.

    I recommend you attend future Board meetings and speak your mind on special education. I completely understand what you mean when you talk about others using ADHD as an excuse for bad parenting. I will check out your link. I saw the article in the paper the other day on the Waldorf school. Time permitting, I will try to write a story on it. PS If you look at Carl's past history, I believe he's always been a supporter of successful charter programs.

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