More Travels with Shelly

Back in May, Page One Kentucky was raising questions about the amount (and nature) of travel Jefferson County Superintendent Shelly Berman was engaed in - what with all the failing schools and other pressing business in Louisville and all.

At Page One, Jake Payne counted "a total of 18 missed work days for non-JCPS-related meetings... throughout the school year."

But Berman told KSN&C, that over a two-year period (Dec 2007-Jan 2009), at most it should have "calculated to about 9 days out of the district rather than 18."

I asked for comment from a few Jefferson County Board of Education members and no one wanted to comment. But finding no tangible evidence of concern, I blew it all off saying, "Perhaps more information will come to light that will cause me to change my assessment, but at this point it sure doesn't look like it."

This week, in the wake of revelations at the Bluegrass Airport, The Kentucky League of Cities and the Kentucky Association of Counties, Adam Walser at WHAS TV thought it might be a good idea to check up on Louisville school district executives. Are they living high-on-the-hog off tax dollars as well? Surely not.

This from Walser at WHAS by way of KSBA:

Are Dr. Sheldon Berman’s travels

raising funds, and prominence or are they excessive?

Using an Open Records request, WHAS11 discovered that Dr. Sheldon Berman took 40 days of professional leave during a 13 month period.

Berman says he’s raising JCPS’s stature, but local education leaders say they want him home more often.

During a time of tight budgets and layoffs, most school districts are cutting down on travel. In Jefferson County Public Schools, teachers and administrators are limited to one district-funded trip per year for professional development.

But we’ve learned that Superintendent Dr. Sheldon Berman is on the road a lot more than that.

WHAS11 filed open records requests to see how many days Sheldon Berman has taken Professional Leave and to find out where he’s going.

We determined that between June 30th, 2008 and July 31th of this year, Berman spent 40 work days, or two full months, on the road.

While Berman says much of that time was spent seeking new sources of funding and raising the district’s profile, some local education leaders believe he’s spending too much time away from the office.

The destinations reach across thousands of miles to Austin, Boston, Orlando, Washington, California, Canada, and even Cape Town, South Africa.

These are not the travels of a pilot or a movie star, but of Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Sheldon Berman. He sits on several organizations’ boards and often attends national and international educator meetings.

“The vast majority of any travel I’ve had has been paid for by other organizations or grants,” said Berman. “We’ve had some outstanding grants.”

Berman says part of his job as Superintendent of the nearly 100,000 student Jefferson County Public Schools district is to meet with foundations, businesses and government leaders.

“If the travel is related to a grant that brings a great deal of money into the district and benefits the district and the students, then that travel’s probably worthwhile,” said Brent McKim, President of the Jefferson County Teachers Association.

But McKim says all trips are not worth Berman’s $1,000 a day salary.

“Certainly at that salary the superintendent makes, it’s appropriate for him to look at that. It’s appropriate for the school board to look at that,” McKim said.

Some school board members are taking a closer look than ever. “If I’m on the fence on go here or not go there, I’d like the superintendent to be here in Louisville, Kentucky,” said School Board Member Stephen Imhoff. Imhoff says Berman’s main job is overseeing children’s education.

This year, only 33 of the system’s 133 schools met “No Child Left Behind” goals, representing a 13% drop from last year. In August, Berman received a “C” from the majority of respondents to a teacher’s survey. Teacher’s used the words “hypocrite”, “arrogant”, and “self serving” to describe him.

Former JCTA Executive Director Steve Neal, who sat on the selection committee that brought Berman from a small district in Massachusetts in 2007, is now critical of Berman. “Dr. Berman is way out of the norm in the amount of travel,” said Neal. “He’s hired at almost 300-thousand dollars a year to run a billion dollar business and he has no place being gone so much.”

Neal says some of Berman’s trips were not necessary, including a visit to Manitoba, Canada to see polar bears with the director of the Louisville Zoo last October. Neal says at that time, he was trying to address important school-related issues with Berman. “I think it was a poor judgment of timing to go look at polar bears,” said Neal.

Berman says the trip was important. “I think it drew attention to one, the endangered species and two, the work that the Louisville Zoo is doing,” Berman said. Berman was appointed to the Zoo Board after the trip, but that isn’t why he said he took it. “I did a broadcast back to four schools here while I was on that trip,” he said.

School board member Imhoff questions its impact. “I even looked up the North Pole on the Internet, so that was a little bit of a benefit to me,” Imhoff said.

In late May, Berman left the United States again, attending the World Congress on Civic Education Conference, in Cape Town, South Africa, where he was a presenter.

Since wind and ice storms pushed back the end of school, the trip ended up corresponding with the last week of classes.

“We did hear from a number of our teacher members who were concerned about the superintendent being away during the last week of school,” said Brent McKim. “And they point out that they’re not allowed to take personal days or take off during the last week of school, even though they have a daughter or a son getting
married.” “They only work a 187 day year and I work a 260 day year. That’s a much different context,” said Berman.

Berman missed every single graduation.

“Not attending graduations is symbolic in a negative way,” said Steve Neal. “It sends a wrong signal to the staff, the teachers, the parents and the students.”

“I Think the only thing I really missed was the graduations. I really didn’t miss the end of school. In fact, I was in touch with the district all the way through that by both cell phone and e-mail,” Berman said.

That’s not acceptable to school board member Imhoff. “We would not like for that to happen again,” Imhoff said. “The last few weeks of school are very important.”

Berman says there was another reason he didn’t alter his plans.

“At the end of that, which was after school ended here, I planned a vacation attached to that,” Berman said. “So that was one period of time when I actually was gonna take a little bit of a break.”

Despite criticism of his travels, Berman says it’s vital to bringing JCPS more national
prominence. “There’s a fine balance between restricting funding and preserving resources and saying we have to be out there and hustle for more resources. And at a time like this, we need to pursue as many competitive grants as we possibly can.

Most of the costs of Dr. Berman’s trips were paid by outside sources. In most cases, the money didn’t come directly from the school district’s budget.

So, Page One counted 18 days.

Based directly on information from Berman, KSN&C counted 5 days from Dec 2007 to June 2008 and another 4 by January 2009 - for a total of 9 days.

WHAS's open records request showed that between June 30th, 2008 and July 31th of this year, Berman spent 40 work days on the road.

If Berman refuted WHAS's claim it didn't get into the story; but that seems unlikely for a professional journalist.

So unless Berman traveled 35 days between Jan 22 and July 31st of 2009, it sure looks like I got myself ...snookered. I have written to Berman for clarification.

There's more; again from Walser:

Superintendent’s credit card bills

reveal taste for fine dining

When WHAS11 asked for Dr. Sheldon Berman’s credit card statements, we discovered expensive meals at some of Louisville’s finest establishments. Some education leaders believe now’s not the time for those types of expenses.



Jefferson County Public Schools has nearly 100,000 students and 16,000 employees, so what’s a few hundred dollars here and there?

It’s a lot, when you’re laying off dozens of janitors and cafeteria workers and cutting back on district programs, according to some local education leaders.

In this time of budget cutbacks, we thought it was only fair to take a look at Dr. Sheldon Berman’s credit card bills.

The expense reports look like those you might expect from the Chief Executive Officer of any large corporation here in Louisville. After all, JCPS Superintendent Sheldon Berman’s budget is bigger than most at almost $1 billion.

But the difference is that these bills aren’t being paid by shareholder, they’re being picked up by you, the taxpayer.

We found bills for meals at some of Louisville’s most exclusive restaurants, including Lilly’s, Napa River Grill, Seviche and Le Relais.

Dr. Berman says the $200 or $300 dinners are few and far between.

“You would find very few of those on my credit card bill,” said Berman. “If you found more than 4 or 5, I’d be surprised.”

But we found twice that many bills from three or four star restaurants at a cost to the district of more than $1,400.

The delicacies Dr. Berman’s guests enjoyed included crusted sea bass, snapper and trout. Berman says the expensive meals were mainly to reward outside review committees and to impress applicants for some of the school district’s top jobs.

“When you’re trying to bring somebody from a major district and you’re trying to show them that Louisville’s a great place to be, you want to share with them not the most expensive restaurants because these are not the most expensive in Louisville, but a nice place that would interest them and make them feel more at home,” he said.

School board member Stephen Imhoff says he was not aware of all the meals. “You just mentioned this to me. Sometimes, school board members are the last people to know things,” Imhoff said. “Because of the economic situation, we need to save as much money as we can,” said Imhoff. “A hundred dollars here and a hundred dollars there is significant.”

“It sends a horrible signal to people that are working hard everyday to make a living and paying taxes to see somebody do so much spending,” said former Jefferson County Teachers Association Executive Director Steve Neal. “So much money that could be better directed toward the education of children.”

We also discovered a bill the district paid for a $300 a night hotel room.

Not [the way] teachers would like to see money spent, especially at a time with declining student test scores, [Neal says.] “They see textbooks. They see reading materials. They see extended school services, even if it’s only for a few kids,” said Neal. “If we’re in a hard budget time, I share in that pain of that time as well,” said Berman.

Berman says he’s declined his allotted raise in recognition of the economic downturn, which was much more than all of the expenses at fancy restaurants on his credit card.

And your superintendent says cutting back on costs like travel and fine dining could damage JCPS’s image nationally.

“You want to be very careful to not lose the prominence that Jefferson County has achieved in the national arena,” said Berman. Prominence Berman says helps bring in millions of dollars in grant money…for what he considers a very small investment from local taxpayers.

Berman told us that he travels and spends far less now than he did as superintendent of the Hudson Public Schools system in Massachusetts, which is much smaller.

Writing at The Ville Voice, Jake is doing the happy dance.

Told Ya So: Berman Wasting Your Money

Jefferson County Public Schools superintendent Sheldon Berman loves to spend your tax dollars (and grant money) on fancy travel around the world. Places like Austin, Boston, Orlando, Washington, California, Canada, South Africa...

Ousted Board Member Blames Williams

As previously reported, former Kentucky Board of Education member Steve Neal lost his seat when Senate leadership chose not to bring his confirmation up for a vote. Since the law requires confirmation by both houses - Neal is out.

KSN&C tried to catch Neal over the past few days to ask for his thoughts on the dismissal but our schedules didn't mesh. Fortunately, Toni Konz caught up with him.

This from C-J:

Neal, who resigned as a registered lobbyist for the teachers union after his appointment but maintained his position as executive director, said yesterday that he blames Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville.

"He played small-minded, petty politics instead of doing what was right for children in Kentucky," said Neal, a Democrat. "I had a bull's-eye on my forehead, and it was
put there by David Williams."

Neal said Williams wanted to privatize pension plans of state employees and proposed "devastating changes" to the state's health insurance -- two things the union successfully lobbied against.

"I am quite certain that this was a personal grudge against me and against JCTA," Neal said.

Williams did not return several calls for comment yesterday. He released a statement through Baez-Schrader saying that Senate leaders reviewed the resumes of all the appointees.

"The resumes were thoroughly reviewed in complete consultation with the Senate Democrats," Williams said. "The confirmations speak for themselves."

Governor Beshear expressed disappointment.

Today C-J's David Hawpe expressed something else.

At first blush, it looks like Steve Neal got a raw deal...

Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, D-Louisville, harrumphed that, "up until Thursday (before adjournment) I was told there was not a problem. But then (Sen. Ed Worley, D-Richmond, the minority leader) came up to me and told me that (Senate President) David Williams did not want to embarrass Steve Neal, but that his confirmation would not come up."...

Of course, one could just as easily argue that Neal made himself a target.

In addition to opposing Williams' ideas for changing the state's public pension and health insurance programs, Neal and other teachers union leaders saw to it that JCTA gave Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Beshear almost $200,000 for his 2007 campaign.

That's the kind of thing likely to get the attention of Kentucky's most powerful state-based Republican....

If his recent attacks on Jefferson County Superintendent Sheldon Berman are any example, he would seem to know a lot about targeting one's opponents personally.

In the Jan. 21 edition of JCTA's "Action" newsletter, Neal mocked the superintendent, saying, "I can only describe Dr. Berman's dealings (with the county's teachers) as 'stink, stank, stunk,' We can only hope that he will stop pushing the heads of his employees beneath the cold, murky water and seek a better way to help them stay afloat."

Berman, he declared, was guilty of trying to "stick it to the little guy" while doing "nothing to help JCPS."

This is rhetoric more often associated with a Teamsters local, not the local teachers union. And I say that as the son of a Teamster.

Did Neal really think Republican lawmakers would forget his broadsides, including those in the Feb. 18 "Action" headlined "Proficiency on the Cheap," in which he claimed that the state's "decision-makers have no idea what it takes to teach children in our public schools?"

Maybe he really did expect them to laugh along with him, when they read this Neal put-down: "There are times I have chuckled when legislators blame (the Kentucky Education Reform Act) and teachers. I would love to put them in a classroom alone for one week and see how they fare."

Maybe he expected Williams and his GOP caucus to forget not only the serious policy differences and the teachers' huge Democratic political gifts but also Neal's taunt that
honchos in both parties were guilty of throwing "simple-minded solutions at complex socio-economic problems," as well as "rampant political posturing" and playing "the blame game."

That sounds like the kind of stuff I might throw around, but then I don't expect David Williams to have the Senate confirm me for the state school board. Or anything else...

Senate Gives Ky Board Member Steven Neal the Heave Ho Without Lifting a Finger

Now "former" Kentucky Board of Education member Steven B. Neal failed to gain confirmation from the Kentucky Senate yesterday. This follows his unanimous approval in the House.

Lacking confirmation in both houses, Neal is no longer a member of the board.

This apparently occurred when the Senate declined to present or act upon a resolution confirming his appointment.

KDE spokesperson Lisa Gross told KSN&C,

"What I can say about that is that he is no longer a member of the board. The Governor may appoint someone to replace him, and that person would serve unconfirmed until the next session of the General Assembly."

According to Mark Hebert a number of Governor Beshear's appointments to important state boards lost their seats because the House or Senate failed to confirm their appointments.

The republican controlled Senate adjourned after approving four of the five members of the Kentucky Board of Education who were up for confirmation. The odd man out is a union man, Steve Neal, who is the Executive Director of the Jefferson County Teachers Association.

So Steve Neal was simply left behind.

Governor Beshear's spokesperson, Jay Blanton told KSN&C,

“We will be going back now as quickly as possible to review potential appointments for this important position at a critical time in the effort to move forward with school reforms. We’re disappointed that Steve was not confirmed as he already had, in a very short period of time, made significant contributions to the school board.”

Hawpe Looks Silly while Doing Good

Courier-Journal columnist David Hawpe had occasion recently to meet with some consultants who were interested in understanding how big charitable givers could help boost the numbers of college degree-holders in Louisville. He recommend the Jefferson County schools as a good place to start. Then, he had second thoughts.

This from C-J:

...So there I was, advising philanthropic advisers, telling them to think JCPS, but then I pick up a couple of recent issues of the Jefferson County Teachers Association "Action" bulletin and find executive director Steve Neal verbally mauling Superintendent Sheldon Berman for alleged mistreatment of his employees. "In the words of the 'Grinch Who Stole Christmas,' " wrote Neal, "I can only describe Dr. Berman's dealings as 'stink, stank, stunk.' We can only hope that he will stop pushing the heads of his employees beneath the cold, murky water…."

Lest anybody think its was just the feisty Neal and not the good and gentle JCTA president Brent McKim who have problems with the current leadership at Newburg Road, they both signed a Feb. 11 "Action" condemnation that begins, "The simple fact is that there is no working relationship." Their piece ends, "In a recent e-mail … Dr. Berman called Mr. Neal a liar. But the facts don't lie."

This produced a point-by-point rebuttal from Berman, who challenges the JCTA leadership's claims on everything from non-renewal of some teachers' contracts to responsibility for unresolved grievances and arbitrations, from the implementation of new sick leave pay procedures and pay schedules to Berman's position on salary increases. They can't even agree whether the district has a big budget shortfall. Each side bitterly insists the other is unwilling to collaborate.

So here I am advising people to advise other people to commit their money to more progress in Jefferson County Public Schools. Meanwhile, the district's administrative and labor leadership has been split wider than a scalded hog.

Don't I look silly.

Quick Q and A with 5 KBE members from KSBA

This from KSBA:

What is the #1 problem facing Kentucky schools?

Can the state board as a body do anything about the funding situation?

A bill to scrap CATS failed in the 2008 legislative session. Do you feel there’s anything in CATS that needs to be changed?

Austin Moss, Steve Neal, Dorie Combs, Billy Harper and Brigette Ramsey chat with KSBA.