Here’s the challenge, folks. Find any business entity anywhere that is carrying an “administrator at large” on the books at $133,000 a year.
Yet that is exactly what Peter Gorman has CMS doing with former Waddell High principal Edward Ellis. Gorman fired Ellis from that job, parked him at Providence High as an assistant principal for a spell and now Ellis has joined the legions of Ed Center administrative mob.
Thus Gorman is continuing CMS’ long history of rewarding failure and padding headcount. Of all the reforms Gorman needed to make, I truly thought this would be the easiest for him to pull off as an outsider. Hasn’t worked out that way. Instead, Gorman has grafted his own org chart and new hires on top the existing CMS structure. The result is more bureaucracy and deadwood than ever.
Just ask any CMS teacher. Just this weekend I had one CMS vet tell me that no one in the district should be paid more than principals, not with the all the responsibility for results on their heads. Yet that is far from the case with floaters like Ellis or communications czarina Nora Carr ($131,000) far outranking most principals in the CMS pay scale.
There seems to be a rush to praise Peter Gorman’s “leadership,” but for the life of me I do not see much. The man does give a good press conference. But press conferences have little to do with what goes on in the classroom.
Not so the quality of your instructional staff.
Bonus Observation: It is great that Ann Doss Helms and the Uptown paper of record did this CMS salary core sample. But I have to note that The Rhino Times has been printing city, county, and CMS salaries — all of them — for years now.
