Ed Kindall should resign

Why has MNPS BOE member Ed Kindall's (District 7-Downtown-Glencliff) mess not gotten more notice? Channel 4's Dennis Ferrier reported on January 30, 2009 that Attorney Ed Kindall had to be sued by an estate he was handling. To start with Kindall's check written in August for $38,800 bounced! He failed to provide any accounting of where the estate's money went/is to Probate Judge Randy Kennedy despite being granted and extension and has promised to provide a full accounting and the funds by March 6. That means this family has been denied their inheritance for some 10 months. A man with 30 years of lawyering and 24 years on the school board who cannot monitor his own small office's handling of just under $60,000, by his statement, of his client's money is pretty much getting a free pass and is being allowed to oversee some $600 million in taxpayer dollars.

Why does Kindall get away with not providing an accounting to the Judge on January 30? Why does he get another 5 weeks? How is it his office needs an additional 5 weeks to provided a clear accounting of the funds? What other accounts are wrong? Where is the money during all this time? Ferrier says that the attorney for the estate thinks the widow and her three children are owed $121,500. Are criminal charges being considered? How much more of this might be coming now that the community has been given this heads up about Kindall's office practices?

This report from Dennis Ferrier does identify Kindall's attorney as George Thompson but it fails to point out Thompson is a former BOE member. Thompson decided not to run for reelection last August. He and Kindall have worked on the BOE and in the same building for quite some time.

The Tennessean has a few more details. Apparently, Papa Kindall is blaming his daughter Marjorie Tansil (a paralegal per this document). According to the Tennessean she's got other legal issues also.

Oddly, the MNPS BOE Code of Conduct fails to mention any sort of criminal behavior. As close as it comes is this paragraph [emphsis added]:

The Board commits itself and its members to ethical, businesslike and lawful conduct, including proper use of authority and appropriate decorum when acting as Board members.

Maybe this would fall under the conflict of interest clause since both the deceased and his widow formerly worked for MNPS. According to the BOE rules the most they could do is censure him.

Kendall obviously has some personal family and business issues that need his attention and the children of this district, the parents, the taxpayers do not have the time to wait in line during this vital transition time for Kindall to get his personal life in order. If Kindall cannot keep track of his own affairs and cannot fulfill his fiduciary responsibilities as a lawyer, how can we trust him to monitor a budget of $600 million?

Kindall backs down

MNPS BOE member Ed Kindall (District 7-Downtown-Glencliff) backed way down from the harsher rhetoric of NAACP members, his former Board colleague George Thompson and himself earlier this year by offering a motion for the board to establish a date for a study session (maybe four hours) in next two weeks to deal with elements of implementation of the student assignment plan to include transportation for non-contiguous zones, additional resources, choice options and communication with parents. This in an effort clearly establish parameters with the administration according to him. Kindall also stated he has a huge concern to maximize and maintain diversity.

Here's the 13 minute video of that portion of last night's meeting.*



Karen Johnson seconds the motion. Comments from:

MNPS BOE member Steve Glover (District 4-Donelson-Hermitage) wants to know how the date will be established.

Sharon Gentry (District 1) asks for specifics before the meeting so BOE members aren't walking into this meeting cold.

Acting-superintendent Chris Henson says they've got a working group in place looking at implementation and two weeks would be enough time to prepare. He does make clear that some things won't be known until they actually begin working the plan.

Kindall amends his motion to include capitol expenses.

Gentry finishes her request for further information.

MNPS BOE member Gracie Porter (District 5-East Nashville) piggybacks on the capitol expenditure and mentions the current gasoline situation.

Alan Coverstone (District 9-Bellevue) is pleased with the tenor of the current discussion and thinks it's 'great Mr. Kendall has put the motion this way'.

Karen Johnson appeals for quick communication regarding the dates as her calendar, like everyone's, will fill quickly.

MNPS BOE Chairman David Fox (District 8-Hillsboro-West End) calls for the vote and the motion carries unanimously.

Here's the City Paper's coverage and here's the Tennessean's where their Jaime Sarrio gets it exactly right.

Kindall doesn't have enough support on the board to get the rezoning plan reversed, and he abandoned plans to make a motion at Tuesday's meeting to rescind parts of the plan because he feared it would be denied.

Before the election Kindall was all bluster raising the spector of segregation of old. Now, safely ensconced in his seat for another four years he suddenly becomes more reasonable. I don't have a problem with the BOE asking Acting-Superintendent Chris Henson for details about how this will work but for goodness sake, let the man do his job and then judge it by its fruit.

Why wasn't the BOE so watchful and demanding of action plans while Garcia was frittering away the lives and well-being of students for 7 years?

And, just in case anyone has forgotten forcing diversity does not equal a good education. I don't think it's all that successful as a social engineering tool either. Focus on ensuring that students get the educational delivery system that suits their learning style (check with their parents about that) and I believe the rest will take care of itself.



*YouTube only takes 10 minutes of video, Google Video receives it but I keep getting an error message saying it's unavailable. Let's see if Blip.tv can do better.

BOE is unsure--I'm not

It's the sub-headline that tells the real story regarding the MNPS BOE and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean's 'partnership' to find a new superintendent for Metro schools. That sub-headline at the Tennessean is:

"Board members seem unsure about next step in process"

And that's exactly it. We've hired 9 people to run the district, they rubber stamped pretty much everything former superintendent Dr. Pedro Garcia wanted, they were propped up by the business establishment and the unions and haven't been held accountable by the electorate, it was assumed that since they had legal and education experience they were qualified and so here we are. They are unsure about how to hire one employee. Like nearly everything else they've decided to 'hire' out the hard work which will then allow them to avoid accepting all the blame later. They'll let the mayor help, they'll call in the Tennessee School Boards Association and before the final decision is made they'll have created a community group to advise them. What are these folks getting paid to actually do? When things are cruising along they wield that rubber stamp pretty well, but let the system wobble a bit and they just aren't up for the task. One of them needs to grow a backbone and start leading.

From BOE member's Karen Johnson blog:

"...the School Board in a 7-2 (Marsha Warden, Steve Glover, JoAnn Brannon, Mark North, George Thompson, Gracie Porter and Ed Kindall -7) (Karen Johnson, David Fox -2) vote moved the following motion from Board Member George Thompson "I move that we request the involvement and participation of Mayor Karl Dean in helping to identify a candidate for interim director of schools to be selected by this board....then at the appropriate time the Mayor would further be involved to participate with the board in a search for a permanent Director that will be hired by the board."

Karen Johnson offered an amendment to include 'all stakeholders' in this motion. It was voted down:

The amendment failed by a 5-4 vote (Marsha Warden, Steve Glover, Mark North, JoAnn Brannon, and David Fox -5) (Karen Johnson, Ed Kindall, George Thompson, Gracie Porter -4)

From the City Paper:

[Mayor Karl] Dean later added that he believes the interim director position should be filled quickly, and that he believes the best process would be for Dean himself to find members of the community willing and qualified to fill the temporary position. The board could then make the final decision.

This is just a bad idea. first of all...it's not his job. He's got enough on his plate. It is the BOE's job and they need to earn their paychecks. What quickly hiring someone will do is give the appearance of stability and progress in time for the August BOE election.

At this point in time the MNPS staff doesn't need the distraction of taking on a new person and training them in the finer points of running the school system. Something like this will slow them down and eat up valuable resources at a time when we don't have them to spare.

For now, Chris Henson needs to focus on the budget. I suggest the other 'cabinet members' can step up and finish out the school year and begin planning for the next. They've been around long enough to have done this several times, this isn't reinventing the wheel. They can do this. Likely, without the heavy hand of the former superintendent they'll have a great opportunity to shine and show us just how successfully they can work together and actually get the job done.

This season of change is a great time to see which of the BOE members is up to the task of actually running the system and has earned the right to stay on the BOE. Pay attention and remember this August. Remember, all but North, gave former superintendent Pedro Garcia a hefty raise and voted to renew his contract, Porter once, the rest over, and over and over again.










From left to right:
Ed Kindall on the BOE 23 years since 7/9/1985,
George Thompson, more than 12 years: 4 months on the BOE in 1991 and then back on 8/1/1996,
MNPS BOE Chair Marsha Warden on the BOE since 8/24/2004 ,
Gracie Porter elected in August of 2006 and
Mark North since spring of 2007.

Rezone reschedule

A bit of scrambling with the schedule for the rezoning public hearing previously scheduled for November 15 at East Literature. It's been moved to December 4. Also, they're making people sign up before speaking so if you've got something to say, show up early and sign the speaker's sheet.

MNPS reschedules public hearing on student assignment

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Nov. 9, 2007) – Metro Schools has delayed a planned public hearing on the proposed student assignment plan for 2008-2009 to allow for additional community meetings and input.

The hearing, originally scheduled for Nov. 15, will now be held Tuesday, Dec. 4, at East Literature Magnet, 110 Gallatin Road. The hearing will begin at 6:30 p.m., with sign-ups from 5-6:15 p.m. for those wishing to speak. The original date for the public hearing, Nov. 15, will now be a Board work session on the plan, to be held at 6 p.m. at the Central Administration Building on Bransford Avenue.

“It is important to every member of the Board that we provide as many opportunities as possible for our communities to review and respond to this proposed plan,” said Board Chair Marsha Warden. “While we have already held numerous meetings, it became apparent that Nov. 15 was too soon for us to have a public hearing when we had community meetings scheduled after that date.”

Still no meeting hosted by 22 year BOE member Ed Kindall whose term expires this August. No response to my e-mail asking if he was going to host one at all.



















Here's the current schedule snipped from the MNPS.org website.

October 22 – Antioch High School at 6:30 p.m. - hosted by Karen Johnson, Jo Ann Brannon
October 25 – Hillwood High School at 6:30 p.m. - hosted by Marsha Warden
October 29 – Madison School at 6 p.m. - hosted by Mark North
October 30 – Stratford High School at 6 p.m. - hosted by Gracie Porter
November 1 - Napier Elementary at 6 p.m. - hosted by Steve Glover
November 5 – John Early at 6 p.m. - hosted by Marsha Warden
November 6 – Bass Middle at 6:30 p.m. - hosted by George Thompson
November 8 – Brick Church at 6:30 p.m. - hosted by George Thompson
Monday, November 12 - Maplewood High at 6 p.m. - hosted by Gracie Porter
Thursday, November 15 - Board Work Session at 5 p.m., Central Administration Building
Monday, November 26 - J.T. Moore Middle at 6:30 p.m. - hosted by David Fox
Tuesday, December 4 - Public Hearing to be held at East Literature Magnet at 6:30 p.m. Those wishing to speak should sign-up prior to the hearing, from 5-6:15 p.m.