Time to re-read the post entitled – “Paul Vallas’ No Bid Contract with the Public Consulting Group”

Feb 12

jonpeltoBridgeport, Mayor Bill Finch, Paul Vallas , , 8 Comments

With a rudderless Mayor, the CT Post is reporting “Frustrated city residents clear their own streets,” “Dig-out continues; more schools, roads closed” and “Some roads may not be plowed till Sunday, state calls for volunteers.”

Meanwhile, Bridgeport Superintendent of Schools, Paul Vallas whines about needing more time to force kids to practice taking the Connecticut Mastery Tests.  As the CTPost’s Linda Lembeck writes, “The last thing Bridgeport school officials say they want is for students to miss two weeks of school before state standardized testing that starts March 1. But that just may happen.  Interim Schools Superintendent Paul Vallas said Monday he has reached out to the teacher’s union to see if it would consider switching a scheduled Feb. 18-22 winter vacation with the three to five days students will miss this week because of the blizzard cleanup. At the same time, Vallas said he has asked state officials to consider changing the testing schedule for the Connecticut Mastery Test and Connecticut Academic Performance Test.”

What an extraordinary statement – this isn’t about losing instructional time.  That will be made up regardless.  This is about having enough “practice time” so that students will get a few points higher on meaningless standardized tests.

Well not meaningless, considering the test scores are the core of the education reformers warped sense of success.

Meanwhile, the CT Post (and Vallas) are silent when it comes to Vallas’ use of no-bid contracts and the resulting waste of time and taxpayer funds.

For those who missed this post over the weekend, here it is again.

Paul Vallas’ No Bid Contract with the Public Consulting Group

It is a familiar tune.

When Superintendent of Schools Paul Vallas arrived in Bridgeport, he quickly signed a series of no-bid contracts.

One was with the Public Consulting Group (PCG), a company that he had done business with when he was the CEO of the Chicago School System and again when he was the CEO of the Philadelphia Schools.  In fact, PCG even features the Chicago and Philadelphia projects on its website.

Word of the contract came when a memo arrived from Team Vallas announcing that the school system would be dropping the software that the Bridgeport Schools had been using for their special education program.  Gone was the software program called Clarity and special education teachers, guidance counselors and others would be using the Public Consulting Group’s software package, called EASY IEP.

The memo didn’t explain why Vallas had chosen to make this big shift, it just instructed teachers and guidance counselors that the change was being made.

Additional memos went out, payments were made, and even more memos went out.

July 1, 2012 rolled round, but no EASY IEP

September 1, 2012 rolled around, but no EASY IEP

October, November, December and still no EASY IEP

Below are a few of the Wait, What? updates on the issue

A few questions to ask Paul Vallas during his evaluation and before talk of a contract extension.;

Vallas’ “No Bid” contracts continue to haunt Bridgeport School System;

The price of Paul Vallas’ no-bid contracts continues to grow…;

Will No One Stand Up For the Taxpayers of Bridgeport?;

Team Vallas Falsifies Documents to Avoid Competitive Bidding;

Hey Bridgeport; Vallas Has Your Credit Card and He’s Going Wild (Part II of II);

Hey Bridgeport; Vallas Has Your Credit Card and He’s Going Wild (Part I of II);

Vallas on Spending Spree – Another Major Contract For Another Firm He’s Used Before.

January and February … still no EASY IEP.

Now Paul Vallas has announced he wants his contract extended another year.

The Bridgeport Board of Trustees is going through an evaluation process.  Superintendent Vallas reports that he has done an outstanding job.  On January 30, 2013 Vallas even provided the Board of Education with an eight page self-assessment that would be the envy of any administrator in the nation.

Of course, there was no mention of the dozen no-bid contracts that are costingConnecticut and Bridgeport taxpayers $12 million and counting.

There was no mention of the no-bid contact with the Public Consulting Group (PCG).

There was no mention of the fact that when it comes to tracking special education students, teachers are still using the Clarity Software and that as of February 11, 2013 there is still no sign of the software known as EASY IEP.

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  • Linda174

    The Recovery School district created by Vallas is in shambles now. Bridgeport…here is your future under Vallas..wake up and pay attention. You are being sold a crock of $h#%!

    The study also found that parents are willing to make the needed sacrifices to get their kids to the best available schools, but many would prefer community schools close to home. Common anecdotes like putting elementary school students on buses at 5 a.m. to go to a school on the other side of the city need to be addressed, it said.

    The report also recommends that policy makers work to “provide parents with quality school choices close to home by increasing the number of and capacity at high quality schools in under served neighborhoods.”

    Seven years out, Ayers said it is also time to see a slow down in the constant mobility of the current environment. “The evidence is clear that kids need stability to learn,” he said.

    As usual, read the comments. Epic fail, Paul!

    http://theadvocate.com/news/neworleans/5142994-148/report-says-new-orleans-parents

  • Linda174

    One more thing…and remember this started when Vallas landed in NOLA after Katrina…another disaster as opportunity moment for the wizard:

    From Mary K. Bellisario, VP of St. Tammany Parish School Board (Louisiana) :

    The Associated Press at least printed some of the truth about the RSD:

    “However, New Orleans schools run by the Recovery School District still have a D grade on average while those outside of New Orleans received an F in the latest round of grades released in October.”

    They didn’t print what the School Performance Score (SPS) for the RSD is, or how many schools in the RSD aren’t even reporting their scores because they’re in the re-chartering process due to academic failure. They don’t have to report for three years. This could take that RSD average even lower.

    Too bad the AP didn’t go further and print that the RSD — in N.O. and in other parts of the state — still ranks last out of 70 school districts in our state, where they have ranked for the past seven years. This would have put Jindal’s remarks more in perspective.

    Last year’s stats show that out of 70 districts only two–the RSD run by BESE, and St. Helena partially run by BESE–were actually “failing” districts. Their reported SPS’s didn’t reach the passing grade.

    Last year every other school district in the state — run by locally elected school boards, not BESE — was above “failing.”

    But Virginia and other states will not be told that.

    http://dianeravitch.net/2013/02/11/fun-and-games-in-reporting-about-the-new-orleans-non-miracle/

    Search Ravitch for RSD, New Orleans and Vallas.

    Can you imagine if a teacher has this track record for failure?

  • Apartheid First

    Schools are now a growth industry for greedy mercenaries.
    A civic institution, such as a school, should never exist for the profit hungry. Paul Vallas is an outrage and it is just unbelievable that his anti-children policies have been tolerated for so long. Is it any coincidence that he came in on the heels of Stefan Pryor?

  • Jesse

    The only deficit Connecticut is really facing is moral leadership

    • jonpelto

      Ha! You win best comment of the day hands down!

  • Castles Burning

    No, it is not about losing instructional time as that was done with the two weeks of unnecessary benchmark testing (which truly are meaningless–with a third to follow in June). But as you say, the test scores determine how “successful” a school is and hence whether it deserves to remain independent or be “taken over” by the state.

    Unfortunately, CAPT scores have become more important in this test-driven rush to condemn what is happening in schools climate and the “crime” is that they have become less an indicator of student performance than of teacher and school performance. I worry how much students may be aware of this “pressure” that is unduly placed upon them.

    As for the way (or with how many school systems at a time) that Vallas conducts business, I do not expect that you will be hearing about that in The Post or from Vallas. What is truly happening to the students of Bridgeport will not be found there; references will be found here thankfully so that not all need plead ignorance of what has been happening since Vallas came to town, something so captivating, that he does not want to leave–and he has the full support of those who brought him in. These are such sad (heart-wrenching) days for education in Connecticut and I wonder why so many are seemingly not paying attention. As Linda 174 continues to point out, as have prior posts and links posted by readers, the damage that Vallas has done in prior places keeps on GROWING.

    Why can’t we say, “NO. We don’t want that for the students of Bridgeport nor for the State,” since the direct link between the two in terms of financial dependence has been demonstrated here several times. Vallas is not only bad for Bridgeport but for the entire state and yet when will this message–loaded with prior documentation as he came here not to assess what the city’s students needed but to “re-do” what he had done before–be heard? The time to stop him is now–before the BOE says GOOD JOB; we have no serious questions that might jeopardize you continuing to be the acting superintendent nor about how you will become credited to truly have the expertise expected of one.