Politics can handicap urban superintendents

We here in S. Florida watched as former Sup't. Crew spent the Miami-Dade district into near bankruptcy. For three years Board Member Dr. Marta Perez warned of the overspending and decried Crew's stonewalling. She had to sue him to get the public record. The list of his administrative staff's overtime payments and those getting over $100,000/year were made public and the taxpayers were disgusted with the excesses. Crew's absences from the district promoting his book and himself added up to over 60 days in one school year alone. His dismissive and insulting attitude towards the 4 vote minority was evident to anyone watching the live broadcasts. As one member attempted to speak about her issues, he said "I don't have to listen to this prattle." The last straw was the withholding of the report documenting the lack of achievement in Crew's Zone experiment that was rolled out extensively before being piloted. This report was held back by Crew for almost 8 months, in spite of repeated requests from the 4 member minority for the material.