Superintendent deflects responsibility, insults, up to the very last minute

The Times Union did a piece talking about our one percent growth in third grade reading. It's true we aren't where we want to be and we have a long way to go but lets  acknowledge that and appreciate it.

However, I can't help but wonder what we could have done had we had a curriculum that valued books above handouts and used a curriculum teachers both helped to pick and supported. I would like to think we could have done much better than one percent, that maybe we would have matched or exceeded the state gains of 4 percent, but we are who we are and superintendent Vitti is who he is as well and that's a poor excuse of a leader and I will let his own words explain why that is.

He led off his comments to the Times Union with the following:

�This was a low-performing cohort as compared to the one before them,� Vitti said, adding they probably needed more phonics instruction in their younger grade levels.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/education/2017-05-19/duval-s-third-graders-slightly-improve-state-reading-test-hundreds

He doesn't mention that this cohort of third graders has been in the system for as long as he has been super here or that if he thought they needed more phonics he was the one person who could have made sure that happened. This cohort is the first one to have come up completely through his curriculum and leadership choices. Like no other cohort, he is responsible for how they performed and what does he do? He insults them.

Hey parents of third graders, did you know your children when compared to other recent cohorts, they just didn't measure up? Hey superintendent Vitti did you ever think that maybe that's because this group was immersed in your lousy curriculum choices?

The thing that Vitti did best was his ability to deflect responsibility and lay blame, whether it was on and these are things he has said, our short bench, our poor math teachers, the state or a low performing cohort.

Now if you read the piece he does mention the hard work of the third grade team but that is almost like an after thought to him.

Being the super has to be a tough job but you know what else is a tough job? Being a third grade teacher in Duval county and I hope the next super give them a better chance at being successful.

Mark Woods did an op-ed in the Times Union today where he talks about how Vitti will work right up to the last minute before he heads to Detroit, well he does something else and that's by continuously deflecting responsibility and insulting the good people of the district he shows what a poor leader he is and how the District will be better off without him.

http://jacksonville.com/metro/mark-woods/columnists/2017-05-18/mark-woods-while-he-was-here-vitti-was-non-stop

Good luck Detroit, you are going to need it.