Connecticut Post Article
Diaz fired from latest school job
LINDA CONNER LAMBECK lclambeck@ctpost.com
Former Bridgeport Supt. of Schools Sonia Diaz is out of another job, and possibly getting the boot as well is a former city public facilities director who followed her to the Las Cruces school district in New Mexico.
The Las Cruces Board of Education voted Monday night to fire Diaz, who had only been on the job since July.
Reached by cell phone Tuesday, Diaz called the parting "a difference of style and opinions."
She added that John Marsillio, recently hired as the business manager for the Las Cruces public schools and Bridgeport's public facilities director during the administration of former Mayor Joseph P. Ganim, would also be leaving. School officials there, however, did not respond to inquiries about Marsillio's departure.
Diaz said Marsillio and Clarence Tolbert, a former Bridgeport school official, were part of her transition team and that neither would be staying.
Diaz, who went by Sonia Diaz Salcedo when she worked in Bridgeport, was hired in July by the Las Cruces school board at an annual salary of $160,000.
Earlier this month, she was put on a paid administrative leave, but Las Cruces school officials wouldn't say why publicly.
Board members told local media none of Diaz's actions were illegal, but that her management style led to low employee morale.
The board's vote to "discharge" her was unanimous and, according to a report in the Las Cruces Sun-News, was greeted by applause from school employees in the audience.
Under New Mexico employment laws, Diaz has 20 days to appeal the decision. Diaz said Tuesday, however, she will be leaving.
"I've got a lot of options," she said, acknowledging she was having a house built in the area. She added she had no idea if she was entitled to a severance package.
"I'm not thinking about that. I'm looking ahead," she said.
Las Cruces is an urban district of 23,700 students, about the same number of students as Bridgeport.
Diaz was superintendent in Bridgeport from 2000 until 2004, when the Board of Education decided not to renew her contract. Two days after accepting a buyout package from the district, she took a new job as deputy superintendent in Miami. She lasted in Miami just a few months.
Marsillio had been hired by the Las Cruces school district on Nov. 1 on a part-time basis and was expected to go full time on Jan. 1, said Jo Galvin, a district spokeswoman.
When Diaz was in Bridgeport, she tried to hire Marsillio to oversee its school construction projects, even as he continued to work for the city. The school board approved the plan, but the City Council rejected it.
Marsillio was public facilities director in Bridgeport for 13 years. He was fired in 2003, shortly after John M. Fabrizi succeeded Ganim, who resigned in the wake of his felony conviction for rigging city contracts. Connecticut Post 11/22/06
posted by LCPS1 @ 4:17 PM
4 Comments:
If I read one more comment about Louis D. Martinez' supposed "integrity", I will just throw up. He started this district to ruin. Diaz just helped it along. Thank goodness he is far, far away. I hope Bob Ogas drags Marinez and Briseno and the rest of them into court in a civil suit and reveals the truth to the community. The weasels will squeal then.
What was amazing to me was....she made almost as much in one month for her car allowance than our whole science department did for all course sections for the whole school year. How important is the super anyway? Why should we pay so much for someone like Diaz, with a PhD. or EdD or without? A PhD in education is a totally worthless degree. Just look at what some of the PhD folks in the district did their dissertation on. What ends up happening is, someone is working on a dissertation and we end up being the lab rats for the alleged research they are doing to support the dissertation. I hope we learned that just because someone has an ivy league education, it doesn't mean they are competent. Ivy leaguers have vast knowledge in their field but 9 times out of 10, they can't put it to practice.....just ask any MD who they would rather have as an intern, an ivy leaguer or someone from a medical school where clinical practice is a big part of the curriculum. Almost always, they one with more clinical practice. Find someone who is fresh out of the classroom, don't give them so much in the discretionary fund, and someone who doesn't micro-manage. That mean Liz is out only because of the micro-managing thing.
This is a big THANK YOU! I think the originator of this blog has done an incredible public service to Las Cruces in giving LCPS staff, educators and the community the opportunity to learn the truth about what was going on in regards to Diaz. It also renewed my already existing faith and admiration in just how smart, caring and informed these folks to whom I have been trusting my kids to everyday for almost 20 years truly are.
I would hate to see this blog be "shut down", as some have suggested, because it would return us all to the dark days of before: a lack of transparency at the board and administrative levels of the school system, a silencing of meaningful dissent among the professionals working with our kids, and a lack of information from and to parents about what goals for success we are using for our kids, and what strategies we are implementing to get us there. As parents, there really is no place other than board meetings or belonging to an advisory council where we can not only hear what's going on, but comment ourselves on what we would like to see happen in the schools.
I would like to suggest that at the proper time, this blog be enhanced or expanded to include forums on these and other topics in education. For those who didn't like the overly personal or gossipy aspect of some of the opinions here, comment moderation could be an added feature of the postings, so commenters would be motivated to use a more "civilized" (ha ha) tone in their writing. It may be a lot of work, but possibly it could be accomplished, much like everything else in our education system, by the blog originator bringing in trusted parents, teachers and professionals to help keep it going.
Just for clarification any settlement to Bob Ogas
will come from risk management not from the operating budget of LCPS, the responsibility of performing any duty incorrectly lies in the hands of the administration and liability insurance is carried for screw ups.
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