Good reason to be sleepless in Seattle

 I know...that's the second Nora Ephron reference in a week. Sorry.

Last night, the Seattle School Committee voted unanimously to fire Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson (a quick Google of "Seattle Public Schools" for news will give you more than you can read today). Goodloe-Johnson, Broad class of 2003, is being brought down by a financial scandal that has cost the school district $1.8 million. It seems that a well-intentioned attempt to employ minority-owned business became a training center and also an opportunity for the director of that program to embezzle funds (he's left the state). The Seattle Public Schools Community blog has a good summary here (and is well worth reading overall). Full timeline here. The financial officer has also been fired.
Further, it appears that the Superintendent did not know what was going on and had created a system that ensured the public and the school committee didn't know what was going on.
To wit:
Parents and teachers agree:

About two years years ago, the board approved a protocol that choked their line of communication with district employees. Now, some members admit the organization's culture has to change.

Kariuki Nderu, the school district's former internal auditor, said the policy dissuaded him from relaying concerns directly to the school board about contracting practices in the small-works program that he deemed high-risk.
"They made it impossible to go to the school board. I could have been fired for passing over their protocol," said Nderu, who resigned in December. "I had my own family to worry about."
"Virtually every board member has some anecdotal evidence that employees did not feel comfortable communicating with the board members directly," said Michael DeBell, the school board's vice president. "I think the problem was that we didn't leave an obvious channel open for any employees to communicate to the board without going through their superintendent or a manager."
He said district communication wouldn't get high marks if assigned a grade. "I would say probably a 'C.' There were certainly problems."

Parents and teachers agree:

“It’s my way or the highway,” is a frequent summary of Goodloe-Johnson’s management style by those in the community who have observed or dealt with her.
This appears to be a common attitude among school superintendents across the nation who have been trained by the Broad Foundation. Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson was trained at the Broad Foundation’s “Superintendent’s Academy.” This program, created by real estate billionaire Eli Broad who believes in privatizing public education, trains superintendents to run school districts like businesses, with a top-down central authoritarian management style.

An excellent lesson, if we're willing to heed it, on the stifling of dissent and the importance of a public process.If you read the above timeline, for example, you'll find that the administration knew of the problem but did not pass the information on to the school committee. The community blog has further examples of the community and/or the school committee being cut out of the loop.