Grosse Pointe school board members
not warm to retiree in HR seat
With Tom Harwood's ascension from human resources chief to superintendent of the Grosse Pointe public school system, Harwood wants to bring back a familiar face – Larry Lobert, who held the HR job in the district from 2002 to 2007, when he retired to take a similar position in suburban Chicago. Harwood asked the Board of Education at its Monday (Oct. 24) meeting to consider hiring Lobert as his replacement.
Lobert’s knowledge of bargaining contracts, teacher tenure laws and the teacher evaluation process would be extremely beneficial to the district, Harwood said. Board member Fred Minturn, however, said he thought the district would be better served by an “outside candidate.”
“This would be an opportunity for us to bring in some truly new experience and blood into the organization. Bringing back a gentleman who retired from us once is really not a solution in my mind,” he said.
Minturn suggested the board consider Lobert as a temporary consultant while continuing to look for a more permanent candidate, an option board president John Steininger supported.
Brendan Walsh, board treasurer, said he also would not support hiring Lobert, who would be drawing a pension and a salary simultaneously.
“I’m convinced that the single largest problem plaguing public schools is the retirement, legacy, pension and health care costs. By engaging in these kinds of contracts, we’re contributing to that problem, albeit on a very small scale. I just don’t think this is the right thing in a global sense and on a local level,” he said.
The board is to vote on the matter at its November meeting.
On Monday, the board approved the School Improvement Plan for 2011-12, a set of reports from each school that uses student achievement data to set goals and priorities for improving education in the district.
Walsh alone voted against the plans.
“I don’t feel that we are doing as good a job as we can do in aggregating all that data, relating it, and then ultimately having it inform our staffing decisions, our budget decisions and other things that are important to us…. I think on the whole they could be done better,” he said.
In other business, the board:
- approved Cathryn Armstrong as principal of Parcells Middle School, starting in January.
- recognized National Merit and Commended Students from North and South high schools.
- congratulated the South High School girls golf team state champions.
- recognized a recently completed doctoral degree for Harwood.
The next school board meeting is set for Monday, Nov. 28, at 8 p.m. in South High School’s library.
