Say What’s An Executive Director Do, Anyway?
Update: Ten days ago I posted this piece about the Fullerton Collaborative’s empty on-line calendar. I opined that maybe it was the executive director’s job to keep it updated, and archly suggested that maybe there wouldn’t be that much on it anyway. We received the usual irrelevant and hardly coherent comment-blather from Collaborative member Minard Duncan informing us all about the wonderful work Keller does.
Well, the calendar is still empty for all of 2010! Apparently Minard didn’t bother to let Keller know that the on-line public has no immediate information about what the Collaborative is up to; or, if he did, Keller decided that she was too busy to catch us up on what she’s planning for 2010. C’mon, Pam. You can’t be that busy!
The Fullerton Collaborative’s website calendar page declares ever so earnestly:
There are so many ways to get involved in our community. During the next few months there will be many fundraisers and community events to benefit local non-profit organizations and educational institutions.
And yet a perusal of the monthly calendars shows nothing. Blank. A completely clean slate, clean for all of 2010, in fact. Check it out if don’t believe me.
Now maybe I’m sort of funny this way, but I figure if you’ve got an executive director whom you are paying over $50K (for a part-time job) that individual ought to be able to at least take a few moments out of her busy day to fill in some of the blanks on the calendar. I mean, that’s Pam Keller’s job isn’t it?
Of course if Keller actually does get around to filling out the calendar, then fellow collaborators and even the public may find out how little fifty-thou buys you nowadays, executive director-wise.
As this blog noticed last year, Keller is not a Collaborative employee, but a Fullerton School District employee contracted to work for the Collaborative – where her job entails raising money from members and donors to pay the FSD for her dubious services. Sweet gig. No boss, no oversight, not even much paperwork.
Maybe in 2010 she can get around to filling in the Collaborative calendar.
As little as possible…
With no one to oversee what she does, this is a sham. I hope the School Board Members know this is not going to look good on their resume next election.
Mr. Peabody,
I do not know what you do but I have a notion that Pam Keller does much more than you each day. I may not agree with everything she does but she is out there trying to do her best.
Please respond.
That’s right Minard you do not know me. What I do and how hard I work is completely irrelevant to the fact that the Collaborative on-line calendar is empty!
My suspicion is that Keller does hardly anything resembling real work at all – and her empty calendar supports my suspicion. She may be doing her best – more’s the pity. Or she may only be doing her best to use the Collaborative and dopes like you to help her promote herself and her political machine.
Minard if you had one iota of real integrity (instead of just being a happy, hapless doofus that every one likes and on one respects) you’d pull the plug on the Collaborative’s relationship with FSD.
Did you see our handy flow chart we posted the other day? What do you think of it? Please respond.
Pops up to defend the indefensible and seems to resemble the mushrooms in the old joke: kept in the dark and fed bullshit.
Say, Minus weren’t you a big Linda Ackerman supporter? So much for honesty and judgment!
Minard, you commit an ad hominem when you attack the person instead of refuting the person’s assertion with facts that show the contrary. Your silly comment earns you membership in Pam’s political whatevers posse.
Van is right. Minard is a long time member of the Collaborative and Pam’s boss at the school district. He should have shown up with some serious facts to dispute what has been said. Instead, he opens his mouth and says nothing of use.
In fact, HOW COME NOBODY AT THE COLLABORATIVE HAS DISPUTED ANY OF THE INFORMATION PRESENTED?
Because it’s all true. Do you think these guys just make stuff up?
Not many people read FFFF or even know about it. I have told several acquaintances but they are just not aware that FFFF exists. The ones that are aware have told me they do not like the negative whining.
FYI. I am not Pam’s boss as a school board member but I am one of her bosses as a Collaborative Board Member. School board members do not have any power as individuals. It takes three board members out of a five member board agreeing on an issue to have authority. We are the boss of the district superintendent and no one else but not as individuals only as a collective board.
I have disputed some of the blogs but none of you actually listen. It is more fun for me to rile you up.
Thanks for the above blog. It was worth responding back to you.
Have a good week!
Now c’mon Minard. You have no idea how many people read this blog. That’s just more lazy Minard blather. Your “acquaintances” get their information from Sharon Kennedy and Barbara Giasone. Then they are given their medication and rolled over to avoid bedsores.
As a Boardmember you are responsible for everything at that District – although it’s easier to foist off the responsibilty to someone like McCune who then gets a quarter mil retirement per year. And you get to play bigshot without any accountability.
Rile us up? Yeah guess so. Because we’re sick of burned out old eduslugs like you robbing us every time we pay a property tax bill.
Of all the cowardly, craven abdications of responsibility this one takes the cake. Why did you even run for that job? Because the union told you what a wonderful trustee you’d make.
What a pathetic tool.
Minard, how many of your friends even know how to use the Internet?
No offense, but octogenarians are not the target audience for most blogs.
Minard if you knew what was going on, you’d know that some us who work in your district resent the fact that Pam Keller gets the sort of treatment she does. She gets our pay and benefits without even having to step foot in a lowly classroom. Instead she gets to play social butterfly with all her do-gooder pals without being accountable to anybody.
The district dosen’t monitor her doings and apprently the slack ass board of the Collaborative doesn’t, either.
Neither the Collaborative nor the District benefits from this arrangement. Only pam Keller.
Please respond.
Pam does go into classrooms. I saw her at Woodcrest School helping out before Christmas. She is accountable to the Fullerton Collaborative and the FSD superintendent. The collaborative board and the district superintendent get a weekly report from her and the superintendent has input on her evaluation.
By the way, I doubt that a teacher wrote your blog.
Have fun with this one!
“Helping out” now what the hell does that mean? 40% of Pam Keller is non-Collaborative. What are her non-Collaborative responsibilites? “Helping out?” You must be joking!
If you really want to be informative why don’t you actually say something intelligent?
Say, here’s a thought. Why don’t you send over one of those “weekly reports” to Bushala. Then he can share it with us and we’ll all get a good laugh!
P.S. Why can’t your ball of fire fill out the calendar on her own website? Ah. Too busy helping out!
Yeah, I saw her there too. Great little crossing guard you’ve got there, Minard.
Sharon Quirk-Silva was ExD before Pam.. What was the scenario then?
The scenario was similar.
FYI. Pam was ED before Sharon. Pam took a break from the collaborative and went back to teaching in the classroom. Sharon took over and then wanted to go back to the classroom and Pam took over again.
Both have done an excellent job. The collaborative has assisted in bringing in well over a million dollars to the FSD through grants.
Thanks! Good question!
The Collaborative “assists” in doing all sorts of things, evidently, including political pandering and interference in City business.
Here’s a question, Minard: if the Collaborative is bringing in grant money to FSD then why isn’t the FSD paying for it? More sleight of hand and deception. Jesus, you’re dumb.
Thanks! More nonsense!
Minard, when Sharon was the ED the Collaborative was funded by a grant, not the tax payers.
admin. It is still funded by grants – grants that are mostly used to pay the FSD bill for Pam Keller’s dubious services.
The taxpayers don’t fund it, but they have the school district acting as a facilitator for Keller’s political career, and most likely Quirk’s too, although the HUGE difference is that Quirk wasn’t ED at the same time she was on the city council.
Personally, I don’t care about Quirk’s role. That was then. Right now Keller is the one who is using her role as ED to promote her city projects (redevelopent); and is approving the projects of Collaborative donors and members.
It’s wrong and it’s got to stop.
Who funds the fullerton collaborative? and why would any agency either private or public believe an elementary school teacher is qualified to socially engineer fullerton. Who is propping up this fool?
#11 Van,
Well, Minard is for one. This situation is a clear cut call out for the school board members.
Either they end this charade or we may need to bring the flamethrowers to the public mike at the next school board meeting.
I don’t know what she does all day either, but many non-profit organizations have some helpful volunteer web techie who sets up an online calendar that no one ever gets around to using. It’s not evidence that no one is doing any work.
#24, I didn’t say no “work” was going on, but it sure seems odd that someone whose job it is to coordinate “collaboration” can’t keep the web-viewing public updated.
Too busy? Okay. that was facetious, of course.
I assess foks by what they do, not what they say. I think one can fairly conclude that it is Keller’s intention not to keep the web-viewing public updated on her doings. In fact, I may start a “collaborative calendar day count” to see how long it takes for Keller to get a single event on that calendar of hers.
I would like to know who is granting money to the fullerton collaborative. It may shed light on why Keller’s collaborative calendar is as blank as Keller’s eyes..
Still unsure as to what programs in the schools the collaborative runs. If they’d like to detail this, I think it’d be fair.
What’s not fair are the generalizations. Minard saw Pam helping out before Christmas at a school? Okay, so fine. What was she doing? Teaching? Running a teen program? Writing grants for the schools?
But why Minard is so busy being defensive about our questioning of Pam is really naive. We’re asking because she’s a public employee, and also we’ve uncovered a rather unflattering trail that leads to “votes for money.”
I also question why Minard, as a board member, wouldn’t be wanting to cut her salary down considerably, given the current financial crisis. I think it boils down to friendship, and I doubt he’s willing to cross that line for the betterment of the district.
50k for a part time salary is a lot of money. Part time should be around 25k, given that she doesn’t have any of the responsibilities of a full time teacher –who probably makes about that much (or more) but has many students.