A little over a year ago the School Superintendents position became available in our city. Our Board of Education went on a very in depth search for the right candidate. They started the long, slow process of working with a "headhunter". One of the important details of the search was they wanted to search outside of our city and bring in someone new and fresh.
That in theory was an excellent idea. The city was ready for a change and the school welcomed our new Superintendent with open arms. The mayor and other elected officials did not welcome Dr. E in quite the same fashion. She had an uphill battle from the beginning. She was the first "outsider" hired and the first woman.
This city is always in some type of contract crisis. Whether it is with the teachers, firemen, or police. There is always something. It is a very political environment.
In the beginning Dr. E "appeared" to be a Godsend. It didn't take long, however, for everything to start to fall apart. Her first mistake was to try to call the bluff of the city. She decided that she needed to eliminate (I forget the number but I think it was hundreds) of teachers. This was not her fault she claimed but the fault of the city for giving her such a small budget. The city was quick to point out that the budget was larger than last years and there were several other ways in which she could cut her budget without eliminating teachers.
Then the local newspaper decided to start looking at this wonderful choice of the Board of Education. I don't have the exact facts but.... from memory I will continue. Dr. E had taken several (7 to 8) personal trips at the schools expense. While on these trips she wined and dinned with the best of them at the schools expense. Most of these trips were to her home town and she stayed with friends and didn't require a hotel so she thought that the city could pick up the rest of her vacation including airfare. Now please remember that she knew the city did not have the funds to cover the schools budget. She didn't care. I believe the number was over 8,000 for these trips. The also discovered that she had hired several friends to fill newly created positions within the school where the starting salary was 50 to 80K. These positions where not in the previous years budget that the city was referring to.
The newspaper then ran a credit check on Dr. E. She owed everyone and their brother money. $150K to the government for back taxes was the largest but the list was endless. The city was furious. Why didn't the headhunter check her background? The Board of Education didn't want spend the additional $750 that's why.
After a long legal battle, Dr. E is gone. The city was sued (they settled out of court). In the end the city paid Dr. E all the money she was due on her contract (2 years), and additional money just to make her go away.
Maybe if the Board of Education had used Trovix Recruit resume find things would have been different.
My personal opinion the headhunter should never be used again, the Board of Education should have been eliminated, and Dr. E should have been charged with theft. She was investigated by the local police to see if charges could be filed. That was part of the go-away package. We won't file charges just go way.
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