Kiko Award Winner - Arlene Ackerman

Ackerman goes to DC on a three-year, $150,000 contract. She demands a raise. These guys think she doesn’t deserve it because she hasn’t done enough "in the area of communicating with the public and its representatives." She also, apparently, doesn’t do bathrooms:

The Common Denominator
July 26, 1999
"No raise for Arlene Ackerman"

Ackerman comes to San Francisco and talks a good game. She claims to put teachers first and wants to make sure they have ample resources to do their jobs well. Within three years, she’d be extorting money from the city she claims she wants to serve:

San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR)
September 2000
"It Takes a City: Thoughts from Arlene Ackerman and Kathleen Turner"

The Washington Post calls Ackerman’s managerial style “Rock ‘em, Sock ‘em.” Ackerman’s solution to school improvement? Shuffle principals:

Washington Post, Levey Live
September 15, 1998
Q&A with Arlene Ackerman

Another, we love administrators like Ackerman from? You guessed it, the administrators journal!

Ackerman’s DC resignation letter. Posting a laundry list of questionable achievements, Ackerman celebrates her ideas, like a performance-based incentive system, aka merit pay:

DC Public Schools
May 17, 2000
"Arlene Ackerman Resigns as Superintendent"

After lengthy battles with the SF trustees over increasing her salary, the local news station reports that she wanted the terms of her severance package, if she decides to leave, in writing. She demands 375k, “roughly equal to eight teachers salaries.”:

KGO-TV
August 31, 2005
"Akerman Wants promises - In Writing"

Ackerman departs from San Francisco after 6 years. She is noted for being considered autocratic. In her fights with the school board, she characterized her foes to SF Chronicle reporters as “bothersome gnats.” But the money quote comes towards the end: “Ackerman has faltered, however, in her ability to reach out to parents and teachers and has made several decisions about individual schools without seeking the input of families and staff involved. She has also been accused of not taking criticism well and has called those who oppose her racist on occasion.”

San Francisco Chronicle
September 7, 2005
"Ackerman says she'll quit as schools chief. She and Board of Education agree they're incompatible"

Ackerman boasts about all she’s done to save DC schools. She makes a particular note of trimming a bloated central administration. A year later, she’d ask for a thirty percent raise.

DC Watch
June 24, 1998
"Testimony to the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on the District of Columbia"

Readers chime in on Ackerman’s departure in the Examiner. Two supporters chime in, but the Kiko-winning letter is third on the list.

San Francisco Examiner
September 7, 2005
"Be careful what you wish for"

Ackerman’s farewell to SF letter. She ends by saying her heart will remain in San Francisco. We guess when she left her heart in DC and Seattle she put it in a box with a forwarding address?

San Francisco Examiner
September 7, 2005
"Ackerman's leaving tough task with pride"

The tangled web that is Arlene Ackerman’s shoddy, politically connected career as a professional carpetbagger:

Geobob.com Website
Carpetbagging School Superintendents

Board President of SF Unified’s blog commenting on the other side of Ackerman. One of our favorite paragraphs: "Rumors that she had ordered district staff not to talk to reporters without permission blew into the open when teachers' union vice president Bradley Reeves told board members that the order was real and that district employees had been reprimanded for having unauthorized conversations. Ackerman supposedly got up and followed Reeves to the hallway, chastising him for his statement":

Educational Justice
September 28, 12005
"SF Schools: The Real Story on Superintendent Arlene Ackerman's resignation?"

A blog about Ackerman in DC. Read the "Chutzpah commentary!"

DC Watch
July 25, 1999
"A Raise for Arlene Ackerman?"
"Arlene Ackerman's Contract"
"Chutzpah"

Another SF blog about why Ackerman needed to be cast out, with a personal story about a decimated student program:

SF Bull Dog
2003
"A fair breeze blew..."

More details on Ackerman’s feud with the SF school board:

SF Gate
September 6, 2005
"School Chief losing support. Even backers doubt rift can be fixed, expect her to resign"

Ackerman courted the business lobby and this love letter proves it. They discount the "autocratic" charge:

San Francisco Business times
September 30, 2005
"Green-left faction fails San Francisco's public schools"

A well-known fiscal conservative group chastises Ackerman’s auto allowance. SF schools chief gets 33k car! The headline says it all.

Cal-Tax Digest
June 2002
"Misused and Abused Tax Dollars"

Our favorite article: Ackerman opens a board meeting with a passive aggressive reading of Pablo Neruda’s "Ode to Broken Things." The fight is on as Ackerman demands more money and threatens to leave. Things go from bad to worse to downright bizarre as a guy simply known as "Coach" and a male exotic dancer named ?"Starchild" enter the school board race to bring sanity and peace to a troubled community. SF Weekly’s reporter makes a telling observation at the end of the article: "The kids: It's telling that the candidates' messages in the race have strayed away from the group with the most at stake, more even than Ackerman. But in this contest, as in Neruda's poem, things have gotten broken."

SF Weekly
October 27, 2004
"The Ackerman Election"