We Paid $200K Severance to outgoing RPS Superintendent for Failing to Do Her Job?

My friend and colleague John R. Butcher has the audacity to think that the Virginia Department of Education should enforce the laws and regulations of the Commonwealth as they pertain to the statutory duties of school district superintendents. 

Imagine that! He did a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request awhile back and found that Yvonne Brandon, Richmond's  soon-not-to-be superintendent had close to no records that could demonstrate her compliance with 9VAC20-390-80, a regulation that requires her to visit every school in the division every year and make a set of inquiries. 

When he suggested to the State Superintendent of Education, Patricia Wright, that she fire Brandon for violation of the regulation, Wright declined on the ground that there was no requirement to keep records showing compliance.

Undeterred, Butcher asked them to require the information.  

He received the news last week that they declined his request on the grounds that it "would create a burdensome new record-keeping mandate on school divisions, when there is no evidence that this new mandate would advance public education."  

That notwithstanding the evidence of the Richmond lack of records.  Apparently the Board of Education (BOE) thinks it would be too burdensome to expect the local Superintendents to comply with the mandatory requirements of the BOE's own regulation.  [Click here to see the proof of this statement].

Since when do we have the ability to pick and choose which regulations and laws that we will respect?

Maybe Wright should lose her job, too, since she is aiding and abetting outright recalcitrance and insubordination from district superintendents? And if she is giving Richmond's superintendent Brandon a pass on this, how many other district superintendents are receiving the same break?  

And given that she doing this for Brandon, what other regulation or law might Wright be ignoring for other district superintendents?

Click on any of the links below to see some of the other "breaks" that Wright has extended to Brandon:

* (Click each link for a sampling of investigative reports about RPS:  SOL Cheating,  abuse of VGLA, VAAP *alternative* disability testing, dismal data and analysis on children with disabilities, submission of false information to VDOE re: Suspensions, Expulsions, violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) law and faulty accounting of ADA money to comply with an U.S. District Court settlement agreement,  questionable procurement processes, false SAT claims, and most recently -- bogus claims concerning International Baccaulaureate diplomas...).