What's that smell?

Oh! It's just Rob shoveling more shit.

Check out the Sunday News Herald for his letter to the editor.

NAACP Rejects Hairfield's Apology

"We cannot accept any apology until we know exactly what has happened, because an apology may not be enough. If he in any way knowingly read and sent racist e-mail, we must call for his resignation."

Morganton.com article

Update:
CNN iReport Article

It's time Rob, RESIGN!

Get Out

I under estimated you Rob. I knew you were an idiot. I had no idea that you were this big of an idiot.

From your apology

"I receive many e-mail jokes and, like many others, I forwarded it after just scanning it by hitting "forward" and it was sent out. "

This is bullshit and I am calling you out. I don't believe for one second that you didn't read these emails. You read them, found them funny, and forwarded them on.

"I sincerely apologize to all individuals, especially the black community, for any unintentional offense that I may have caused them and ask for their forgiveness."

How you can say unintentional is beyond me. One of the emails says racist in the subject. It calls a black man a nigger and a mexican a wetback. Those terms are anything by unintentional.

Education is best provided in schools embracing children of all religious, social, and ethnic backgrounds. Horace Mann.

Resign.

Get out and let use get back to educating all or our students.

Letter to the editor

Stephen Rudicil
Published: August 25, 2008

Rutherford College, N.C. - In her recent letter (The News Herald, Aug. 19), Gayle Walden stated that she was surprised that Rob Hairfield would use such negative and, in her opinion, inappropriate language in his letter (The News Herald, Aug. 14). I am glad that someone else had the same opinion as I did concerning this, his most recent letter, as well as previous ones Mr Hairfield has written.
In his letter of July 13, Mr Hairfield said there was one school board member, as well as several administration members "of the highest echelon," who were trying to discredit the newly elected board members. He stated that the previous school board was a "second-class" organization. In his Aug 14 letter, Mr Hairfield states there were leadership problems at "one of our middle schools."
This is typical of Mr Hairfield. He casts out allegations and suspicions about individuals, without naming them or offering any proof of his charges.
He causes people to question the leadership of our schools without knowing even which schools he is talking about. Now every parent who has a child in "one of our middle schools" is going to wonder if that child is attending the school with the problems. After his letter, every parent will wonder if the principal who moved from one school to another is the bad principal. He has cast doubt on every school board member as well as every person in the school administration.
This reminds me of the McCarthy era of the 1950s. Anyone can be found guilty of something if you do not go along with those in authority. If you are not in agreement with Mr Hairfield, then you are opening yourself up to attack and innuendo.
Mr. Hairfield campaigned for six years for a school board seat using this same strategy. He attacked the school administration and the school board members with slurs, allegations and name-calling.
I, for one, am not the least bit surprised by this latest verbal attack by Mr. Hairfield.

Rob Hairfield's Letter

There is some feeling that the Burke County Schools Board of Education was responsible for the recent rash of principal re-assignments.
That is not the case.

In June, some board members confided to the superintendent that there were some problems at one of our middle schools that needed to be addressed as far as leadership positions there. This was the only time the board asked the superintendent to do something to correct the problem. This was back in June of this year.
The superintendent told the board he had some concerns with the principal at W.A. Young and originally wanted to swap that principal with the principal at Mountain View. That was the extent of what this board knew or was involved in.
Since then, the superintendent decided he would make several other changes as well. Since these are lateral moves and not promotions requiring board official action, it is within the right of the superintendent to do so. All the board does then is approve the changes so the proper funding is authorized.

I remember telling the superintendent I did not want to go through what we did a few years ago and move many principals at the same time. Well, that is exactly what happened. He has moved several principals and some assistant principals, but, to make matters worse, he waited until two weeks before school opened to make the moves.
If he was going to move all these people he should have done it earlier in the summer so the newly assigned people would have time to transfer and prepare for their new assignments.

This board had nothing to do with all these changes - nothing.

Failed 5 - 2

Another Burke County Principal goes up and gets voted down.   

God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board.

-Mark Twain

Merry Christmas

A couple of holiday links for you.



The Four
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1647250669
Tim
http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1647832375
Tracy
http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1647918679
Karen
http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1648012548
Rob
http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1648092979

Why did Rob Hairfield vote against DB?

I don't know.  Why don't you call him?  According to the Board of Education website...

"ANYONE, including school system personnel, may contact me via my phone at..."

I am not going to give the phone number.  You can get it here.

Call and post his response

And the New Draughn Principal is...

We don't know.  Apparently, Tim, Tracy, Rob, and Karen didn't like David B's recommendation. More to come.

Buff: Burleson's Job is Safe

Tim Buff: Burleson's job is Safe

Finally here is my take...

"Buff said neither he nor other board members he knows of have any intentions of getting rid of Burleson or anyone else in the Central Office.
He credits rumors of the instability of certain jobs to cheap shots against him and the other new board members."

Gonna have to call you out on this one.

Lets look at how you voted for some of the administrators. I believe Tim voted against the following contracts

Andy Anderson
Randall Brackett
Scott Smith
Steve Demiter
Susan Pollpeter

And from the comments...He voted AGAINST every principal and assistant principal hired who wasn't from Burke County - just because they were not from Burke County. It's all on tape. It's all in the minutes.

I would love to know the actual dates, please leave a comment if you know them.


Rob Hairfield is quoted in http://www.charlotte.com/228/story/340088.html

"A financial audit; replace the director of finance (associate superintendent Randall Brackett). Focus on education, not job creation. Promote effective discipline. Cut excess and waste."

and

"Change the finance director -- hire a real business manager."

Then you havehttp://www.burkecountync.net, a site maintain by Hairfield and Larry Thurston. This site mentions removing Scott Smith and David Burelson.

"If Smith can't handle his administrative job and feels that he must react disrespectfully to proper scrutiny, he should be replaced with a person who can measure up to the job. Smith's unlimited travel allowance warrants total scrutiny."

And

"Then the new School Board should as the first order of business say: "Mr. Burleson You're Fired!""

Cheap shots my ass, Tim Buff. You say you want an open board, lets have it. We are calling your bluff.

Also from Tim Buff, "Employees do need to be accountable for their actions and realize they work for the school board."

This quote pisses me off and I think it will piss a lot of teachers off. You have also kept saying we need to get back to educating the children. Unless you plan on getting your college education, you need to back off the professional educators and let them do their job. The media selection policy shows you don't trust them. Keep threatening them and they will go to districts where they can "work for the students" and not "work for the school board".

Comment worth posting

This was a comment worthing of posting...


I've read this article several times, and here are a few comments that I would like to make:

Karen Brittain Sain: As a nurse, she is entrusted with patients' lives. As a board member, she'll be entrusted with students' lives.

This is a self-glamorizing statement. It is overkill and over-the-top.

Mr. Buff was asked: What will you do to restore respect to the board and the school system? He said: Continue to be accountable to the school system and the community; to be accountable and open and above board.

This is just a nothing statement directed at both the administrative and the classified levels as being ineffective.

Mr. Hairfield was asked: What will you do to provide support for the superintendent and principals? He said: Focus on accountability. There is ample money in the system to reallocate to principals to make sure they have the necessary resources. This will eliminate the need for student fundraisers.

What you say, Mr. Hairfield, is actually true - there is plenty of total money - but what you don’t understand or know is that there will never be a clean and efficient distribution of that money. School districts have little ability or total control – they are restricted by state, federal, and local laws – of how to allocate those funds. I’m sure our finance people do the best they can and firing Randall Brackett is not the answer, as much as you would like it to be.

But let’s not stop there – let’s be bold and list a few of the jobs that should be eliminated, like, One currently being advertised, EC Health Information Manager: What the heck is this?? We have OT’s, PT’s, Psychologists, Speech Personnel, Physical Educators, Behavioral Specialists, Interpreters, and now School Nurses. I’d like to know why this position will exist and for what purpose. It sounds to me like a job trying to be squeezed in before the new board takes its place.

Safety Director. Why do we need a Safety Director to send out 8x10 brochures telling us to be careful not to trip and fall in the winter, to turn out the lights and to remember to close the doors? Who actually reads the paperwork that comes from this particular office? And what’s the percentage of staff that then lie by signing our names to those questionnaires indicating that we do read them? Surely, Mr. Burleson wouldn’t mind attaching this information to a few of his current emails that he sends out to everyone, in effect accomplishing the same thing, and being more effective, efficient, and less wasteful of paper resources, in his approach!

Mr. ID Badge-Taker/Photographer: Why not put capable machines into the schools that secretaries or principals can use to create a badge for each of their faculty? And, equipping each school with a few cameras would take care of getting enough pictures. These are not hard things to do.

And finally, to address your comment about the need to eliminate student fundraisers-For years and years it has long been the battle cry, and is as common as the day is long, of incoming politicians to espouse the cause of cutting student fundraisers. Lots of people want to cut them out. It is a point stated all over the country all of the time. Why? Because it plays well with parents who hate fundraisers, teachers who get tired of handing out the packets, and all staff who see money wasted on frivolous things, such as paying board members or hiring unneeded positions or even, in some people's minds, purchasing textbooks that aren’t needed because everything is online these days. Do you really think that smart, highly educated and qualified teachers and principals would hold fundraisers in the first place if they weren’t needed? The fact is, they are needed and they do produce funding in order to help children’s education.

As a matter of fact, I'd like to see a list of the fundraisers, festivals, wreath and plant sales, bake sales, book fairs, voucher sales, restaurant discount booklets, cow patty bingo runs, raffle sales, dinner theatre sales, BBQ sales, the number of times that parents were asked to donate and why, how much money is made from yearbook sales, drink and food machines throughout the district, etc., along with a description of each, the total amounts that each one brought in PER SCHOOL for 2006-2007 and to date for the current school year as well.

Let’s also take a look at the number of charity events district-wide that have been asked of employees to do. How much money was brought into the district from those that students and staff were asked and encouraged to solicit for? What profit and time were in those?

In one of your previous letters to the Herald, Mr. Hairfield, you said, "This board, time and again, has snubbed their nose at the people once they were elected and have cow towed to anything the administrators say." Well, now's your chance. I'm the people, Sir and Ma'am! Please don't snub your nose or cow tow to me.

Hello, Board…you out there?

Platforms

http://www.morganton.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=MNH/MGArticle/MNH_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173353295696



Rob Hairfield: Teachers are the most important profession because without teachers, there are no other professions.



You forgot the part about firing Randall Brackett



Karen Brittain Sain: As a nurse, she is entrusted with patients' lives. As a board member, she'll be entrusted with students' lives.



WTF, do you know what a platform is. how did you get elected? Watch out Tracy, Tims got a new girl.



David Barnard: He is running on fixing the dropout rate and creating a strategic plan to achieve goals.



Nice goal, can't really argue to much just hold you accountable. Lots of folks will be watching.



Tim Buff: The schools are doing a good job, but there is room for improvement. The board needs to work with the community and the principals and assistant principals.



too bad your actions don't match your words.

Rob "DWI" Hairfield bio

About him: A longtime Burke County schools observer and candidate in three of the previous four board elections, Hairfield said he's running to restore credibility, integrity and accountability to the board.

I can't think of a better way to restore credibility and integrity than to elect someone with not one but two DWI charges. Read for yourself

As a school board member, what would be your top priority?
"A financial audit; replace the director of finance (associate superintendent Randall Brackett). Focus on education, not job creation. Promote effective discipline. Cut excess and waste."

I appreciate the bluntness, I really do. Do an audit and replace the associate superintendent. What happens if the audit doesn't prove your "job creation" and "excess" and "waste" conspiracy theory. Sounds like i was wrong about the bluntness, it is a personal vendetta. But as long you say its for the burke county children, you are in the clear right?

the rest of your bio is not bad, but don't think I am going to be easy on you. You have years of crazy letters to the editor. I can't wait.

Black Wednesday

The election results are in and burke county has made a huge mistake. Taking new seats on the school board are Karen BRITTAIN-sain, Rob Hairfield, and David Barnard. Tim Buff is back to his old seat, so expect the same old tricks.

We are looking forward to seeing these screw ups try to run a school system.

First question, who is going to be the chair. I am putting my money on the grocery store manager. What do you think?