I hope Baker wins and I hope he files civil litigation against Calabrese, Abbott, and Donovan. In addition, we still have pending sunshine law violation investigation that I am sure will be filed!

P.S. I forgot to mention no national search for a replacement and those opposed call Naples an old boy network? If so then Calabrese, Donovan, and Abbott are founding members. Firing Baker and then handpicking a replacement without a full national search? POLITICS 101!!!

What a way to start a new school year! Lies, deceit, collusion....OH MY!
Calabrese, Abbott, and Donovan should be spending the weeks ahead trying to rectify the deficient areas of their recent red herring audit.

Thompson just looking to retire to Wonderful Naples on the Gulf?

Teacher123~ Are you a teacher in CCPS? I was for 10 years and glad I am no longer. Kudos to the School Board! Hopefully Thompson will come in there and clean house. If you really are a teacher in CCPS, you must wear rose colored glasses or teach at an A rated school. LOL I know FEW teachers that actually can be supportive of any administrator at the Ad. Center unless they are personal friends. Also, why spend tens of thousands on a national search that produces less than 5 candidates, when they know who they need and should have hired in the first place?
ANY employee would have been treated no differently if performance was below standard. You loose your job plain and simple. Baker and the other "top cronies" feel they are holier than thou and give off that persona.
Calabrese, Abbott, and Donovan have the integrity to actually say enough, and do something good. The two other wacked Board members need to also be run out of town. How pathetic they are.

And to sue? That is a joke! That would be stealing from taxpayers. If you are fired for being inadequate and unable to meet expectations, how does one feel they deserve more money? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! LOL Baker was against adequate teacher raises, but can't stop holding out his own hand and willing to try and take more than his share. If he truly has character, he would leave quietly and not sue the District to take money from the schools, that ultimately is robbing the students.

What a typical Naples scandal. A wealthy district with so much money and too few brains. Because most parents don't speak english and the wealthy taxpayers are snowbirds, their is little voice from the community. If those wealthy snowbirds were there WITH children, CCPS would be a better school system. They would be involved and not tolerate the circus being in town and held at the Ad. Center.

Am so glad I sold my house before the market crashed, moved away with my pot of gold, and can teach in a state and for a district that is focused on education.

No new superintendent can make change until there is a change in School Board, and top level administrators. The Illinois paper is reporting he is planning on bringing his top people with him, so Labute, (useless) and Jannsen (useless) should be wetting themselves about now.

Hopefully, no contract for teachers will be finalized or raise settled on until a new leader is involved. I feel bad for my former teacher friends who have to start yet another school year off with a scandal.

One more thing... Attorney Withers is the DISTRICT attorney and Baker's bud. A different attorney should be hired to represent the District! Although Withers will probably quit so he can represent Baker. That will be interesting to see how that all plays out. WAY too close for comfort....

teacher123-
You loose. Get over it. Good riddance to Supt. Faker. Hopefully Coletta will be next! She should resign.

Man, was that a Freudian slip Colletta should go also, BUT I meant Curatolo.

He got fired, many people do, move on like everyone else.

Here goes more money to be taken away from our children. With all the lawsuits CCPS is involved in, no wonder our schools are in trouble.

Read my lips, right or wrong, "Baker will get 400k out of this deal". The taxpayers will pay.

The sad thing is that people are missing is that the three deciding members could have done this and not put the system in the mess we are facing!
It was a bone-head administrative move due to the timing and many community leaders tried to point that out! Many of you want to think it is a crime to bea leader in the community or sucessful, seems like a jealousy issue!
Who are the true "good ole boys" who is forcing a superintendent down our throat with allowing no public input! I fear we are in for a long struggle, I can not help but think of the programs our kids could benifit from with the money that has been and will be used for an action that within a month would of been so much less a burdon! I will agree with the thought we need new leadership, those changes we will get a say in!

Baker's firing opens a rare opportunity for real changes in Collier County.

Collier taxpayers are asked to spend more money on schools than almost any others elsewhere. Yet all we hear is "not enough."

And what do we get for all our tax dollars? If you compare Collier with other Florida districts, Collier performs only so-so. When you compare Collier with schools nation-wide or with schools in other industrialized nations, Collier comes up quite short. We're selling our future short.

Baker's greatest accomplishment may prove to be cutting himself a difficult-to-break contract.

Let's let Calabrese and the two enlightened board members carry through Calabrese's campaign promise of cleaning house.

If you keep doing what you've always done, you keep getting what you've always gotten: mediocre (at best) performance at a premium price to the taxpayers.

I say good riddance to Mr. Baker; may he take the inept with him!

bytemeworld:

How can you say Thompson would be more of the same?

He's clearly not the same as Baker.

I don't know whether Thompson is the right person, but mediocre performance at premium tax rates makes it clear Baker is not.

I say, let's clean house!

Give Dr. Thompson a chance. Meet him when he gets here and ask him the hard questions. Then have your say. Right now the people of Collier County look and sound like an uneducated mob.

How fast to jump the gun they were searching for replacement before he was even fired.Go figure!!!!what a witch hunt.

The Rockford paper has not said he has been in negotiations for a long time. That is a lie.

That is somply not true. Bytemeworld is spreading terrible rumors and accusations that simply are NOT true. The Naples daily News staff should remove entries that are lies.
You smear this board and Dr. Thompson and everything you wrote should be scrutinized .

You post the lie then the link to the article and the article says nothing of the sort.

That is very lame.

There is a orchestrated effort to smear and hurt this board and Dr. Thompson. Why? Maybe the Chamber, the administration and other SI special interest groups fear another audit that would reveral more scathing information of the mess that exists. Wer have enough problems to heal this community. We don't need lies and a smear campaign to hurt us more. What is happening is a tragedy.
Please give Dr. Thompson a chance. bytemeworld should be censored for his lies.

kneejerk, you are right. I was referring to bytemeworld. We both read the Rockford article and agree. I am sorry if it appeared that I was questioning your credibility. Apparently, we responded simultaneously.

If you don't trust your school board, be there to meet him and then speak your piece. You are not giving him a chance. Maybe he will do great things for our community. He did in Rockford. Did you read ALL the artciles? They are fascinating.

It would be irresponsible for a public board to fire an administrative head without some idea of a replacement. A board may have multiple and different ideas for a replacement, but the board needs ideas nonetheless.

While the Sunshine Law makes such decision-making difficult, having ideas of potential alternatives to existing administrators is necessary for responsible board-level supervision.

I blame the Rockford TV station for spinning the story as a job offer made.

Everyone involved in the conversations knew no job offer could be made.

Ultimately, school board members are the only ones we taxpayers can hold accountable for the school district's performance.

Hopefully, the Collier County school board will hire a new superintendent under a contract under which the board can hold the superintendent's feet to the fire, and then actually do the hard work of holding the new superintendent accountable for the district's performance.

There's plenty of room for improvement.

Then, we voters can do our jobs of judging whether the board is doing its jobs.

OK, hold it right now! One thing EVERYBODY who is INFORMED already knows, simply by watching the news and the interview with Whithers, is that TAX PAYERS WILL NOT HAVE TO PAY EVEN IF BAKER WINS A SUIT. I repeat, tax payers will NOT have to pay. This is because Baker will sue for damages, and the board has damage insurance that is payed for by the tax-payers! But not just when it's needed, the tax-payers always pay for the insurance. So as I see it, I'd would LOVE more than anything else for the Board to actually put it to good use against Baker instead of not using it at all. If Baker doesn't win, than nothing happens. If he does win, than insurance pays for it and my money is put to good use. Either way, the tax-payer wins. So stop whining; if you liked Baker's leadership, fine, I can't communicate with the mentally disturbed, but don't use the excuse of tax-payers paying to try to rally people behind you. Shame on you.

Thompson is one logical alternative, particularly in light of prior school board votes.

The more alternatives, the better for us.

Maybe more names will come to the fore in the next few days.

Maybe Carroll or Curatolo can suggest alternatives and explain why they'd be better than either Thompson or Baker. Otherwise, they would seem satisfied with the status quo ante, with which, it seems to me, no Collier County voter should be.

Calabrese and Donovan I will speak slowly so you can understand. "Please hire Hinshaw and Culbertson to do an "independent audit" on when Dr. Thompson purchased his airline ticket to come to Naples on Sunday." I am really concerned if it comes to light that he had purchased this airline ticket prior to the Board meeting on Tuesday...especially if he was being treated for a medical condition. Can you please do this for me? Also, I would've mentioned Mrs. Abbott earlier however, I know that she would have just changed her mind about the audit anyway so what would be the point. I think from now on when I ask her for something I will just ask her husband since he seems to be running the show. Just some thoughts :)

teacher123-

Do you think Thompson purchased his own plane ticket? That's usually not how the recruiting process works.

eco.
Where do we sign?

You Baker supporters (cronies) need to start getting over it at this point. The man is gone and there is nothing you can do about it now. Its done.

Now comes the lawsuit which the board brought upon themselves but had every right to do because they are elected officials. Don't like it? vote them out next time they are up.

I wonder what would the Baker cronies say if Thompson improved our district. Would you then disagree with Baker's firing?

Teacher123,

Give it a rest already. Your keyboard i'm sure is starting to feel sticky with all the foaming at the mouth you do here.

ecoterror sign me up :) And again someone answer when Dr. Thompson purchased his flight? Was it before the meeting on Tuesday night because if so that would be odd being that he didn't know that Baker would be fired?

if it is a crime to respect a person, if it is a crime to work hard for the joint purpose and goal of our youth! Put the cuffs on me and take me to jail! I am guilty of desiring good character traits and ethics as an example for our kids, Maybe while i am in jail i can take a class on "calabrese" then i can fit in with some of the rest of you!

flip.... Well, I guess in your educated opinion I am a cronie! however, I will work hard for the success of our kids whoever has whatever office! in my opinion this was a great error in both ethic and action, however it does not and will not change my desire to work for the well being of our youth! if only those who worked to ............ would of put the kids first instead of carried on in..........well it is done now,,,,,,,,, so whoever has the job I am working for the kids first!!!!!!!!!!!! and at this point only!

ecoterror, you sound like a very sick individual whohneeds to see a doctor. Hatred like that can make you sick.

Teachtrouble,

I completely agree and appreciate the effort and hard work you put into helping our kids. Having said this its hard to soar like an eagle when you are surrounded by turkeys. Baker's departure will help this district improve with a different leader.

Even if you stay away for a little while, it's the same awful people posting all the time. These sites for comments are beginning to get really bad. I don't see this kind of dialogue being done on other newspaper sites. The Naples Daily News and all you people who are so quick to judge can do better than this.
I am beginning to see that Naples is an awful place to live.

Seriously, how about some education and care for the children. Would that be too much to ask for from the school board/system?? Grow up, get some moral character and get on with the over paid glitzed up job of educating the children!

I am sickened and amazed at all of the guests at this party! Can any of these people look themselves in the mirror... can they sleep at night??? I guess they can when they balance their checkbook and go over their portfolio's... pfffssshhhhhh!

West Point grad that didn't make full Bird before he retired? How pathetic!

West Point, buddy. Not bad. Where did Baker go?
Wouldn't it be great to have a West Point grad head things up? Let's just hope it can happen. This town is worse than Sopranoland! No wonder nobody wants to come here anymore.

Teacher123 are you Mr. Baker's wife, retired BCHS teacher? Anyone who spends as much time as you defending him, must be related.

Collier Gov't needs some major house cleaning. I think this is a step in the right direction. Give Thompson a chance and if he is sub par fire him as well. It is time for serious change to bring us into the 21st Century finally...

stormie can you answer the question posed earlier? :)

I have met & talked with Dr. Thompson, & can tell you he is a class act. When he went to Rockford, the situation was worse than in Collier. He cleaned it up, & they don't want to lose him. We need a change from the status quo mentality we've endured here for many years. Why did the administration fight Mr Calabrese so hard to try to stop an INDEPENDENT audit? I'm a retired business executive, & have no ax to grind. No kids in the system here ever, but I can still care about our children & their need for a better shake. If we are lucky enough to secure this fine man as our Superintendent, I sincerely hope the community will support Dr. Thompson in his efforts to correct the many deficiencies I have observed in our present situation. He won't be able to do it alone, but I'm confident he can be the great leader we've needed.

VanStone, you are right.
He's a real man. He even dresses like one. He's look you in the eye kind of guy. From the picture. At least he doesn't look like a penguin in a cheap suit, like the last Super Baker!
VanStone, you are a stand up guy, stating your real name. Not like ECOTERROR. oooooooo...........I'm so scared.

For me, the issue is a simple one: Are Collier County schools performing at a level expected taking into account the financial resources expended?

In light of the facts that Collier County spends more money on schools than just about any other place on the planet and Collier County schools perform just so-so compared with (even) other Florida school districts, it seems to me the answer is clearly "No!"

In this age of globalism, Collier County school kids will have to compete not just with kids from Wisconsin and Minnesota, but with kids across the world.

National assessments rank Florida schools among the bottom of the 50 states.

International assessments make it clear that U.S. kids lag behind the rest of the industrialized world, not just the usual suspects of Japan, Korea, and Germany, but places like Finland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand as well.

I think we should be able to do better.

teacher123 if you want answers how come you don't pick up the phone and call Chatty Kathy, Patty Carroll or Faker himself. you seem to need answers they have access to everything at the big house see if they answer you!

Thompson will be in town and avaiable, get your sorry rear end over there and rack him on the carpet, big shot!

Cindi...actually it is not Dr. Thompson that I am worried about it is potential sunshine violations....and actually Abbott must be to as if you were watching the meeting tonight you would see that she is calling for one...to me it seems as if she is CYA'ing :)

Teacher123, that questioned was for you to answer, not me.

Mr. Baker's lawyer requested that the computers at work and home of Board Members and that of a Board Member's husband not be tampered with? He's not a judge and he can't ask that. They could ask the same of Baker's computer at work and home too, and dont' forget his wife's computer and any other family member's computer not be tampered with.

Wow, I am quite surprised not to see anybody posting here from Rockford, IL.

Let me start by saying this. Your school board is not the only poor quality board in place. Ours has to run a close second to yours right now. So, that has to put your minds at ease with the hiring of the Rockford Superintendent.

Now seriously, while I have not agreed with all of the actions taken by Dr. Thompson in Rockford, he has turned this district in the right direction. Keep this in mind. When he came here this district was in serious financial and educational stress. He helped the board here make a ton of financial cuts in the district. The state of IL requires school be at least 6 hours each day. So, the kids get the minimum 6 hours (some 6.5 if they hit certain federal guidelines) each day taking away a good number of the "extra" opportunities for our kids to succeed in electives. The overall academics of the district have shown improvement, but still have a long way to go. We have our teachers teaching to the state minimum testing standards now instead of just teaching the way we used to be taught. They figure if you teach to the test, you pass the test and NCLB is satisfied.

He created financial relief by outsourcing our entire custodial staff in the district (minus some administrative staff from what I understand) causing issues for a year within the district buildings.

He created school attendance zones and took away school choice for the parents of the community. This was done with the approval of a minority of the citizens in the city rather than a majority, and a board that bows to his every wish in a slim majority.

All in all, Dr. Thompson has done a good job (one that is not finished and followed through upon), but he does have his flaws also (what human being doesn't?). You will get a military style leader in Dr. Thompson who is very goal oriented, but lacking in public communications. He is very good at getting a district out of trouble, but has difficulty seeing some things through to the end. And most important to myself personally, he has convinced me to get my two daughters out of public school and place them in private school immediately with his last course of action. No, this is not a condemnation of Dr. Thompson, just an honest appraisal of what you will be getting into with the hiring of this superintendent from the viewpoint of a current parent with children who were in his schools the past three years.