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June 08, 2015 04:42 PM UTC
12 Comments
We wrote just over a week ago about the 
That’s right–Devan Crean, former employee of Republican-aligned advocacy group Revealing Politics and subsequently with Novitas Communications, is taking a full-time communications position with Jeffco Schools. Our readers will
Very strange that they didn't list the Novitas position since they're all wrapped up with the district now. That's fishy.
Who is calling the shots? McMinimee is doing the hiring, but I can't figure out why he would hire people that are best, marginally qualified. Is he simply doing what Witt has told him to do? I understand the agenda: get rid of the teachers union, promote charter schools. But aren't there communications professionals that can promote that message? Why the hacks?
Crean is at least a better writer than Lisa Pinto, judging by her posts on Revealing Politics and The Education Reform Bulletin. Granted, that's a low bar. In Crean's Ed Reform Bulletin posts, she is an unabashed cheerleader for Douglas County school reform.
She is very savvy with social media, better than Pinto was. Her Linkedin profile says that she has been the Jeffco Marketing and Communications Specialist for 2 months – was hired in May. Interesting…. Her math skills, as well as her grammar skills, might be open to question, as it is less than one month since May 18, her hire date.
I think we need to raise a big stink with the board – ask them not to hire Crean, as she is way too partisan, pro-charter, and anti-union, for the position she would be filling. And her education credentials are lacking; although she is an alumni of Independence Institute's Education Policy Center, her background is in business, right wing policies, and public relations, not education.
Dan McMinimee's email: dmcminim@jeffco.k12.co.us
Jeffco Board of Education email: board@jeffco.k12.co.us
Next regular board meeting is this coming Thursday, June 11 at 6:30 pm, with a special executive meeting at 5:30 pm.
Consultant Pissing Match!
Clearly, McMinimee thinks the only problem was that last time, HE DIDN'T GO FAR ENOUGH.
So McMinimee is doubling down on the same thing, all over again, with someone pulled from the same right-wing training bubble, but more abrasive and political and extreme this time. Because that's what the public needs, and it is going to get it (good and hard).
Support Jeffco Kids seems to indicate that her salary will be $60k. Isn't that a big pay cut over Pinto's salary?
She's not replacing Pinto, she's heading up the district's charter school promotion. Basically her job is to trash neighborhood schools and make charters look good.
Your tax dollars at work!
from what I have read of her stuff, this job description …
does kind of match her resume…
just sayin'…
Looks like she is not being hired as Pinto’s replacement. Her job title is not communications director. Her job is to increase awareness of school options (read charters). Maybe what is happening is Pinto’s mistake in hiring a subcontractor (Nonitas) is being remedied by bringing Crean in house.
Phoenix and Early Worm are right. Sorry I didn't catch that, either. Crean was hired for a job a couple of rungs down from Pinto's – so the Chief Communications Officer position is still vacant, or will be when Pinto steps down.
Here is a link to the Jeffco Communication Services page with the job titles on it. http://www.jeffcopublicschools.org/media/about.html
Jack Maher, the multimedia specialist, used to work with 9news.
I heard they may not hire a replacement for Pinto at all, just use Novitas.
This hack is definitely a fit for the new front office under Mini Me though.
Pols, you'll be glad to know that you have a dedicated reader in Ken Clark of Freedom560 talk radio. On his June 9 Hour 1 show, at around 24:58, Clark said that "The war being waged by the left against the Jeffco Communications Office is "the most vitriolic in history". (hyperbole much?)
His claim is that "the left" is attacking the Jeffco Communications Office because the office was "invaluable" to the left as a resource in 2012.
In support, Clark cites a Colorado Peak Politics article which purports to show that, during the campaign for school funding Amendment 66, the teacher's unions used the Communications Office as a campaign office. This "breaking news story" is three years old; besides that, every school district: DPS, Jeffco, Cherry Creek, Pueblo, every school district in Colorado – tried to at least inform the public about what Amendment 66 would do. These communiques came from the district administrations, not the teacher's unions, much as teacher's unions are the preferred bugaboo of the right wing chattering class.