The cover of this week’s Artvoice certainly caught my attention. For me, it led to very disappointing coverage on Superintendent James Williams.

Shame on you for such a one-sided, poison penned piece which didn’t, until the final third of the article, recognize any of the other variables in Buffalo’s school district background for concern. Why depict Williams as “Godzilla” when Buffalo has been under attack from within and most of the negative conditions existed long before Williams got here? We, eventually, seem to treat every lead manager who comes here from out of town this way. It’s a huge shame and a disaster for our organizations they come to lead.

You, Jamie, choose to write about any factor you could, whether current or not, and then report as though this was all gospel. Until the end of the article it wasn’t clear you were offering your opinion based on a bias against actions or positions Williams and others have taken over the years.

Some of your complaints are fair, though out of Williams’ control but included just to wipe him with the negative. Search process secrecy—unnecessary, but nothing to do with Williams. Wilmers’ opinion on charters and the Taylor Law—advisory and nothing to do with Williams. And talking about the search process three years later serves what purpose today? Where were you then? Silent, as I recall.

You do a lousy job in discussion of Williams and Dayton’s parting. Yes, there was a difference between the board majority and Williams after nine years. Do you have any idea how many urban superintendents last nine years in the same city—less than 10 percent because the issues are so big and the talent pool so constantly drained by searches by other big cities. He moved on. Differences happen. You give no credit to his goal of preserving programs for kids in his city when the board was more conscious of tax policy and what was a reasonable area of difference.

Williams can be an eloquent speaker and a great story teller. Unfortunately, he has an edge too often for his own success and that was disappointing to me as a board member and now as an observer. What Williams is is a good, well experienced policy manager and a pretty fair judge of good managers to hire to his cabinet.

Buffalo, today, is far better off with the management team he has crafted than any I saw in 15 years of activism or Board service and 30 years of caring. He is the strongest of five superintendents I observed up close. Warts? Sure. But who doesn’t have warts? Even people born here have been having trouble getting Buffalo’s schools to deliver what our children need.

Does Williams pick everyone in responsible positions—school principals, all managers? No. Crystal Barton should have been disciplined and dealt with more effectively many years prior to Williams’ arrival. Perhaps then her arrogance as a leader would have settled down. Over the years, when there were attempts to discipline her, she was able to have actions stalled or stopped because she was good at working the system. Do you believe Williams should be responsible for righting years of bad management and curing all the personnel problems in Buffalo’s schools? There are some he has fixed but did you choose to report on those? No.

And the Taylor Law is an issue for both sides—labor and management. It has been amended over the years to change what Nelson Rockefeller brought forward. And in contentious circumstances and poor times and poor communities, it doesn’t yield agreements because both sides maintain the status quo. Add a control board, again existing prior to Williams’ arrival, and, yes, there is even a more difficult hurdle to hop. Under the best circumstance, when Buffalo’s schools run largely on money dependent on actors 300 and 1500 miles away, it is very, very, very hard to predict increases in funds to pay for contracts.

For years superintendents named Manch, Reville, Thompson, Harris, and Canedo presided over contract settlements they could not always pay for and had to then go and beg for the money. Williams hasn’t had that ability with the control board in place. This situation existed prior to his coming here and hasn’t improved.

“Abrogating a contract” is one way of saying Buffalo preserved health insurance policy coverage for all with all options without using all the vendors. The board acted prior to Williams’ arrival and he accepted the gamble as a money saver and rightly justifiable under the law. What would Artvoice have done?

It was a legal gamble that has paid, during trial and appeal, great dividends in retained teachers. After sitting on a board responsible for cutting over 1,000 positions in five years, it was a chance worth taking for me and Williams accepted the premise and the risk. Today, if the Taylor Law weren’t so outdated in its attitude on these issues, both sides could be happy. The unions have said they didn’t object to the single carrier but were fighting the principle. Who wins?

Finally, on the foundation, let me say the board agreed at the time of its creation to not have members serve while asking for quarterly updates through our committees. Using the Finance and Operations Committee, I made sure we had reports on the foundation for all board members. Not-for-profit foundations are registered charities in New York and file regular reports with the Secretary of State. With an $850 million budget and billion dollar reconstruction program, it would seem the current board has many financials to pay attention to. Why this is an issue at all is beyond me. What oversight is necessary given the foundation has its own board with capable people serving?

There has been a lot of criticism this year and the sitting board seems to have a penchant for giving more and more criticism. The news coverage has focused on situations involving individual children. The board seems to focus on individual children and the individual actions of a very few of the staff. There is much more that can be accomplished if the board were focused on the many.

When the collective public begins to pay attention to the whole body of children, perhaps the need for action for our city’s children and employees will improve.

Given a very, very underserved population of needy kids, employees who haven’t seen raises in years due to the control board and fiscal uncertainty always an issue, having a news corps that focuses on personality rather than product has produced a great anti-Buffalo flame. Artvoice could better focus on so many issues to help the board make better decisions and our citizens better understand the needs we have and choices we face.

Donald A. Van Every

Buffalo