What a crazy turn of events. Here's betting he lands somewhere good and keeps winning.
Lee Fedora leaving navasota....
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Last: 10 yr ago by Haricougar
The timing is odd to say the least based on all that hoopla from a couple weeks ago.
Huge loss for the Ratts and the city of Navasota.
Where is he going? Is there a link you can attach?
Cameron Yoe is open... I wonder if he's heading there. Great talent, though its in the toughest district in Texas according to Dave Campbell's Texas Football.
A tougher district is what he's always wanted but I doubt he stays at the HS level.
Big thumbs up on what Fedora did and how he did it.
quote:
Cameron Yoe is open... I wonder if he's heading there. Great talent, though its in the toughest district in Texas according to Dave Campbell's Texas Football.
Cameron was first school crossed my mind as well but IMO I don't see him going to another smaller school.
Now I'm sure lee was pissed at Navasota for what went down a few weeks ago so he was like " screw it.. I'll get you to extend then I'm out". However I don't think we would leave to make basically a lateral move.
I think he goes to a 5A or 6A school if he remains at the HS level. If not he will be an assistant at collegiate level.
According to article in The Eagle, Fedora can't state what was said behind closed doors, but that they did inform him of the direction the board plans on taking NISD. He decided after that it was time to go.
Eagle Article
Eagle Article
quote:any openings at UNC? I could see him joining Larry and being a solid recruiter in the state of TX
A tougher district is what he's always wanted but I doubt he stays at the HS level.
I'm the wrong guy to ask; I don't know him personally. I am just guessing as a fan of Navasota football who listens to him talk on the radio.
Hmmm...probably a really good time for someone to run for NISD school board
If he had great talent coming next year and was figuring on another possible State Championship team, he would not have left. Promise you! But, seeing less talent coming, this was the time to get out conveniently having someone else to blame and leaving everyone mad at a school board he feels mistreated him.
I don't know if some of you have a clue about small town school board politics. We used to say that in a small town where I coached years ago that "Uneducated people are trying to tell educated people how to educate!"
Board members in many small towns think they are the superintendent and try to get involved in day to day issues, where in larger districts like CS and larger, the board members don't get involved in the day to day issues and let the administration run the schools.
Board members in many small towns think they are the superintendent and try to get involved in day to day issues, where in larger districts like CS and larger, the board members don't get involved in the day to day issues and let the administration run the schools.
NISD school board learns the hard way.... play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
quote:Yup. They ran off their only state champion football coach.
NISD school board learns the hard way.... play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Many newbies on the Navosota ISD board were elected the last couple of cycles to turn around the unacceptable rating from TEA. They have publicly announced they are not longer rubber stamping the superintendents requests and actually want to review things prior to the board meeting. They were blindsided with the request for the extension shoved in a stack of a half million dollars worth of other contract extensions and nobody seconded the motion to approve all those extensions because the board hadn't seen them. Tip of the iceberg if you listen to some of the newer school board members down there trying to turn that district around.
of course: Unacceptable Rating.....Doesn't matter....FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
of course: Unacceptable Rating.....Doesn't matter....FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
quote:There isn't a whole lot to consider when you have the best coach they've ever had on the payroll. Extension of the contract should have occured and they could have spent all year considering it for the next time.
Many newbies on the Navosota ISD board were elected the last couple of cycles to turn around the unacceptable rating from TEA. They have publicly announced they are not longer rubber stamping the superintendents requests and actually want to review things prior to the board meeting. They were blindsided with the request for the extension shoved in a stack of a half million dollars worth of other contract extensions and nobody seconded the motion to approve all those extensions because the board hadn't seen them. Tip of the iceberg if you listen to some of the newer school board members down there trying to turn that district around.
of course: Unacceptable Rating.....Doesn't matter....FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
all of this reminds me of that quote from a college football coach in the 70's:
"we want a university that the football team can be proud of"
"we want a university that the football team can be proud of"
quote:He was offered almost twice the pay as a teacher in the district. His teams have been great for the community, but did literally nothing to improve the one thing NISD is charged to do: successfully educate their students.quote:There isn't a whole lot to consider when you have the best coach they've ever had on the payroll. Extension of the contract should have occured and they could have spent all year considering it for the next time.
Many newbies on the Navosota ISD board were elected the last couple of cycles to turn around the unacceptable rating from TEA. They have publicly announced they are not longer rubber stamping the superintendents requests and actually want to review things prior to the board meeting. They were blindsided with the request for the extension shoved in a stack of a half million dollars worth of other contract extensions and nobody seconded the motion to approve all those extensions because the board hadn't seen them. Tip of the iceberg if you listen to some of the newer school board members down there trying to turn that district around.
of course: Unacceptable Rating.....Doesn't matter....FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
quote:And you know this how?
He was offered almost twice the pay as a teacher in the district. His teams have been great for the community, but did literally nothing to improve the one thing NISD is charged to do: successfully educate their students.
Pretty sure that it has been clearly stated that Fedora has gone from 13-15 athletes out due to grades in his first year to 3 in the last 3 years. Hard to argue with those numbers.
quote:What correlation does a winning football team have to do with academic success of the NISD? Is THAT the question you're asking me?quote:And you know this how?
He was offered almost twice the pay as a teacher in the district. His teams have been great for the community, but did literally nothing to improve the one thing NISD is charged to do: successfully educate their students.
A friend of mine worked on Fedora's staff in Navasota, and told me their 1st two years there, they lost 30 something varsity football players to grades. The last 9 years they supposedly only lost 2 or 3 varsity football players to grades. That's a WOW in my book
As someone who has been a resident of Navasota for over 35 years and attended Navasota public schools from 3rd grade through high school, I'll say that I'm glad that we finally have a school board that isn't afraid to forego the "status quo" route and is making tough decisions about what is best for our school district.
Our schools were strong in the 90s, so much to the point that I had an English prof at A&M ask if I had attended Navasota High because "she could tell by the literature to which I was exposed," my high school math teacher literally helped write one of the textbooks for the math program we were using, and my high school Physics teacher was a PhD in NUEN (if I remember correctly) and taught me Physics 1 and Physics 2 at Blinn summer school when I was at A&M.
Unfortunately, our Superintendent at the time was run off by a few district parents who thought their kids were above the rules. She grew so tired of the fight that she resigned and moved on to greener pastures. This is first hand knowledge, as my mom was on the school board at the time. Since her, we've had a series of dud Superintendents who drove out many of the career teachers of my time. Since the early 2000s, our district has been in a steady decline. We've had a series of Superintendents who have either taken the job while they finished their PhD or who were "promoted from within."
Now, don't get me wrong - I like Gesch as a guy (I've spent a decent amount of time with him and his family) and I like Fedora's teams' presence in the community. He's turning boys into young men and getting them involved in Navasota. However, it's hard to justify state championships and a winning football team when you have 26 kids in a classroom, your 4th grade math scores have declined every year for the past 10 years, and you've had entire schools restructured by the state because of repeated unacceptable ratings.
After my wife and I graduated from A&M, we made Navasota our permanent home because of the small town atmosphere. However, now that our oldest is about to start Kindergarten in the Fall, we're looking at moving because our schools are so bad. My wife and I both did our undergrad and masters at A&M and want to be a part of the Navasota community and continue to give our time and participate in community events, but I'm not going to do that to the detriment of my children. We've purchased land in ASISD, but likely won't be able to build in time, so our choices are private school in CS or move to B/CS so that our kids can get a strong educational foundation - something that I feel they wouldn't were we to remain in NISD.
This current board has been elected to turn this district around. I have full faith and confidence that the decisions they're making are the right ones for the district, even if they're not the most popular.
Our schools were strong in the 90s, so much to the point that I had an English prof at A&M ask if I had attended Navasota High because "she could tell by the literature to which I was exposed," my high school math teacher literally helped write one of the textbooks for the math program we were using, and my high school Physics teacher was a PhD in NUEN (if I remember correctly) and taught me Physics 1 and Physics 2 at Blinn summer school when I was at A&M.
Unfortunately, our Superintendent at the time was run off by a few district parents who thought their kids were above the rules. She grew so tired of the fight that she resigned and moved on to greener pastures. This is first hand knowledge, as my mom was on the school board at the time. Since her, we've had a series of dud Superintendents who drove out many of the career teachers of my time. Since the early 2000s, our district has been in a steady decline. We've had a series of Superintendents who have either taken the job while they finished their PhD or who were "promoted from within."
Now, don't get me wrong - I like Gesch as a guy (I've spent a decent amount of time with him and his family) and I like Fedora's teams' presence in the community. He's turning boys into young men and getting them involved in Navasota. However, it's hard to justify state championships and a winning football team when you have 26 kids in a classroom, your 4th grade math scores have declined every year for the past 10 years, and you've had entire schools restructured by the state because of repeated unacceptable ratings.
After my wife and I graduated from A&M, we made Navasota our permanent home because of the small town atmosphere. However, now that our oldest is about to start Kindergarten in the Fall, we're looking at moving because our schools are so bad. My wife and I both did our undergrad and masters at A&M and want to be a part of the Navasota community and continue to give our time and participate in community events, but I'm not going to do that to the detriment of my children. We've purchased land in ASISD, but likely won't be able to build in time, so our choices are private school in CS or move to B/CS so that our kids can get a strong educational foundation - something that I feel they wouldn't were we to remain in NISD.
This current board has been elected to turn this district around. I have full faith and confidence that the decisions they're making are the right ones for the district, even if they're not the most popular.
quote:quote:There isn't a whole lot to consider when you have the best coach they've ever had on the payroll. Extension of the contract should have occured and they could have spent all year considering it for the next time.
Many newbies on the Navosota ISD board were elected the last couple of cycles to turn around the unacceptable rating from TEA. They have publicly announced they are not longer rubber stamping the superintendents requests and actually want to review things prior to the board meeting. They were blindsided with the request for the extension shoved in a stack of a half million dollars worth of other contract extensions and nobody seconded the motion to approve all those extensions because the board hadn't seen them. Tip of the iceberg if you listen to some of the newer school board members down there trying to turn that district around.
of course: Unacceptable Rating.....Doesn't matter....FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At the time, he had 18 months left on the contract.
quote:This reasoning is flawed.
Many newbies on the Navosota ISD board were elected the last couple of cycles to turn around the unacceptable rating from TEA. They have publicly announced they are not longer rubber stamping the superintendents requests and actually want to review things prior to the board meeting. They were blindsided with the request for the extension shoved in a stack of a half million dollars worth of other contract extensions and nobody seconded the motion to approve all those extensions because the board hadn't seen them. Tip of the iceberg if you listen to some of the newer school board members down there trying to turn that district around.
of course: Unacceptable Rating.....Doesn't matter....FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If they were "blindsided" by the request for so much money....why approve 3 (or maybe 2) contracts but not 2 (I believe the director of HR was the contract that died because of a 3-3 vote). So they can "rubber stamp" some contracts but not others?
So the theory is that the success on the football field was holding back the school academically?
Got it.
Got it.
quote:
So the theory is that the success on the football field was holding back the school academically?
Got it.
No, it's that Gesch and Fedora are very tight, and that Gesch may not be here next year due to our failing academics. We all know Fedora has options and offers, but he likes working for Gesch. Without Gesch, why stay, especially when the new Superintendent may not be as understanding regarding the perks given to Fedora.
We won't know for sure for a while, but I'm guessing that this is some of what came out in the closed door meeting that occurred at the time of Fedora's resignation.
quote:So the district is having troubles. Therefore, the board runs off the one bright spot in the district, the state championship winning football coach.quote:
So the theory is that the success on the football field was holding back the school academically?
Got it.
No, it's that Gesch and Fedora are very tight, and that Gesch may not be here next year due to our failing academics. We all know Fedora has options and offers, but he likes working for Gesch. Without Gesch, why stay, especially when the new Superintendent may not be as understanding regarding the perks given to Fedora.
We won't know for sure for a while, but I'm guessing that this is some of what came out in the closed door meeting that occurred at the time of Fedora's resignation.
Brilliant.
quote:quote:So the district is having troubles. Therefore, the board runs off the one bright spot in the district, the state championship winning football coach.quote:
So the theory is that the success on the football field was holding back the school academically?
Got it.
No, it's that Gesch and Fedora are very tight, and that Gesch may not be here next year due to our failing academics. We all know Fedora has options and offers, but he likes working for Gesch. Without Gesch, why stay, especially when the new Superintendent may not be as understanding regarding the perks given to Fedora.
We won't know for sure for a while, but I'm guessing that this is some of what came out in the closed door meeting that occurred at the time of Fedora's resignation.
Brilliant.
Yep, because letting a coach basically hold an academically failing district hostage "because, football" is the smart choice.
quote:quote:This reasoning is flawed.
Many newbies on the Navosota ISD board were elected the last couple of cycles to turn around the unacceptable rating from TEA. They have publicly announced they are not longer rubber stamping the superintendents requests and actually want to review things prior to the board meeting. They were blindsided with the request for the extension shoved in a stack of a half million dollars worth of other contract extensions and nobody seconded the motion to approve all those extensions because the board hadn't seen them. Tip of the iceberg if you listen to some of the newer school board members down there trying to turn that district around.
of course: Unacceptable Rating.....Doesn't matter....FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If they were "blindsided" by the request for so much money....why approve 3 (or maybe 2) contracts but not 2 (I believe the director of HR was the contract that died because of a 3-3 vote). So they can "rubber stamp" some contracts but not others?
Maybe because those contracts were actually expiring?? Maybe they were "blindsided" by request to renew a contract that still had a year and a half left before expiration?
I don't know all of the "facts" surrounding this situation, and I'm pretty sure most on here don't either.
There seems to be a lot of speculation along with some partial "facts". One thing I know for a fact is that, by state law, board agendas are made public 72 hours prior to board meetings. If any board members were "blindsided", it would only be due to their lack of diligence in doing their job.
There seems to be a lot of speculation along with some partial "facts". One thing I know for a fact is that, by state law, board agendas are made public 72 hours prior to board meetings. If any board members were "blindsided", it would only be due to their lack of diligence in doing their job.
quote:quote:So the district is having troubles. Therefore, the board runs off the one bright spot in the district, the state championship winning football coach.quote:
So the theory is that the success on the football field was holding back the school academically?
Got it.
No, it's that Gesch and Fedora are very tight, and that Gesch may not be here next year due to our failing academics. We all know Fedora has options and offers, but he likes working for Gesch. Without Gesch, why stay, especially when the new Superintendent may not be as understanding regarding the perks given to Fedora.
We won't know for sure for a while, but I'm guessing that this is some of what came out in the closed door meeting that occurred at the time of Fedora's resignation.
Brilliant.
You're argument relies on a faulty premises that the board "ran off" Fedora. The board voted unanimously to extend his contract another year so he had 2.5 years remaining. Fedora left on his own.
Seems clear that either (a) Fedora was already planning on leaving and this have him a good opportunity to do so or (b) Fedora is a big ole titty baby who got his feelings hurt that it took the board 15 estate days to approve his extension so he left.
I find (b) to be very unlikely, so I'm going to go with Fedora was planning on leaving.
Emeril, you are a navasotian so maybe you can tell me. I have a few questions that I think will make this whole thing make a lot more sense.
1. What kind of talent is in the Navasota pipeline? I know they will lose their stud QB and stud WR and a lot of good guys on defense. Any idea how the JV, Freshman, and Jr. High teams performed this year. I have heard that it was 2015 or bust for the Rattlers because they are about to have a bit of a talent drop-off.
2. Are there contested school board elections about to take place? Are there pro and anti superintendent candidates? This thing just smells like a political power play to me.