ICCSD Supt. Steve Murley Still Doesn't Have His Ph.D. Did He Start Working on His Ph.D. in 1997?

Captions: 1. Supt. Steve Murley is looking behind him at the large crowd that showed up to protest his firing of homeless students liaison and whistleblower Stephanie Van Housen. 2. Stephanie Van Housen, former homeless students liaison and whistleblower at the Iowa City Community School District.

Critics have been curious about whether Iowa City Community School District Supt. Steve Murley has attained his Ph.D. The short answer? He hasn't. Word has it that Murley began working on his Ph.D. in 1997. I could find out for sure if Supt. Murley found sufficient time to answer my phone calls. So far, he hasn't, but I'll ask ICCSD board president Chris Lynch by email. There's a good chance he'll find out and let me know. I'd like to know what the topic of Murley's dissertation is as well.

Quoting from Chris Lynch's email to me forwarded from Supt. Murley,

"From: Stephen Murley <murley.stephen@iowacityschools.org>

"Date: Sun, Jul 16, 2017 at 10:48 AM

"Subject: graduate work

"To: Chris Lynch <chris.lynch@iowacityschools.org>, Paul Roesler <paul.roesler@iowacityschools.org>Cc: Craig Hansel <hansel.craig@iowacityschools.org>, Kim Colvin <colvin.kim@iowacityschools.org>

"Good Morning Chris,

"You asked for an update on my graduate work.

"i [sic] would like to be clear that advanced degree work was not a requirement in the job posting when I was hired for the position, was not at the time and is not now included in the job description for the position, was not at the time and is not now in the contract for the position, and was not at the time and is not now part of the evaluation process for the the position.

"During my employment in the District I have maintained full time status as a student at the University of Wisconsin- Madison in the Department of Education Leadership and Policy Analysis where I carry a 4.0 GPA for all graduate credits earned. I continue to work towards completion of my dissertation.

"Steve

--
Stephen F. Murley
Superintendent of Schools
Iowa City Community School District
1725 North Dodge Street
Iowa City, IA 52245-9589
Phone: 319-688-1000
Fax: 319-688-1009
Web: http://www.iowacityschools.org"

Note the legalistic language of Supt. Murley's defense of his nonattainment of his Ph.D. (see the first paragraph of his email).

To me it hardly matters whether he gets his Ph.D. or not since his unethical behavior is unlikely to be improved whether he gets his Ph.D. or not, only his income. (Murley gets a $5,000 raise or more for completing his Ph.D.) I do think that since he has a full-time job as superintendent and he supposedly attends school full time, he shouldn't be allowed to also pursue outside consulting work, lucrative as it is, when his performance as superintendent is clearly inadequate. In fact, he violated federal law with respect to special education. Is he qualified to be consulting other administrators?

Apparently, the reason he got in trouble with the Iowa Department of Education is because he had no idea that Grant Wood Area Education Agency is the supervisory arm of special education in the Iowa City Community School District. He seemed to think he could flaunt their directions with impunity. Next thing he knew, the other shoe dropped. The state Department of Education investigated the district's treatment of special education students and wrote a report on Supt. Murley's shortcomings and stated that he violated federal law. This egregious error might not have happened if he'd known the chain of command and known what the law stated had to be done with regard to special needs children (don't put them in seclusion boxes for pouting or stepping out of line).

Nevertheless, the rubber-stamp majority that existed on the board until LaTasha DeLoach resigned effective July 14th, 2017 extended Supt. Murley's contract and gave him two big raises over the next two years. The yes-on-the-bond voters in the community would also like to hand him $191.5 million plus interest in taxpayer funds to spend as he wishes, regardless of promises made to the community. He can do that, you know. He did it before with the Revenue Purpose Statement money voters gave him.

A smaller bond with very specific plans attached and accountability built into it would be a better idea. We haven't made the superintendent or the physical plant director, Duane Van Hemert, accountable for their violations (Murley) or their insubordination (Van Hemert). Now would be a good time to start.