The Commercial Appeal reported yesterday that the Memphis City Schools had quietly hired consultant Jeffrey Hernandez, a former associate of superintendent Kriner Cash’s from the Miami-Dade Public School District, at a rate of $1,500 a day to turn around its lowest-performing schools.
Like members of the school board, we wondered exactly who this guy was. Here’s what we found.
In April of this year, the Palm Beach Post called him the “most despised person in the Palm Beach County school system” in a story about him vying for a superintendent position in two other Florida counties:
Stripped of most of his duties as the district’s chief academic officer in December to appease angry parents and teachers, it was clear his $180,366 contract wouldn’t be extended when it expires June 30.
Still, reaction to Saturday’s news from his critics was as venomous as that which was unleashed on him shortly after the curriculum he devised was put in place in August.
“Thank God, he’s leaving Palm Beach County,” said Stacy Gutner, a Boynton Beach woman who was a vocal critic of the test-heavy curriculum Hernandez developed.
