When looking for the best qualities for a superintendent

By:

Dr. Anna Bucy

When looking for the best qualities for a superintendent, a board need look no further than the superintendent evaluation instruments and handbook available from the Ohio School Boards Association and other well-researched sources. Generally speaking, a school superintendent should be an educator with clear systems-thinking skills. Gone are the days when a district administrator only needed to focus on balls, beans, and buses. District leaders for the 21^st century must have a firm grasp on the global marketplace in which the district competes, the myriad stakeholders in the community the district serves, the curricular challenges of the district, and the effective (if not creative) management of the balls, beans, and buses.

Modern superintendents must have a proven track record of academic achievement, which is measured by far more than any standardized test scores. What is the candidate’s history with creating innovative programs for students, professional development for teachers and staff, and with seeking financial support? If the district has specific needs, as Greenon Local does, with respect to funding building projects and operations, the search committee needs to examine the candidate’s history along those lines and whether the candidate has ideas to bring to the district. In short, has the candidate done his/her homework?

Having non-educators evaluating whether a candidate for superintendent has all the necessary skills to be successful is a difficult endeavor. A key issue is that the board looks not at what they as individuals want in the superintendent, but what the district needs—what the students need—to be successful in the changing world.

While it is true that the school board, as representatives of the entire community, sets the mission and vision of the district, the superintendent must be able to implement that mission and vision in every decision he or she makes. A district’s current strategic plan should serve as the guide for any superintendent candidate looking to apply for work, and for boards evaluating candidates. Greenon Local has not publicly evaluated or updated its strategic plan in two years.

Hiring a superintendent means looking for someone to lead into the future—someone with clear leadership skills, a record of goal setting and accomplishing, and a focus on personal lifelong learning. Successful boards look for a superintendent that respects tradition, but is not bound by the way things have always been done when those methods may not move a district forward. This means, of course, that boards must also respect the path that brought the district where it is, but realize that business as usual may not take a district where it needs to go.

Superintendent candidates must also evaluate the board and district to which they are applying for work. A candidate must determine whether the board members work together well, whether there is much conflict within the board or district, what positive and negative information is available about the district, and whether the board seems to be actively addressing district needs. Any candidate that does not ask questions of the board or other search committee and does not appear to have researched the district is not a serious candidate.

In a small community like Greenon Local, the superintendent must be a working superintendent—no time to just delegate and dismiss. A superintendent must be skilled at building bridges within the community with stakeholder groups and within the schools with staff and faculty. Being a superintendent is a very difficult job that requires copious, open communication, respect of self and others, collaboration skills, and the ability to align and articulate mission, vision and goals across all areas of the district.

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Prince George's Public Schools Stamp Out Student Dissent on Budget Cuts

SHAME ON THE GROWN-UPS: Prince George's Public Schools Stamp Out Student Dissent on Budget Cuts

Provided by: www.marylandjuice.com

UPDATE: Thanks to the Internet-based publicity surrounding Prince George's school officials' ("PGCPS") attempts to silence student dissent over budget cuts, politicos are now weighing in on the matter. Not surprisingly, one incumbent School Board member is defending the Iron Fist tactics of PGCPS officials. The Real Prince George's County blog prints several responses:

1. District 7 School Board incumbent Henry Armwood says the crackdown on student protesters is about their safety (uh huh),
2. District 7 challenger Carletta Fellows stands with the students for trying to highlight "horrendous conditions,"
3. District 4 challenger Micah Watson raises questions about whether PGCPS officials should be allowed to invade student privacy by monitoring their Twitter accounts for political dissent, and
4. PGCPS Student Board member Faith Jackson says she is supposed to stay silent, but risks getting in trouble in order to stand by the students who elected her.

Numerous blogs and email lists are lighting up in anger over reports that Prince George's County Public School ("PGCPS") officials are using Iron Fist tactics to silence student protestors. Hat tip to AFL-CIO Union City email list and the Real Prince George's County blog for flagging the article below. It comes to us from the website for The Black Star Project. Their website states their mission as follows:

Founded in 1996 by Phillip Jackson, The Black Star Project is committed to improving the quality of life in Black and Latino communities of Chicago and nationwide by eliminating the racial academic achievement gap

The Black Star blog reported the following news about PGCPS officials Iron Fist tactics:

Thursday, March 1st was a National Student Day of Action in which students around the country organized demonstrations protesting education budget cuts, educational inequality, and advocating for quality and affordable education for all. Students at Northwestern High School in Prince George’s County Maryland planned a walkout and rally as part of the National Student Day of Action.

Over 300 students planned to walk out to protest unsanitary conditions in their school, enormous class sizes, cuts to the ESOL program, and denial of promised pay raises for their teachers. The students also were asking for more teacher/parent/student input in the curriculum and demanding an apology for a group of Filipino teachers who were fired and deported after not having their work visas renewed.

The Administration at Northwestern discovered the walkout plan early in the day by trolling Twitter and put the school on lockdown. Police blocked the doors and canine units waited in the school’s parking lot. They held student leaders in the Principal’s office all day, threatened them with expulsion, and at the end of the day suspended four students for 5 days requiring that when they return their parents must accompany them to classes all day.

Northwestern is a high school where a majority of the students are Black and Latino. The student organizers’ mission was to walk out for a better school and a better education. Instead the Administration violated their civil liberties, squashed these students’ free speech, and punished them for wanting to improve the school environment for themselves and their teachers. Instead of having a dialogue with students, the Administration at this school chose to make an example of several students and punish them harshly knowing this could affect these students ability to get into college.