G-Town Talks 2.0, from Randolph Central

What a mixed-up month May is in the world of school! It’s budget time so I’m immersed in budget documents, procedures, the public hearing, ‘Meet the Candidates’ night and the public vote/election. At the same time, it’s beautiful outside (at long last!) and I’m yearning to get outside in my gardens but have no time to do so. As we look to next year we are interviewing and hiring for our 2013-14 openings and we haven’t even allowed 2012-13 to come to a close.

We have spring concerts and events, awards dinners, spring sports and planning for next year already. And our Seniors! They are their own crazy mix of emotions. One day they can’t wait to get out of here and the next they are miserable to think there are only about ten school days left. They are sick and tired of each other one minute, already missing each other the next. We’ve been talking a lot about appreciating every day and savoring the moment. On some days I think they’re even listening to me!

May also brings the end of the year meetings on tenure decisions, development of class lists for next year and new–the dreaded portfolio reviews. Our local Marina is open in Onoville and we’re starting to think summer.  Prom is in May, with all of its pomp and excitement–and the Randolph After-Prom event which is completely organized and run by our parents–by far one of the best events of a high school student’s life.

If you’re the parents of a high school student, especially Seniors, hold them a little tighter as they struggle to break free for the next phase of life. The summer before our own son left for college wasn’t my favorite. He was stretching his wings at the same time that I hated to see him go; his departure for college brought that “empty nest” to our home. Hang in there Mom and Dad–this too shall pass!

Vandalism. Senior Pranks that cause damage. Graffiti. Why is any of it necessary?

Last night, the mural that our students and Art teachers created in Town was vandalized. This happened along with the vandalism of some of our local churches. Vandalism is a problem that I cannot get my head around. I understand that those who commit the act aren’t worried about the costs to repair, replace or clean the damage. But I don’t understand what they hope to gain?

What’s the vandalism about in the mind of the person committing it? Is it done out of anger? Boredom? Spite? Mischief? Jealousy? Hate?

From where I stand, vandalism feels very hurtful. Perhaps that’s the intention, to hurt others? But why then? We have students and teachers who gave freely of their own time to try to do something good for our Town, why would anyone want to hurt them? It’s so senseless. I try really hard to listen and understand and think about the other person’s point of view but in this case I truly cannot understand. It  makes me very sad. What is lacking in the people who deliberately destroy the property of others? What need does that act feed in them?

What’s the point?

On a similar topic, I’ve always hated senior pranks for the same reasons. Maybe they start in good fun, but I’ve seen students get carried away with them and do irreparable damage to their school and to themselves. And even when it doesn’t result in real damage–who do they think has to clean up the messes left behind? Some good hard working cleaner or custodian who doesn’t deserve that extra load in their work day, that’s who. For those of us who work in education and strive every day to make school a better place and to make sure every student feels valued and cared about—vandalism and senior pranks gone awry are just a big slap in the face.

Here’s another question from the NYS Superintendent Development Program. Anyone else out there want to add a few bits of advice for our new colleagues?

What are the most important “first-steps” a superintendent should take in a new district? First position?

Is it enough for me to just say “shut up and listen”? That’s largely what I would recommend. Okay, don’t shut up but instead use the time in the conversation when you’re talking to ask good questions. This is a time to learn as much about the organization as possible. Try hard to check your assumptions at the door, to listen to EVERYONE not just those who clamor to put their words in your ear first. Keep your door open and take time for anyone willing to walk through it.

Everyone will tell you that the first steps you take should be to build relationships with people. Getting to know everyone in the organization is important, most especially your BOE members, Admin Team and union leadership. Again, listen and learn. Every organization is unique and if you’re going to lead effectively, you’ve got to give and earn respect. That comes only one way that I know and that’s by telling the truth and following through on your word. Do both consistently. 

Work hard to shut up about two things. 1. Your previous school. Saying “at ___________ District” may be your point of reference but it doesn’t get you far with those in your new district. 2. Your judgment of the previous superintendent. It’s not helpful to pass judgment on the decisions made before you were there. You’re just like everyone else who’s Monday morning quarterbacking her decisions–you weren’t there, you don’t have all of the information she did and you aren’t qualified to second guess her.

Learn the detail of the job by asking questions. Take care of yourself along the way. Don’t neglect your health, your fitness or your family.

Today I continue the series of blog posts started last week in response to questions posed by students in the Superintendent Development Program.

How do you still enjoy your personal life outside of school, given that you are living in such a “fishbowl” environment? 

I’ve definitely had times in my 13 year administrative career when I didn’t do a very good job of balancing private and professional life. The first year in a new position, for example, can be disastrous personally. In my first year as superintendent, I was grinding my teeth so badly that the dentist ordered a nighttime mouth guard. Then I realized I was actually grinding them during the day, as I worked hard NOT to say or show what I was thinking all of the time. Let’s just say I’ll never be a good poker player so this is something I continue to work on every day. However now I manage it minus the teeth grinding. And my weight’s been up and down so many times that my brother’s called me Oprah.

Enjoying a personal life means working hard every day and then shutting it off when you get home. When we conducted the interview that led to these blog posts, we did so via Skype. Why? I declined the request to meet with the participants at their location. It isn’t that I didn’t want to talk with them but more that I didn’t want to give up another entire evening. By doing the interview via Skype, I was able to go home from school and get in an hour of yoga before the interview. I put taking care of myself first and saved myself another evening of arriving home at 9:00 and eating an unhealthy meal. I’m better the next day at work when I’ve taken the time to exercise, eat well and decompress the night before.

I attend games and concerts but seldom will you see me staying until the very end. It’s not that I don’t care how the game turns out, of course I do. It’s that I know tomorrow will bring it’s own set of challenges and that I need a good night’s sleep to be my best. I’m seldom up after 9:00 on a school night–I make getting a good night’s rest a priority. If someone at the game or concert is bothered by the fact that I left before it ended, I can’t control how they feel. I’m the only one who knows the demands of my job and being my best during the day serves the District better than sitting on my butt on the bleachers until the very end of every athletic contest.

Regarding the fishbowl environment, that’s particularly a problem when the administrator lives in the district. I’ve done it both ways. We live in Gowanda and when I was the Gowanda HS Principal it was much harder to go home and relax. I was ALWAYS the principal. At family gatherings, if everyone was complaining about something with school, it bothered me. I felt it was my responsibility to fix everything and so there I was, at a family birthday party, thinking about school. If I saw students hanging out on the corner late on a Friday night, I worried about them. I couldn’t jump in the car in my sweats and run down for an ice cream with my husband at 7:30 because the community saw me as the principal, at all times. Now when we want to run to Red’s for a cone, I’m just Kim–I can go without my makeup in my pajama pants if I want to. I like that much better. I still spend a lot of time here in Randolph, at work and buying my groceries and gas, our daughter lives in the District and we’ve just gotten a place at the Marina in Onoville. But when I go home, I’m just Kim. My advice to new administrators is to figure out what you most need to be mentally and physically healthy and prioritize so that those things become non-negotiable for you.

Another Superintendent Development Program Question #4:

How do you focus a board of education on instruction rather than managerial tasks? How do you change board operations?

I can only really speak to this in one school district, Randolph, but I realize that Boards of Education may vary greatly from one community to the next. In my experience over the past five years, I’ve found that getting to know and understand our BOE members are important. In my experience, BOE members are well meaning, caring community members who want to make a difference. Each member brings a unique background and often each is keenly focused on a different aspect of school operations.

I think about our meetings and plan for them in much the same way a teacher plans for a class. Because I’m anticipating their questions based on their interests, I come prepared. For example, I have a few BOE members who want to see the data, the comparison, and the deep analysis. I’d be foolish to present an idea without that, wouldn’t I? Likewise I have a BOE member who will always ask the cost and want to know that I’ve researched all other options first. We have BOE members who are deeply interested when we do a presentation on the details of our curriculum, others who love to hear about our student successes in and out of the classroom, and those who analyze the budget detail each month. They all play an important role in governing our school district with me. I learn from them, I’m a better superintendent because of them, and I work hard at my relationship with each of them. Much as I do with the other members of our school community.

Having said all of this about BOE relationships, I also acknowledge the important role I have in focusing the BOE members on the big ideas in education. In setting the agenda with the BOE President, we work hard to make sure BOE members are well informed on the hot issues in education and we include background information on important decisions IN ADVANCE, giving them time to think and to discuss before placing a motion on the agenda. I suppose if we didn’t bring important topics to them, they may be left to focus on the latest complaint heard at the grocery store. Their expectations for me and for the entire school district are much higher than that and we seem to have no difficulty focusing on what’s important in education (realizing that they do tell me about the complaints in the grocery store and then they trust us to do our jobs and take care of it).

As far as how we change BOE operations, the BOE largely “polices” itself.  If we’re discussing an issue that’s a building level management problem, someone is sure to speak up and remind the others of their main responsibilities: fiscal, curricular and policy. When I arrived here the BOE was very involved in the entire hiring process to a level I wasn’t accustomed to. I asked Lynda Quick, our BOCES Assistant DS, to come in and facilitate a conversation during a BOE Retreat on goal setting and how they wanted to function as a Board. At one point Lynda asked, “Who hires teachers?” One BOE member replied, “We do.” Lynda helped clarify for the BOE that the superintendent is their primary employee and it’s my responsibility to hire everyone else. We streamlined the process and now one or two BOE members serve on the final hiring committee with me. They trust me to do my job and take me to task if I don’t.

That thinking about hiring was something that evolved over time. They were well intended but misinformed. As I’ve written in other posts in this series, nothing beats an honest, straightforward, respectful conversation. They can expect that from me and I get the same from them. Similar to my relationships with other constituencies within our school community, BOE members want to know where they stand, they want to be a part of the conversation and decision making, and they don’t like to be surprised. That’s reasonable!

Question #3 from the Superintendent Development Program

What strategies have you used to uncover dysfunctions in an organization? What actions have you taken to address the issue and move the district forward, gaining the critical mass needed to make a change happen?

Dysfunction isn’t hard to spot. One word of caution is to enter an organization carefully and with great patience. Those who seek you out immediately may not be the key players within the organization. Previously I was in a position in which two teachers in particular stopped to see me OFTEN in my first weeks. They had a close relationship with my predecessor. Those two teachers both ended up leaving the organization while I was a leader there. One embezzled money from the extracurricular accounts and the other had multiple issues for which we had several serious conversations. The point is not that you need to be suspicious of those who reach out to you upon arrival but that you should be somewhat guarded until you have the time to get to know all of your employees. Had I allowed myself to appear aligned with those two teachers, I would have lost the respect of the many good employees I later got to know well.

I always think of what Janeil Rey said in my admin program at SUNY Fredonia. You’ve got to decide who you want to be angry with you, the good teachers or the bad teachers. If you’re not doing anything about the bad teachers, the good teachers are angry. I guarantee those who are in the organization know what the dysfunctions are and they are waiting and watching to see if you’re finally the leader who will recognize the truth and do something about it.

As far as gaining the critical mass needed to make change happen, my experience has proven that there are far more dedicated, well meaning, quiet and excellent employees in any school than there are bad. It’s just that the difficult employees are usually the loudest, most confrontational OR charismatic as in the case of the teacher who was skilled at gaining trust that led to embezzlement. Good employees often just want to keep their heads down, do their work and stay away from those they know are doing wrong. It’s our job as the leaders to do the right thing, the often difficult and courageous thing, and speak up to make a difference. 

“Not on MY watch” is a good motto to live by as a leader working to make a significant difference.

As superintendent of a school district, what do you think is the single greatest action you can take to have a positive influence on the instructional process and its impact on children?

This question is worded in an interesting way, notice they ask what is the single greatest action. That phrase changed my answer. On first reading I thought, courage. This is a leadership position that absolutely requires courage in a million different ways and decisions. But courage isn’t an action.

The single greatest action to have a positive influence on the instructional process? Hire the right people. That means hiring teachers who are outstanding, who have high expectations for students and higher expectations for themselves. It means assembling the right administrative team, administrators who share in our goals of the absolute best instructional program for every student, with high achievement and learning for all. It means helping those employees who don’t have high expectations for themselves realize this isn’t the place for them.  All of it takes courage, yes, and hiring and retention decisions are the key actions.

Last evening I had the great pleasure of participating in an interview with the 2013 Cohort of the NYS Superintendent Development Program, conducted through SUNY Oswego.  This was the Cattaraugus-Allegany-Erie Cohort and included administrators in districts around here. The team asked some great questions and I ended the interview wondering if my answers were at all similar to those of my colleagues who may have been interviewed previously.

I’m thinking it could be interesting and useful to new administrators (and to me) if I do a series of blog posts based on the  Cohort questions. I’ll post each question and give my answer,  and then I  invite conversation about my answer or tell us how YOU would answer the question. I would love to read how my fellow administrators from across the country think  and also how our school community feels about the questions and the superintendency. In other words, how would you like your superintendent to think about each question? Hopefully I’ll be on the mark but if not I can learn from your thinking—I can improve and do a better job for the RCS community.

So here’s the first one.

What has been your greatest challenge since becoming a Superintendent? Have you found the position to be what you expected?

My greatest challenge has been to always make the best decisions for our school, our students and families, and our taxpayers. As hard as I may try it’s always a challenge to get it all right. I really want our District to be the best that it can be for the future success of our students, for our employees and for our community as a whole. Wanting it doesn’t make it happen. The challenge is sometimes knowing which course is best in any decision and often knowing that someone will be upset with the outcome. It’s knowing that I’ve considered all of the information at hand–often times information others don’t have–and made the best decision for the District. That’s my responsibility and really no one else’s but the business official and the Board of Education.

What do I mean? Well, everyone has his or her own point of view, perspective, opinion. It’s based on the role that the person has within the organization–teacher or parent or student  or support staff employee–and the personal experiences of that person. I often can’t share all of the information that leads to a decision and can be the only one with all of the pieces of the puzzle. So my challenge is in building trust and making the best decisions possible so that members of our school community can have faith in me even when they only see the edges of the puzzle or problem I’m trying to solve. The only way I know how to build that trust is by always telling the truth, sharing what I can, and having the  best interest of the District in mind— which can sometimes be in conflict with the interest of an individual. The only way I know how to make the best decisions is by considering every angle, soliciting input from others, analyzing and then having the courage to make the decision, no matter how hard.

And the second part of that question: asking if I’ve found the position to be what I expected? I say 95% of it, yes. Having worked in other districts for some incredible leaders, I learned from some of the very best–mentors like Cindy Miner, Deb Ormsby, Kerry Courtney, Elizabeth Bradley, Janeil Rey. My time learning from Charles Rinaldi, Supt. at Gowanda Central, especially about school finance, was invaluable. The 5% I didn’t expect? All of the time I spend listening to the school attorneys!

I hope to hear from you–Question #2 tomorrow.

So in this video, linked on our school website to the State Ed’s website with resources for parents, Commissioner King and Associate Commissioner Slentz talk about the common core standards and the new 3-8 assessments.

Mr. Slentz says emphatically that everyone must understand that we expect the results to be lower and that we will have a new starting point. If it’s a new starting point, with new standards and new assessments, then how can they be compared to the results we’ve gotten in the past on different assessments? How can we compare the growth of our students against two different measures? And we’re doing so in high stakes ways that result in evaluation scores for teachers and principals?

Let’s also remember that the tests our students are taking this week are completely aligned with the common core curriculum, something that’s at best been introduced in most NYS school districts. I wonder how Business First, who historically looks at four years of test results, will handle this new starting point in their comparative studies. (Read sarcasm.)

As a district leader, I’m paid to handle the change, to make decisions, to educate the entire school community on these changes and to lead the district to greater academic success. We’ve been ahead of this game all along, implementing iReady diagnostic tools and the new teacher/principal evaluation tools last year. We’ve been closely analyzing and implementing the common core curriculum guides as they become available. But all is not in place yet, in any district or from the state. And now we evaluate our children on a curriculum they haven’t fully learned and certainly haven’t come through the system with yet.

Having said all of that I do believe we are as equipped to handle the changes as any district can be. I remain optimistic and RCS community members, including teachers and parents, should too. At the end of the day, we’ve done all that we could do to prepare, to learn with rigor, to help one another. Make sure our children know that too! These are interesting days in public education.

I love a good conversation about education! Last evening I had the wonderful opportunity to have such a conversation with the parents of two of our elementary students. They met with me to talk about their concerns about education and the direction the New York State Education Department is headed. I hope they enjoyed the conversation half as much as I did–even though it lasted for two solid hours and I’m sure they had the bedtimes of their children to worry about when they left here at 9:00!

What did we talk about? If I had to summarize that conversation, in which this mom and dad offered countless astute observations about the education of their girls, I’d say it was about the impact of state testing and the common core curriculum on their children. They talked about the anxiety, the frustration, and the tears associated with school this year.

This young couple spoke of the loss of family time as their daughter spends three hours per night on homework, often on our new Math curriculum and the difficulty in solving problems as it’s done with the common core. Three hours of homework for 8-12 year old children? That’s ridiculous. No elementary child should have more than 20-30 minutes of homework total. You tell me as an adult if you want to come home from work and then work for another couple of hours?

These caring, dedicated parents wondered why their children are in front of a computer so much, why they don’t know things that we learned in school like state and local history and geography. Why are so few papers their children bring home  focused on social studies or science? When do they get to do projects in school like the one created for the academic fair that their daughter was so excited about? And why is their child so worried about her performance on a state test, to the point that she’s afraid it’s going to affect the rest of her life because she was told it will be on her permanent record?

What’s my answer? Public education has changed dramatically in the past two years. I’ve said many times that this has been the most stressful, rapidly changing time in my career. The impact has seemingly hit us in waves. The first wave was my own, as I studied the changes and began to plan implementation three years ago. Next were the administrative team and the teachers who were involved in studying the APPR regulations with me and making decisions about our plan. Also affected last year were those incredible teachers of Math and ELA in grades 3-8. And last summer and this school year it affected the rest of our teachers as they came to better understand the portfolio reviews and the pre and post assessments in every subject and the changes to the curriculum.

But now the wave of anxiety is affecting our children. That’s our fault. It’s not okay for us to increase the level of anxiety in the children we are charged with educating and caring for to the point where they no longer want to come to school. ADULT employees must seamlessly handle the stress of a changing work environment without impacting children. The students take their cues from us. Our message must be, “We have worked hard all year and prepared for these tests. We’ve got this. I’m confident you will do your best!” That’s it. No threats, no coercion, no panic mode teachers. We are adults, we’re paid to handle the stress of change; the students are our responsibility not our partners in panic.

Think about the ugliest of divorced couples with kids. They use coercion and bribes, over-share information, malign the other parent and HURT their own children in the process. We cannot be like those parents as educators. We must be like those parents who do their best to protect their children from their own pain and anxiety.

And about those other questions? When is the time for social studies and science and creativity and joy in learning? I honestly don’t know. The best I can do is promise our entire school community that we will continue to work hard, to support our teachers and to figure it all out together. I don’t have all of the answers. I’m frustrated too. I know there are some good things to come from all of the State Ed changes. We did need to improve our instruction in Math as a school district so that our students really know their math facts and how to solve problems. Our students will be better at reading, writing, and discussing–they’ll be better at citing their sources and have more extensive vocabularies.

What I don’t know is how we’re going to meet the new challenges while maintaining all of the rich, wonderful things we’ve always done with our students. I can’t figure that out alone–I need our teachers doing that with us. As we master this new curriculum we will get better at bringing in all of those good things we’ve always done. These are tough transitional years, let’s do everything we can so that it’s not tough on the children we’re charged with teaching. And no, I still don’t think the answer is for our parents to opt their children out of state testing. But I will respect and support parents who decide that’s the answer for their families.

Just think of the impact those two young parents have already had on our educational community by meeting with me and asking questions and thinking deeply about the education of their children. Our faculty and our admin team are talking about these issues and will continue to focus on a balanced approach to our education for Randolph children. We have incredible educators, parents and children—if anyone can do all of this it’s Randolph Central. I’m in it for the long haul, I’ll stand with you, I’ll listen and I’ll work with you to make it better.