Author Archives: Kimberly Moritz

Teaching to Leading

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My husband and I attended a retirement party this weekend. Two teachers from Randolph, a neighboring district where I was previously high school principal, were honored at a dinner.As is typical at a retirement party, colleagues, family and friends came forward to speak for each of our retirees. Their comments were heart felt, touching and funny. Pat and Carol, the retirees, also spoke with great affection about their careers and their friends.

I attended the dinner because Carol drove to my school and then to my house to be sure I would be there. Why? Because Carol’s all about the people in her life and so is Pat, an extremely successful teacher and coach.

Attending the dinner and listening to the comments about Carol and Pat got me to thinking about this job that I do now. As an administrator, there are many tasks and responsibilities that I have. Many days, they are too numerous to complete. But the primary responsibility that I have as an administrator is not unlike that of a teacher.

When I was teaching, I spent 99% of my time thinking about my students. Their unique needs and personalities, their learning styles and abilities. I thought about what I could do in my lessons to reach each of them. I built relationships. I asked them questions. I got to know each of them, as much as each would let me in.

Last night I was thinking a lot about what makes a principal or superintendent successful. I thought about all of the specific knowledge that our superintendents possess about finance, capital projects, the political scene in Albany, and school law. I thought about all of the superintendents I’ve worked for and known.

And that’s when I realized that the best superintendents are the same as the best teachers. There are teachers who have incredible depth of content knowledge but don’t ever stop teaching the content and start teaching the students. Likewise there are administrators who don’t ever figure out the leading the faculty and staff piece, they just keep managing their work.

When I am a superintendent some day, I will spend 99% of my time thinking about my BOE members, faculty and staff. Their unique needs and personalities, their learning styles and abilities. I will think about what I can do in my interactions to reach each of them. I will build relationships. I will ask them questions. And I will get to know each of them, as much as each will let me in.

Senior Pranks, Part 3

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Amazing as it may sound, there are some things about this week’s senior pranks that made me very happy.

Partially because we have good relationships with our students and partially because the seniors really want to have a picnic on Monday, we know who pulled the pranks and they are receiving consequences. How do we know?

Students told me. In the case of the gunk on the lockers, seniors gave me the student’s name. I saw her and said, “There was a prank that caused two good, hard working women two extra hours of work this week. It ticks me off and I’m cancelling the picnic unless the student who did it comes forward, admits what she did wrong, and takes responsibility for it.” After she thought about it for a couple of periods, she and her friend came in to tell me what they did. These two seniors will not attend Monday’s picnic and better yet, they’ll be meeting our cleaners at 6:00 am on Monday to clean for them for two hours. I hope Carol and Maggie give them whatever cleaning job they most hate.

With the smoke bomb that went off twenty minutes before the end of the day, students approached me and gave me a name before they got on the bus. Mr. Cassidy interviewed that student and had another name before all the buses were gone.

I called that student at home and told him it was in his best interest to get back to the school immediately. Mr. Cassidy did the same with another student. Finally, the third student was revealed and he answered my call at a friend’s house to get back to school immediately. All three students came back to school and admitted what they’d done wrong. The matter was resolved with the police. In this type of incident, school consequences include five days OSS with loss of participation in commencement exercises. Monday’s picnic is the least of their worries.

Because of the relationships we’ve built with students, those who reported what they knew and those who’d made a mistake, we had the whole thing resolved within two hours. I’m proud of that fact. I’m also happy about  the teamwork our faculty and staff exhibited.

I know there are schools where no one would tell the administration anything. I’m really proud that we’re not one of them. I’m also proud that ultimately our kids know the difference between right and wrong and they step up to answer for their mistakes.

And while I love our students and will fight to do what’s right for them, I will also support strong consequences when they mess up, especially when the action endangers the health and safety of others in the building.That’s good parenting and it’s also good administration.

Senior Pranks, Part 2

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Yesterday, I wrote about senior pranks, how I feel about them, and two that we endured this week. There’s more to this story.

I’ve been around the block a couple of time with senior classes. Both as a teacher who advised seniors and as a high school principal of five years. 99% of the time I still opt to think the best of our students. If I didn’t I’d be less of a leader.

When our students came to me and said, “we want to do a senior prank, but we know how you feel about them, and we want it to be harmless”, I listened. Students said, “we want to wear bathing suits to school tomorrow and at 12:15 all get up and go jump in the pool. We’ve asked the PE teacher to lifeguard. We promise there won’t be any other pranks.” I explained that several of their classmates had significant hurdles to graduation and that those students had to be in class. They listened, we agreed, my dean of students (who’s been around the block a few more times than me) said you’re nuts, there will still be more pranks and now you’ve agreed to this disruption.

He was right about more pranks and in fact, one of the students who met with me about the harmless prank was one who later disappointed me. My teachers were upset because they hear me harping about higher expectations and getting ready for the Regents. I believed it was a relatively benign way for students to feel they’d left their mark and rebelled a bit. I lost face with my teachers.

For all but five or six of our students, it was a good agreement. I work to promote a positive climate where our students feel valued and celebrated. My teachers and staff are definitely not feeling valued and celebrated this week and that’s my responsibility too.

In addition, early in May, students came to me and asked if we could have a senior picnic on Monday, after school, with all of their teachers invited. They’re planning, cooking, and paying for it. Without pranks or problems on this weekend’s senior trip, I agreed to it. I’m looking forward to it. I’m hoping there are no additional pranks and no problems on the trip. Because we know who pulled this week’s pranks and because they are receiving consequences, we will continue with our plans for the picnic.

But I’m left wondering what I’ll find at school next. I totally agree with David and other G-town readers, seniors could be thinking about something creative and funny that will make us miss them.

Senior Pranks

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I hate senior pranks. Because I take personal responsibility for everything that happens in our school, I also take senior pranks personally. And as a person who’s dedicated the last seventeen years of my life to making schools better for kids, I find senior pranks to be disrespectful and ungrateful, selfish acts.

The single thing about senior pranks that ticks me off to no end is that it’s almost always a prank that results in additional work for our hard working cleaning and custodial crew. This infuriates me– that the women and men who tirelessly and quietly clean up after us day in and day out should be “thanked” in this way.

When I arrived at school earlier this week, Carol and Maggie had been working since 6:00 am to clean up the gunk that was on an entire hallway of lockers. It took them two hours to clean every locker. Who did those students prank? Just Carol and Maggie and they don’t deserve it.

Yesterday a military smoke bomb was set off in the girls’ lav near my front entrance. The school was evacuated, Regents reviews were disrupted, police were sent to the school. And the smoke was incredibly strong so I worried about every student and staff member who filed by with asthma or allergies. The police reacted strongly because in today’s climate they have to consider that something like this could be a diversion for worse behavior elsewhere in the school.

In my next post, I’ll write about how we handled both incidents and how they were resolved.

Disclaimer Deleted

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Our superintendent was developing his new blog yesterday and while doing so, he stopped to send me this email message (printed here with his permission):

You may remove the disclaimer from your blog. It looks silly amongst all of the other free ideas expressed therein.

I believe that says it all. Consider it done, off the blog.

Think BLUE

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Do you think it makes sense to pay more for something, just to give it more school spirit? We’re putting in a new track and I’m really thinking it’s worth some extra money initially and in upkeep to get a Gowanda BLUE track.

Why? Because it’s on a prominent corner in our village and when residents, students, and opposing teams drive down the road and see Hillis Field, I want them to think “Gowanda Panthers play here!” I want it to smack them in the face–Gowanda BLUE and WHITE. I think the blue track shows school pride and I think we’re worth it. I’m tired of sitting in a gym that’s generic, where visitors could literally look around and wonder where they are except for the gorgeous new scorers table we got this year. And our new facility will be incredible, why not add the frosting on the cake?

We need a field that screams, “Go Panthers! The Blue and the White, Straight to the Top, We Will Fight!”

What Measures Success?

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If everything goes well, of our 120 graduating seniors, we’re set to graduate 31 Native American students this year. Have to tell you I didn’t even think about that until a very good friend called me this week to say,

Kim, it’s being talked about on the Cattaraugus Territory that Gowanda is graduating a record number of Native American students this year, we think more than ever before in history. More than the other three contract districts combined. Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it, because it’s working.

This was from an extremely well respected member of our Native American community and of our Gowanda community. I have often shared my ideas and my frustrations with him because he was born and raised in Gowanda and he understands our struggles.

I didn’t think about the number of white or native american students because for me they are individuals, they are Devon, Terri Sue, Jamie, Morris, Jeremy, Evan, Courtney, Megan, and Presley. We’re still in the daily business, primarily my weary guidance counselors, of watching 30 students out of 120 who have some challenge between them and the diploma. We’re paying so much attention to the individuals that we won’t sit back and look at the group until we have to report data to the state.

G-Town, we all needed to hear my friend’s comment. With all of the measures that we use to evaluate “our success”, we can never forget that it comes down to Jeremiah, Cameron, Cat, Amanda, James, Alex and Brady. It comes down to them and the other 113 students about to obtain a diploma and a ticket to more opportunity.

On June 22, I won’t be thinking about our student achievement data. I’ll be thinking about the joy of standing in front of our community and congratulating each student as he or she walks across the field, diploma in hand. Some who did it easily without much help from us. Others who could incite back flips from me if I was capable. 🙂

That’s what I’m talking about!

How’s “G-Town Super Speaks” Sound?

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I don’t know who the presenters were at the workshop my superintendent attended today, but based on his recent comment to this blog, they did one heck of a job. Thank you!

And Scott, he’s planning on taking you up on your offer to help start his blog–maybe we’ll even get Mr. Rinaldi as a contributor to LeaderTalk.

I’m posting his comment here so that it doesn’t get lost on the blog.

  1. Charles Rinaldi:
    May 31st, 2007 @ 3:19 pm

I am the superintendent Kim Moritz “called out” for failing to blog. At this very moment I am in a room with two dozen other area supers learning about the ever-expanding potential for technology learning tools.

As I sat through the morning sessions I began to realize that I may be an impediment to progress. Due to my worries for student safety, I have refused to unblock and unfilter access to net resources. Due to my reticence, I have failed to invite comments and communicate our message and mission to a wider blog audience. Because I don’t know how to use a wiki, I have failed to promote the use in our high schools.

We have all heard the old saying; “lead, follow or get out of the way.” Well, it is time for me to do all three. I will lead where I am competent, follow when I need to learn and get out of the way when someone has a good idea. To all of those who wrote to support the notion of a super’s blog, please accept my note of thanks. Consider the “calling out” by Moritz effective. I will commit to initiating a blog as soon as next week.

Like Kim, Gowanda needs an advocate who can share the good news that is G-Town.

And to the NYS Regent who this morning denigrated low peforming schools on the local radio, I invite you to visit our schools and see for yourself that it is possible to be 91st and still do right by children. 

Business First Bites

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I’m warning readers right up front that this is not going to be a positive post. I’ve struggled with how to post about this topic, I’ve avoided it, but it’s all that’s on my mind this week. It’s much of what’s on most administrators’ minds, if they’ll admit it or not.

Business First ranks the school districts in 8 counties, then the individual schools. I haven’t even seen the high school ranking yet, but history will show me I’ve no reason for optimism. That and the fact that our district fell overall doesn’t indicate I’ll have much reason to celebrate.

I was up this morning at 4:30 checking the stinking website to see if the high school rankings were out there. They only give partial information in the on-line reports prior to Friday’s publication, and that’s not the bottom 20 where we’ll most likely sit, it’s the top 20. I’ve no idea what our “number” is, our ranking. As they say, “it ain’t gonna be pretty.”

Please don’t post a comment telling me that it’s skewed or based on socio-economic status. Don’t tell me it doesn’t matter. Please. I’m not comparing us to Williamsville. I’m comparing us to other similar schools and we’re still falling short.

I’m frustrated, ticked off, exasperated, disappointed, and NOT in a positive frame of mind about this ranking. This feels like the ultimate judgment of everything we do and it really fries me. I KNOW we are doing tremendous things in G-Town, I’m not delusional or full of political crap. I live G-Town, all day, every day, 10-12 hours per day. I KNOW what kind of effort is going into our curriculum and instruction, into our kids.

I literally cannot think of one thing that I’ve asked our faculty, staff, or students to do that they’ve not done. And I’m an idea girl, I read and research while others are watching CSI. I hold full responsibility for our building. We have made significant improvements, and yes Jennifer, I remember that many either haven’t been in action long enough or even yet, but when will we see the results? Readers will just have to take my word on the improvements or read through my posts on this blog for the detail.

I want every educator, in every district ranked above ours, to stop and realize that you are welcome to come and visit any time you like, I’ll take any suggestion that makes sense for our kids, we work as hard or harder than any one of you, and we have a rock solid school. Don’t you dare judge us based on a Business First ranking until you’ve come here and walked in our shoes. And don’t even consider judging my kids as less than yours. Not for one moment. At least not to me.

You cannot imagine what it feels like to work this hard and make such little progress. And don’t give me any cliches about working smarter or anything like it.

I promise to be back as G-Town’s #1 cheerleader tomorrow, but for today, read how this part of it honestly feels too.

Panthers Baseball

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Terrific play-off baseball game at Fredonia yesterday–both teams playing well with Gowanda winning it in the tenth.

It was exciting to watch our kids play with spirit, dedication and determination. Heart. In my opinion, much more important than any skill. Our team yesterday had it. Our coaches have developed a team who wants it and they have the abilities to get there. I’m really looking forward to a repeat performance on Thursday.

For me, the very best part of winning a contest is the emotion at the end. I love the crowd reaction, the pride in our kids, the parents who never miss a game and the joy they feel when their kids do well.

Let’s do it again, all the way, Panthers!