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.

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.

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.

Originally written for the Salamanca Press, published March 28, 2013

It’s almost hiring time again, for those of us lucky enough to have any positions to fill. With four elementary teachers retiring, we are replacing three and the advertisement for the positions has a closing date of April 5, 2013. Which means my amazing assistant, Maureen Pitts, will be inundated with hundreds of applications and resumes soon.

Hiring is one of the most important jobs that we have. One of the two primary factors in your child’s success at school is the teacher standing in the room, the other is the parenting.  We take interviewing very seriously with three phases of interviews, including a lesson taught to our students.  We are on a mission to improve our instruction at RCS, so we’re looking for the best of the best—teachers who have high expectations for themselves as well as for students.

Hiring is also one of the most difficult jobs that we have. No matter who we hire, someone who didn’t get the position is upset, angry, disappointed. And likely so is the unemployed candidate’s family. In small communities like ours, everyone knows everyone and everyone has an opinion. However, just because you love someone doesn’t mean that person is the best fit for our position or the best candidate for the job. I’m glad you think so, loving that person and all, but we work hard to look at the candidates objectively and to hire the best, most qualified person.

You may think the candidate is hired because of who he or she knows, but I can guarantee those connections only get someone a possible foot in the door at a first interview. After that, you’ve got to be the best in the interviews and lesson—no matter who you are.

Here’s what’s interesting, there will be readers who get what I’m saying and readers who refuse to accept it. And if you’re a candidate for a teaching position who’s convinced yourself that you’re NOT getting positions because of 100 reasons other than your own skills, abilities, resume, or performance, then we definitely don’t want you working at Randolph Central.

In other words, the best employees take personal responsibility. They own it, including their own mistakes. They don’t make excuses. They don’t look around to see who else they can point at for the error or believe in an external locus of control.  The best employees have high expectations for themselves and when they fall down, they are already analyzing why and how so that they can do better the next time—before they even hear from me or one of the building administrators.