New Superintendent

(I think you should all know I live in constant mortal fear of misspelling words on this blog. I’m not a very good speller to begin with, and “superintendent” in particular gives me nightmares!)

Everyone has seen by now the press release relating to Dr. Grenita Lathan, who is the final candidate for the superintendency, pending the comprehensive background check.

The community search committee sent us up very qualified candidates, any one of whom, I felt, could have done the job. All of the candidates the Board interviewed had proven experience raising test scores in urban environments. All of the candidates had impressive credentials when it came to diversity. It was a difficult decision, but Dr. Lathan stood out — and when you meet her, I think you’ll understand why.

I know there are concerns; we have had some ineffective leadership in the past, and no candidate was going to be perfectly perfect. But Dr. Lathan’s strengths are a good match for our needs. (And to those pointing out we’ve been down this road before with an exciting new superintendent — I know it, but I hope it says something that process this time was far different and more comprehensive.)

The entire process was very educational for me; I learned a lot about district governance by talking to candidates from other districts. I heard a lot of fantastic ideas, a lot of interesting analysis of our problems, etc. Our community search committee did a great job not only doing the preliminary interviews but in selling Peoria — every candidate who interviewed with them was MORE excited about Peoria after talking to them.

I’m really excited about Dr. Lathan. (And this is not Board-approved official excitement, this is actual excitement.) Once the “i”s get their dots and the “t”s get their crosses and she comes to visit Peoria, I know that most of you will be excited too.

Quick Update

I appreciate all the calls and e-mails on the charter school. I am trying to respond to as many e-mails as possible and I am listening to the phone messages; I’ve lost most of my voice so I’m trying to rest it for Monday’s meeting (so I’m not answering the phone very often!).

Monday Night: Washington Gifted

There will be a report from the Washington Gift principal on changes to the application procedures, for those who are interested and want to tune in.

I’ve been working on a couple of explanatory posts about the money things but they are just not coming out right. I’ll keep at it.

Working on a Couple Posts

Bear with me … holidays, finals, and the complications of the tax levy are eating my brain.

Monday, November 16 Meeting

I’ve been ill since last Thursday (NOT the swine flu, thankfully!) so I won’t be at the meeting tonight. But you can enjoy the new agenda format!

A Couple Updates

Next Monday will debut a new format for the agenda, to make more clear that the meeting starts in open session before moving into executive session.

The lawyers let me know they’re finishing up the revision of the language about Washington Gifted.

A district parent asked about making Skyward more available to parents without home internet access; Mrs. Parker is looking into doing that in the school buildings. I’ve asked that they also send the access instructions to the public library branches so that parents who use the libraries to access their children’s grades could grab the instructions at the desk. Something that wouldn’t have occurred to me if a community member hadn’t drawn my attention to the parental access problem!

Last Night’s Meeting

I’ll fix this up pretty later. The baby’s game for the entire day has been shouting at the top of his lungs so sentences are hard right now! There were a couple of things I want to solicit input on but I have to sort out my thoughts in silence first.

October 19, 2009 Meeting

Sorry to be late with this post — we are having a tough time with teething and I’m worn out. I know I owe some updates and some calls back, I’ll try to get to those as the baby naps (if he ever naps!). I thought Rachael Parker made a good point Monday about how we’re ALWAYS looking at contracts for people who have already started work, or programs that are already underway. That’s a serious problem and that needs to change.

Durflinger to Serve as Deputy, Interim

The Board voted tonight to bring on Norm Durflinger as the interim superintendent December 1 and as a part-time deputy superintendent as of October 19.

I voted no. I support Mr. Durflinger as interim, but I have a problem with the deputy part. My complaint is that we have been dorking around with superintendent positions for quite some time in this District. I think bringing him on as an interim is a good idea — it is difficult to get good candidates for the permanent position if you have an interim who may also apply for the position; everyone assumes that candidate has it in the bag and nobody wants to apply, whereas having a retired superintendent on a per diem avoids that problem. I also did have the opportunity to meet with Mr. Durflinger briefly and I think he’ll have a really strong handle on things. However, when we introduced the part-time deputy transition (which means we will be paying 3 superintendents for a while*), I was uncomfortable with that.

One of the media people asked me if I had a better idea, and I admit that no, I don’t. (Which is the worst kind of contrarian to be, someone who rejects what’s been put forward but doesn’t have an alternate solution. Sorry about that. I could have asked for the motion to be split and voted separately on interim and deputy, but that seemed needlessly complicated.)

We’ve had a superintendent merry-go-round in this district for a while, and I have a problem with that. The per diem is $673/day (which is Mr. Hinton’s current salary broken down to a per diem). I’m not super-delighted about that, either, but it’s cheaper than other available alternatives.

However, I commend the Board and the administration for having ideas in place to handle Mr. Hinton’s early departure, rather than facing a panicked scramble, even though we are not in what I would consider an ideal administrative position. The Board was proactive rather than reactive, and I’m very happy about that — props where props are due, that proactive stance was largely Mrs. Wolfmeyer’s doing in her role as Board President.

I was interviewed by most of the news outlets, and it was my first time facing the wall of microphones, recorders, and cameras. I got a little flustered, and I’m pretty sure I sounded like a giant inarticulate moron. (I’m still not sure I’m expressing my thoughts very well even here.)

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*To be fair, the cost will work out the same or very close to the same; Mr. Hinton’s retirement date will not move, and we will pay Mr. Durflinger by the day worked, which tops out at 120; he will probably shift some days around. But administrative “bloat” has been a problem, and I am very reluctant to return to three superintendents, even for a short period, as part of putting an interim superintendent in place.

Hinton Retiring Dec. 1

As you all doubtless saw in the news, Ken Hinton has announce he is retiring as superintendent December 1. The Board will appoint an interim superintendent, probably someone retired (there are many retired supers in the area) who would work no more than 120 days (due to TRS restrictions). The new permanent superintendent should begin work in the summer of 2010.