>The Board of Education has re-hired School Leadership LLC to find another new superintendent. They are using the following criteria, which they say was developed with the help of the community. We need a serious intervention or we will end up with another Brooks — cagey, duplicitous, ideologically extreme and smooth as silk. I suggest a complete retooling of these six criteria (listed below) as they are outlined in jargon, education platitudes and gobbledygook. Some suggestions might include the following:
*1. An educator with significant leadership experience, preferably as a superintendent, in a high-expectation school community–
How about: A CEO type individual with experience in business and education (not being a life-long educrat is a big plus) whom others in diverse constituencies have been willing to follow and respect, and who is resilient in the face of diminished expectations emanating from our present school board and curriculum head. A person whose services remain in demand, and for whom we must compete rather than someone who was “let go” by his or her former employer.
*2. An exceptional listener and communicator, with outstanding speaking, writing and interpersonal skills, who has built trust among all members of a school community–
How about: A person for whom honesty is the best policy. One who values forthrightness and frank discussions with parents, students, staff, consultants and the school board. The ability to be a “smooth talker” is not a requirement.
*3. A visible instructional leader, willing to first become intimately acquainted with the Ridgewood schools and community and then share a compelling vision and plan for continued growth–
How about: A person already knowledgeable of the tenets that constituted Ridgewood’s past tradition of excellence, and one for whom that goal would be at the heart of the district’s continued growth.
*4. An administrator who empowers others to carry out the district’s goals but remains accountable for all areas of leadership, including finance and facilities–
Sorry, but an administrator is just another word for a bureaucrat. Administrators do not empower people, rather they employ the leadership survival tools of CYA. No administrator bureaucrat type need apply (see 1).
*5. A strong leader, with demonstrated success in contributing to an effective approach to governance involving the Board, the staff and the school community–
Interesting that parents and taxpayers are notably absent from this particular sentence. How about: Someone who expects to be accountable to parents and taxpayers for the direction of Ridgewood’s schools.
*6. A proven educator, flexible and caring, who will passionately advocate for the learning needs of all (their emphasis) students in the Ridgewood Public Schools–
To whom exactly must this flexible and caring person advocate? How about: A person able to display powerful knowledge of the nation’s education system, including its strengths but, more importantly, its weaknesses so that efforts can be undertaken to limit the system’s harmful byproduct to the education process. Such byproducts include efforts promoted by schools of education to implement more non-academic programs in the classroom; efforts by education publishers to advocate, promote and sell dubious and controversial product; efforts by the teachers union and its supporters to lessen instructional time and add perks to compensation agreements; and efforts to gear curriculum and assessments to merely address statewide standards for proficient student performance.
Adding a 7th:
Someone able to clean up the present inequity and overall weakness of our math program and set our curriculum selections on course to be challenging while ensuring that all students receive the proper support in school to achieve at the standards of a Ridgewood education.
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>I think there is a meeting scheduled for Monday night to discuss and get input on the desired qualifications….the public will be allowed to comment…can someone get the spacifics of the meeting and post it…..
>Why are we using the same damned failed stupid firm?
Are there no others in the business of turning swine into pearls so BOEs swoon and hire them?
>The meetings are as follows:
Nov. 26, Ed ctr. 3rd floor board room
3 – 5 pm school district staff
7 – 9 pm the public
Guess they don’t want the public to know what the school staff will say they want. Staff shouldn’t have a say unless as taxpayers.
Companies are not known to ask the clerical and management staff what kind of CEO they should hire. They tend to rely on their boards of directors which usually has CEOs on board. Too bad we can’t say the same for our BOE.
>1:49
Agreed.
When do staff get to have input as to who the new CEO should be?
I suggest that the public also attend the 3-5 session for school district staff.
This session will shed light on how our teachers and administrators really think.
And just for fun, I would suggest bringing a video camera or tape recorder.
BTW, the BOE can not stop the public from attending this session.
>I once worked for a superintendent who was dedicated to high academic standards. It was a small, K-8 school, so she was far more hands-on than a Ridgewood sup. could ever be. The lesson I learned from her, though, was that consistent reinforcement of the message gets through. Every day, in every interaction with her, you were reminded that the highest academic standards were expected of every teacher and student (and family) in her building. Your lesson plans and report cards were thoroughly reviewed and questioned. If you needed to make a decision about a purchase or a workshop or a field trip, she would ask, “How does this enrich the curriculum or add to what we are doing?” She was often in your classroom and would always have a question about how you were differentiating for ability levels, or how your lesson fit into the overall weeks/months plan. The teachers knew she was smart, knowledgeable, and, although well-educated, not an educational faddist. She would often visit classrooms and ask the kids what books they were reading. Just before holiday break, she came on the loudspeaker to wish everyone a hapy holiday and to remind all students ad staff to read at least one book. After break, she was right there, following up and asking about what books we all read. At the annual science fair, she visited student tables to make sure they understood the science behind the pretty project. If they didn’t, you, as the teacher, were held accountable. She supported the staff in achieving these high standards and reminded parents that academics was the priority and that homework would be appropriately challenging, daily, and would be completed…no excuses. At her direction, academic clubs were added to join the artistic and sports clubs. She entered us in national competitions in every subject area and watched as we won with pride. Our test scores were scrutinized for areas that needed improvement in curriculum or instruction. She forged relationships with a nearby K-8 district to ensure that even as a small school we were on track with larger schools that fed into our regional HS district. She developed programs to meet the needs of the gifted and the special needs population. Her goal, in short, was to create a private school level of excellence and expectation in a public school setting. When I was hired, I taught a “demo” lesson, showcasing my best work. She congratulated me, hired me, and said, “I expect to see that kind of teaching every day.” I knew from day one what was expected, but I also knew she would go to the mat to help us achieve great results for our students. She hired great teachers (many of whom followed her there from her previous district) who were engergized and challenged by being around others who had high academic standards for themselves and their students. It was an intellectual and creative environmet to work in. I was never bored; I was always on my toes. Too bad, she has retired from the profession. Fortunately, the teachers she empowered continue her legacy.
In a district ten times the size, it seems that the job could still be done, if we hire an academic leader who accepts nothing but the best from every member of the staff and student body. It means being single-minded about academic excellence and work ethic. It means pushing aside programs, materials, and even people who do not hold that goal in mind. It means re-allocating resources in tight times to pay for experienced, smart, creative teachers to replace those who will retire or leave when faced with tough standards and questioning. The first few years will be painful. Teachers will be asked to dig deep and push students harder than they have in years. Kids will groan and moan about being asked to memorize and analyze and read, read, read. Town sports teams and coaches may have to get used to hearing that practice schedules have to change accomodate the increased academic load. Parents will learn to trust teachers and administrators again, because our goals will be the same and simple. Academic achievement for all our kids.
Skeptical? My fifth graders (classes of very average ability) easily passed sixth grade math final assessments I had used at my previous school. They could name world leaders of most major countries, since we read and discussed current events as a class daily. They read and analyzed poetry of Longfellow, Shakespeare, Whitman, and Keats. They conducted hands-on lab experiments and wrote monthly lab reports to explain and graph their results. Each month, they were responsible for completing a book from a specific genre, and writing a response to it. At least 4 books needed to be “classics”. In history, we studied the renaissance and compared the great intellectual growth to find comparisons in our time. They completed at least one research project each marking period. We used excel routinely in science and math. We did virtual field trips with the Baseball Hall of Fame to support a literature selection and participated in an on-line teleconference with Colonial Williamsburg when we studied the colonies. In music, we worked with teaching artists from Lincoln Center to use the tango music of Piazzola to enhance our study of poetry. We ranked nationally in the Wordmasters analogies competition and sent two students to regional levels in spelling and geography bees. Remember this was just one classroom. Every morning announcements would begin with a list of accomplishments going on throughout the school. Standards (and self-esteem) were very high, we didn’t need special programs to create it. Does this sound like your neighborhood school? It doesn’t sound like mine. It should and could.
Demand the best. Demand the brightest. Demand focus on learning content and high levels of achievement.
>3:49
There’s the rub…
“Her goal, in short, was to create a private school level of excellence and expectation in a public school setting.”
…to many lefties in our town now for that to happen.
A few decades ago that was Ridgewood, before the Upper West Side of Manhattan moved across the river.
>Dear 1:49 PM, The BOE does not take staff input they just say they do. The Ridgewood teachers have never had input on any administrative hires, although the BOE likes to say they have. They ask for input but don’t listen to it, asking is purely for show. So no worries on that one.
>Here’s one criteria
NO MORE SLOPPY SECONDS OR THIRDS FOR THAT MATTER
BOE are you listening. You bungled the job the first time, my guess is that you will bungle it again because you are intellectually challenged and just plain inept.
>Sounds familiar 5:23. They do the same to parents.
Finally a subject has boiled over to the point where we have for the first time since I can remember a catalyst for directing these boe members to the door.
>Gee, sounds like the way they treat parents and taxpayers.
>We’ll be lucky if anyone even wants to come to Ridgewood to be the Superintendent. I don’t blame prospective candidates from running in the opposite direction. With all the complaining that goes on about everything in this town (math, Valley, fields, parking, downtown, etc.) we’ve become a community of malcontent whiners who know it all. It’s really a shame because it will probably drive really good candidates away.
>If people would do their jobs and conduct themselves with dignity and honesty, these issues would never have come up. The VOR and the BOE are far from transparent, arrogant and self-serving! Do your due diligance and get the facts 9:23. There is much maligning of the tax payers and parents in this beloved commmunity. This is America… we have a right to question and voice concern. I guess you see Ridgewood through maroon colored glasses?
>Yes, 9:23PM we do know it all. That’s the pain that comes with being high achievers. Education specialists are not the experts they want to pretend they are. Ridgewood’s parent population is far too experienced and accomplished to lie down for such mediocrity. When you pursue mediocrity, you will get spurned and public education makes mediocrity its goal.
We hope to discourage all such potential superintendents with the hubris that comes with phony “dr” titles and mediocre educations. If they want to work in Ridgewood and have a smooth ride, then they’d better respect the education and standards of Ridgewood’s parent population.
>Dear 9:23 why are you so obsequious? Do you need someone to rule over you? If so, you’re living in the wrong town.
>Go to the BOE meeting, make your voice heard!!!
>The only reason to go is to keep tabs on what they’re doing. That’s all we’ll get out of it. If they listen to parents, I think they feel emasculated, so they don’t and won’t. Everything they say is just lip service. They are talking to their 7 political mercenaries and 12 social sycophants in town.
>4:32 PM said “…to many lefties in our town now for that to happen.” Who are you? What decade are you living in? Lefties…you crack me up…moron.
It’s too many (too) by the way, genius.
>I would say state-ist as opposed to “lefties” and new jerkey is run by criminals and commie red republicans….
but at the end of the day you are what you are jim mac creepy commies
>i prefer the word “crook”
>yes this has been a lefty town since the late 70’s ,thats what drew the upper west side x pats
>8:19, 8:20 & 8:22 …
No, I’m not obsequious and no I don’t “need” anyone to rule over me. I’ve lived in Ridgewood for 15 years and along my family, have been very involved with the schools and the community. But being a high achiever doesn’t give one the license to be a chronic gadfly – which is what many residents in Ridgewood have become.
I’m just an Ivy League graduate and a small business owner – so I suppose it doesn’t make me a high enough achiever in your circle – but I know enough about what’s going on in this town to be concerned that the never-ending complaining won’t attract the “best” and “the brightest” Superintendent candidates. And if by some stroke of luck we do hire someone with impeccable credentials and a commitment to educational excellence, within short order “the high achievers” will find problems with “him or her” as well.
I agree that everyone has a right to voice their opinions and concern. But it’s the incessant haranguing that will eventually dissuade “the best and the brightest” from living, working and staying in Ridgewood. That’s the real shame. But not that you care.
>4:32
In my haste I miss typed, it should have read “too.” So sorry. I too, will try to proof my writing better in the future. Thank you for pointing it out.
Lefties, progressives, Democrats, ex-Hippies… whatever you want to call yourself, it amounts to the same mindset… deconstructivist.
Read Alan Bloom’s book, “Closing of the American Mind,” if you don’t know what I mean.
If you don’t know who Alan Bloom is, then you too are a moron. Or is that a maroon?
>its not the complaining ,it sthe bad leadership and stupid dumb dumb math that keeps away the best and the brightest
>So Ivy–does the shoe fit? If so, why can’t you wear it with pride and explain where the “complainers” have gone wrong in their opinions?
There are good reasons that forums like this one are as active as they are. Even a broken (analog?) clock is right twice a day. We unrepentant non-lefties are finally, unequivocally, right. And we are right on something of great importance. We know it, and we can’t be talked out of it. But since none of us has any authority in the Ridgewood district (at least not as of this momement), we are forced to gather around the modern water cooler to blow off steam.
Now is it your belief that we should all watch what we say because of the large number of impressionable eavesdroppers hanging around this particular water cooler?
Nonsense.
So come on all you nameless, faceless water cooler eavesdroppers–come out of the shadows. You know you want to. Grab a paper cup, take a swig of Belmar Spring water, and put in your $.02 along with the rest of us. After all, we’re all of us just people, trying to make it through this rat race called life…am I right?
Also, remember that this is America, where, in the shrill, grating words of a particularly high-strung junior senator from New York, “we have the right to disagree with this administration, or any administration!”
>5:37 PM & 4:24 PM
“we have the right to disagree with this administration, or any administration!”
Wasn’t that spoken by an Ivy Leaguer too?
>4:24 – We pay enough to attract the best and brightest super so no one of value will be dissuaded from working here. If you think residents here complain more than others, you either have forgotten what it is like to live elsewhere since moving here 15 years ago or you have never paid attention to local politics. Ridgewood politics is tame in comparison to many parts of this country.
>4:24 PM
Now I know you’re obsequious
Better to be a gadfly than a brown noser…
What’s that smell
>Why don’t they look at Dr. Brown…parents in Somerville are very happy with her. At least she is an administrator that the parents like.
>Sorry 7:28 PM, but not all parents like Dr. Brown and I certainly do not want to see her as superintendent.
>The guidelines are so generic that they could apply to any school district. As for your suggestions:
No, I don’t want a CEO-type or necessarily anybody with biz background. Plenty of idiots in the biz world.
Yes, by all means let us try to find somebody who wasn’t run out of town.
More importantly, what’s with the “high expectations”? First of all, how do you measure expectations? Secondly, who cares how high expectations are when what matters is not high expectations, but high performance? Measureable by school ranking on state and national test scores, Ivy League college admissions, etc.
And what’s with the “preferably”? It seems our BOE is too timid to demand the minimum requirements that a town like Ridgewood is entitled to: a candidate with at least 8 years of experience as a superintendent in a top-ranked school district.
Yes, honesty would be refreshing.
Yes, am suspicious that references to advocacy are suspect. We don’t need to hire a fulltime salesperson or political hack.
>In a recent meeting between Brennan, Brogan, and parents, Brogan helpfully provided the parents with some info about political candidates.
One parent came away from the meeting wondering, “Was she telling us who to vote for?”
>And I assume the candidates who Brogen was providing info about were not Republicans, were they?
>Being likeable and being capable are worlds apart. Look at Bloomberg. Not that well-liked but extremely capable, particularly when it comes to educating NYC’s kids.
>Is there a way to make some money by predicting the kind of person our second-tier search firm will come up with? We’ll need a bookie. And I need to pay for tutors.
>In the business world, when a company hires a search firm to find a CEO, they make sure the search firm is not working for a close competitor. In fact, they stipulate that while the search firm is actively employed in the project, they are not permitted to take on similar work for a competitor.
So why the heck is our school district using School Leadership, a company that also serves other school districts? If School Leadership finds a top-ranked candidate, then what incentive is there for this search firm to present the candidate to us rather than to another school district?
Apparently, none whatsoever. Furthermore, why isn’t the Superintendent position listed on the http://www.njsba.org website? I think I read somewhere that the New Jersey School Board Association conducts 70% to 80% of searches for superintendent in NJ. So why haven’t we posted the position on this site, so that it is easily accessible to any candidate?
Does School Leadership even have a web site?