Interview with a Superintendent

I interviewed Louie Ferguson, Superintendent of the Arcadia School District.

 

What does a Superintendent do in the month of July?

1.       Meet with School Board President during the first week of the month to set the Board agenda.

2.       Work on Board agenda details

a.       Prepare notes for each agenda item

b.      Prepare documents for Board packet

3.       Communication with Board President throughout the month.  Email is only used for factual information; all other discussion is done over the phone.

4.       Meet with Superintendent Advisory Committee – 1^st & 3^rd Tuesday

5.       Administrative Meetings (Principals, Pupil Services Director, Technology Director, Building & Grounds Director, Food Services Director)  - at least 2x each week with different groupings or individuals

6.       Transportation Director Meetings – every Monday or Friday

7.       Frequent communication with all Administrators – any topics of concern

8.       Municipality Meetings – 1x each month

9.       Chamber of Commerce Meetings 1x each month

10.   Neola Representative – meet 2x each year to work on/update policies

11.   Building Project – Huge time commitment for our district at this time

a.       Monday – go to site and check on status

b.      Tuesday – meet with contractors

c.       City Planning and Political leader meetings—2x each week

d.      Daily – meet with ICS representative – follow up on bids

12.   Budget

a.       Meet with bookkeeper – regularly

b.      Monthly review to compare spending with projections

c.       Daily – signing PO’s

d.      Keep Board informed if going over- or purchasing large-ticket items

13.   Hiring of New Employees

a.       Candidate search and interview with Supervisory-level employees

b.      Follow up as second-level interview – with all other employees

c.       Negotiate salaries

14.   New Initiatives

a.       Planning of meetings, setting training dates

b.      Negotiating/approving costs (Infinite Campus, STAR)

15.   Public Relations – all communication goes through Superintendent’s office

Reflection:  The laundry list of tasks that Louie shared with me underlined the need for having a strong “structural” framework (Bolman) in leading the school district.  Much of Louie’s time is focused on planning and organizing resources as well as communicating.  A successful superintendent truly needs to have the ability to see the steps needed to carry a plan through its entirety and be able communicate clearly to all of the essential stakeholders.  Even though Louie mentioned the fact that he needs to communicate regularly with his leadership team and other individuals, I know from working with him closely, that this is an area in which he struggles.  I also know the lack of this skill set causes those around him tremendous amounts of frustration.

Louie’s list of tasks also emphasized the amount of energy and time that he spends working with the political leaders of our community.  This is especially true because of the building project that our district is working on.   In the past two weeks, Louie has had to meet with community leaders nearly every day.  This is where it is a plus to have  “country club” leader (Blake) characteristics or be able to structure your leadership style to encompass the attributes of the “political” framework that are identified by Bolman.  The issue that Louie must work through is having limited resources (a referendum amount of $12 million) to building a middle school in a community where the political leaders require specific external building standards that add an additional $1 million to the cost of the structure.  Louie must either cut back on the internal/academic structures or find additional funding sources.  Fortunately, Louie’s network in the community is strong, and he is spending his efforts on getting additional funding sources through donations.  Country club leadership is definitely Louie’s strength.  Because of this, he is likely to get the community support needed to build an absolutely beautiful new middle school.

School Board Meeting - Evidence for Continuous Improvement

Since our class on June 7^th, I have attended three school board meetings.  The first of these took place the following week on June 11^th.  This was a special meeting to discuss changes to the plan for our new middle school building.  

The regular school board meeting that I attended took place on Monday, June 16^th.  As with most of our board meetings, the agenda included the passing of updated job descriptions, financial reports, and resignations.  Also included in this month’s agenda were updates on building improvements that are taking place at the existing elementary/middle school and an update on the building design that was presented on June 11.  Most of the meeting was routine and discussion was informational.  However, when it came time for the principal reports, the board members began to ask questions that showed concern for student learning and achievement.  (This typically happens every month.)  For example, at this month’s meeting the middle school principal reported on the outcome of the new after-school program that was implemented this year.  He provided data that showed changes in the numbers of students with failing grades from previous years compared to this year.  Following this report, several school board members asked specific questions about the data and requested follow up data after year two.  Likewise, when I reported on high school graduation stats, one school board member asked specific questions regarding those students who did not graduate and what was being done as follow up.

Over the last three years, I have noticed that the questions of our School Board members have become more direct and specific regarding data and student achievement.  In fact, the School Board recently implemented a requirement for all new programming proposals, part of which is a data component to document the effect of the program on student achievement.  I believe that this focus has occurred because of the fact that over the last three years, our board has been attending workshops that emphasize the need for continuous improvement and the use of data.  Another reason for this change in focus is because of the fact that we have been providing our Board with an opportunity to exam our school data each summer with an annual data retreat.  Which leads me to the third school board meeting that I attended since our last class…

On July 9^th, the administrative team presented our data retreat information to the School Board.  At the retreat, we provided data on our ACCESS, AIMSWeb, and WKCE scores.  Along with the data that was presented, the administrative team provided analysis, summaries, and proposals for action based on the data.  Throughout this presentation, the School Board asked questions that showed that they wanted to clearly understand the data and were genuinely interested in the achievement of our students.

 

In summary, it is evident that the Arcadia School Board has adopted some of the principals that evoke a mindset of continuous improvement.  Based on the seven components outlined in Chapter 12 on “What will it take to get there?”, I believe that our current board is moving in the right direction but has plenty of work ahead in fully implementing this approach.  My superintendent’s role in moving the Board in this direction has been more of a “coming along side of” rather than leading the movement. All of the data collection and reporting is done by the principals and pupil services director—the current superintendent appears not know where or how we get and manage the data.  

Three Steps that I would take as a Superintendent to improve the Board's focus on Continuous Improvement:
1.  As superintendent, I need to be able to model the use of data, being proficient in the use of the WISEdash site, and accessing district assessment reports such as MAP.  I also need to be a leader in the use of data so that the administrative team will see the superintendent as one who "walks the walk" and the school board will have increased reliability the validity of my decision making.
2.  As superintendent, I will guarantee that School Board meeting agenda items will include data whenever possible for decision-making purposes.
3.  As superintendent, I will provide opportunities for the School Board to learn how to read data reports and provide regular updates on school programs that are data-focused.

Community by Peter Block - Take Aways

When I first started reading Peter Block’s Community, I wondered what I had gotten myself into as it appeared that I would be reading countless theories and getting little practical information to prepare myself for a superintendent position.  So I put down the book for a couple of days, but when I started reading the second time around, I adjusted my attitude and found that “Community” applied to School District, applied to School, applied to committee, applied to PLC.   In other words, the concepts apply to the school district setting but the term “community” is found in the smaller groupings that make up individual districts.

With this framework in mind, I found the following points to be valuable:

1.       When the core question that underlies each conversation is “What can we create together?” the group shifts from problems to possibility.  This statement is profound in explaining the need for establishing a vision.  When a group is established, be it an entire school board, a PTO sub-committee, or a six-teacher PLC, the first conversations need to include this type of question.  By asking ourselves about possibilities, we begin to see what we can be and what we can achieve.  By asking ourselves about possibilities, we reduce the risk that the conversations will focus on problems or result only in venting.  Out of “possibility” conversations, goals that move the group on a path towards greatness can be formed and worked upon.

2.       Community is built by focusing on people’s gifts rather than their deficiencies.  When I read this section of the book, I couldn't help but think about meetings I have been in where people’s deficiencies peppered the conversation.  When these meetings end, one is left feeling negative about others and the future of the institution.  We tell our teachers to see all students as “students of promise” or “students with potential,” but then the attitude shifts when administration gathers and teacher’s become the topic.  If we as administrators can see all teachers as “teachers with potential,” focusing on their gifts, we stand a better chance of providing meaningful evaluative feedback, providing coaching that leads to improved teaching, developing useful improvement plans that lead to teacher retention rather than teacher removal.

3.       Love of leaders limits our capacity to create an alternative future.  It proposes that the only real accountability in the world is at the top.  This statement is a good reality check for anyone in a leadership role. It reminds us that the goal of leadership is not to be the person that everyone will follow anywhere.  It dispels that misconception into realizing that great leadership occurs when the leader is developing more leaders that take responsibility for achieving the goals of the organization and that great leadership occurs when the organization is able to sustain momentum towards goal achievement even when the initial leader is no longer a part of the team.

How would I, as superintendent, develop or update a school district vision and mission?

           "Leadership is as simple and as complex as establishing a clear direction for people throughout the organization and influencing them to move in that direction.”  (Louis est al., 2010, pg. 6, ).  Without a clear direction, a vision, there is organizational confusion, lack of direction, and lack of purpose.  A clearly communicated vision addresses these issues.  In the school setting, in particular, vision is essential to the well-being of our greatest asset:  the children for which we are responsible.  If the children are our focus, which they should be, then the vision for our school community should reflect a desire to increase or improve student achievement.  That achievement need not only embrace higher levels of learning but should also include increased opportunities for career exploration, social growth, and cultural appreciation.

            Having experienced, the Bruce Miles approach to vision/mission development through the “chainsaw management” tools that he utilizes and after reading several of the examples (specifically, Kettle Moraine School District and Cashton School District) provided in our resources for this course, my views have been broadened.  Not to de-value Bruce Miles’s leadership completely, because several of the tools he shared with our team were valuable in establishing a focus and identifying problems, but I believe that a more comprehensive, long-term system will be my choice if given the opportunity. 

            So given the information I have learned so far on vision/mission development, these are the components of vision/mission development that I would include in this process:

1.      Planning:  Planning for a vision/mission system of development is essential.  Time lines, tools and strategies need to be thought out clearly. 

2.     School Board Support:  The school board must be behind the importance of this activity and believe that the information that is derived from the process will be useful in driving the district forward.

3.     Community Involvement:  Involve as much of the community as possible in the process.  The “World Café” discussion process, facilitates the involvement of many people in small group settings to have purposeful conversations that lead to vision development.

4.     Communication:  Keep the process transparent by providing ample opportunities for the entire community to be involved and informed about the process and the outcome.

5.     Follow-Up:  The outcome of the process needs to be shared with all who are involved, the school district employees, and the community.  The vision needs to be visible and referred to regularly to keep the vision in focus.  A time needs to be set for revisiting and revising the vision which communicates the fact that this is an on-going process.

REFERENCES

Cashton 2014.  http://www.capzles.com/#/1a7192f4-d1fd-45ab9c-8a2ceb19a6bc5d-.

Kettle Moraine School District:  Transforming Education. http://www.kmsd.edu/transforming.cfm?subpage=1296599.

 Louis K., Leithwood, K., Wahlstrom, K., & Anderson, S. (2010).  Learning from leadership:  Investigating the links to improved student achievement.  Minneapolis:  University of Minnesota.