leadership in high schools

Every year the school leadership at our BOCES changes.  This is the normal turnover that takes place amongst Principals and Supervisors.  This turnover is a result of retirements, staff taking positions in component school districts and others moving from one location/site to another.  The vast spread of Erie 2 CC BOCES within Western New York allows for this geographical diversity and job relocation with respect to internal candidates.  This same flexibilty is affored teachers as well as school support staff. 

My colleague, Kevin Bourgoine who worked alongside me when he took ove r the Alternative Education postion at the Hewes Center will be moving to our satellite special education program based at Chautauqua Lake Central School.  Kevin has replaced Jennifer Clark, former supervisor at Chautauqua Lake Central School who has moved to our LoGuidice Center Special Education program.  LoGuidice Special Education programs were formerly supervised by Christine Burdick who has moved on to the Sherman School District to take over the Staff Development and Special Education supervisory role within that district.  Joe Pagan, former Assistant Principal in the Jamestown School District, has assumed the title of Principal at the LoGuidice Center. 

What do all these changes mean for program growth and instructional focus?

How does “new blood” infuse the leadership and organizational thinking which influences instructional performance and student achievement?

What do these leadership changes mean for the surrounding school districts that support BOCES programs?

These are just a few of the surface questions that come to mind when examining Leadership Transitions in any organization. 

I am in the process of reading The 29% Solution by Ivan R. Misner, PhD and Michelle R. Donavan.  This and other readings this summer will inform my thoughts on this subject.

What do we as educators have as a come back when in the case of a Dallas school the majority of the teachers received a very high grade in their annual evaluations? 

The Richardson Blog copied below  provides keen insight  into the quagmires faced by school administrators.  I believe that teacher evaluations are a direct reflection of the school leader who sets goals at the beginning of the school year based on the school districts measurable objectives.  All evaluations from those of the the support staff to those of the highest instructional leaders in the system should be measured against these set standards for growth, sustenance, outreach, etc. 

Richardson schools ‘Lake Wobegon’ evaluation — where all the teachers are above average 11:26 AM Tue, Jul 28, 2009 | Permalink Jeffrey Weiss/Reporter    Bio |  E-mail  |  News tips

I am studying the readership of this blog via the clustermap that I have posted.  Initially when I started this blog I intended it to be a communication tool with the faculty and staff

that I work with.  My purpose was to encourage the development of classroom blogs  increase the use of  instructional blogging to improve students communication skills with

ineractive media.  Today, in reviewing the readership of this blog, I want to reach out to the readership. 

• What do you want to know about in terms of managing a school in New York State, in  its broadest sense? 

The above question is being addressed to readership throughtout the world.  I do not mind what your current job is or whether you work in a school or not.  Your questions need to be posted to this blog in the comments section and I will address them through  my posts.

David Warlick was the guest presentor.  David is a former North Carolina Teacher and Administrator.  Check him out using Google.

Here are some thoughts he shared

• Exponential Information growth – 37 libraries of Congress (the largest library in the World is the Library of Congress in Washington DC, USA) is the value of each minute of global information growth
• Learn something new everyday and share it
• We should teach our students Literacy information which is reliable, trustworthy and credible so that it can be used efficiently and effectively for personal growth- how to gather, sift through, analyse, evaluate and disseminate information using the world wide web.  Our students do not know how to do this. 
• More to come…………

I have not blogged for a while because I have been preoccupied  by issues that prior to this I have not really had to have dealt with …………….

• Employment issues of an individual  Principal – failed deadlines, maturity
• Loss of teacher  jobs due to attrition and declining student enrollments
• A principal friend who is contemplating retirement because of issues to numrous to mention
• A principal who has lost employment for next year because of budgetary concerns

The above issues have taken their toll on me.  I have had to take a step back from creativity and function with my rational mind, trying to grasp what this changing educational scene will mean in the immediate future for myself, my friends, colleagues and fellow teachers.