posted by Mike Madison at 11:34 AM /
I am told that the Mt. Lebanon School Board has announced that it has hired a consulting firm to aid in the search for a new superintendent. The firm is McPherson & Jacobson (www.macnjake.com), from Omaha, Nebraska. The consultants will be scheduling meetings with administrators, staff, teachers, PTAs, parents, and other members of the community. Watch for announcements about times and locations.
Labels: school district
24 Comments:
Disappointed that Carol Walton and Dr. Smartschan are leading the search. Weren't these the same parties involved in finding Dr. Sable?
Fool me once shame on you...
fool me twice-shame on me!
Walton and Smartschan talked about a swimming pool for years but they never got it done.
Hooray! Search high, but don't search low! Anonymous Mom of 3
Lets see...
We have a search for Sable at if I remember $38,000, plus a $500,000 buyout package,
A search prior to Wilson that was in the $20,000 neighborhood,
and now another $21,000 search for a superintendent. That's $579,000 for administration changes in what the past 4 years.
Add in $73,000 + expenses to DeJong to find out there are four vague options on the high school. (I'd have told the district that for nothing and been just as informative!)
Add in too, approximately $100,000+ for pool plans that never went anywhere, and had no relevance to the new/remodelled high school.
Do we really want the current board running anything?
Carol Walton headed the board committee that selected the search firm, and Dr. Smartschan will be involved in some unspecified manner. Watch out! Makes it more imperative that we attend any meetings open to the public.
I think that the community should hold off beating up current or past board members and superintendents over this search. The search is just getting underway. What everyone wants, I assume, is the best possible result for the District (including, primarily, the kids and the taxpayers). To get that result, do anything you can to ensure that the search is broad, that experienced educators apply, and that the most talented candidates are brought in for local interviews.
What, you don't just drop an ad on craigslist? :)
Mike on May 11,2006 you posted and I agree:
"Mt. Lebanon has a long tradition of encouraging its citizens to just trust the Board to do the right thing, which in turn has a long tradition of trusting the District administrators to do the right thing.
A year and a half ago, that legacy of "just trust us" blew up in the face of the District. Then-Superintendent Margery Sable, according to accounts that I heard, insisted on critically reviewing the work of her subordinates, instead of just going along with what she was told. That, among other things, brought her into conflict with the Board, and she walked out of town with a "separation agreement." And four members of the School Board that negotiated that deal, a Board that took the position that the citizens should just trust the Board in the matter of that agreement, either declined to run for reelection, or were defeated at the polls last year.
The four members of the School Board who were elected last Fall heard a clear message from the voters: We want a more active Board, and more transparency in School District decisions.
"Just trust us" is a motto that the taxpayers of Mt. Lebanon should have heard for the last time.
So what's happening right now? The Superintendent who succeeded Margery Sable, George Wilson, sent home a "just trust us" letter summarizing the weak discipline handed to two students involved in "the list." Board president Joe Rodella declined to comment, because (I'm paraphrasing) "we trust the Superintendent".
I know that Board members have heard directly from parents whose children are involved in this mess. Aside from early comments by Mark Hart, they haven't been talking much. I hope that Board members start to speak out about what's happening here, and I also hope that the town learns a lesson in what to expect from elected leadership. Trust is *earned* through critical engagement. Managers make mistakes, and when they do, boards need to act, and they need to explain what they're doing and why."
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Aside from Sable, we have Dr. Pulkowski's termination. watched the budget meeting on cable, we're looking at spending thousand's on poining masonary on the renovated elementary schools. Why would you replace windows in a building and not fix the lentils and bricks surrounding it at the same time? Was it to get the projects approved at $45,000,000?
The pool is up to over $250,000 in planning and still nothing.
The board never mentions while asking for $120,000,000 for a new HS that school districts throughout the state are going to be forced to add over a billion $$$ to the underfunded teacher's pension fund.
Unfortunately, I believe there are certain members on the board, while they should be applauded for their dedication, have become complacent and overly protective of the status quo.
The PR for the district is a sadly managed joke, the planning sessions for the HS are I believe deceptive and the handling of Top 25, USC assualt, and the Teen assembly indicative of an ineffective leadership.
SHOULD WE HOLD OFF BEATING UP THE BOARD-- NO THE BOARD SHOULD HOLD OFF UNTIL WE GET TO VOTE ON NEW MEMBERS!
I've got to agree with the "irate" poster above - trust was breached and it's difficult to restore. The community is responsible for oversight on the board's and administration's actions.
Unfortunately, the community cannot exercise oversight when deals are made behind closed doors. All that's left is exercising the power to vote ('da bums out) or magnify the radar by reminding citizens of board activities/inactivities. Anonymous Mom of 3
Thanks anon mother of three, we agree on many items on this blog.
One thing the board could do is show (one or all)resumes/qualification/views of the candidates under consideration before picking one.
I hope too, they do a better job on the contract than they did with Sable's agreement. (See the old Pittsblog on Sable's contract.)
Mom of 3 clarifying...
I don't mean we should vote out the current board. I agree we should give them a chance to conduct a good, thorough Superintendent search. Rather, I think Mike's idea to temper comments is a bit (sorry) naive. Everyone's got to push the information about board actions/inactions. Everyone's got to be vigilant. We've wasted a lot of money "studying" a lot of actions, which I fear is becoming a substitute for true action.
Vigilance is a good thing, AMo3, and I was *not* advocating a return to the "trust us" times of yore. Still, at times comments on this blog degenerate into the "pointless, incessant barking" for which the blogosphere is infamous. When the Board announces a superintendent search and anonymous comments lead off with a metaphoric chorus of "kill the ump," it's time to tone down the rhetoric a bit.
Mike-
No one is suggesting "kill the ump" solely to vocalize angry rhetoric. It is my belief that the players involved are the same that oversaw Sable and Wilson, the elementary renovations and the pool question. As mom of three states, "we've thrown a lot of money studying and appointing with little to show for it.
We are coming up on elections for a majority of the board members. As citizens/taxpayers this is our one and only chance to voice confidence in the board. If we retain the current board, we've had our say. But to let them proceed we could end up with another Sable debacle without recourse.
Metaphoric choruses of "throw the bums out" are all to the good whereas "kill the ump" isn't. (Pause here while I privately recall George Carlin's take on the latter.) Everyone should keep the difference in mind. Still, so long as the superintendent search is underway (as it apparently is), vigilance, not just rhetoric (or barking), is the order of the day.
The question is...
Do we want the current board undertaking another superintendent search?
Or do we want a change in the board before undertaking the process?
The election is our chance to have our say!
Mike--
We could have been vigilent 24 hours a day with Marge Sable, attended every board meeting etc, etc. and still arrived at the same point. We don't know what she did wrong, whether her leadship conflicted with the board's, whether she was against the HS project, teachers, or curriculum.
Now the board is in the process of selecting a new superintendent. What do we know? Are they looking for one that will support a new building or one that has experience in renovation? One that takes a tough stand with teachers? A tough or lenient disciplanrian?
We know nothing... May 11, 2006 you said boards need to explain what they are doing and why. Have we heard any description of what they are searching for in a candidate? Will we hear anything when they find one? To be vigilent you need to be able to see something!
Vigilance does not need to be responsive. Take the initiative. Create a blog! Call it the Mt. Lebanon Superintendent Search Blog. Put your name on it (or call it the Spartacus blog). Start writing. Collect supporters. Talk to other media. Organize!
Will any of that guarantee a good result? No. Will replacing the members of the current Board guarantee a good result? No. But no one has to sit around and wait.
Regarding Margery Sable, if you want to know as much as I think is publicly known about Sablegate, read my analysis here. After I wrote that piece, word filtered back to me from the then-current Board that I must have been on the receiving end of a leak. But I wasn't. I've never talked to a current or former Board member about the Sable termination.
Mike--
I agree on your last post. I started writing (alas using your blog). As for starting a blog, or organizing I for one wouldn't know ehere to start. I do see though that anon mom of 3 and I agree on a lot. Who knows may be we'll connect and start a group.
As for vigilance... are we just observers or participants.
See that Posti responded to the cell phone post, perhaps she is reading the other post as well! SHe doesn't have to agree, just hear.
Anon 3:08 - the current board will select the next superintendent. Regardless of what happens in the primary elections a 'new' board will not be seated until the fall. The only way to influence selection of the next MLSD superintendent is to communicate your thoughts clearly and often to the current board - and hope that they pay some attention.
Mike--
Seems you're getting tired of my comments, but I've just got to make one more.
Today, we receieved the district's budget newsletter. I suppose we've received these before, but the timeline and the notification of the budget forum date is just the openess I've been hoping for. Whoever put this one together is to be commended. Perhaps a similar newsletter on the super. search and specs would serve as well!
This type of call for participation and openness is refreshing.
Wow, can you imagine if the board actually diversified and picked a qualified person of color for Superintendent!!
Dr. Smartschan is the superintendent who lead the decline of our school district. To have him involved in the seach, as well as the school board members who approved the Dr. Sable hiring, is a decision that our community should stand up against. It is sad that myself and many of my friends graduated from Mt. Lebanon and now have children feel that the schools have declined.
I know this is off topic. Re: A person of color as the next Super would be great, as long as the person was a great leader with long, strong vision. Interesting note - when I was a teacher, I worked with a wonderful Principal, a black man, looking for a new gig. I mentioned that Lebo was facing some retirements soon and he brightened, saying "That would be great for me." Then he turned reflective and said, "I would feel out of place there." I tried to convince him that having some leadership of color in the district might well spur an influx of diversity in the district. He never felt comfortable with the idea - wasn't willing to be a "homesteader".
It's seems a little bit chickens and eggs to me. I wonder how many potential candidates are apprehensive about being the homesteader. Anonymous Mom of 3
http://members.aol.com/DKM1/24.Cp.3.html
The pen is mightier...
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