posted by Mike Madison at 10:01 PM /
The Wichita school board tonight unanimously chose John Allison, a suburban superintendent from outside Pittsburgh, Pa., as the district’s next leader.
The finalists for the job, Allison and Denise Wren, the Wichita district’s assistant superintendent for high schools, held question-and-answer sessions Saturday with district employees and residents.
From those meetings, Allison emerged as the best choice to lead the district of nearly 50,000 students, district officials said.
Allison is currently the superintendent of the Mount Lebanon school district in suburban Pittsburgh, Pa., but spent much of his career in the Shawnee Mission school district and earned a from bachelor’s degree, University of Kansas and a master’s degree from Emporia State University.
Mr. Allison, we hardly knew you! When you say your final goodbyes, safe travels and best wishes to you and all your family.
It will be interesting to see how the Mt. Lebanon School Board handles Mr. Allison's exit and the search for a successor.
13 Comments:
That's almost incomprehensible. Two superintendants and a quality principal in the last three years. And people made fun of USC with all the press they got over their IB program last year. Goodbye and good riddance, Mr. Allison. We hardly knew ye....
Good riddance? Gee, I wonder why anyone would want to leave this warm and friendly place.
With apologies to the late Judy Garland, God rest her soul:
He got the feeling he wasn't in Kansas anymore, clicked his heels three times, and repeated, "There's No Place Like Home".
He and I never met. So there's no basis for him thinking of me in any negative fashion. And I'm sure he's a good guy. But, call me crazy, it seems to me that being Superintendant in a school district like ours is a pretty big deal. I imagine that during the interview and vetting process the point was made that we were in need of some stability given what we had been through with Sable AND given the battle we were entering into related to the new high school. I imagine he said that, just like he did to the folks in Kansas, that he planned on being here "for the long haul". And, yet, here we are less than two years later about to embark on a similar ($$$) search where I imagine the same questions will be asked. The question is, will we get the same results?
And, I think my tally was wrong before. Isn't it really 2 superintendants, 1 interim and now retired superintendant, and 1 quality principal in the past two years? (I suppose we could also add a swim coach who was promised other things to the list also.)
In My Opinion:
There is nothing Mt. Lebanon does better and more often than lose the quality administrators.
What did you think would happen with the financial damage done to the district by the 2003 bond issue, the 2004 teachers Contract Extension and the wretched financing Plan recently put fourth by our financial advisor to build a high school?
There are too many selfish interests in Mt. Lebanon for us to survive the financial mess we are in.
Until the past Leadership of the District decides to let go of its stranglehold we will continue to struggle and will have more and more difficulty recruiting quality school board members.
Dr. Sable tried to break the cycle-of-selfishness and was voted a boatload of money to shut-up and leave after she fought for our children. I'm glad I don 't have to live with the Hoffman/Walton crippling of our district. They empowered the groups and individuals that are crippling us.
If Celli hasn't progressed too far in the Option 2 designs, perhaps we should suggest the inclusion of a revolving door on the administration wing.
Good luck Mr. Allison on your new position.
D. Spahr
Again, and as I wrote in a comment thread on an earlier post, no more comments will be accepted regarding the performance of former school board directors. So that I'm not hiding anything, I'll put down the following marker: Ron Hoffman is my friend and someone who has served Mt. Lebanon tirelessly for years. I will not accept comments that try to tar him and feather him. The issue for discussion is what happens now.
Good grief. What solidly educated, professional Lebo resident wouldn't take a job that results in more responsibility, more cash and puts him/her closer to family? Please stop judging Mr. Allison with a standard that you don't apply to yourself or others close to you.
Rather than looking like old sticks in the mud can we please applaud the fact that our last super was qualified enough to be on someone else's A list? Frankly, I hope the same for our next super.
I can assure you that if we continue to engage in petty back in forth because Mr. Allison was the best available athlete on this year's free agent market, we'll be hard pressed to attract another good candidate.
I agree with Dave. I understand that a big part of Mr. Allison's decision had to do with being closer to his family. Who could reasonably fault him for that?
I fault Mr. Allison for getting out of a four year contract after only two years. I have grown to enjoy discussions with Mr. Allison about any subject that comes to mind. The children should be the priority in this district, and I don't see the superintendent position the same as a professional athlete free agent. I'm all for fresh ideas, but the next search should look for a candidate in a 200 mile radius. We need a leader who will stay in our district for the duration of Option 2.
So children should be a priority, just as long as they're not the Super's kids? Come on Dave H., let's take a step back or better yet, let's put ourselves in Mr. Allison's shoes. Here are the facts:
(1) A headhunter came to Mr. Allison. Mr. Allison did not seek out this position.
(2) He was given an opportunity to move from a school district with just over 5,000 students to one with over 50,000 students.
(3) His current salary is around $150,000. The last Super in Wichita was making $275,000 in salary, benefits and additional compensation.
(4) Perhaps most importantly, Kansas is Mr. Allison's home, and as he described it Wichita's school district "is the flagship of the State."
Given those factors, I find it rather insincere for anyone to find fault with his decision. Trust me, I would have preferred that he stay in Mt. Lebanon forever. However, that's not the reality of today's job market, and it's certainly not the reality of the nation's school Super job market. As the head of the Wichita Teacher's Union said last week, "Everyone should know that their superintendent is looking or could be a candidate somewhere. Let's just wake up and know that that's a fact of life."
Unfortunately, ours just happened to be on the top of someone else's list. We can wallow in our misfortune, take shots at Mr. Allison, or unreasonably limit ourselves to looking for our next Super within the shadow of the high school.
Or we could wish Mr. Allison well and commit ourselves to finding the best damn Super we can find . . . wherever he or she may live.
Dave F.-
I agree with you, can't blame Mr. Allison for leaving to return home for a more lucrative position.
The following excerpt from June 2007 article on Allison's hiring at Lebo leads to some questions though!
"Allison plans to begin his new job on July 9. Among the reasons he chose Mt. Lebanon was the chance to serve in his position for the next 10 years. That would bring stability to a district that will have its fourth leader since 2003.
But it wasn't always that way. Glenn Smartschan spent 13 years in the superintendent's office before retiring in 2003.
Margery Sable took over for Smartschan, but resigned in November 2004 for undisclosed reasons. She had a five-year contract. The school board gave her a buyout that included $420,000in salary over three years, full health benefits for six years and up to $5,000 to cover legal fees. Board members refused to explain the decision, citing legal reasons.
George Wilson has served as superintendent since Sable's departure. His pending retirement led to Allison's hiring.
The average tenure of a superintendent is five and a half years, according to the American Association of School Administrators, based in Arlington, Va.
"They have so many constituencies to satisfy," said Claudia Mansfield Sutton, associate executive director of the association. "No. 1 is the children. Then there are the parents, the business community, other community groups, the school board, and the state and federal departments of education.""
Four heads since 2003 and nationally the average tenure of superintendents is 5 1/2 years.
Is there a concern here... are we not paying our superintendents enough, do we demand too much, is the HS project a problem?
I don't know the answer, only posing the question.
Again, we wish Mr. Allison the best in his new job.
D. Spahr
I guess that's perhaps even more to my point. If the avg tenure for a Super is 5 years, that means that for every one who stays 7 yrs, another one only stays 2. And frankly, I guess that stat begs an even more critical question - why do such important administrators stay in one place for such a short period? Five years is barely long enough to see one high school freshman class through graduation, let alone engage in any long term planning.
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