Superintendent Interview

I conducted my interview with Dr. Clark Ealy, Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services in College Station ISD. I had the questions ready to go and figured we would go through them in order, but after the first question, it became obvious we would bounce around and so many of the topics were intertwined in others that the interview would just happen. My first question out dealt with the definition of leadership, which Dr. Ealy described as being the moral and intellectual compass for the district. You have to be able to make the decisions that best affect all stakeholders, guided by a knowledge of all issues and the district’s vision. Basically, this is no small task, but it starts with the very simple, yet sometimes complicated, idea of doing what is best for the most people each time. I followed up by asking why he started with being a moral leader- again, simple answer. If you can’t do what is right and be guided by the correct principles, then you’re not going to come to the correct decisions. You have to be able to make the best decision for all 10,400 students in the district and not just the ones whose parents speak the loudest or cause the biggest uproar. With that, you have to have a thick skin and a short memory and know that the decisions you make are being made for all of the right reasons.

     The biggest issue impacting CSISD currently is attendance lines for the new elementary and high school set to open in 2011 and 2012 respectively. That issue weighed heavily in my asking the next three questions. An area on my self assessment that I needed to focus on was how to build a productive relationship with the school board (competency 4). My father in law is on the school board in a different school district, so we’ve spent some time talking about his perspective on relationships with central office and the type of information he needs as a board member to make a decision. Dr. Ealy emphasized the importance of building a personal relationship with each of the board members and not picking out a couple of them to bounce ideas off of. Boards can only act as a group and can only make a decision in a publicly called meeting, so their ideas are always public. That makes it even more important to get to know them and to have them trust you when it comes to big decisions. Redistricting was one example of this in College Station; the process took months to unfold, and by the time it got to the board, there was a good deal of public feedback. While the secondary plan is still being discussed, the school board had the confidence in the administration to know the plans were solid, done with a great deal of care, and was able to adopt the elementary plan in fairly short order. The process of this issue (rezoning), let me back to competency 3 and the importance of communication with all stakeholders. The community had three chances to give their opinion on the criteria for the rezoning committee to use and then three more chances to give their opinion once the lines had been proposed. There were no secrets in this process and the school district used a marketing blitz to encourage anyone and everyone to attend all of these public sessions. This blitz was another factor allowing the school board to move forward with their part of the process since they know their constituents had an opportunity to give their feedback on the plan.

      The issue of rezoning and communication also led me to combining my questions for competencies 5 and 8 and the need for strategic planning in areas of curriculum, budgeting, and personnel resources. Strategic planning was needed to know new lines must be drawn for these schools and that certain factors (low SES populations, building size, etc.) must be taken into consideration. Opening these schools also costs a great deal of money, and while a 2009 bond election is funding the construction of these schools, the money to operate them must also be found. This has led to several district committees meeting to discuss areas where the district can save money and be more fiscally responsible. Some of them are easier decisions, such as altering bus routes to make them more efficient and adjusting heating practices to save money during the winter. Others are much more difficult, to include altering start times and asking teachers to pick up additional classes. The current part of this process has been to get feedback from teachers on the various proposals coming out of the committees and this has been heated to say the least. I’ve been amazed by the difficulty of doing so at the campus level, Dr. Ealy emphasized that it is even more difficult at the district level. He came back to the very first point he made to me though to answer how you deal with it- you must be a moral leader and make the best decision for as many people as you can. Having money drive an issue can limit your parameters of decision making, so you have to work even harder to find solutions that we keep teacher moral and classroom instruction high. We have been shielded by many of the budget issues in the state for a while, but reality has hit College Station and we’re faced with many difficult challenges.

      The overwhelming lesson that I learned from my interview with Dr. Ealy is how truly interconnected everything is. I went in with the intent of asking 15 separate questions, some of which may relate to one another, but in general were independent areas. While this held true with a couple of questions, the interview was dominated by bouncing between questions and seeing how truly linked each competency is with the other. Whether it was curriculum or operations, school board relations or physical plant operations, common themes emerged that threaded theses diverse areas together.

Vita

Professional Vita

I've placed a link to my wikispaces page which contains my Professional Vita above. Please go to the discussions page on that page to provide feedback for the vita!

Transfer Theory... Campus to Central Office

The example in this weeks video (you know how to tie shoelaces of any type once you know how to tie one) is a great basic example of transfer theory. And while I generally agree that a base level of knowledge means you can expand on it in different settings, it won't come without some trials. As campus level administrators, we do have our hands on multiple areas of managing the school, but the decisions are being made for one campus and for the betterment of one group of people. Superintendents must consider how all decisions effect all stakeholders in the district- this is no small task and will come will an adjustment period. With that said, understanding how to manage personnel at the school level, for example, can be translated to the district level. You're still looking for quality people who are certified in needed areas and fit your district's standards for educators. In a good district, your campus goals will be aligned with the district goals, so that part should be an easy transition. In financial matters, the budget will certainly be much larger, but you still have to fund technology, fund multiple departments, and field requests from multiple entities as you go. So again, your base set of knowledge can help you as you begin to transfer knowledge from the campus to district level, but it will certainly come will at least some time period of adjustment.

Blogs and Educational Leaders

Blogs are a great way to get your thoughts out to a wide audience of people- athletes use it, politicians have staffers that use it for them... so why not school leaders. When policies are changed or feedback is needed, using a blog can be a great way to disseminate information and reach a larger amount of your stakeholders than you may have previously been able to. This allows real feedback while letting others know where you stand and why you stand for it.

Action Research

This is the foundation of how change can happen and happen in a hurry! Defined simply as doing research with a group of people to improve the way something is done or functions, action research is an absolute must in any organization that wants to be at the fore front of change. This school year, I've learned more about this process than at any time prior because we are actively engaging in it in College Station ISD. As school administrators, we are obligated to be good stewards of the tax payers money and to best utilize the resources we have. The simple solution to budget shortfalls, either real or projected, is to raise taxes a penny or two at a time to gain an increase of a few hundred thousand dollars. This will dry out and become unpopular- there is no question about it. In CSISD, all district administrators have been broken into budget reduction committees, looking a how the district can save money with the upcoming opening of our 8th elementary school in 2011 and our 2nd high school in 2012. We've been charged with looking at areas ranging from the way the school day is constructed to temperatures in the class and all areas in between. As committees, we've been tasked with looking at how other school districts operate, their costs, and how we can streamline our efforts while maintaining the high level of education that is currently going on in our schools. This is the true definition of action research and utilizing it is allowing our district get real solutions in a timely manner.