| Pres. Jackie Pendergrass and school board to decide. |
Opinion Updated 1/25: The School Board will introduce their preferred candidate, Traci Pierce, to the community during "Meet and Greets" (M&G) this January. Parents and the community are invited to give input to Board members. Send your feedback to the Board by February 22 at board@lwsd.org and if you have your own preferred candidate let them and your neighbors know! I like Traci a lot, but prefer Principal Jane Todd, Redmond High for her known community Leadership skills.
UPDATED OPINION: At their December 5 meeting the Lake Washington School Board will decide if they want to put forward an internal candidate for Superintendent.
According to the Administration in a press release, "the district is in the middle of a major initiative - changing its grade configuration - which will affect every school in the district." Grade reconfiguration - along with growth pains from the new Stem School, RHS wing, and EHS wing and other immediate challenges - could benefit from "consistent leadership" of an internal candidate. "Knowledge and experience of these ongoing challenges also favor the consideration of internal candidates," says the Administration.
The Board will evaluate all candidates based on criteria gathered from the online survey ("read more") and interviews with staff and community members. If they can't decide on an internal candidate, they'll look outside.
Do you think an internal candidate is appropriate considering what we're facing for the next few years? Is an interim Superintendent an option? A couple of names that come to mind are Deputy Superintendent of Instructional Services, Dr.Traci Pierce, and Redmond High Principal Jane Todd. Do you have any recommendations or favorites? I think Deputy Superintendent Janine Fogard is most effective staying where she is, as Chief Operating Officer. She knows the district "plumbing" better than anyone. Ms. Fogard, as Director of Finance, has an excellent business services finance team led by Barbara Posthumus. Read More>>
If you're looking for ideas, here's the District's Organization Chart for the Administration, excluding Principals.
Please don't hesitate to send your recommendations for internal candidates to the Board at: board@lwsd.org . The online survey is nice, but general. Or please, leave a comment below this post. All comments here will be forwarded to the Board before their Dec. 5 meeting. You are also invited to write a Letter for publication here to redmondblog@gmail.com
Below, are the survey results released by the school district on 11/18. The online survey garnered 1797 responses from parents, the community, and staff. Read More >>
SURVEY RESULTS:
The top issues facing the district, according to those surveyed, are:
1. Budget shortfall/decreasing state funding
2. Finding and retaining high quality staff
3. Improving student academic achievement
4. Ensuring that students are prepared for the global workplace
5. Ensuring student preparation for college
Experiences, skill or abilities the next superintendent should have were divided into several areas. Top requirements for items relating to instruction were:
1. Developing and maintaining systems that support high quality instruction
2. Developing curricula to ensure that all students are challenged and prepared for the future
Items relating to operational management and external relations that were most important to respondents were:
1. Managing a school district budget and ensuring the efficient use of public funds
2. Recruiting, hiring and retaining a dynamic and efficient staff dedicated to education
Top items concerning management style were identified as:
1. Listening to and considering alternative views and opinions while making decisions
2. Demonstrating a track record of problem solving
By Robert Yoder
Source: LWSD: K. Reith press release, 11/18
Does the Lake Washington School District have a list of the minimum requirements for the next superintendent? The LWSD website listed the results of the survey and how people ranked the importance of instruction, operations management and management style but those were just opinions of the survey respondents based on predetermined survey questions.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the exact REQUIREMENTS that the superintendent candidate must meet in order to be considered for the position?
We need to know what the school board is really looking for so that we'll know if they're truly looking for the best candidate or have simply already decided on someone from within the district and are just pretending to conduct an internal search.