I haven't stirred the pot yet in 1999, and thought I'd start the new year off by sharing my email message to Mike Masse, member of the Commissioner's Panel on Leadership, VP of Chase Bank in Syracuse and member of the FM BOE. Anybody feel the same way? You might like to email Mike at mjmasse.syr.com. Enjoy the diatribe!
Mike - Congratulations on being appointed to the Blue Ribbon Panel on
School Leadership. Certainly the contact I have had with you over the
past three years makes me believe you are committed to excellence in
public schooling in NY, and your appointment to this panel helps me
restore a little bit of faith in the process being employed to tackle
this difficult issue.
My biggest beef with the Commissioner and SED at this point is that they
inadvertantly ( I hope) add to the burden of the school leaders across
the state. SED employs top-down management of issues rather than really
involving the leaders in place whom they are now trying to cajole and
coddle and make feel good about themselves. They are puppets to the
legislature which is clearly anti-public education ( witness the
culpable silence of SED on the Charter Schools legislation recently
railroaded through politicians chambers)and anti-administration ( salary
disclosure and caps on defeated budgets) and they lack the common touch
( Carl Hayden is a much more viable embodiment of what public schools
should be about than Rick Mills or Jim Kadamus, and none of them compare
in my mind to Tom Sobol whom we allowed to be ousted by the dispicable
power-hungry man in the Governor's office.) Our own leaders are busy
taking pot-shots at what we do every day instead of rallying the troops
and standing up for what's really best for all of the children of all of
the people. Instead of an environment of teamwork and shared effort, we
have established a hierarchy of haves and have-nots and a focus on the
most problmeatic areas ( the cities) as if they are something that need
outside intervention to fix instead of real empowerment of the people in
the trenches.
I've only been a superintendent for 6 years and a principal for 4 before
that, but I feel much less empowered to make effective change for the
benefit of my local school today than I did when I entered the field.
School superintendents and principals are relegated to one of a number
of constituent groups the commissioner appeals to for advice on issues.
We should be the key lieutentants in this commander's war on illiteracy
and mediocrity. Instead, I too often feel that because we are small in
number compared to the teacher's union, the taxpayer coalitons and the
parent groups, we are the excluded indentured servants who are slapped
in the face with every new decision coming down the pike. I do not feel
supported in my efforts to bring real effective teaching and learning to
the little corner of the universe I get to call my own. Not from Rick
Mills, not from the Board of Regents, not from SED and certainly not
from my legislative representatives. Thank God for my Board! Sometimes
it feels likes its us against everyone else out there.
That sort of hostile environment toward educators, education and
educational leadership ( schoolmen) is something I can tolerate and even
expect from a community at large. I should not have to tolerate it from
the ranks of my own leadership.
Regional scoring is a prime example of the disregard for the opinions of
school superintendents which permeats the current culture in Albany.
The reform to the graduation requirements is another - more of the same
instead of what school leaders called for. Why? Because we are guilty
of running the education department the way Bill Clinton runs the
federal government- by poll and popular demand. Even the examination of
school leadership of which you and this missive are part does not weigh
in heavily enough with a frank discussion from school leaders about the
nature of the problem. Instead we have panels and conventions of all
sorts of people who are not the school leaders! Want to really hear
what the problem is and how to solve it? Hold a special session at the
mid-winter conference of NYSCOSS and get an earful.
If there's one message I would ask you to pass along in your comments it
is the frustration this particular practitioner feels with the internl
rewards of leadership in education in this state. They are woefully
inadequate.
I happen to think I'm a pretty with-it and together kind of guy when it
comes to not being power-hungry or inflated too much in the ego
department. I think I run a damn good little school that supports good
teachers doing good things with kids. I have supervised four
administrative interships to date and have five more people involved in
administrative coursework currently ( out of only 55 teachers in my
little district). I think I show people how much fun it can be to do
things well for teachers and kids. I should not consider my own State
Education department more of an anethema to my efforts than my own
taxpayers, and I do. I think that's a sadder comment than the
demographics of who's availbale to apply for what job. If the Chris
Manaseri's of this world get down on what the tasks of effective school
leaders are and should be, we've got a big problem!
Thanks for asking for my opinion. Bope you can translate it into
something presentable. Would love to talk more with you about the
issue.
Have fun on the panel, Mike!
Chris
I haven't stirred the pot yet in 1999, and thought I'd start the new year off by sharing my email message to Mike Masse, member of the Commissioner's Panel on Leadership, VP of Chase Bank in Syracuse and member of the FM BOE. Anybody feel the same way? You might like to email Mike at mjmasse.syr.com. Enjoy the diatribe!
Mike - Congratulations on being appointed to the Blue Ribbon Panel on
School Leadership. Certainly the contact I have had with you over the
past three years makes me believe you are committed to excellence in
public schooling in NY, and your appointment to this panel helps me
restore a little bit of faith in the process being employed to tackle
this difficult issue.
My biggest beef with the Commissioner and SED at this point is that they
inadvertantly ( I hope) add to the burden of the school leaders across
the state. SED employs top-down management of issues rather than really
involving the leaders in place whom they are now trying to cajole and
coddle and make feel good about themselves. They are puppets to the
legislature which is clearly anti-public education ( witness the
culpable silence of SED on the Charter Schools legislation recently
railroaded through politicians chambers)and anti-administration ( salary
disclosure and caps on defeated budgets) and they lack the common touch
( Carl Hayden is a much more viable embodiment of what public schools
should be about than Rick Mills or Jim Kadamus, and none of them compare
in my mind to Tom Sobol whom we allowed to be ousted by the dispicable
power-hungry man in the Governor's office.) Our own leaders are busy
taking pot-shots at what we do every day instead of rallying the troops
and standing up for what's really best for all of the children of all of
the people. Instead of an environment of teamwork and shared effort, we
have established a hierarchy of haves and have-nots and a focus on the
most problmeatic areas ( the cities) as if they are something that need
outside intervention to fix instead of real empowerment of the people in
the trenches.
I've only been a superintendent for 6 years and a principal for 4 before
that, but I feel much less empowered to make effective change for the
benefit of my local school today than I did when I entered the field.
School superintendents and principals are relegated to one of a number
of constituent groups the commissioner appeals to for advice on issues.
We should be the key lieutentants in this commander's war on illiteracy
and mediocrity. Instead, I too often feel that because we are small in
number compared to the teacher's union, the taxpayer coalitons and the
parent groups, we are the excluded indentured servants who are slapped
in the face with every new decision coming down the pike. I do not feel
supported in my efforts to bring real effective teaching and learning to
the little corner of the universe I get to call my own. Not from Rick
Mills, not from the Board of Regents, not from SED and certainly not
from my legislative representatives. Thank God for my Board! Sometimes
it feels likes its us against everyone else out there.
That sort of hostile environment toward educators, education and
educational leadership ( schoolmen) is something I can tolerate and even
expect from a community at large. I should not have to tolerate it from
the ranks of my own leadership.
Regional scoring is a prime example of the disregard for the opinions of
school superintendents which permeats the current culture in Albany.
The reform to the graduation requirements is another - more of the same
instead of what school leaders called for. Why? Because we are guilty
of running the education department the way Bill Clinton runs the
federal government- by poll and popular demand. Even the examination of
school leadership of which you and this missive are part does not weigh
in heavily enough with a frank discussion from school leaders about the
nature of the problem. Instead we have panels and conventions of all
sorts of people who are not the school leaders! Want to really hear
what the problem is and how to solve it? Hold a special session at the
mid-winter conference of NYSCOSS and get an earful.
If there's one message I would ask you to pass along in your comments it
is the frustration this particular practitioner feels with the internl
rewards of leadership in education in this state. They are woefully
inadequate.
I happen to think I'm a pretty with-it and together kind of guy when it
comes to not being power-hungry or inflated too much in the ego
department. I think I run a damn good little school that supports good
teachers doing good things with kids. I have supervised four
administrative interships to date and have five more people involved in
administrative coursework currently ( out of only 55 teachers in my
little district). I think I show people how much fun it can be to do
things well for teachers and kids. I should not consider my own State
Education department more of an anethema to my efforts than my own
taxpayers, and I do. I think that's a sadder comment than the
demographics of who's availbale to apply for what job. If the Chris
Manaseri's of this world get down on what the tasks of effective school
leaders are and should be, we've got a big problem!
Thanks for asking for my opinion. Bope you can translate it into
something presentable. Would love to talk more with you about the
issue.
Have fun on the panel, Mike!
Chris
W-FL BOCES 
