the tail is wagging the dog

In a journal article this morning; it was reported that there is a split among board members regarding how far to cast their net in the search for a new superintendent for the APS. Some would search locally; some would engage in a more expensive and complicated nationwide search.

Yet, there is no consensus regarding the type of fish they are looking for. If they are looking for a rainbow trout; there is no point in casting your net into the ocean. If you a looking for sharks; you won't find many in local lakes.

I can think of a least two kinds of superintendents upon which the board might settle; those who have all the answers and expect the districts 6,000 professional educators to do as they are told, and those who recognize the inherent value of the 70,000 years of combined teaching experience in the district, and who will enable the success site based management.

It is an important question; a real fork in the road; site based management, or another superintendent that will continue to fill floor upon floor of administrators in the Uptown Administrative Complex; a place further from the educational interface (classrooms) than any other place or perspective in the district.

There is no administrator equally competent in both enabling the success of subordinates, and/or insisting that all important decisions regarding the spending of resources and decision making power reside at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

The fact that the board is talking about where to fish, and not about what to fish for, is proof that they have already made up their minds about what they are fishing for.

And all of the pretense about community involvement is just that, pretense.