February 15, 2013 at 5:46 p.m.
Superintendent candidates grilled by school board
Superintendent candidates grilled by school board
The district has been searching for a new superintendent since last fall when Dr. Roger Erdahl announced he would retire at the end of June.
The five candidates invited for an interview were: Tom Johansen, current principal at D.C. Everest High School; Jean Broadwater, current superintendent of the Houston School District in Houston, Minn.; Jill Underly, a consultant for the Department of Public Instruction; Kelli Jacobi, director of curriculum for the School District of Rhinelander; and Teri Maney, principal of Crescent Elementary School.
As Tuesday turned into Wednesday, only Jacobi, Johansen, and Broadwater remained as possible candidates.
The board had planned to pick two candidates to invite back but ultimately chose to invite three.
"We thought that the three that we picked were all extremely close in rank, and we couldn't specifically rank the three of them so we're bringing them all back with tougher questions," Board President Ron Counter said.
"These three really stuck out to us. Broadwater had superintendent experience and budgeting experience. Johansen has been down in D.C. Everest which is an extremely respected school district in this area and he's been the principal there for 16 years and has done a good job there. Jacobi has done an extremely good job in her roles here in Rhinelander, either as a principal or a curriculum director or whatever she's been assigned."
The majority of the questions during Tuesday's interviews pertained to improving the district's relationship with its employees and with the community. There was also a question regarding experience running referenda.
Relationship with employees
The candidates were asked to talk about a time when they had to get a large number of employees on the same page,
Jacobi talked about implementing new reading intervention programs in the district in her answer.
"The one that jumps out the loudest is our reading efforts. They were at a stalled point when I started this position (as curriculum director). The district didn't have anyone in the director of curriculum position and they were trying to do a big initiative and change reading practices without that kind of leadership. They tried tackling it in a way that I would not have done. We know, through research, that big initiatives, you have to be looking at a three-to-five year plan, at least, to make sure that it's completely integrated, that you've met the professional development needs of your staff, and not just hit them with what they have to do. They have to understand what they need to do to make those changes, which are all to benefit students. So, when I started my position, I really back-tracked and tried to smooth those waters," Jacobi said.
"I shared the plan. I shared the timeline for the plan, that it was not something that was going to be overnight, that I was there to help every step of the way, all they needed to do was ask. I believe that I am very approachable and I am very visible in the schools so that teachers feel comfortable saying, 'I don't understand what you mean,' or 'I need help' because even veteran teachers, when you're starting a new initiative, it's all new to them. They may catch on quickly, but there's still that feeling that this is all new and that they're getting hit with a bunch of new information. So ... we got to spend four years learning how to do that, implementing in small steps, so that when we got to five years, teachers were very familiar with it."
Johansen discussed finding time in the school day for more teacher collaboration.
"The best thing that I have ever done as a principal is find time in the school day for my teachers to collaborate professionally with one another. This was about seven or eight years ago when all of the research came out saying we needed to do this, we needed to have professional learning communities. We didn't. We tried messing around with trying to do some things after school or during lunches, but I worked with my faculty to create that time. We have a Wednesday late start. We've had it for about five years. I will share with you that more positive things have gotten done because of that than any other time I've been principal. More things happened in the first year than probably the first 15 years that I was principal. We improved more curriculum, more instructional practice, we created common assesments, because my teachers had some time to do that," Johansen said.
"We have more and more things on our plate every day. We have Common Core, we have RTI (Response-to-Intervention), our district is doing a revision of our grading scale, and we're asking teachers to do remediation for our RTIs. It's been a ton of things, and we kept hearing from our teachers, 'I'm just burning out, I can't do it anymore, I'm frustrated,' so we sat down with a group of teachers and said the only way we're going to approach this is to find time in the school day to work together to be able to do this ... and we ended up with the faculty split three ways - one-third wanted one way, one-third wanted another way, and one-third wanted the third way. We knew we needed to do something, so we went back to the groups to find out what other options they were open to and we were able to go, without arguing and complaining, which is pretty amazing, from a seven-period day to an eight-period day. It's doing a lot of really positive things because it allows our math teachers or English teachers to get together for a period a day to work on things."
Broadwater discussed her first year as a superintendent.
"It was a very recent venture. When I went to Houston, nobody was on the same page, and it was just a wild ride. There were things that had happened there that were traumatic so I had a transition plan in place and I met with all stakeholders to let them know I cared about them, that I was here for them, and that I wasn't changing anything. My first year was just to learn. There was no agenda. I just wanted to let everyone be heard - students, staff, administrators, board, and community," Broadwater said. "I collected all of this data and I found out what had happened. They didn't know their superintendent, ... there was no trust, so I had to work on building all of that. I wanted to get people involved in their work. So, I got the teachers involved in professional learning communities which have been very, very successful. You have to create a culture and a climate for them to feel like they're supported and that they can take these risks to try something new. My open door policy has also been helpful. When people know they can come in and have a conversation, it helps a lot."
Relationship with the community
Since one of the district's goals is to cultivate a better relationship between the district and the community, the candidates were asked about their experiences delivering a difficult message to a parent or community group.
Jacobi discussed being a teacher and principal at the district's charter schools when budget cuts were threatening the schools' existence.
"I've been in education a long time, so there have been many, many times where I've shared less-than-positive news with the community. The most recent I can think of is when I was at the charter school as a teacher and then a principal, when we went several rounds of not knowing if our school would be in existence the following year as we moved through budget cuts and reductions. Those were always very difficult conversations," Jacobi said.
"Each school is special in its own way and to be the bearer of those sad tidings, that it's nothing that the teachers have done, it's nothing that the students have done, that community still has to be there and we have to try to work through those issues until we know what's coming with budgeting and if the school will remain in existence. I tried to make sure I was very upfront. Transparency is so critical."
Johansen talked about a time when his school's ACT and literacy scores were not up to snuff.
"This happened about seven years ago where we were looking at data in our school and the administrative team in my building wasn't real happy with where we were. It was our ACT scores and our literacy scores. We were below state averages and that was just unacceptable for us in our high school," Johansen said.
"So, we did some data searches and we delivered that information to our parents, the school board, and we were very upfront and open about that because we identified it as a problem that we needed to resolve. We were not going to hide behind anything. So, that's tough to stand up in front of your bosses on the school board and the community and say, 'listen, we're not doing the job we need to do right now and we need to find ways to do this.' So, that was a really difficult situation for us but we approached it openly and positively."
Broadwater told of how she entered her last position only to find the online program in her new district was running in the red.
"One of my difficult messages to a community group was that we had an online school in the district that was running in the red. When I arrived, I did this big transition plan and I stumbled across this information. So, there was a school within our district that was running in the red and I had to share that with the community and I actually recommended to the board that they shut it down. That was extremely difficult for the community. This was one of their babies. They liked to offer the choice of an online program to kids. That was a difficult message. It was extremely emotional, but we got through it and we were able to better educate the community on the online program. When you educate the community on what's happening, they start to understand what you're doing, and it's like an olive branch," Broadwater said.
Experience with referendums
The final main topic of the interviews had to do with experience running referendums.
Jacobi discussed the importance of communication when dealing with referendums.
"Communication is so critical. Preparing the community, preparing the staff to help prepare the community. It can't just be a small committee. It has to be a time to rally the troops. We have to have everybody onboard. I would also do that in the preceeding efforts of what are we going to cut, what changes will happen in the district if it doesn't pass, because I think those are those are critical pieces," Jacobi said.
"Previously, I don't believe, as a district, that we've done a good job preparing teachers for referendums, for potential reductions. The list often goes to the board and the board makes the selection, but we're not very good in including all of the stakeholders in what should be on that list and I think we should be doing a better job of that. I would continue with as many ways to reach out to the community as I could. They're not always successful, but getting the accurate information out in the hands of the public is key."
Johansen discussed his involvement with referenda in the D.C. Everest School District, while also pointing out the importance of open and honest communication.
"I've been involved with planning teams for all of (the referenda undertaken by the district). When you're on the administrative cabinet in our district, that's what you're doing. You're looking at what is the expense for whatever project it is your going to do, brainstorming how are we going to communicate this to the public to say this is why this is important to educating kids - this is why you need to get behind this - and clearly say this is what this is going to mean out of your pocketbook, so that they know that," Johansen said.
"You're district is different. I understand and realize that you're a low state aided district. You have expenses and considerations that the state formula doesn't look at at all. Your transportation, I'm sure, is a pretty high cost here because you're spread out all over the place. Busing is a high expense. Gas is a high expense, Insurance is a high expense. All of those things are going up and your state aid is never going to make an impact on that and you have a revenue cap. Looking at this, I can see that every three years you're going to have to do this again so I would expect that if the position came in my direction, that would start right away. We need to start preparing and thinking about this and putting a plan in place to figure out how we are going to best communicate this to the public because it's probably going to happen again."
Broadwater also discussed her experience in other districts.
"We're in the process right now in Houston. We don't have revenue caps in Minnesota. We have what they call operating referendum and it's to get extra money in per student. We're going out a year early. We've chosen not to wait, so it's not, 'Oh, my God, we've got to pass it this year.' That way, in case it doesn't pass, we have another year to try again," Broadwater said. "I've been very involved in referendums in a prior district. We went for a $23 million referendum in West Bend. I was a site leader at the time, studying to be a superintendent and I was the superintendent's gofer. She put me in charge of a lot of things, but it was good, it was how I learned. I was in charge of the 'Vote Yes' group. She had me in charge of sharing data with the board, with the architects, meeting with teachers. I was very, very involved at a whole different level and I actually appreciated the opportunity."
The final round
The board plans to hold final interviews, and make a final decision, on Feb. 27. Those interviews will be open to the public.
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at [email protected].
WEATHER SPONSORED BY
E-Editions
Latest News
E-Editions
Events
August
To Submit an Event Sign in first
Today's Events
No calendar events have been scheduled for today.
Comments:
You must login to comment.