01 May 2006 - 19:07

woo hoo

Our middle school principal has taken a job in another school district here in Westchester.


-- CatherineJohnson - 01 May 2006

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Perhaps it's time for you to organize a "wheels-up" party.

(The term is military slang for a "going-away" party timed to begin when the wheels come up on the airplane carrying the individual far away.)

-- DougSundseth - 01 May 2006

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Wow, was this move anticipated by the parents, or is this just a big surprise?

-- GoogleMaster - 01 May 2006

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has taken

Admin in my school district fall under school operations. They are told where they are going. Choice is not an option for them.

Now, what is the saying about the devil you know?

-- SmartestTractor - 01 May 2006

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win-win

-- KDeRosa - 01 May 2006

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big fat surprise

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 May 2006

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Smartest Tractor

He's going to another district. We have tiny, tiny districts here. I can't remember whether Hoxby used our many districts to prove a point about competition....

Dobbs Ferry, which has an IB program in its middle school (which they brought in after a disastrous experiment in Open Classrooms in the 1990s) is 1 mile from my house, but we can't go there, because it's a different district.

We'd have to move one block over.

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 May 2006

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wheels-up

YEAH

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 May 2006

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oh, boy, there are beaming moms all over Irvington

I just talked to four of them

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 May 2006

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Ms. K needs to go with him

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 May 2006

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I don't think we're going to be throwing the party.

He's barely speaking to Ed.

I'm guessing he's not speaking to me, either.

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 May 2006

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Part of the point of a wheels-up party is that the person is now too far away for speaking to; the most vicious sort is when you announce the party before the person leaves.

FWIW, I'd have to be pretty darn angry to be that spiteful; it's the sort of thing that can make lifelong enemies. Still, sometimes spite is its own reward (or something).

8-)

-- DougSundseth - 01 May 2006

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Any idea why Fried left?

-- VerghisKoshi - 01 May 2006

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Part of the point of a wheels-up party is that the person is now too far away for speaking to; the most vicious sort is when you announce the party before the person leaves.

in that case, we're the ones to throw it

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 May 2006

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I'm not really the wheels-up party-thrower type myself

But I'm incredibly glad this guy is going

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 May 2006

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Verghis

well, of course I'd like to think we had something to do with it, but that's sure not what I'm hearing

Ed's impression after the last board meeting was that the new superintendent loves Fried, and my source on all this, who is well-informed, says that the superintendent had no idea he was going; it was a complete surprsie

otoh, in the past two weeks I've been told by two separate people that 'there is an underground movement to get him fired' and I was contacted by yet a 3rd person asking me to draw up a list of reasons why he wasn't working out (which I hadn't begun)

I hadn't posted any of that here......and I have no idea how 'wired' the administration is.....so I don't know whether anyone in the administration knew that trouble was brewing

what I'm hearing is that he was on track to receive tenure next year, and another district 'put out a feeler' to him and he jumped

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 May 2006

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I have to say, though, that I'm not sure anyone can know what goes on in the administration. My sense is they're fairly secretive (could be wrong, but that's the vibe I get); they also see parents as, at best, an adversary and at worst an outright enemy.

It seems unlikely to me that a parent would be privy to the superintendent's thinking. It also seems possible that the display of confidence the superintendent made in Scott Fried during the last board meeting could have been a face-saving gesture.

When I drove Christopher to the school dance on Friday, Scott was standing outside, and I felt bad seeing him. He's so young, and he looked so vulnerable. He didn't look happy; at least, it didn't seem so.

When Ed went to pick Christopher up Scott barely spoke to him, while Raina greeted him with her customary warmth.

None of that adds up. When you're an administrator you deal with ticked-off parents; it goes with the territory. And if you've got a new job lined up, and you've decided to take it, what do you care about some crazed parent? Don't burn your bridges and all that.

Anyway, the story I'm getting is that the superintendent loved him, he was on track to get tenure, and we've been saved by a deus ex machina

could be true

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 May 2006

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btw, the two different parents I heard from were people I hadn't even met until very recently (one of them is completely anonymous)

You can see how the administration's ability to operate has been predicated on parents having no idea what other parents are doing and thinking

The listserv will be interesting

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 May 2006

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I've been told, by a source I do think would know, that the administration 'hates' the parents.

This isn't a secret, really; the Times story pretty much says it:

The job is hard, especially in the small districts where residents expect a lot and costs are soaring.

"The environment is more hostile," he said. "The tension has never been greater because the demand has never been greater and the costs have never been greater."

The irony, of course, is that while we hear stories about hellacious parents here in Irvington, all the parents I know are afraid to say anything. They're worried teachers & administrators will take things out on their kids, and/or they don't want to be made to look like fools in public settings (been there, done that), and/or they don't want to be exposed and cut out from the herd as the 'only parent who's complaining,' etc.

The only hellacious parents I know are Ed and me.

We're pretty hellacious for a school district, I guess, but if we're the worst thing anyone's looking at, life is good.

So.....as usual I don't really know how the whole system works.

The next area I have to dive into head first is sociology & public policy.

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 May 2006

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Enjoy! And I hope the next one is better. Any idea who you'll be getting?

-- CarolynJohnston - 02 May 2006

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oh boy, Ed & Christopher think alike

The first thing Ed said, after WOO HOO, was, "It's too late to hire someone new, they'll have to get an interim. He won't have any power."

This morning Christopher asked who his new principal was going to be and I said, "Probably an interim."

Christopher said, "He won't have any power."

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 May 2006

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This kind of thing may have something to do with the administration not being fond of parents, you think?

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 May 2006

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Kidding aside, we have LOVED the district's interim hires. Don Kuhn, who is leaving, was Interim Principal at the Main Street School while we were there. He set such a warm, welcoming tone (excluding the administrative assistants who patted everyone down at the front doors before they could enter, that is).

We never tangled with Don; we never wanted to tangle with Don - and not because we ran all over him, either. We didn't.

We also think the world of the Interim Pupil Personnel Director, who runs special ed. He's had years of experience, and he managed to turn around a VERY bad special ed situation (everyone had hired attornies) in a few months. Incredible guy.

We don't tangle him, and we don't 'trample' him.

It's basic good managment to treat people with respect.

That said, an Interim Principal who doesn't wield the kind of power Fried did & does, and who doesn't have anything at stake, is almost certainly going to be a lot less interested in tangling with parents, or in "being very protective of my teachers."

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 May 2006

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btw, I didn't tell Christopher about this, and didn't plan to.

One of his friends told him.

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 May 2006