Students, parents and teachers will see new faces in the principal's office at many Champaign schools when classes begin this week. Four of the district's 11 elementary schools have new principals, as does one of its three middle schools and both its high schools. The district's new academic alternative program has a new leader as well. The News-Gazette's Jodi Heckel takes a closer look at each of the new leaders.
My favorite response, from Joe Williams at Central:
What is your No. 1 goal for this position? Without a doubt, the No. 1 goal is to develop a strong collaborative culture focused on student learning, using best practice research within the context of our current reality. This is a dynamic process that, if implemented authentically, will improve the level of student learning for all students.
That's a lot of buzzwords.
Translation:
What's best practice research? Does it mean we checked with others to see what worked for them, or something else?
How many new Principals did Unit 4 have last year? How about two years ago? Yet we are told by the President of the School Board that such dramatic change is standard in education these days, but I sure dont see alot of Principals leaving Urbana or Danville but I sure see a revolving door here in Unit 4.
My guess is that Mr. Williams will be the next Super of Unit 4 when the "Texas Mafia" leaves town after all doesnt the consent decree end this year and Mr. Culvers son is a Senior at Central...... how long will he stay after that happens?
turnover at this level is real indication of poor leadership and ineffective board goverance. the credientials of the new high school principals are appalling. one would expect scores of qualified, experienced people to be competing for jobs given the size of the schools and the relatively stable community. the single-candidacy recruitment efforts are offensive. it might be time to create a new school district and simple discard the old. voters might actually respond to this request.
I don't think I want to give Unit 4 more money this year, even if it comes from sales taxes. I'm sure Mr. Williams is sincere, but who says stuff like "implementing authentically" and "within the context of our current reality"? Is there anyway to implement something other than authentically, and is there any reality other than the current one? My head hurts trying to translate this. Does Unit 4 offer a course on bureacratese?
Anonymous,
I think that much of your frustration should lie with the old board that was voted out of office, more or less, a couple of years ago. The word on the street is that when they extended the Supt's contract on their last meeting before leaving office, they also wrote some relatively iron-clad language making it nearly impossible for the current board to make major personnel changes without paying out big bucks. I would agree that this community should be able to atract top-quality applicants for administrative positions, but it will never happen with the current leadership because Unit 4 is known state-wide as a place to avoid if you can. It is a sad, sad state of affairs.
Must have missed it, But I don't recall saying that dramatic change is standard in education...
I could be wrong about comments I have made though.
Dave Tomlinson, President
Unit 4 Board of Education
Board watcher has it right about Unit 4 having a reputation, of sorts. It is very sad to watch very qualified teachers and administrators take less money and go to other districts because of the poor leadership exhibited by Unit 4. This new crop of principals is underwhelming, to say the least. The pick for Centennial is a disappointment. Centennial families deserved so much better than what they got. The Bottenfield principal is probably the best of the group. Many residents have written letters to the editor expressing frustration over the fact that Unit 4 doesn't seem to be promoting principals from within. Joe Williams is the only principal out of the group that was promoted from within the district. Why is this? Maybe Mr. Tomlinson can answer this question. Unit 4 has the most experienced/degreed staff in the area. I know a number of teachers with type 75 administrative certificates. This current board of ed is certainly better than the last bunch of rubberstampers, but I guess I expected more (oversight and correction).
How many Principals were hired at the begining of the 06-07 school year and how many have we hired this year? What is the longest tenure that any principal has in the district... three years? four years? and we cannot find a single person in Unit 4 to be a principal? We have to hire from Tucson AZ to take the job at Edison?
Ish 1925 seems to imply it was a problem/concern for Unit 4 to have hired someone from Tucson to assume the principalship at Edison. I would think the object for the district would be to get the BEST person for the job, regardless of whether they are local or from Tucson or any other place. I cannot imagine that there is an equally qualified, bilingual, experienced secondary-level administrator with the rich and diverse background she brings sitting around Champaign-Urbana waiting to be tapped for this position. I hope this kind of "welcome" doesn't scare away the people who have chosen to commit themselves to our community's children.
I would think the object for the district would be to get the BEST person for the job, regardless of whether they are local or from Tucson or any other place.
We all want the best person for the job. The troubling issue on not promoting from within is that there seems to be very few in the current system who qualify as "the best." One of the roles of our adminstration should be to train the next generation of "the best". Depth in our leadership shows that current leaders are doing their jobs preparing the next generation of leaders. We don't appear to have much of a bench.
I love Dilbert :-)
We all want the best person for the job. The troubling issue on not promoting from within is that there seems to be very few in the current system who qualify as "the best." One of the roles of our adminstration should be to train the next generation of "the best". Depth in our leadership shows that current leaders are doing their jobs preparing the next generation of leaders. We don't appear to have much of a bench.
I completely agree with this sentiment. Urbana and Danville seem to have no problem finding administrators from within their own districts to promote to leadership roles. Unit 4 has had (and to some degree, I think still has) a deep bench. But the problem is that the talent in Champaign finds employment with other districts because they don't feel they have an opportunity with Unit 4. Unit 4's reputation state-wide has made it so that the district has to look outside the state for administrative talent who is not cognizant of Unit 4's poor leadership and work environment. And those who aren't aware of how Unit 4 conducts its business soon find out and leave, like the previous Centennial high principal who didn't even last a year before he quit or the Columbia alternative principal who just quit under mysterious circumstances. I don't think Unit 4 should get another extra dime in taxpayer funds until they clean house and start to straighten out the mess that has been made of things. I always hear about how things will be better when we are done with the consent decree. Has anyone (the board) considered what will happen if it gets extended?
I agree with Anonymous 9:04 comments about the Unit 4 "bench" for administrators. I think that a large part of the problem is that many Unit 4 employees may want to move into administration, but simply will not do so in Unit 4 with the currrent leadership because they see how chaotic and stressful it is for building administrators. It has little to do with the amount of good people in Unit 4 to move up the ladder. It speaks more to the relatively small amount of good people in Unit 4 who are willing to endure the current leadership. That is a much, much smaller pool of applicants.
The sad reality is that I retired from Unit 4 at the end of May, 2006, there were eighteen principals in Unit Four - of those only four remain in the same position they were in then. Three others are still in the district in administrative jobs other then they had then but that is a 75% turnover on a three year period. That is not acceptiblein my mind.
I have spoken out at Board meetings on this issue and have voted against several hires in the last year. The constant staff turnover is an issue with me - however the current system is designed to give the Board a yes/no option on administrative hires.
We need to encourage the best candiates to want to work in Unit Four - and to seek out candidates that have the experience that we need. We hired several good candidates this year - yet they are going to have to learn their jobs while doing them - which perhaps is not the best way.
My .02
Greg Novak
To Greg Novak and other Unit 4 Board members who read Illinipundit--how many shoes need to drop before the board will consider it economically efficient to begin a change of the top level administration within Unit 4. I understand that the previous board tied the present board's hands, metaphorically, by extending a contract, which was such an inconsiderate action toward a newly elected board. Nevertheless, it is time for ACTION on so many levels by the board and I, as a member of the general public and tax payer, do not see this occurring. Previous posters have made very concrete suggestions--complete transparency, such a all financial actions in a configuration that the general public can readily access and understand (what is presently on the web site is camouflage); better response to issues brought forth by the general public; speak in a non educatese language; and send Unit 4 administrators to training on how to administrate.
Pattsi Petrie