Friday, July 9, 2010

MDUSD New Principals to be named and answers to the administrative shake up

I'm sure you've all heard the message by now that first round panel interviews were conducted this week for Principals at Silverwood, Monte Gardens and Mt. Diablo Elementary Schools.

Superintendent Steven Lawrence sent out a phone message to give an update and let the school communities know that several candidates have been identified for second round interviews.

He anticipates a special board meeting during the week of July 19th to announce and appoint new Principals for these schools and then will set up meetings between the new Principals and their new school communities soon thereafter.

So far so good. If they'd had more transparency and community involvement from the start, much of the last week could've been avoided all together. Let's say it seems they've learned a hard lesson. Let's hope this is the start of something good from here on out.

In addition, Theresa Harrington of the Times has a write up about the principal moves and has kindly gathered input from various district personnel about the latest Administrator moves. Check it out here: MDUSD administrator responds to questions about principal moves

Many have asked about the previous Mt. Diablo Elementary Principal and according to Rose Lock, he has not yet been placed within the district.

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8 comments:

  1. After reading Harrington's post, I can only conclude that Lawrence needs to go. The explanation for the principal musical chairs game is completely inadequate and even worse is the explanation for why he doesn't interact with parents.

    Board I demand you fire this joker.

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  2. Anon 7:20 Here is what Dr. Lawrence said in the article:

    "A parent at the Bancroft meeting told Lawrence that book also recommends involving the people who are being affected in the decisions. Lawrence acknowledged that he could do a better job of that".

    What is worse about this? He admitted he needs to improve, that is what we want to hear.

    As for his explanation, there have been many Principal retirements and some have left our district. In the years with Mr. McHenry people cried they wanted change, well they got it and now they are crying about the change.

    I am willing to wait and see how all this works out and YES, the school my child attends is getting a new Principal.

    I would like to see our district make big changes. There is a district in San Jose (Almadden Valley) that is similar to ours in its diversity and their middle and high schools are based on academies like e higher academics, the arts (middle and high). The students and their parents choose which one they want to attend and then, gasp, their parents are responsible to transport them!

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  3. Years ago, the Superintendent's office would set up panels to interview possible hires. These panels consisted of the parents, teachers, and staff of affected schools, and administration. Those proved helpful and valuable. What happened to them? THAT'S the only way to get imput.

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  4. That is what they are doing now.

    Last week, they had some panel interviews for 3 elementary's needing principals with parent and teacher representation.

    Granted, this seemed to have only started after the Nugent incident at MDE, but I believe those who attended felt involved in the process and much better about the possible selections.

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  5. Are these current panel interviews only gathering/disseminating information regarding possibilities and getting parent/teacher feedback? Or, are these panels actually interviewing candidates, and having a vote in the process? That's the "old" process to which I believe Anonymous #3 is referring.

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  6. I believe they are actually interviewing real candidates. Then schools are providing feedback and input, and rankings. It "sounds" like the district is taking it all into account.

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  7. The panels are the same as they've been for years. The panel puts forward the individuals they feel are a good fit for the school. If they don't like anybody, they don't recommend anyone. I've done these for many years in the district, including recently for a principal.

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  8. The real question is what is the Board policy on DUI’s — both pre-hire and post hire ? What if a current administrator or teacher gets a DUI ? Other than an automatic notice to the state department of education, would MDUSD take any action ?

    Nugent’s DUI only came to light to the public because of Google and the fact that there had been a story associated with his posting of student SSN’s on the internet, which referenced his arrest for DUI and resisting arrest. If there had not been the tv story, it may have never been known to the public.
    My sources tell me it was known to he MDUSD administrators, including Lawrence, because Nugent disclosed it on his application, and probably discussed in his interviews. Lawrence may have told one or two board members but not all. That is why they are all hunkered down with carefully crafted statements only coming from Lawrence. So if Nugent told the truth, how did the attorney and Board convince Nugent to withdraw his application, unless he was paid money for a waiver of claims ?
    The Board members don’t want to tell the truth about what they knew and when they knew it. The Board continues to breathe life into Nugentgate because they won’t tell the truth to the public.
    Doctor J

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