90s40 Challenges

We had a district strategic plan in the 90s and it included a strategy to deal with budget shortages that we were facing at the time. It was referred to as “Strategy 2” and was the justification for cuts in several areas. It affected building staffing and budgets and created a lot of anxiety across the district. This journal entry reflects that as well as some other changes. The interesting thing is that the district is facing these same challenges today. We have been in the budget cutting mode the last two years and it looks like it will continue for a while.

Friday, March 26, 1999 – We are working on our staffing plan now. It looks like we will have two k, three 1/2, four 3/4, and three 5/6. Our projected enrollment is 258. I think it will be closer to 270, but we will just have to wait and see. We are also working on the building budget for next year. It will be about $4000. less than this year so we will have to use our carryover to make up the difference.

Administrators in Iowa City undergo a comprehensive evaluation. I was evaluated during the 1998-1999 school year. The process included parent, staff and student surveys. At the same time I was being evaluated I was evaluating teachers. It was all very time consuming and I was doing that on top of all of my other duties as a principal.

I am struggling to get my portfolio in some kind of acceptable format and just can’t seem to find time to work on it. I have received the external survey information from the staff and am waiting on it from the parents. The staff input is very positive. I expect some negative stuff from the parents. With all the external stuff in I can work on my self-evaluation. Hopefully, I can get this all done soon. I am also trying to finish up teacher evaluation for the year.

Being a superintendent has never been a job I was interested in. I was offered the position at Mediapolis the year I left but I never really considered it. It is a tough job and is too far removed from the kids for me. Superintendents have to make hard decisions and they eventually alienate a lot of people. It is just the nature of the job. This year we lost both the superintendent and the assistant superintendent the same year. I wasn’t surprised to see them leave and was curious about who we would find to take their place.

For our school improvement plan I will be asking each unit to come up with an objective that relates to our achievement goal and uses the data from our assessments as documentation towards the goal.
We will be replacing both Tim Grieves and Barb Grohe this year. That will be tough and there could be a lot of uncertainty for a while. Hopefully, we’ll get through it without too much trouble. Their support and expertise will be missed.

90s29 Formal Dinner

Tuesday, February 16, 1999 – Last Thursday we had a very successful formal lunch for the students at Longfellow. We got a lot of favorable press for the school and the district and we can all use that right now…

We started several traditions when I was at Longfellow. Several continue but I am not sure about this one. Every year around Valentines Day we had a formal lunch for all of the students. Everyone was expected to come in his or her Sunday best. Even the staff dressed for the event. Our intent in doing it was to reward the kids and give them some instruction in appropriate behavior in a more formal setting. I always wore a tuxedo that day.

We decorated the lunchroom and used table clothes. We also put flowers on the tables and unlit candles. Soft music played in the background. As the students ate I passed out chocolate kisses to each one.

This became a very popular event with the students and families. Many parents came and took pictures of their children. Over time, more and more parents came and it begin to be congested. Eventually, we had to ask parents not to attend.

The newspaper covered the event several times and Channel 2 did a segment on it once. The latter was interesting because the reporter was a jerk and expected a free lunch out of it. The story turned out pretty well but the reporter thought he was pretty special. Seems to be a common thing with Iowa TV station personalities.

I am not thrilled that schools have been forced to take on many parenting duties but I always liked this event because we all could see the kids in a different light. I was amazed at how much quieter they were during lunch. I think it impacted their behavior all day long. There were very few behavior incidents on those days.

Friday, February 19, 1999 – There was a bomb threat for all Johnson County schools this morning. It was called in to the police department. Mr. Murray and I searched Longfellow while school was in session and found nothing unusual. It took us about an hour and a half to do the search. We also searched the outside around the building and the trash containers. Every building in Iowa City handled it this way. About a week ago there was a similar threat in another county and they missed a least a day of school. Even though I knew it was very unlikely that there was a bomb in any school and even more unlikely that there was one at Longfellow it was still nerve-racking searching and thinking about it. We had about a dozen parents take their kids out of school when they heard about it on the news and we have had dozens of calls about it. All in all a wild day!

We are still working with a parent regarding the interpreter for a child. Yesterday the parent was very angry with me but had calmed down a great deal today when I talked to her. We are meeting with the parent again next Wednesday. It is likely that this will go to mediation or we will have a hearing.

90s38 Character

My journal is full of incidents like the one described below. I was always amazed and surprised by the things that were happening and the response of those involved. I never really knew for sure what to expect. I grew up in a period where parents were more likely to support the school on an issue than their own child. That is definitely not the case now. In fact, the opposite seems to be true.

November 13, 1998 - I had parents in yesterday morning concerned that I had told their kids that if they tried to beat someone up after school I would call the police and if they engaged in that kind of behavior we didn't want them at Longfellow. I told the parents that I had said that because it is true. I don't know what they were expecting? I said that we just couldn't tolerate that kind of thing. Their children are very good at diverting the attention from the real issue and the parents were doing the same thing. I told them that and they didn't like it much. The truth is the boys were overheard, by an adult, saying that they were going to get another student after school. They admitted to it but still tried to blame the other student. It's disturbing that very few will take responsibility for their actions. It's a real problem in school and the world in general.

This has been a disturbing trend for a long time now. People refuse to take responsibility for their own behavior. They always want to blame others or circumstance. It appears that if they can blame someone or something else they don’t have to do anything about it themselves.

In education we have seen it in kids and their parents. It is always someone else’s fault. I am not sure what the parents in the incident above expected me to do but I have always insisted that school is a safe environment for all and I would take whatever steps necessary to make sure that it was.

Teaching responsibility used to be the parent’s job but so many of them are not responsible themselves that it isn’t getting done. Race, ethnicity or social economic status doesn’t have anything to do with it. It seems to know no boundaries. Kids from some of the best families are the worst.

I really don’t think the school should have to teach everything to a child but that is the prevailing thought. Whether it’s character or values, respect for others, responsibility and so on, the general expectation is that if the kids don’t have it the schools must not be doing their job. On top of teaching all the subject areas we took on these additional responsibilities.

We started a program called Success4 in our building in 1998. It was part of a larger program called the Iowa Behavior Initiative (IBI). The focus was on teaching responsibility and expected behavior in different places at school including the playground. In my November 9th journal entry I wrote: At this point last year we had 140 office time outs. We have had 24 so far this year. At this point last year we had 24 bus reports. We have had 8 so far this year. Our IBI work and our school improvement goal seem to be working.

90s37 Responsibility

I have heard critics says things like all elementary principals have to do is stand in the hall and pat children on the head as they pass by. Some have the notion that we have nothing to do or if we do its not important.

The truth is elementary principals are overwhelmed with things to do and when they think they may have a chance to catch up ten new things pop up. Responsibilities include the entire grounds and the structure. I usually walked the building inside and out daily looking for anything that might be a problem. I walked the parameter of the grounds weekly.

Teacher observations, student behavior, parent issues, personnel issues and paperwork fill up the rest of the day.

October 9, 1998 - I have started my observations of teachers. I am observing them as they administer the Checkpoint Assessment and the DRA with hopes that I will better understand them and even do some of them myself. I am also working on my goal of helping all of us better understand the relationship between the strategies, skills, lesson objectives and benchmarks and how it all fits together. I have met with two of the teams and will meet with the other soon. I am also reinforcing this by having the teacher make the connection as part of the evaluation process.

Things continue to go well at Longfellow. We have lost another student and will pick up two on Monday so maybe the trend will change now. I hope so! I still have parent concerns about class size and did get some ratio to hire two hours more of associate time.

The Strategy 2 committee has made some tentative recommendations that include considering having some elementary administrators serve more than one building and cutting back on the days administrators work. Neither sounds good to me but I doubt if they are interested in my opinion.

October 19, 1998 - Tomorrow is a parent/teacher conference day. All continues to go well at Longfellow this year. We really deserved a good year after last year and I am very grateful that we are having one. I had two students last week that stabbed each other with pencils after what started as a friendly sword fight? I suspended both of them for the rest of the day and then gave each a day of in-school suspension. We have a strict no tolerance policy about that sort of thing and sometimes it seems a little harsh to some. We had ITBS last week and have make-ups this week.

October 20, 1998 - Today is a parent/teacher conference day. It has been quiet so far. The PTA had a potato/chili supper last night and a book fair today. There were about 150 people there last night and it was a successful event. I am up for evaluation this year and so this journal will be part of it. We have to do a self-evaluation, seek input from the school community and also do a portfolio. I can see that it will be very time consuming. I hope it yields valuable information.

90s36 More Problems

I have always thought that the general public would be surprised and alarmed about all of the problems we face daily in our elementary schools. Occasionally, they do get a brief glimpse. Some seek to get away from it while others just choose to ignore it. Times when people need to pitch in and be part of the solution are often times when they leave or just criticize.

September 28, 1998 - We had the first session of our Seminar in School Leadership this morning. About fifteen people showed up and I got two messages from people who forgot it but will come next time. We are meeting at the Holiday Inn for breakfast 15 times and talking about Autry's book Love and Profit and other sources that might be of interest to the group. It should be fun!

Last week I got a report that a female 3rd grader was behaving inappropriately on the playground. She has been threatening others and exposing herself. This happened sometime last year and earlier this year and I thought we had it taken care of. One parent was so upset that she took her child out of Longfellow and is sending her to Regina. I am very sorry to see them go but I know this parent has been on the verge of this for sometime and this incident was the straw that broke the camel's back. Now I hear from someone at the central office that the parent doesn't feel I did all I could. I did interview everyone last week in Julie or Donna's presence. I am trying to reach another parent who is concerned but haven't yet made the connection. In addition, another parent told us today she wanted to take her kids out of Longfellow because one of them is being picked on. She has three kids here. Two of them are in SCI. Their home school is Wood. I hope to meet with this parent and the teachers after school and relieve some of her concerns. We had a special education student who had a small pocketknife on the bus this morning. He showed it to the driver and did not use it in a threatening way. I am going to give him in-school suspension for a day, but am having trouble getting hold of the parents.

* * *

Wow! When it rains it pours!!! I knew things were going too well.
I ended up suspending the boy who brought the knife to school to one day of in school suspension. The mother of the three children who was thinking of sending them to Wood decided to only send the regular ed. one there so we will be keeping the two that are in SCI.

The sudden drop in student numbers has me again concerned. Some of them are attributed to class size and some to families moving. We lost three on Friday. Two of those moved and one is going to Regina. We are losing another one who is going to Puerto Rico. Two are going to another school because of class size. One boy went to Wood because that is his home school and he thinks he has more friends there. We have three more that say they are moving and tomorrow is their last day. Whew!

90s35 Picnics and Problems

The first entry below contains my first thoughts on adding a half-time teacher at the 3/4th grade level. We didn’t have the staffing ratio to have a full time person and this seemed to be the best option. It was well received at first but eventually became known to the school board as the “Longfellow problem.” More on that another time.

September 8, 1998 - Things are really going well so far here at Longfellow. We do have some large class sizes at 3/4th. We have 3.5 teachers there and would like it to be four but it is not likely. Our ESL numbers are up to 22 so we may be making some changes there.

We are all in shock because of something that happened at another school in the district. Apparently a volunteer in the building was taking inappropriate photographs of students...It is a very scary thing for anyone who works with children.

I started the Longfellow picnic as a way of celebrating and bringing the neigborhood and the school together. It is an annual event that continues and I am proud to have been part of it.

September 14, 1998 - Things are still going quite well at Longfellow. Last Wednesday, September 9, we celebrated our 80th year to the day. We had a picnic outside with music from the Drollingers and a stilt walker. We had activities for the kids and it was a great time. A lot of parents came and enjoyed the day, too. Longfellow Site Council met for our first meeting of the year today. It was a very productive session with everyone taking some responsibility for the school improvement plan goals…

September 21, 1998 - Things are still going well at Longfellow! We had a nice staff lunch last Thursday and I hired a local banjo player to play for it. I think the staff enjoyed it.

We had a child bitten by a puppy last week. The owner of the puppy refused to take any responsibility for it and bullied the boy and his father into saying that it happened with their own dog two weeks earlier. It was clear to us and the school nurse that it was a fresh wound. It bled profusely. There were also several witnesses who saw the dog bite him. The animal control people just didn't want to follow through on this one. Too bad that you can bend the rules if you are a big enough bully!

We were able to hire our .5 3/4th grade teacher as half ESL teacher here. That is great! We also picked up a .25 from another ESL teacher who has been in another building. He is furious about being here and has been very rude and uncooperative. It has been down right ugly! It will probably get worse before it gets better. I hear that he is a good teacher. We'll have to wait and see.

I have been working on my goals for the year and hope to have them done soon. The superintendent wants them by the end of the month. I also have to start revising my portfolio. I taught 6th grade last week while the 5th graders were at McBride. I did 3 sessions over that many days. There were 42 kids in the group so it was a big class! It was fun and it went well. We worked on point of view and visual literacy.

90s34 A New Year

You never know for sure what a new school year will bring. The 1997-98 school year had been one crisis after another. Beginning this school year I was hoping for a calmer time.

August 10, 1998 - I have been back for a while. Julie, my secretary, started back today. Things are really picking up. Several staff members have been in and we are all getting excited about the school year. Tomorrow is new student enrollment day. We are hopeful that we will get a number of new students because we are down about 40 from last spring. We have a staffing meeting Wednesday and the CAO and Administrative Council on Thursday morning. We have a staff retreat on Monday and everybody comes back to start the year on Wednesday of next week. We are starting off the year with IBI and had posters printed for the school. I’m anxious to see how that all works out. This is going to be the best year ever!!!

The IBI mentioned in the above entry is the Iowa Behavior Initiative. It really made a big positive difference in student behavior in our building that year. It is all about teaching expected behavior over and over whenever the opportunity arises. In many places it is now called PBS (Positive Behavior Supports).

August 18, 1998 - School starts on Monday and the pace has really picked up. We are getting a few new students but still nothing close to what we lost. Had a staff retreat yesterday that went very well. We worked on our school improvement plan and the student behavior expectations for the coming year. It was a very positive start for us. Everyone seems to be excited about the year. Tomorrow is the official first day for teachers. We start with breakfast on the West High lawn.

August 24, 1998 - Wow! What a day! School is underway! It was very busy around here today but all in all the day went well. We are still short an associate and a half but hope to find someone for those positions soon. A guidance counselor in the district who was a close friend of some of our teachers died today. It was very sad. I sent a teacher home as soon as the kids were gone. She was a close friend of the counselor. We seem to have some very good kids this year. We have about 20 in ESL. Lunchroom and noon recess went Ok.

August 26, 1998 - Some issues are heating up! Class size in the p.m. at 3/4 is a concern. In the morning they are in four sections so class size is about 20. In the afternoon they are in 3 sections and class size is about 28 plus the SCI kids that are included part of the time. The parents have a petition and some are calling me. One has even requested that their child be moved to another section. The 5/6 teachers are at odds with me over another issue. Over the summer we agreed to send the 5th graders to McBride Camp for a week. Now the teachers want to have a lottery and let 6th graders fill the empty slots. They can take 60 and we only have 43 fifth graders. I have said we are only sending the fifth graders and that has them upset. Met with Jerry and Brad about some misunderstandings between the Physical Plant and us. I think we got it worked out and things should improve.

The class size issues mentioned above became a nightmare! I’ll tell more about that later. I stuck to my guns with the 5th grade McBride issues and it worked out fine.

90s33 End of the School Year

The last few journal entries describe some on-going problems that we had that year. In the March 5th entry I refer to some bullying behavior that was going on among some of the 6th grade girls. I had dealt with the girls almost all year long and it seemed that no matter how much I chastised them the bullying continued. It was very frustrating. Girls can sometimes be more difficult to handle than boys in many ways.

The other child referred to was very troubled and I often wonder what has happened to the child since then. They moved out of the district that summer. The child would be about 16 years old now.

The rest of the entries describe a few of the more frustrating things that happened that year. As with all of my published entries, I have modified enough to make it impossible to identify the people involved and yet still illustrate the types of things that occurred.

March 5, 1998
Today is a parent/teacher conference day. All have gone pretty well. We met with a parent whose daughter is being bothered by some other 6th graders. Hopefully we are making progress in getting this kind of thing stopped. It is very frustrating. We had a kindergartner kick, bite, hit, and spit on adult staff yesterday while I was out of the building. She has done this before, but not for a while. We are going to have to meet and make sure that the mother is taking some steps to stop this behavior.

April 1, 1998
True to form the year continues to be full of struggles and surprises. A student went bonkers yesterday. I had to carry him to the office. He threatened to get his neighbors shotgun and shoot me in the head. Teacher salary negotiations are stalled and the Strategy 2 stuff is still a hot issue. We are already planning for another round of cuts for next year. It won't get any better until the legislature changes some things. I am not optimistic that will happen soon.

April 14, 1998
A parent has pulled his child out of Longfellow and placed the child in the BD classroom at Lemme. It is a relief not to have to deal with them and this is probably the best for the kid. It is a troubled family! I also suspended the child for two school days because of the incident mentioned in the April 1 notes. Now that that is taken care of another parent has flared up and wants to control who their child associates with. We are meeting with her on Thursday.

June 6, 1998
Whew! That school year is over! I hope I never have one like it again! This spring has been hectic--actually the whole year was hectic--and I haven't had much time to journal about it. I am looking forward to a nice break from the stress this summer. Near the end of the year we had another stabbing incident. A student used a pencil. I suspended her and her father is quite upset that this will be on her permanent record. He filed a grievance against me but I held my ground and the issue went to the superintendent. As far as I know she upheld my position.

90s32 Always Something!

February 17, 1998 - We had yet another controversy recently. The 5/6 social studies teacher was using a simulation about the colonization of America. In one part of it the students journal about their reaction to being attacked by Indians. A local Native American found out about it and was enraged about the material. She called me and complained and now has filed a formal complaint with the district. I immediately stopped the teacher from continuing with it because they were very near the end of the simulation anyway. We could have finished it up but I thought this was the prudent thing to do. Fortunately, the material is on the district list of approved materials so the district has to defend it, not us. Several families, including some with Native American ancestry have let me know that they felt I should have let the kids finish the simulation. The person who complained doesn't have children at Longfellow. I think the issue was just too volatile for us to continue with it. The parent who gave the material to the outside person now regrets having done that and has been very apologetic about it.

In retrospect I probably shouldn’t have gave in so easy but I was weary of controversy and wanted to get on to more important issues. There is a process in the district to reconsider material and books being used but I felt this was such a volatile situation that it would be easier for everyone if we avoided it all together. Some people are just looking for an issue they can blow way out of proportion.

February 24, 1998- Wow! It continues! I had a student last week that stabbed another one with a pencil. It wasn't a serious wound but I had to suspend the student for two days of out and one day of in school suspension. Today, in the neighborhood, the house of one of our families had a minor fire. It was upsetting to one of the children because the fire trucks came and she was worried about her family.

March 2, 1998 - We all survived a great week of celebration for Longfellow's 80th birthday. It was a fun event for the school and the neighborhood. We are having some trouble with he 5/6 graders doing mean things to each other. I talked with one class about harassment. I don't think it sunk in so I may have to take additional steps. Barb Grohe was named National Superintendent of the Year last Friday. She is very deserving and I'm thrilled that she got it.

I came up with the idea of the 80th birthday celebration! It was a fun event and we had a lot of people visit. Many were former students and their family members. In the fall of that year we started the Longfellow picnic as a school and neighborhood event. It was a great success and still happens every September. Over the years their have been some prominent guests including Christie Vilsack, Herky, and many local athletes. It usually includes some local music.

90s31 Principal’s Journal

I don’t think the general public has any idea of the challenges educators face routinely. In my tenure at Longfellow we dealt with almost every conceivable problem you can imagine.

Wednesday, October 15, 1997
It continues to be a wild year! We have now discovered that one of our ESL families doesn't have the right visa to attend school in the U. S. I had to meet with them and tell them that Friday would be their last day. That wasn't fun! The younger child has been quite a challenge so there is some relief that we won't have to deal with him although we really feel that he needs to be here in school. I checked the sex abuse registry on a parent and found that he was on it and is now living in the home after returning from prison. That is very frightening! Hopefully nothing will happen. Still searching for an SCI teacher we advertised again and I'm going to go over and look to see if there are any applications this afternoon. The district's Strategy 2 committee has come up with some options that the board can consider when trying to find ways to cut 1 million from the budget. It could become very heated and is headed that way already. Had the flu or something the last couple of days but am feeling better now. I hate being sick!

Having good staff is critical to the success of any school. I was blessed with good teachers and a strong support team while I was there.

Friday, November 14, 1997
Things have improved dramatically. We hired an SCI teacher who will start in December. Yeah!!!

Monday, November 17, 1997
Julie is doing a great job as secretary and is bringing more stability to the building with each new day. It is amazing the difference that she makes. We still have some troublesome students, but are making progress on those problems.

Monday, November 24, 1997
We have a short week this week because of Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to the break and the turkey. Things here seem to be getting better and better! I am really encouraged and relieved.

Monday, January 5, 1998
Back at it after winter break. Everything has been pretty quiet today. Hopefully 1998 will be quieter and calmer than the last part of 1997 was. We are going to be hiring another associate to work in the resource room . That will help out with the load there and give me another person for supervision during recess times.

It seems that every few years we have to tighten our belt in education. That is never a bad idea but when you are already a bare bones operation it’s hard to cut without getting some meat. I truly believe that if we could ever adequately fund education we would solve a host of problems!

Friday, January 30, 1998
There is still a great deal of turmoil in the district regarding budget cuts. The board will have to make some difficult decisions soon. I am hopeful that the state legislature will improve education funding which will in turn help us out. You can never count on that to happen, however. Things are going pretty well here at Longfellow. We still have some problems with student behavior and lack of parent support. We are working on strategies to better deal with that.

90s30 When it Rains it Pours!

Some years move along very smoothly with few problems or disruptions. Some years don’t go so well and every so often you have a year where there are all kinds of problems. The 1997-98 school year was one of those. It is the kind of year that drives principals out of education. I lost my secretary that year and had to replace my SCI teacher. I was able to get another secretary in September but didn’t get the SCI teacher until December.

The journal entry below describes a few of the problems. There are many more entries like this. I altered this one only enough to hide the identity of the students mentioned.

Thursday, October 2, 1997
… The person I thought I had hired to take our SCI has now decided she doesn't want it. I was shocked when she told me. So now we are looking for someone to fill that position. I am hoping we can find someone soon but it is very difficult this time of the year. This is really tough on the kids... We have some difficult students to deal with. One is a 1st grader from the Africa who only speaks French. She spits, kicks, grabs, hits, licks and does about everything else to adults and students. We are working to find the best placement for her. Two girls who have been at Longfellow before have returned. They have caused a lot of trouble in the past. They often threaten and intimidate others. Hopefully we are not going to have problems with them this time around. Another child who is in 4th grade has had problems all the time she has been in school. Her mother doesn't help. She has been vocal in her dislike for me in the past but seems to be working with us right now. She pulled her older child out of Longfellow and enrolled her in Regina because she was convinced everyone picked on her here. I personally watched her on the playground for two years. I'm convinced that she dished out as much, if not more, than she got. It was very rare that anyone actually bothered her in any way. She rarely complained to me or her teacher about problems. I think what she wanted most was her mother's attention...

We seemed to be encountering more and more troubled children. Many were young and appeared to have serious problems. It was very disconcerting for us. We wondered where these kids came from and why all of a sudden we had so many in the school. It created a chaotic environment. The whole school seemed to be on edge and every time you dealt with one problem, two or three more popped up.

Stress builds up in staff, students and parents. Eventually, tempers flair and there are hard feelings. During those difficult times it is important to stay the course, keep your eye on the prize and know that these difficult times will pass.

90s29 The Heart of the School

I have always said that a school could operate a long time without a principal but hardly a minute without a secretary. Over the years I have been very fortunate to work with some great ones. The ones I worked with as a teacher were always competitent and very helpful. I had two secretaries at Mediapolis and they were terrific!

Secretaries are the first person people meet when they come into the building. They greet students and tend to their health needs and just about everything else. They serve the teachers and are often pulled ten directions at one time. They answer the phone, deal with angry parents in person and on the phone, and assist inept principals. They seem to weather it all with a smile. I have seen them nurture a sick child as if they were their own, handle a difficult parent, hand out medication, and answer the phone without skipping a beat. Their gentleness has brought tears to my eyes more than once.

When I came to Longfellow I had a terrific secretary who assisted in my transition to the district and community in many ways. I couldn’t imagine functioning without her skilled assistance, but the unthinkable happened as this journal entry documents.

Friday, August 29, 1997
… Chris, my secretary, also told me that she would be leaving in two weeks. That was devastating! She has been here since before I came and has been tremendously helpful to me and the students, staff, and families. We will terribly miss her! …

I was devastated when I wrote the above entry! I couldn’t imagine how I could ever find someone as competent as Chris and yet had that special compassion for kids. Besides that I knew I would have to do many of the things the secretary did until we found someone.

Monday, September 15, 1997
Today is our first day without Chris and one of the office associates is gone this morning, too. Everything is going Ok, but I'm sure it will probably not always be that way. I am looking at some more possible candidates for the secretarial position. I hope to interview soon and hire as soon as possible. Just having someone will make me feel a lot better…

My anxiety wasn’t any less when I wrote the above entry. We interviewed six candidates shortly after I wrote this. I had interviewed nine by myself first and then invited six back for staff interviews. We selected Julie Willman and she started on September 22. A day I always remember because I felt I had been rescued from all kinds of agony. I didn’t write about it in my journal until about 10 days later.

Thursday, October 2, 1997
…We have hired a new secretary and she is working out great! … I managed to complete the reports I needed to do in September and now I am turning a lot of that stuff over to Julie, the new secretary…

I learned quickly that Julie had all of the things I was looking for in a great secretary. I couldn’t have been happier!

90s28 Excerpts For My Journal

The 1997-98 school year was a challenging one! I will get to some of those challenges but first will share some journal entries from the beginning of the year.

Principal's Journal 1997-98

Friday, August 8, 1997
Came back to work this week after a very busy summer. Worked in the office all day Monday and on Tuesday morning. Paul Davis and I went to the SAI Conference in Des Moines on Tuesday afternoon and stayed until Thursday noon. The conference was uneventful. Went to an Apple session and a teacher evaluation session. The latter was interesting. We managed to put in 52 miles on our bikes riding to the Salorville Reservoir each day. Concerns right now are about the number of students we will have and how many sections we will have at each grade level. I also have to find and hire an intermediate SCI teacher and maybe a half-time fifth/sixth teacher. We also have to do all the preparation for the school year so things are going to get hectic here very soon.

Monday, August 11, 1997
We worked on the class lists today. Changing from five sections at first/second to four sections. We are planning on interviewing for the Intermediate SCI position tomorrow. One of the persons called this morning and said she wouldn't be coming because she has been offered another position. That leaves only two to interview. We advertised in the Register over the weekend so that might generate a few more. Things seem to be getting more hectic by the minute! This afternoon we are going over to West High for training with the new elementary database. It will be great but I'm not excited about messing with it right now. Chris has been working with it so we already know quite a bit about it. The session on the database went well! It will be very useful! The Press-Citizen has requested information from each school about ITBS. Because of the open records law we are obligated to give it to them. It could be the source of some local controversy. There may be a school-by-school comparison. That is not an appropriate use of the scores but the press doesn't understand that. We will just have to wait and see how it develops.

Tuesday, August 12, 1997
We interviewed two candidates for our intermediate SCI position this morning. Several teachers helped with this. We liked one but she is already under contract with WACO so it may be a problem. She is to call me back this afternoon. I think they will let her go pending finding a suitable replacement. We may have to use a sub for a while until she gets released. I hope we get her! If not I guess it's back to the drawing board because I don't think we want the other candidate. Several teachers have stopped in and started working on their classrooms. We will need to hire a 1-hour noon associate before school starts if possible. The person who did it last year, our Media Secretary doesn't want to do it this year. Hopefully we will be able to get someone who can help us out. The SCI candidate called and said that she needed until tomorrow morning. She needs to talk with her principal. I told her she could do that. It delays us a little more but I guess I have no choice if I want her. We had 10 new students register today. That makes our count look a lot better.

Wednesday, August 13, 1997
Wow! A lot has happened today. Our enrollment continues to grow. We are very busy keeping up with everything. I met with the other elementary principals, Barb, Tim, and Ann to discuss staffing based on the new numbers. It now appears that we will be able to staff Longfellow with five first/second grades and three and a half fifth/sixth grades. That is an increase of 1.5 teachers over what we thought we would have. That is great but we need to move fast in getting those teachers. I'm waiting for the CAO to tell me whether they will be new hires or transfers. Either way we are a lot better off than I expected we would be.

Friday, August 15, 1997
Whoaaaaa! Things are crazy now!!! We had administrator inservice all day yesterday. The session was good but we all wanted to get back to our buildings to work or do some hiring. ITBS scores for each building are going to be published locally and that has everyone concerned because they are misunderstood and misused. Some custodians in the district have been involved in a drug ring and that was made public yesterday, too. This afternoon we are interviewing for our first/second position. We interviewed two and the staff was split on the decision so I made the final decision and will offer the position.

90s27 Notes

From the time I started working as principal at Longfellow Elementary I kept a legal pad on my desk. On it I recorded every encounter with students, parents, teachers and others. I still have all of those notes as well as my journals from those days. Those are the places I go first when writing about that time in my life.

Those notes were a reference point for me when talking to people and referring to previous incidents or discussions. Writing about things not only aids your memory, it facilitates organization and clarifies thinking.

The notepads chronicle our shift away from self-contained special education classes to near full inclusion in regular education classrooms. It includes meetings with staff and parents and notes about incidents with students. I also kept notes on any phone calls I got.

The logs are full of parent requests to have their child advanced in a content area, usually math, or be whole grade advanced. I made notes about the parent request, the meetings I had with teachers about it, and the final meeting I had with the parents.

I think every parent thinks his or her child is special in some way. They are advocates for their child as all good parents should be. They often don’t have many other children to compare to so they make their judgments on the information they do have. Schools have hundreds, if not thousands, of kids to include in the comparison and have an accurate sense of where each child is.

In my career I have seen kids advanced in a content area or full grade. Rarely have I, or any of my colleagues that I am aware of, seen any significant advantage in these advancements. More often than not we have seen a negative impact when kids are moved outside their peers.

Parents don’t seem to care what we think. Many times they are doing it because they have heard of another child that was advanced and want to be able to say their child was advanced in a class or grade. In all of the cases I only had one child who wanted to do it. It was always the parent pushing them to be advanced.

Parents pressured teachers and their own children to be advanced. I heard every possible reason why it was the right thing to do from my child is bored to I know my child is smarter than all of the other kids in class because I have talked to those kids.

I have never figured out what the hurry was. I believe being a well-rounded and successful adult has nothing to do with being in the top math class or being advanced a grade level. I had a friend who was the registrar at the University Iowa. He told me, quite emphatically, to stop sending them kids who were academically ready but not socially and emotionally ready for college life.

Generally, these parents are the same ones who push their kids to be involved in and to be the best at everything they do. Not a bad ambition but totally unreasonable. The kids grow up neurotic and dysfunctional.

90s26 Wildlife Habitat

I have mentioned that hyperbole runs rampant in Iowa City and the Longfellow neighborhood. I got a taste of that right away with a number of small incidents and a few major ones.

Because there was a great deal of mistrust by parents due to things that happened before I got to Longfellow I worked to rebuild that trust with parents individually, with the neighborhood association, and the PTA (Parent Teacher Association). When the opportunity arose I tried to do things that made each group feel like the school was an important part of the community. That included sharing the building and the grounds with all of those who had a need to use them.

My biggest challenge had been with the PTA. They clearly did not like the previous principal and weren’t sure about me. I found them second-guessing my decisions as well of some made by the building staff. I noticed that their preferred mode for doing that was not privately with me, but publicly in meetings or the press. More than once I found myself being talked about as if I wasn’t even in the room. I found that very odd.

I had managed to build some trust with the PTA president and thought I could win over the group in time. She began to share with me some of her reservations about others in the group who had attacked her publicly a few times, too. We commiserated with each other.

One morning she came into my office. She was concerned about the poison ivy in the fencerow around the playground. She was especially concerned about the north end and was sure that was where her daughter and others had gotten bad cases of the itchy rash. She asked if the district could do something about it, as not just students, but joggers and walkers of the neighborhood used the area. I told her I would see what I could do.

The district contracted with a lawn service and I asked them if they could help. The said that they had dealt with that problem before and would come and take care of it. I was pleased that I had been responsive and done something that the PTA President would be pleased with. If I had only known!

Within a couple of days I got a call from a local newspaper reporter. He said a parent had called them and told them I had single handedly destroyed the wildlife habitat of Iowa City. I was incredulous! I explained the whole story to the reporter and he seemed to understand. Nevertheless, the story made the front page of the local paper the next day. There were scathing comments from the parent about what I had done. The reporter much to my chagrin reported that I had indeed admitted my involvement in this terrible destruction of wildlife habitat.

The lawn care company claimed it had only done what the principal had requested. They had simply cleaned out the brush and weeds in the fencerow, so they were no help.

So the responsibility for Silent Spring in Iowa City rested solely on my shoulders. It didn’t help that I told them this was Iowa and everything in the fencerow would grow back in a year or so.

In less than a week the disenchanted parent raised over $8000 to plant trees and shrubs to replace the ones the principal had callously destroyed. The trees and shrubs are still there to this day and so is the poison ivy, worse than ever.

Did the PTA president jump to my defense? Nope! She barely admitted any involvement.

90s25 Difficult Parents

Education is all about people, relationships, and trust. We place our children in the hands of others and trust they will keep them safe and help them grow. For the most part parents trust educators to do the right things with their children. Contrary to what some parents may think, educators do have the best interests of kids in mind as they make decisions.

I have met some suspicious and assertive parents during my career but nothing, nothing like I encountered at Longfellow. Overall, I would say that most of the parents I worked with were just fine but I was surprised at how many others thought we had some sort of evil agenda and I was taken aback by the boldness of many of them. In Iowa City everyone has an opinion and they don’t mind sharing it with you. Hyperbole and histrionics are prevalent.

Second-guessing is a local pastime and, often, people would criticize without all of the information. That was a characteristic of liberal, so called open minded, people that I did not expect. Some parents like to tell about things schools or teachers do wrong. Schools could write books about things parents do wrong. Fortunately, or unfortunately, we are too nice to do that.

During my time as an administrator, parents threatened my life twice and to do harm to me personally or professionally too many times to count. I had parents call me names and make all sorts of accusations, write letters to the school board and the superintendent and try to undermine my effectiveness anyway they could.

I also had parents who came to school intoxicated often. Drug use among some parents was a common occurrence. I sent police to homes for a welfare check several times and it often resulted in drug charges of some kind or another.

We reported several cases of child abuse or neglect. There were others we were sure of but lacked the evidence to proceed with it. There were cases of spousal abuse but no avenue to really help them.

There were cases where parents refused help for their children because fear of the stigma was greater than their desire to see their child be successful in school. Sometimes I was amazed at the choices parents would make. At some point in the future I will write more about all of these things. When I do I will have to alter them enough to make it impossible to identify anyone. The challenge will be actually describing the events yet keep the characters anonymous.

One of the most annoying and damaging behaviors comes when a parent has a beef with the school and is not able to move on. I have seen a parent put a whole school on edge and effectively damage the reputation of the school and the effectiveness of the staff. That, in my mind, is inexcusable. Sometimes other parents rise up against these bullies but often are afraid to step forward. There must surely be a special place in hell for those who make the lives of others miserable and interfere with the learning of children.

90s24 Success!

What do stories do when
They are not being told?
Magic folds to magic
And they never grow old.

I struggled to adjust to the rigors of being a principal in Iowa City. Expectations were high, it’s a complicated community, a strong teachers association, involved parents and difficult decisions made the going a minefield of problems and potential problems. As I get closer to writing about the present it becomes more difficult because so many of the stories are so recent and many of the people are still around so being honest might be a little risky.

I have already avoided some stories that should be told but have been afraid of possible negative feedback if the wrong people read them. The truth is that it’s unlikely to happen because my audience is so small. Still, I will postpone writing about more sensitive things until more time has passed. That will give me plenty to write about in retirement.

In 1969 Longfellow Elementary was named an Apple Distinguished School. It was one of two in Iowa and a hundred in the country. It was a significant accomplishment for any school and we were very proud. We received it because we had a comprehensive plan for the utilization of technology and teacher mentors to help their colleagues learn to use it. It didn’t hurt that the district had purchased a large number of computers from Apple that year.

The national recognition was good for the staff and the school. It meant we got some additional equipment and software. We got a big discount on a small computer called an eMate. We purchased about 35 of them. It was technology way ahead of its time. Small computers like this are very popular right now. The eMates life was much greater than anything else on the market and many of the machines were still running and being used 10 years later.

Two teachers and our librarian traveled with Becky and I to Orlando near the end of February of 1997 to accept the award. It was presented to us at a dinner at the Florida Technology Conference. We had our pictures taken with company officials including one of the founders of Apple, Steve Wozniak. We had a great time and enjoyed the recognition.

When we returned to Longfellow we had a reception at the school for staff in recognition of the accomplishment. The local press, legislators, school, central office staff, U of I representatives and people from the AEA attended the reception. It was an exciting event for the school and the district.

Ultimately, and rightly so, the students of Longfellow were the beneficiaries of the recognition and technology. They were given opportunities many kids didn’t get.

We set up a rotation for the computers and all students got to try them out. It was interesting that the assertive parents of the school were adamant that all of the kids in the building got to use the eMates. We weren’t opposed to the idea but as usual the parents didn’t trust us and needed assurance that it would happen. That was an example of the

90s23 Nuggets and News

During the 1990s I continued to teach in the Iowa Writing Project institutes in the summer and the Level III institutes during the year. I was also teaching the storytelling, poetry and reading aloud classes every summer. Needless to say, this along with my full time job kept me very busy. I was frequently doing storytelling sessions locally and in eastern Iowa. My journal is full of stories about all of these activities as well as what was going on in school.

In July of 1995, I wrote, “Most of you know I’m a storyteller. I’m convinced we are all storytellers. The stories we tell shape who we are. I worked with a teacher for a time that was very negative. She shaped the tone of the building. Everyone avoided this person because she was so depressing. If we tell predominantly positive stories about our students we will facilitate that positive environment we all want. Positive stories are contagious.”

Later in July I wrote, “ It is far more likely that a teacher could be fired for using less than the best practices in the classroom than from using the best practices. As far as I know there is no record of anyone ever being fired for using the best practices, but many cases for not. We are ethically and professionally obligated to employ the best practices in our classrooms. If we don’t we shouldn’t be there.”

Early in August Becky, Jazmin, and I drove over to the small community of Carlyle, Iowa. It is near Des Moines. There we picked up our new puppy. Her mother was half Golden Retriever and half Brittany. The father was full-blooded Golden Retriever. She was a great dog and I was very excited to have her join our family. We named her Abidale (Abby) after a mispronunciation Jazmin made of a cartoon character in a popular children’s movie. I wrote that I thought she was a very bright puppy and thought it would be fun to work with her.

Tragedy struck our family that October. Becky’s father, Russell, was killed in a farming accident. It was a very hard time for us all. I think it was the first real tragedy that had stricken our family in my memory. We struggled with it for a long time. I think anytime someone passes suddenly it is hard to understand. He was full of energy and life and a big piece of our lives was gone. It made us cherish each other even more.

* * *

Stories 1/29/96

Stories, stories
I can write
Quietly,
Listen,
Just sit tight.

Stories, stories
I can tell
Danger,
Excitement,
Listen well.

Stories, stories
In my head
Spinning,
Churning,
Waiting to be said.

90s22 Buying a House

Housing prices in Iowa City have always been high. We wondered if it would ever even be a possibility for us. The president of a local bank had told us repeatedly that when we were ready we should come and see him. The local realtor who found us the condo to rent kept encouraging us to look around.

We still owned our house in Mt. Pleasant and thought we would have to sell it before we could buy in Iowa City. We thought we needed to get a good price for it in order to be able to buy anything in Iowa City.

We began to think the only possibility was a small house without a garage. We had seen some that might be possibilities. One day the realtor contacted us and showed Becky a house on the south side of town. She was very impressed and so I went to see it with her.

The owner wanted to move the house quickly and the realtor told us he would wave his fee in order to help us out. The bank encouraged use to go ahead with it and said they would be Ok waiting for our other house to sell. We made an offer and the seller accepted. We were overjoyed!

The sellers had purchased a nearby house and had priced their house to sell quickly. They tried to back out of it just before closing but the realtor held them to the agreement. I think they realized they could have gotten more out of the house if they had just waited. We paid $98,000 for it.

We moved into the house early in September of 1994. Becky moved quite a bit of our stuff and after school several Longfellow staff members helped us move everything else. It was pretty much all done in a couple hours and we took everyone to dinner at La Casa as a way of thanking them for their help.

We had new appliances from Best Buy and found a king size bed at a yard sale. The house was a four-bedroom ranch with an unfinished basement except for a couple rooms. It was a house we never dreamed we would have.

Becky turned one bedroom into her sewing room and we turned another one into an office. Becky spent a lot of her time making the house a home. I was intrigued about the potential of the basement. It had a large area that could be a family room. It had another room that could be a non-conforming bedroom, an unfinished bathroom that the previous owner had already purchased everything to finish, a small finished bedroom, a laundry room, and a workshop that had already been wired for power tools.

After living in the small apartment for a year we felt like we now had some space. We had a nice yard with plenty of room in the back for a garden. The only drawback to the house was that it had a single car garage, which to us was far better than no garage at all.

90s21 Stories

My storytelling opportunities continued to grow in Iowa City. I told stories in my building and got invited to do storytelling in other buildings. I started doing the Time for Children at church at least once a month. I got invited to tell stories to community groups and at the public library.

I told stories in several other school districts and other community events outside of Iowa City. I told stories at Young Writers’ conferences and did sessions for teachers at conferences and inservices. It was always a break from the seriousness of the world and, often I think, I got more out of it than the listeners.

My journal became the planning place for storytelling events. I planned the series of stories and poems I would use. I used it to write down my own stories and poems that I wanted to use. So it became the stories of my life, stories I wanted to tell and stories I want to tell.

Going back and reading the journals is like discovering something you had forgotten. I think, maybe journals should be read more often. Until I started writing these stories when I finished a journal I put it on the shelf and rarely looked at it again. The nuggets of thought were frozen and only thaw out when they are read and pondered again.

* * *

On August 9, 1994, Hayden Fry, then head coach of the Hawkeye football team called me. We had been searching for a physical education teacher for my building and the director of human resources and I had interviewed a few candidates for the position. One was the son of the head football coach at City High and had played football for Iowa.

I had noticed the Peach Bowl ring on his finger when we interviewed him but I made any connection. We had selected another applicant that was far better qualified for the position.

When the phone rang and Hayden Fry’s secretary said, “Please hold for Hayden Fry?” I was speechless for a moment and then I thought someone must have been playing a trick on me. As soon as I heard his voice I knew it was him. He had called to recommend the former player for the physical education teacher. We had a nice conversation but it was too late. We had already selected the other candidate.

Within an hour the City High Coach came to my office and demanded I hire his son. He told about all of the people he knew in the community and in my attendance area. He said he was close friends with several members of the school board. It was a not so subtle threat.

I reported the contact with Hayden Fry and the incident with the coach to the Central Office. As it turned out the district offered this guy a part-time position at City High and he turned it down. The next day he decided he wanted the job after all because they had combined it with something else to make it full time but it was too late because they had given it to someone else.

90s20 Settling In

Iowa City is a big little town. It has many amenities of bigger cities like theater and athletic events and lots to do. Becky enjoyed exploring the community and finding our way around. It didn’t take long!

Becky continued her sewing business and used one of our bedrooms in our apartment as her sewing room. Word spread fast and soon she was in big demand. Even the superintendent had her do a job for her. Eventually, Becky’s business grew and she had eight stores in Iowa City for which she did alterations. That was a few years later, however.

We joined the First Presbyterian Church on Rochester. Almost immediately Becky started doing banner work for the church and I did the children’s sermon on a regular basis. It was a good way to get to know people and feel like we were part of the community.

School was time consuming for me especially that first year while I was learning the ropes of Iowa City Community School District. It was sometimes hard to sort out what I should be doing. Being a building principal here was much more focused because I didn’t have a lot of other district responsibilities. That was a relief! Still I was busy two or three nights every week.

My journaling began to taper off simply because I was often too busy or too worn out to do it. The time between entries seemed to grow each time.

By mid-winter I was into the middle of a conflict that involved one of my staff members and two former principals in the building. The two former principals disagreed on the effectiveness of the staff member. One pressed me to get rid of the person and the other one defended the person at all costs. I was in the middle.

Both administers were in the central office. They were relentless! Sometimes they called me daily demanding I do one thing or another. Finally, I was desperate and went to the superintendent and explained my dilemma. She must have done something because they stayed out of my hair from then on. Nothing worse than being in your first year in a new place and having to keep two people with vastly different viewpoints happy.

The first two years in the district new employees, including administrators, undergo a fairly intense and comprehensive evaluation. It includes surveys of parents, staff and colleagues. The surveys for parents were sent out to a random group of about 100 parents. They filled out and sent them to the superintendent’s administrative assistant. She tabulated them and shared them with the superintendent. All the teachers and staff in the building did one, too.

I wrote in February that the superintendent shared the evaluations with me and I was “thrilled with the positive results.” I also did a self-evaluation and the superintendent did one about me. It all turned out very positive and I was elated with the results.

In the spring of my first year in Iowa City I taught an evaluator training class to almost all of the administrators in the district including the superintendent. It went well and I got to know many of my colleagues.

90s19 First Impressions

School districts are complicated and Iowa City is no different. Actually, I found it far more complex than I expected. It was five times the size of the Mt. Pleasant district and structured differently. Unfortunately, in those days there was no real orientation for “new to the district” administrators so you had to figure it all out for yourself.

I spent a lot of time reading documents in my new office and listening and talking with veteran staff members. They warned me that gossip traveled at lightning speed across the district. Without exception, they warned me that the parent population was a tough to please crowd. One even described them as anarchists and warned me to be careful.

My predecessor had a lot of difficulty with the parent group and I remembered the scrutiny they had given me through the interview process. I could see that there would be some challenging times.

I did not have much experience with active parent groups. At Mediapolis the only people who showed up for PTA meetings was the president and I. Mt. Pleasant was the same. People were too busy to get involved or just not interested. It wasn’t going to be the same in Iowa City.

One of the first few days at work a parent called to welcome me to the district. It was a very cordial conversation. She told me now familiar stories about how difficult the parent group could be and how I needed to “watch my back.” She ended the conversation with “Don’t let the sharks get ya, guy!” Little did I know then that she was one of them.

I learned there was some disagreements among staff and a few that had been involved in controversy. I was getting conflicting stories from different people and it was all difficult to sort out.

The staff had a barbeque for us at one of their homes. It was well attended with most wanting to check out the new principal and his wife. It went well and everyone was very welcoming.

My journal is full of comments about how supportive and welcoming everyone seemed to be and aside from the warnings about how difficult it could be I was very excited about being there. I felt I could navigate through the maze of issues and, in time, figure out how the district operated.

The dynamics of a highly educated community actively involved in their schools and serving a diverse population of students made the job challenging. There was an English as a second language program in the building with over twenty students from all over the world. A significant part of our population lived in poverty and had many needs. Another part of the population was from very affluent families. We had students from the domestic abuse shelter and two SCI classrooms.

That first year Longfellow had about 350 students and was multi-aged grouped for instruction. That was new to me and it took some time to figure out how it worked. Basically, we had a kindergarten, four first/second grade classroom, four third/fourth grades, and four fifth/sixth grades.

90s18 Transitions

My first day on the job at Longfellow was July 1, 1993. I like the idea of being at a school named after a poet. I thought it would set a nice tone for the building.

For the first month and a half I commuted from our home southeast of Sperry. It was an 85-mile trip each way and took about an hour and a half. I enjoyed the ride. I had a flat tire once near Mt. Union but got it fixed and was on my way fairly quickly. Another time a pheasant jumped up and slammed into the rider’s side mirror. It was shattered!

I spent most of my time trying to familiarize myself with the building, the neighborhood, and the district. I read about everything in the office I could get my hands on and studied the student directory. I wanted to know as much as possible about the school.

During the day several people would stop in. I was welcomed by visits from other building administrators and people from the central office. The person I replaced, Marian Coleman, gave me a tour of the district. The city administrator even stopped in to welcome me to the community. I was amazed at how supportive everyone seemed to be.

I was pleasantly surprised by the condition of the building. It was as old as some of the buildings I had worked in but in much better shape. It was clear the district valued the property. I was used to districts letting older buildings decay by neglect.

I was surprised at the lack of technology in the building. Coming from Mediapolis, Waco and before that Mt. Pleasant where every classroom had a computer it was a shock to come to a building where there was only one computer and it was on the secretary’s desk. I had expected Iowa City to be way ahead in every way but that definitely was not the case when it came to technology.

During those summer days in July I did two storytelling sessions for Longfellow students in the neighborhood. It was a good way for students and a few parents to meet me. The superintendent even came to one of the sessions. I also stayed at the building three evenings to meet students and parents.

One day I took some extra time after lunch, walked around downtown Iowa City and just savored being there. It was a dream come true to be working in Iowa City. I felt blessed.
It was something I had heard talked about many times among educators. It was known as a premier district and good salaries. Many of my colleagues envied me.

The staff hosted a barbeque for Becky and I at one of their homes. It was fun and we got to meet several of them. Becky met with a local realtor and he showed her some places we could live. Housing prices were sky high in Iowa City and we wondered how we could ever afford anything in town.

Eventually, we settled on a new apartment on the corner of Scott Boulevard and Court Street. It was small, 900 sq. feet, but we thought we could make it work for a while. We also rented a garage off of Bowery Street for our boat and some of other stuff.

90s17 Interviews

The more interviews you go through the better you get at doing them. You can begin to anticipate the kinds of questions that will be asked and refine your answers. By the time I got to Iowa City I knew what to expect.

At least I knew what to expect at the initial interview with district administrators. In that interview there were two building principals, a director of instruction, and the director of human resources. They were very welcoming and I felt comfortable there.

After that interview I went out to a waiting area. In a short time I was invited into the Superintendents office. The Superintendent said she could only talk to me briefly as she had a luncheon meeting to attend. An hour later she was still talking. It struck me as odd at the time and I sensed she was trying to sell me on the district. She certainly wasn’t asking me questions.


The next day I was invited back for an interview with the teachers and then the parents. Having been a teacher for years I had a good idea what the teachers would ask. I had almost no idea what the parents would ask.

When I arrived at the building a parent greeted me. She gave me a tour of the building. She seemed very serious and almost stern. I could tell there was some tension. At the end of the building tour she took me to a classroom where I met a large group of teachers and the building secretary. They were very friendly but probed me heavily about my management style.

After the teacher interview I went upstairs to an interview with parents. There must have been at least 20 or maybe more parents in the room. The questions were rapid fire and were often followed up with requests for clarification. The parents were clearly looking for a reason not to hire. I didn’t give them one but felt like I had been through a workout by the time it was over.

I went home thinking I had a shot at the job but was a little surprised by the intensity of the questions. Within the next 24 hours I heard from my university advisor. He said they had called him for a reference on me and he thought I would get the job. A couple hours later the superintendent called and offered me the position. She said I was the unanimous choice of all the groups. I was overwhelmed!

That evening I got a call from a prominent banker in Iowa City congratulating me and offering to help me in any way he could. That was followed by a called from a local realtor who had been a teacher in the district. He, too, offered to help in any way he could. Their hospitality was surprising.

Within 24 hours I heard from others, prepared my letter of resignation, and wrote a personal letter to each Mediapolis elementary teacher. I went to my last Mediapolis board meeting a few days later and one board member suggested they not release me from my contract and keep me there. My good luck was that I had not signed my contract so they could not hold me back.

90s16 Out of Mediapolis

The summer of 1992 we moved into a house southeast of Sperry owned by a school board member. I loved the area but it was too isolated for Becky. It was miles from the nearest paved road and in the year we lived there we had 11 flat tires. The gravel, very hard chert, was too sharp for tires.

To say the least, the winter of 1992-93, was very hard. It remained cold for days and the snow just kept coming. I missed work several days because we just couldn’t get up our driveway to get out to the road.

Things went from bad to worse in the district as the year went on. The board was independent and not at all interested in following the administration in the district. There are many stories I could tell but it is probably best that I let them rest for another time.

The good part of the year was that our first granddaughter, Jazmin, was born in November. We were thrilled and cherished the thought of having a grandchild.

The other good thing about that year was that I was finished with my Ph. D. and could put my full concentration into my work. It was exhilarating! I was excited about leading the district, pursuing my interest in teaching graduate courses and working in the Iowa Writing Project. The future was bright!

In February, I started looking for principal jobs that were advertised in the paper. Iowa City had two openings and I applied. I knew it was unlikely that I would even get an interview but thought it would be a dream job. I was right.

Mt. Pleasant was going to have an opening at Van Allen so I applied for it, too. I got an interview but my history there as one who bucked the administration on several occasions kept me for serious consideration by the old guard. It was pay back time for them. It didn’t really matter how good I could have been. They were content to settle with anything other than me.

You pay a price, sooner or later, for standing up for what is good and right. I knew that from the beginning, but had hoped maybe that somehow people could get by that. I was wrong.

That spring the high school principal retired, the curriculum director left, and the superintendent took at job in southern Iowa. It looked like I would be the only one left. That thought didn’t appeal to me, but gradually I begin to get used to the idea.

That was when I noticed in the paper that one of the Iowa City job was reopened and previous applicants were encouraged to apply. I did and much to my surprise got an interview. I met with a group of 5 administrators and then the superintendent. The interview with the superintendent was different because she did all of the talking and spent the time selling me on the district. I took that as a good sign.

A few days later I was called back for an interview with about a dozen Longfellow teachers and that was followed by an interview with a room full of anxious parents. Much to my surprise I got the job and a nice raise to go with it. I have left out much of this year to get to more pleasant stories and so I move on.

90s15 The Writing on the Wall

My first year as a principal went pretty well even though there were some great challenges. I felt I had learned a lot and was looking forward to the coming year and the changes I hoped to make.

On the night of May 12, 1992 something happened that changed the course of my future in Mediapolis. During the school board meeting the board didn’t accept the Superintendent’s recommendation on hiring an elementary physical education teacher and head football coach. If they didn’t like the recommendation they should have told him and he should open the position again to look for additional applications. That does happen with some boards but it is rare. It is even more rare to not accept the Superintendent’s recommendation and hire someone else on the spot, but that is what happened.

I was stunned and so was the rest of the administration! The Superintendent had to call the guy the next day and tell him the board didn’t accept the recommendation. Without board support for the administration a difficult job becomes impossible. I knew I wouldn’t be staying in that district long.

The board had a history of doing their own thing but this was the most blatant I had experienced. I knew I couldn’t count on their support and was sickened by the whole idea. It seriously undermined our effectiveness. We had little credibility with the teachers and the community and I wrote in my journal that I wouldn’t be staying there long.

In an effort to talk things through with the board we met with them in closed session a couple weeks later. We explained our position and the board listened but didn’t seem to concerned and some even said if they had it to do over again they would still do it. I was disappointed that most of them thought they had done no harm.

We were set to move to a new house owned by one of the board members that summer. The board member, a leader in going against the superintendent, called a couple nights later and said he supported me and hoped we would still rent the house. We did. I should have known better!

The Superintendent had an outside consultant, a professor from Iowa State University, work with the administration and the board on leadership and boardsmanship. I thought it was excellent training for us all but the board members we really wanted to influence blew it off. They knew what they wanted to do and didn’t really care what they were supposed to do or what we thought of it.

As I prepared for the next school year I lost some of my enthusiasm. I realized that my ideas for where we should be going and that some of the teachers needed to change or leave were all subject to the whims of the board. I knew I could stick it out one more year if I had to but just couldn’t see myself sticking around and working under those conditions very long.

90s14 Becoming a Principal

The summer I completed my Ph.D. I also became principal of the Mediapolis elementary schools. The younger students (k-3) went to school at the Mediapolis site and the upper elementary kids went to the building in Yarmouth. It was a rural district but included some folks who worked in the factories in Burlington. Generally, they were hard working people who expected us to run the schools and not bother them much.

The two buildings were about 10 miles apart. Yarmouth is a small town with a grain elevator, a few houses and a place that served as a café in the daytime and a bar at night. I knew about the community because one of the residents was well known for his lavish outdoor Christmas displays.

I knew Yarmouth, too, for being along the terminal moraine of the last glacier that came into Iowa. It retreated about 12,000 years ago. It was the Illinois lobe of the Wisconsin glacier and it forced the Mississippi to run west of what is now Mt. Pleasant. The little stream that starts there in the playground eventually becomes Big Creek and nearly circles Mt. Pleasant.

The Yarmouth building had been the site of a k-12 school that served the community until they joined the Mediapolis district. It had a nice large gym but the floor had been seriously damaged by water after a storm and it was never fixed properly. The overall building was in pretty bad shape. It was an old building that everyone except those who lived in Yarmouth thought should be closed.

The building in Mediapolis was about the same age but in much better shape. It had a large addition for the high school and a nice gym. The football field was across the road. The community periodically entertained the idea of closing Yarmouth and adding on to the Mediapolis building.

Mediapolis had a little over 1000 students with about 600 of them being elementary and covered a large area from just north of Burlington to near Wapello and from the Mississippi to just west of Yarmouth. The buses transporting kids to Yarmouth from the far southeast part had trouble meeting the state requirement of students being on the bus not longer than an hour. Consequently, there were lots of bus behavior problems.

Besides being principal of two buildings, I was district Title I Coordinator and had to supervise a third of the district events. I was thrilled with the opportunity and a little over whelmed. I had to evaluate about half of the 40 or so teachers each year and that was a huge job not matter how you looked at it.

Most of the teachers were good, competent people, but like everywhere else, there were some bad ones. Some were very set in their ways and told me right up front they weren’t about to change. They said other principals had come and gone and I would, too. I soon began to understand why principals didn’t stay there very long.

90s13 Finishing It Up

In the middle of May I wrote that it seemed like I had to fill out a million forms as I got close to submitting my dissertation. I was still worried about my advisor’s support and wondered if this would ever be over.

By the middle of June I was writing every day and submitting parts to my advisor each step of the way. At some point I noticed a shift in his attitude. He seemed much more positive. I wrote on the 14th that I had submitted Chapter IV. Shepardson had read it and made some positive suggestions. Overall he said he was pleased with the chapter. Given his past practice I was encouraged.

When I finally had what I thought was a final draft I delivered a deposit of the document to a special office at the University. There, a woman reviewed the document for technical issues and made sure it followed the University’s rigid requirements. After a two-day argument and a special trip to Iowa City about the type size she finally returned the dissertation with eight pages of corrections. While that sounds like a lot, it only took a few hours to correct them all.

When I finally thought I was done with it I submitted eight copies to the University. Each of the five members of my committee got a copy and the University got the rest with one going to the printing office to be published. I defended my dissertation before my committee on July 13 at 3:00 PM.

My committee included my advisor, Dick Shepardson, Jack Bagford, Brad Loomer, Linda Fielding, and Cleo Martin. Jack, Cleo and Dick were also friends of mine so that helped. Loomer was from the School Administration Department. Fielding was in the Elementary Education Department and Cleo was head of the Rhetoric Department at the University. Jack was near retirement but stuck around for me to finish up. He had a national reputation as a reading expert.

“Individual Concerns And Roadblocks Which Shape The Responses Of Teachers As They Are Introduced To And Attempt to Use Cooperative Learning Strategies” is typical of the length of dissertation titles. Part of the reason for the lengthy titles is that they will get more hits in topic searches.

The defense didn’t really take long. The comments of the group were generally positive. Shepardson and Loomer got into an argument over the efficacy of cooperative learning. Bagford got us back on track with the discussion and they soon asked me to leave the room. I wasn’t outside more than a few minutes and Shepardson came out and extended his hand and said congratulations. I went back in the room and shook hands with each member of the committee.

I was on my way home within an hour and was stunned at how well it had gone. I couldn’t believe what had just happened, that I was done, and that I was going to get the degree.

On August 2, 1991, T. Anne Cleary (four months later she was murdered by Gang Lu, a disgruntled student) placed the Ph. D. stole over my head and said softly, “Congratulations, Dr. Ross” and I shook the hand of Hunter Rawlings, president of the University, and walked off the stage.

90s12 Principals

By the end of April in 1991, I was heavily involved in my dissertation, presenting at several young writers’ conferences, doing storytelling events, and all that on top of my work as a curriculum director. The guy who was completing his first year as elementary principal in the district told me that he was going to resign and take a position in Idaho. I was shocked!

He was popular with the teachers and in the community. This was the job I had previously decided not to apply for so I could work on my dissertation. Now it would be open again. I wrote that it presented a dilemma and an opportunity for me. As I have said I was in the middle of writing my dissertation and didn’t see how I could get involved in the complications of applying for a position. I decided if I did go forward with it, it would be on my terms.

In those complicated days I was trying to write a minimum of 200 words each time I sat down to work on the dissertation. That worked well for me because I knew I could get up if I met that limit and actually seldom got up without writing several hundred words. I would get into something and couldn’t stop until I finished the thought. I frequently got lost in the writing. It was a break from the trouble of my job and the worries of everyday life. I didn’t spend much time thinking about the principal position.

That’s when the principal told me he got another offer from another district in Idaho and he was taking the position. He said he would tell why he was leaving when he had signed the contract for the job. Even after he had signed the contract he didn’t really tell me much. He just said working in Mediapolis wasn’t like it was in South Dakota. He thought we took our jobs too seriously. I think he thought we should be having a lot more fun than we were. It was really strange.

People go into the principalship for lots of different reasons. Some go into it for the money. Some want to be the boss. Some because they really care about kids and I am sure there are many other reasons. I had seen many who were there for the wrong reasons. I don’t know how many lousy teachers become principals but I am pretty sure there are quite a few. I had no respect for them.

I honestly believed, and still believe, that I could make a positive difference in the lives of children, families, and the staff of the building. I had worked for some good principals and some bad ones. I felt like I had learned from both and be a better leader.

So the last entries in the journal that may are about completing the dissertation and whether I want to apply for the principal position. I ran out of pages before either is decided. I’ll get to them soon.

90s11 Iowa Department of Education Audit

WACO and Mediapolis were both up to be audited by the Department of Education (D.E.) in the spring of 1991. That means the district turns over just about every type of documentation they have to a team of educators from outside the district who pour over them and then interview staff. The team included people from the D.E. and a few from other districts. It only lasts whirlwind two or three days. It is a lot of work on the district’s part to prepare for it and happens once every five years.

At the end of the audit the team writes their report and then present it as the exit report to the district at open meeting just before they leave. Usually the only people who attend are a few administrators and the team.

I have to say it’s a stretch, a big stretch, to think that observers could look at anything in depth in a multi-million dollar operation that covers all of the curriculum areas, employees hundreds of people and sometimes serves thousands of students. Corporations contract with consultants to evaluate their operations for months before they expect the final written document.

I wrote that the D.E. gave us so little direction in interpreting the standards and what they expect in these audits that it is a big guessing game. They didn’t seem to know what they wanted or expected. I have always felt it was a shallow process that provided little productive input to the district. It just seemed like a ritual that we had to go through periodically and then it was all put on a shelf until the next time.

The conclusions seemed to be far fetched at best. It reminds me of the Indian scout in the movies that draws all kinds of conclusions about riders by looking at a few hoof prints in the dust. The D.E. is the scout and they read these documents and tell us what they mean. Rather, they tell us what they think they mean. Even within the D.E. there is disagreement about interpretations.

Hmmm…big district, lots of paper!
Lots of paper…not very organized!
Uses a lot of education ease…must be doing it right!
Confusing…do they know what that means?
Administrators wear ties…must be very professional!
Formal…not a relaxed learning or working environment.
Licensed teachers…must mean good instruction!
Licensed teachers…but can they teach?
Appropriate documentation…students must be learning!
Documentation…but is it appropriate and relevant?

And on it goes! In recent years there is the expectation of follow-up, an improvement plan, and even another visit from the D.E. so it is a better process. I still think it’s superficial and of limited value. I am sure if the D.E. reads this they might come for another visit. I just believe that people who are deeply involved in the achievement of their learners are interrupted by this process and lose valuable time satisfying the requests of the audit team. We ought to be thinking about how to make it easier for educators to do their jobs, not harder.

90s10 The Research Poem

In February of 1991 I wrote an article that was eventually published in the Iowa Council of Teachers of English Newsletter. It was about research papers or rather, research poems. I was never a big fan of research papers and wasn’t sure why we were putting kids through the ordeal. It wasn’t clear to me what they were to gain from the process.

So many parts of the process seemed so unauthentic to me. Many teachers would spend an entire semester on it. Outside of the school setting how likely is it you would ever need or use those skills. I’m not saying they are totally without value but considering the amount of time put in by the teacher and the student I would say there is little practical yield from the whole experience. In a time of maximizing learning time and focusing on critical skills I just didn’t think we could afford to spend so much time on things of such small value.

Another thing that annoyed me about research papers was that teachers asked students to write them but never had students read papers written by others. I am a big believer in showing, modeling what you want or expect students to do. They should have had the students read at least two or three of them before they tried to write one.

What I proposed in the piece was that teachers substitute a research poem in place of the research paper. The poem would require the same kind of research, be much shorter, and more manageable for the student and the teacher and the students could actually do several during the year about different topics.

The poem format was something I got from someone who got it from someone else and it had been passed around a lot. I used the format each year and had students write poems about themselves. I gathered them in a bio-poem booklet format for several years. This is the model:

Line 1 Your first name only
Line 2 For traits that describe you
Line 3 Sibling of (brother/sister or…or son/daughter of…)
Line 4 Lover of …(3 people or ideas)
Line 5 Who feels…(3 items)
Line 6 Who needs…(3 items)
Line 7 Who gives…(3 items)
Line 8 Who fears…(3 items)
Line 9 Who would like to see…(3 items)
Line 10 Resident of (you city); (your street name)
Line 11 Your last name only

Students could write a bio-poem about themselves, a friend or member of their family, or a book character. To extend it further a student could write a research poem like this about a historical character or place or thing.

I modified it slightly and wrote this one about something. See if you can figure it out before you get to the end.

Acer Saccharum Marsh
Large, rounded, dense, hard,
Family of Florida, Chalk, Boxelder, Black, Striped, Norway, Planetree, Red, Silver,
Mountain
Lover of the warm sun, spring rains, and black earth,
Who feels sleepy in the winter, invigorated in the spring, and colorful in the fall,
Who needs moisture, sunlight, and room to grow,
Who gives sweet syrup, fine lumber, and shade on a sunny day,
Who fears the sound of chain saws, windstorms, and long droughts,
Who would like to see more birds in my branches, more recycling, and soil conservation,
Resident of extreme southeast Manitoba, east to Nova Scotia, south to North Carolina, and west to east Kansas,
Sugar Maple

It explained how I used the poem and how it could be used in place of a research paper. That was the gist of the article. I got lots of positive feedback from friends and colleagues.

90s09 Pinpoint Accuracy

Lyrical Iowa is published annually and includes submissions from Iowans all over the state. My Mother has been published in it several times. I submitted pieces several times with no luck. I submitted my students’ writing a few times, too, with limited success. It was one of those things that I really wanted but didn’t think it would happen. I began to think it was way out of my league as a writer.

Four incredible things happened to me in 1991. Being selected for Lyrical Iowa was the first. I’ll tell you about the others later.

Most of the time my poems are just dumb but every once in awhile I hit on something that resonates a little. I seem to be better at humorous ones. I just couldn’t come up with something really good for publication. Eventually, fate took over.

On January 16, 1991, we were stunned with the outbreak of war with Iraq. I wrote that I thought the loss of human lives could be tremendous. I described it all as being very disturbing and that it had captured the world’s attention day and night ever since it started.

Every night on the evening news we were given a rundown of the awesome power of our armed forces and the pinpoint accuracy of the deadly weapons. We watched as shells literally went through the front door of buildings and homes. We seemed so dazzled by the power and technology that we forgot about the people. I was sickened by the spectacle.

After a little research and a lot of thought on the 21st of January I wrote:

Pinpoint Accuracy

Pinpoint accuracy
Abraham’s Ur
The futile crescent
Disappears in a flash

Pinpoint accuracy
Mesopotamia,
The Garden of Eden
Are cratered with bombs

Pinpoint accuracy
The Tower of Babel
Jonah’s Nineveh
Under missile attack

Pinpoint accuracy
Shadrack, Meshach
And Abednego dance
In a napalm fire.

The industrialized fury
Of civilization is turned
On the very land that gave
Civilization birth.

I submitted this to Lyrical Iowa and eventually heard from them. They accepted it and were publishing it in the next edition. The editor wrote me a nice note and mentioned my mother’s extraordinary work. I was elated!

After several tries I had finally gotten in. My Mom told her Scribblers group. Nothing else really happens after you are published except maybe you change a little internally. I don’t know if it was actually there but I felt new credibility as a writer and a teacher. Believing in yourself as a writer can make all of the difference in the world. Perfect timing for a guy getting ready to write his dissertation.

I am not a great poet like other members of my family but I had cracked one of the barriers that at least gave me some credibility. Someday, maybe when I retire and have more time, I’ll work on trying to be a better poet. I work on trying to be a better writer every week when I write these pieces.

90s08 Hurdles

In the fall and winter of 1990-91, I began to work in earnest on my dissertation. Getting a Ph. D. is a series of hurdles. Taking all of the courses is part of the series. Each can be a major ordeal. If you survive all of the courses and are still going then you can take the comprehensive exams, which are followed by a meeting to defend your answers. And then there’s the dissertation! The single greatest stumbling block for most.

Many get to the dissertation and never get any further. There are a lot of folks that never got beyond the All But Dissertation (ABD) status. I couldn’t stand the thought of getting that close and not finishing up. For many, though, the thought of writing a dissertation is so daunting that they never really get started on it.

The process begins with an idea. My advisor asked me to write my idea about what I wanted to research on a single sheet of paper. I must have tried that twenty times and tuned at least ten of the efforts over to him. He would cut it to pieces and hand it back to me and I would start all over again. Finally, I realized that I needed to research something he was interested in and if I was interested in it that was fine, too, but not necessary.

Finally, in the fall of 1990 I got his approval. On January 11, 1991 I wrote: I have a busy weekend planned working on my dissertation. It is very frustrating because every time I send something in to Dr. Shepardson he cuts it to pieces with the red pencil. He forgets what he says or recommends from one time to the next. I do what he recommends one time and he recommends the opposite the next time. Oh well! I guess it is part of the process. It gives new meaning to the word “revision.”

On January 24, I was scheduled to present the first three chapters to my committee. I wrote that the prospect of five people doing what Sheperdson was doing sounded awful, but I knew it would put me one step closer to completion. I just had to keep my eye on the goal and work to get there. I sent the three chapters ten days before the meeting.

When the 24th arrived I went to Iowa City with much trepidation. I expected the worse! I was in for a big surprise. The committee was not only supportive they were enthusiastic! That was when I first got the sense that they were going to make sure I got through this ordeal. I felt relieved and encouraged!

The plan was that I was going to co-teach a cooperative learning graduate course with Dr. Shepardson and then study the implementation of the method with some of the participants. I would follow all of the participants in general and couple in great detail. I would specifically look at the things that were roadblocks to the implementation, the roadblocks to teacher change. The more I thought about it the more intrigued I became.