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.