As the Superintendents Turn

Over in Bellevue their superintendent, Amalia Cuderio, quit yesterday.  She was with Bellevue for two-and-a-half years.  Apparently her mother is ill and she left.    Her contract was due to expire in June.

This is all very interesting for a couple of reasons.  From the Times article:
  •  "She had been with us for 2 ½ years and did a lot of good work," School Board President Paul Mills said Tuesday night. "She's leaving the district in good stead."  Last August, at the same time it was approving its new contract, the Bellevue Education Association (BEA) gave Cudeiro a 97 percent no-confidence vote, pointing to her style of management.
Remind you of another time and another superintendent?
  • When she was hired, Cudeiro was one of three finalists for the Bellevue superintendent's job. One of the other finalists was Susan Enfield, interim superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, who has told the Seattle Board she will not apply for the permanent post without giving any reason as to why.
Hmmm.

So I believe that makes at least three districts in our region - Seattle, Bellevue and Highline - looking for superintendents.   And I think Tacoma just got a new one.

Comments

Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Josh Hayes said…
So, what, are we expecting a game of musical superintendents? Lord, I hope not.
Charlie Mas said…
Here's something interesting. The Bellevue superintendent was 2.5 years into a 3 year contract and had six months left on it.

In other words, the Bellevue superintendent did not get a contract extension at any time during the life of the contract.

Why does Seattle routinely extend the superintendent's three-year contract every year? It puts the district in a position which requires them to pay severance if they ever want to fire the superintendent. Wouldn't it be better for them to follow Bellevue's example and allow the contract to wind down?
Anonymous said…
Didn't the rolling contract extension begin with MGJ?

-parent
mirmac1 said…
The search firm hired by the Board found that gem in Bellevue, a former educational consultant (wasn't Enfield doing that after her Vancover stint?)

Here's what the newly elected Bellevue district board member, Steve McConnell had to say about Cudiero:

McConnell's Blog
Anonymous said…
2 quid on the bet that Enfield shows up as Bellevue's new super.

DistrictWatcher
KG said…
They are a dime a dozen.
Catherine said…
Went over to McConnell's blog. Interesting read. Here's something that's struck me before about the achievement gap, but he flies right by in a way that struck me hard.

Each year, we get a new group of kids into the system. For the most part, I believe they all come in with the same school preparation (gaps) that last year's students did. So starting out, the gap is the same. Yet somehow because we closed the gap somewhat for kids who came into the system a year ago, that somehow should make the starting point of the gap of new students today smaller. I don't think I'm saying this well.

Can anybody rephrase this in a way for me that is more clear? Is this a concept "we" are generally aware of that has a label?
Patrick said…
Why does Seattle routinely extend the superintendent's three-year contract every year?

If you don't like the superintendent or are dubious about her, obviously you don't want the contract renewed. But if you do like the superintendent, renewing it reduces the likelihood that she will go looking for another job.
Nostradamus said…
Cudeiro's list of casualties before coming to washington and during her tenure in Bellevue are long. I predicted her departure as soon as she was hired and the bodies started piling up. Lots of over-hyped, high-priced replacements for long-time, stalwarts.
dan dempsey said…
Patrick explained:

If you don't like the superintendent or are dubious about her, obviously you don't want the contract renewed. But if you do like the superintendent, renewing it reduces the likelihood that she will go looking for another job.

but but but .... Michael DeBell agonized over extending MGJ's contract for an additional third year right after the SAO report came out on the Board's and MGJ's failure to supervise. ... Yet after the agonizing he voted to extend MGJ's contract.

This seemed more like theater than reality ..... see The Theater of the Absurd. .... a performance so disconnected from reality, like many school board decisions from the $500,000 four "class of 2007".
mirmac1 said…
Let's hope HZA & Associates doesn't bungle our superintendent search. They were quite adamant in their exhortation that the Board NOT limit the search to those with backgrounds as educators....HMMmmmm

Sorry, we don't need Army colonels, investment bankers, or whatever. We need someone who cares about what ALL of our kids get in the classroom. This individual cannot be beholden to some ideology that guarantees a return on investment. Our children are not CDOs (or WTF they call them).
Charlie Mas said…
Catherine wins the kewpie doll!

If the gap is being closed by something that the teachers, the schools, or the district is doing, then we should see the gap narrow as the students increase in age, but there is no reason that we should see the gap narrow year over year in the early grades.

The gap is there at kindergarten. We know this from research. Since the teachers, schools and district have no influence over the students before kindergarten then the gap at kindergarten should be pretty static. If it was 12 percentage points in 1998 it should still be about 12 percentage points. The influence of the teachers, schools, and district should appear as we follow the cohort over the years and the gap shrinks.

We're not going to see much difference from last year's fourth grade and this year's fourth grade. We shouldn't even look there for the difference. We should see it between last year's fourth grade and this year's fifth grade. That will reflect the impact of the schoolhouse.
Ballard-ite said…
Quelle Surprise - from Times tonight

Susan Enfield interested in leading Bellevue's schools
suep. said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
suep. said…
mirmac1 said...

The search firm hired by the Board found that gem in Bellevue, a former educational consultant (wasn't Enfield doing that after her Vancover stint?)


In fact, Enfield started an ed consulting business during her stint as Vancouver(Evergeen)'s Deputy Superintendent.

(per the Seattle Times)
Catherine said…
Thanks Charlie... much better said than I managed. I remain convinced that there has got to be a name for the misconception (okay, besides delusional) that somehow the entering class of kids will have their achievement gap narrowed BEFORE they enter school by anything done for the kids already in school.

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