Husk Withdraws from Super Search
From the StatesmanJournal:
Salem-Keizer Superintendent Sandy Husk announced this morning she has withdrawn from the Seattle superintendent search process.
"In my communication with people inside the district last week, it became apparent that there are competing approaches as to where the district should go and how it should get there," she said in a statement.
" I do not feel like I am a good match for that situation. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone in Seattle last week and I wish the best for the students, staff, board and community."
Husk is still in the running for a second position, which she has declined to discuss.
Well, will you look at that? I can hear the moaning all over town from the Times, the Alliance, LEV.
Tough. This process was a mess and the mega-control way didn't work well.
What this means, I don't know.
Salem-Keizer Superintendent Sandy Husk announced this morning she has withdrawn from the Seattle superintendent search process.
"In my communication with people inside the district last week, it became apparent that there are competing approaches as to where the district should go and how it should get there," she said in a statement.
" I do not feel like I am a good match for that situation. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone in Seattle last week and I wish the best for the students, staff, board and community."
Husk is still in the running for a second position, which she has declined to discuss.
Well, will you look at that? I can hear the moaning all over town from the Times, the Alliance, LEV.
Tough. This process was a mess and the mega-control way didn't work well.
What this means, I don't know.
Comments
Illusioned
Deliriously typing
Board - start this search process again AND LET PARENTS IN ON THE GROUND FLOOR...
BUT starting over might be the way to go here. Assuming that ANYONE would want a job where "competing interests" are a way of life.
Anastasia
I thought he would be a good choice before. I still think so.
I don't like the way he might be getting the job. If he actually does get it and accept it. And I doubt that he would like how this is playing out either.
--Breathing a sigh of relief
Signed,
SO HAPPY
Banda is a quality candidate - so this is NOT like getting left with a stinker like MGJ.
This would be a terrible way for Banda or anybody to come in to this position.
Who would want to carry around the fact that he was selected by default?
Blech.
This would be a terrible way for Banda or anybody to come in to this position.
Who would want to carry around the fact that he was selected by default?
Blech.
Ed Voter
would not be surprised if Banda is next.
What that says to me is that the pro-LEV and Anti-LEV groups need to stop battling each other and come together like grownups - find the middle ground and work together for a while to get the ship that is SPS back on course.
Let's face it - we all have some blame in making the situation here untenable/unattractive/undesirable.
But it would take ALL sides of the agenda, together, to make some headway.
Time to move on.
Re-open the search supporter
Also, yes good for Husk wanting to be in a place that wanted her style of leadership. I said all along she was smart.
Someone said, I am working on getting unity with ed reform groups. It's a matter of getting the right people to the table AND having the right person to guide the discussion.
This is admittedly catty, but I just really like the idea of certain Corporate Reform leaders, not to mention DeBell euphamistically soiling themselves right now. Trying to cut out the public just made the public scream louder. Business interests, corporate reformies and political insiders are NOT the only game in town. Not now. Not ever. Get over it.
I hope Morris, Korsmo, Varner and ESPECIALLY DeBell learned their lesson. BAM.
DistrictWatcher
MC
She sure found it fitting to tweet yesterday when Enoch left.
--Breathing a sigh of relief
Sure, I'll sit down with Bill Gates and talk education but sitting down with his mouthpiece is not going to get anyone of us anywhere.
To quote Melissa:
Welcome to our District. What can I do to help?
go Melissa!
Some of us are trying in earnest to help this district do right by our kids. But others seem intent on subverting the democratic process, whether it's by trying to curtail the power of our elected board members to represent us, or trying to fabricate consensus on behalf of their favorite issues or candidate(s).
It's hard to have an honest dialogue when some are paid to push a certain point of view, while others are mere parent volunteers who have little resources or connections to greater forces.
I think there may be some common ground we can all agree on, but we would need to subtract any political or outside agendas if we really are serious about working together and helping all the children of this district do well in school.
We will not get anywhere talking to someone who is just filled with talking points. If you want to make headway, you talk to the people who are really controlling their message.
You sit down with the Chamber of Commerce, with a Bill Gates, a Don Neilson who started this whole reform agenda in Seattle. You talk to the people who are filling the Alliance coffers. That's where you start. You start at the source.
Oh yeah, and include a few educators along the way. They might actually know what they are talking about.
Korsmo is paid by high tech millionaires in Seattle. MacFarlane at 'Democrats' for Ed Reform is paid by high tech billionaires in NYC. Campion at Stand on Children is paid by union busters in WA D.C. Morris is paid a six figure salary by local business interests.
Parents and activists: No pay. Lots of grief.
The playing field of resources is staggeringly unequal.
And still, anti-Corporate Reform voices ARE making a bit of a difference. Witness: No Husk coming to Seattle.
-Skeptical-
hopeful
Actually, this is what I found the most appealing in Mr. Banda. It is very disruptive to come in and immediately go about changing things. He needs to go out and talk to parents, teachers, principals,community, and business leaders prior to making any changes. He also needs to assemble his own adminstrative team. At some point he will organize the district his way. He is a smart guy.
I have the confidence that he is just the person who can
-and I am borrowing this from another poster - mend and tend this district.
MC
I am reading Death of the Liberal Class by Chris Hedges and I don't want to be one of those liberals who lies down bravely to die.
The book is a must read.
Now let's get busy.
Dora
Completely disagree. If he, or anyone else, came in with guns a-blazin' ready to make all kinds of pre-determined changes, especially without having expert knowledge of the city and our district, THAT would have been a big red flag.
Could you imagine stepping in to run a district in Texas that you'd only started paying close attention to a few weeks ago? Do you know anything about the people, the history, the politics, the policies?
I'm quite please that he isn't going to come in here and raise hell from day one. That was MGJ's mindset, and look what it got us. A mess. No, make that several messes.
One side note though. Something Susan Enfield has done a good job of is improving her executive staff. I do hope Banda doesn't bring in a whole new administrative team right away. Of course there will be a few replacements, but what we have right now is a significant upgrade from a year ago.
I agree with Dora--let's get busy.
What is the best way to ensure that the new super hears parents and educators concerns?
--FedMomof2
But frankly, if we all want change at SPS, we ALL need to recognize where we might be contaminating rather than contributing.
Now if we could just get the Board to start thinking along those lines....:o)
He would not have been selected as a finalist if he were not an acceptable choice.
Smart move for Dr. Husk to come in with 2 choices and had a getaway plan. She may have the approval of the power that be, but not necessarily the community buy in. Remember, what gets shove down our throat has to go somewhere. You can't hide it.
Education is the cause celebre in these political times. But you can't just pay attention to numbers in data warehouse and test results as if they exist in a vacuum. You can't fool people by using poor or underachieving kids, while neglecting many other subset of kids like ELL, Spec Ed, AL and the majority of average achieving kids. You can't just fall for the latest, (expensive) marketplace education gimmick to be your one size fit all panacea.
You can't demand accountability from kids, teachers, parents and communities while taking little accountability of yourselves as politicians, administrators, and board members when it comes to fiscal management of our tax dollars, or ignoring federal and district's rules/guidelines when they're an inconvenience. It isn't ok to go $10's of millions over budget on a reno project or not having good, transparent financial accounting in place while asking us for billion more of tax dollars.
Politicians and kingmakers in Seattle are too comfortable and have taken for granted their one party domination. It leads to complacency and corruption. That needs to change. You need to see the damage caused when you neglect big swath of your voting, taxpaying public. There's a limit on how much we can take, how much we are left out and feel powerless, how much our kids' classrooms and learning are neglected while how much our taxes go up every year. You can't keep fooling us.
PS mom
And I too am appreciative of Banda saying that he would not change alot of things 'right away'. It is more respectful to come to know the lay of the land, and move forward repectfully, something I found SORELY lacking in MGJ the first time I had any interaction with her.
Two and a quarter years to go
How might things have been different if MGJ had been willing to look at the history of Summit and the AE1 communities; if we had done NOVA's version of project management instead of the expensive, boondoggly NTN one, if she had taken to heart Stanford's statement that APP should never again be co-housed with a neighborhood school, if she had looked more closely at the West Seattle issues before closing Cooper? If she had taken seriously the effort needed to turn RBHS around BEFORE implementing the NSAP, which was what was SUPPOSED to happen.
The list goes on and on. But when you "know" what a district needs without even observing or asking -- these are the kinds of bad results you get. One thing I will say for Dr. E -- by the time she got the job, she KNEW a lot of this stuff. It doesn't make all of her decisions good ones -- but it saved things like science curricula at Ballard and GHS, etc.
Good for Mr. Banda for wanting to figure out where we are, what we need, and what we can afford to do before making a ton of changes.
But -- I will say this. I don't think ANY of us had a clue at the time what "ed reform" was really all about, and what an "ed reform" superintendent would do to this district. I certainly didn't. I assumed she was just a "regular person" -- like Manhas, Olshefske, Stanford, etc. before her. Had I a CLUE what a "Broad superintendent" meant -- I would have been totally flipping out.
He would not have been selected as a finalist if he were not an acceptable choice."
Absolutely. Additionally, Banda was selected on Sunday night. Husk announced she didn't want the position on Monday morning. Don't let anyone rewrite history.
How is it that parents who oppose the destruction of strong schools, programs, and teachers who do great work every day are somehow "contaminating" the environment by forewarning potential S.I. Candidates with "We've been there, so don't go there(s)?"
Sure, we all wish everyone could be the proverbial "adults in the room," but as Dora points out, citing Chris Hedges' brilliant book, you don't get very far by making deals with the devils. Some ideas are just wrong, destructive, ill-conceived, and disrespectful. LEV, SFC, and now the Alliance act like bullies and DC lobbyists, arm-twisting legislators and co-opting local groups for supposed "support." They play dirty, misrepresent facts and bash teachers. I am not okay with that, and I will never be okay with that. Sorry. No deals can be reached with people like that. Bullies don't respond until they taste their own medicine. Reason and logic have no place at their tables.
That's what I've witnessed in SPS, though I wish it weren't that way. WSDWG