King Gone: Lowell Meeting Tuesday Night

The district (via Nancy Coogan) has announced that Greg King has (finally) submitted his resignation. 

They are having a meeting on Tuesday, July 3rd 7 p.m. at Lowell to talk about "next steps in the principal hiring process."  They are committed to having three staff and two parents on the committee.

They state:
We recognize this is a tight timeline.  If you cannot make Tuesday's meeting, please send your input on leadership qualities you would like to Nathan Fitzpatrick in HR at 
ntfizpatric@seattleschools.org by Friday, July 6th.


The District will work with staff and the community to make sure we find an excellent leader who is the right fit for Lowell.

Comments

Charlie Mas said…
It's too bad that the District couldn't get started on this any sooner, like when school was in session and the community (teachers, staff, and families) were more available.

I guess that's just the way that Mr. King wanted it.

I don't think the District needs to appoint a permanent principal for the school if they don't feel they have time to do it right. They can appoint an interim principal and select a permanent one at their leisure.
7/2/12, 2:58 PM
Anonymous said…
Charlie, I'm guessing part of this is HR policy but maybe not? Mirmac, anyone? What's left is how Dr Maria took one of the best schools in the district and turned it upside down, broke it in two, then pointed a fire hose on the occupants. A few threads earlier I think Maureen posted that Maria didn't understand our alt schools. She looked at them as re-entry schools. Alt can mean different things. Maria as sup was either incompetent or tone deaf. We had alts, she trashed them, and now we need charters to make things right? I don't see a conspiracy here, just a willful, overpaid "CEO" like so many others who knows they can break the music box and walk away to more pay and a sanitized CV. If she ha more of an agenda along the lines of what the Broad Academy promotes then mission accomplished for sure.

King? As I've said before, bring your A game to Detroit because you never know who will be waiting in the wings to replace you in this crony ed culture.

Mr White
7/2/12, 3:20 PM
Anonymous said…
I'm a teacher and I was very upset with what I understood to be the problem at Lowell. However, I've talked to a couple of people who were in that meeting and it isn't as simple as it sounds. From what I understand, it got down to personalities and one staff member who was after another one.

I've seen politics in schools and I know what leverage staff members have to cause trouble. So I will reserve judgment on this one. But I had to say that because it seemed like King was villified here. Just not sure about it anymore.

n...
7/2/12, 3:22 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
What meeting are you talking about N? And did you read the investigation? It's not as simple as you make it out either.
7/2/12, 3:27 PM
Anonymous said…
Yes, it is complicated. I totally agree that following protocol was/always is the answer.

However, I was praising the blog as a place where I get such helpful information when a parent spoke up who had attended the meeting to which you were denied entry - whichever one that was. It was parents only I think.

Anyway, I was told no names but information about possible motives, support for the IA who had a history of working with the child without issues, and sensitive personality dynamics that were present, hard to quantify but nevertheless influential.

More than that I can't say out of respect. The parent who offered this information is trusted by me as a smart, kind and very fair person.

Honestly, the way you presented the (now unavailable) memo links seems perfectly appropriate. But I know more today than I did then.

We teachers can be very manipulative. We get away with it because our parents love us. Principals and staff members can be bullied and marginalized. I've seen it. I can understand wny resignations weren't voided. Sometimes you have to be there. I'm more generous in my judgment about King right now.

The protocol should have been followed. Probably King himself wishes he'd done that although I understand why he didn't given the vulnerability of the people involved.

n...
PS: I suspect there will be Lowell staff that will decry my post. I'll live with that.
7/2/12, 6:57 PM
pissed off said…
So they inform us the day before July 4th that we are having a meeting to discuss a new principal., with one day notice. Is that a joke. Why not have it on Sunday evening at ten. Do they just want no one to show up. Nancy Coogan was getting calls for weeks for help, because Gregory was not around ( probably in Detroit) and now we have an emergency meeting. How incompetent is she and the district. I used to think that the bloggers on this site were just ranting, but know I see how useless the district staff are.
At least he is officially gone and we can move on. Thank god for the incredible staff at the school.
7/2/12, 7:21 PM
SkritchD said…
The best thing, besides King leaving the district, is that soon we can finally move past this.
7/2/12, 7:40 PM
Lori said…
Is it possible that Mr. King actually did the community a favor by waiting so long to officially resign? I mean, we just saw a week or two ago the annual reshuffling of the principals, and I don't believe the affected communities had any say in those placements.

But now, Lowell has the opportunity to interview and choose a new principal. Sure, the timing isn't great now that it's July, but communities have a proven ability to pull together over the summer when needed (eg, SNAPP moving to Lincoln last year). I'd consider this an opportunity/glass-half-full scenario rather than glass-half-empty. Would you really rather the district had just appointed someone without any staff or parent input?
7/2/12, 8:13 PM
Anonymous said…
Lori,

The issue isn't that families do not appreciate an opportunity for input. The issue is that this education director is hardly inspiring families` confidence.

Reader
7/2/12, 11:09 PM
Ed said…
Mr White

The culture among staff at Lowell was bad long before King got there.

There was a principal there named Julie who was given to flat out rascist comments about parents/students so they sent her to Marshall for "re-grooving".
7/3/12, 7:42 AM
lowell parent said…
Did the district really not know that he was considering to leave. On top of his behavior over the last two years and completely lack of being there, why would the district want to keep him in his job. Why do they wait till everyone is gone to make decisions. Do they have it in for Lowell.
7/3/12, 7:47 AM
Jan said…
To n -- very interesting comments and viewpoint. I hope you are correct in thinking there is more reason to be generous towards King than I can be, because it serves no one well if he is badly placed in Detroit. Regardless of what positive motives might have caused initial non-reporting, I cannot see anything other than "throwing under the bus" when neither King nor Rina prevented (and both may have encouraged) the follow up investigation of the two SLPs -- but this all needs to stop. It's old; he is gone. Reading between your fairly cryptic lines, it appears to me that BOTH this situation and the one with Jo Lute Ervin may have started, in part, from a bungled attempt by an administrator to "protect" someone "vulnerable" (IA or child) from the effects of "calling in a downtown investigation." And I concur that in sclerotic bureaucracies, people seem to get mangled, sometimes, when the big guns get brought in and common sense flies out the window. I wonder whether, in addition to some additional training on who to report to, one of the things that Mr. Banda needs to do is focus some critical attention on the repercussions of reporting. If (as is alleged), a PIP is the kiss of death to any future employment with another district, what reasonable device exists to help teachers improve. It's like having no available response to attack other than nuclear weapons. Everything escalates. Principals might not screw up trying to "protect" people by failing to report things properly if they had a higher degree of trust that reporting would not have devastating consequences. I don't know. Just a thought.

Best of luck to all the Lowell parents at tonight's meeting. It would be so great for Lowell to get an incredible leader at this point. They have been through a lot the past few years.
7/3/12, 8:10 AM
Jan said…
Reading my last post (sorry, Melissa, for the serial posts), I realize I didn't make it very clear. I realize PIPs are not like reports for sexual harrassment, improper touching, etc. But I thought the principle was the same. The "mechanism" for seeking improvement/further training/help is viewed as so dangerous to careers that principals either forgo it altogether (meaning people don't get retraining/help/etc.) OR the perception is these things get used to threaten or coerce people into leaving. Systems where the only built-in tools for improvement are viewed as overly punitive are not workable systems.
7/3/12, 8:15 AM
Eileen said…
Actually, the superintendent is the one who REALLY decides what principals go where. Interview committee suggestions are considered, but that's about it.
7/3/12, 1:02 PM
SkritchD said…
What are you talking about Ed. Get serious.
7/3/12, 6:33 PM
Anonymous said…
I agree with Ed. There were problems long before Mr King came along, even with the splits and merging with other programs it was never a happy marriage. Same goes for Thurgood Marshall.
7/4/12, 5:31 PM
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