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.
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
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.
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
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...
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.
At least he is officially gone and we can move on. Thank god for the incredible staff at the school.
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?
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
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".
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.