District Administration - July/August 2011 - (Page 66)

Look, Listen, Learn Chris Gaines, the Wright City (Mo.) R-II School District superintendent, mentors new school chiefs in Missouri. Here, he is an informal mentor to Elaine Henderson, Silex (Mo.) R-1 School District superintendent, reviewing the district’s annual performance report. community event, with the media invited, he says. The plan should lay out specific goals to move the district forward. In August 2009, Heath Morrison became superintendent of the Washoe County (Nev.) School District, which has 99 schools and 63,310 students; but a few weeks earlier, he began to meet with school board members and cabinet members. Over the first 90 days of his tenure, he visited 102 schools and met with 3,000 community members. From that, he compiled his 90-day “entry plan,” which included initial targets and goals for Morrison’s four A’s: alignment, accountability, accessibility and achievement. In August 2010, Morrison launched his strategic plan, “Envision WCSD 2015—Investing in Our Future,” which includes specific goals and targets. In addition to developing a strategy to address the district’s issues and challenges, Morrison knew that inclusion would be a huge factor in whether or not he was successful. He says superintendents must include underserved and often overlooked groups, and in his district’s case, Latino advocacy groups (38 percent of the student body is Latino) such as the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Latino media. Morrison recalls, “The day we announced our strategic plan, we almost canceled the press conference because the Spanish version of the plan was not done and I wasn’t going to release it until it was translated in Spanish.” John Barry started his superintendency in 2006 in the Aurora (Colo.) Public Schools, which has 56 schools and 36,967 students, after spending 30 years in the U.S. Air Force and retiring as a two-star major general. He says he had a simple goal when he started his new stint: to have every student graduate and then enroll in college without needing remediation. With that goal in mind, he and his team conducted a 90-day listening tour with stakeholders, after which they developed a 16-page strategic plan that connected ends (vision) with means (goals and objectives). The 66 July/August 2011 Mentoring in Missouri When neW superintenDents stArt their Jobs in the uniteD stAtes, some of them have the benefit of help. since the 2005-2006 school year, the state of missouri has mandated the mentoring of first-year superintendents. And now, the missouri Association of school Administrators, which is an arm of the AAsA, has a mentoring committee that extends the help, according to Chris Gaines, a former co-chair of that committee and now superintendent of the Wright City (mo.) r-ii school District. missouri is not alone. several other states, including florida, Kentucky, Georgia, michigan and illinois, have either mandatory or voluntary mentoring programs for new superintendents, according to officials from each of those state administrator associations. they provide either a mentor, who might be a retired superintendent or an active superintendent in a neighboring community, or an executive coach. “We believe new superintendents are more likely to succeed if they have a quality mentor,” Gaines says. “We need successful leaders to ensure the success of each student.” Gaines says that mentors in missouri are usually retired superintendents or active superintendents who undergo training. mentors receive a $250 stipend for 10 hours of face-to-face contact and numerous hours of phone calls and email conversations with the rookies. every year in the state of missouri, at least 10 percent of the superintendents, or about 60, are new to their jobs and need mentoring. “With that turnover, we’ve got a lot of people who have been mentors and have served as mentors,” Gaines says. mentors voluntarily get together once a year at the annual missouri school boards’ Association conference, held in cooperation with the missouri Association of school Administrators, to discuss popular topics. Gaines says much of the discussion revolves around how to deal with school boards, how to deal with personnel issues, and how to handle budget questions and problems. over the past two years, Gaines says, the discussions also have been about “asking for help in methodologies on how to do budget reductions in a transparent manner.” A mentor might suggest that the new superintendent dedicate space on the district’s Web site to include information about the budget process. “if possible, we tell them to get the board of education to adopt a process that you are going to follow so it’s done in systematic fashion,” Gaines says. “And then we share with them various models that other folks have used in the state and that have been successful.” Gaines also says that he has mentored some superintendents using “cognitive coaching,” which is in part about helping people figure out their own problems. he has advised new superintendents not to tell staff members or central office administrators what to do. “but ask the questions so they can come to an answer through having them reflect on what’s happening,” he says. “We try to help them look at problems from a different perspective and ask them questions they might not be thinking on their own. When you’re new in a job, you don’t know what you don’t know.” in other situations that are complicated, Gaines says he advises new superintendents to contact the school attorney. “sometimes,” he says, “they need more specific expertise.” goals and objectives were organized around four areas: people, achievement, community and environment (PACE). “By keeping the big picture that can be explained on the back of a napkin, you allow teammates to fill in from the bottom rather than be directed from the top,” Barry says. The five-year strategic plan, called “VISTA 2010,” focused on accelerating student achievement and closing District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - July/August 2011

District Administration - July/August 2011
Contents
From the Editor
News Update
Facilities News
Inside the Law
District Profile
Administrator Profile
The Social Media Dilemma
Is Year-Round Schooling on Track?
After 50 Years, Ethnic Studies Still Controversial
Finding the Right Purchasing Solution
Look, Listen, Learn
Research Center
Supervisor’s Opinion
Going Mobile
Superintendent’s Insight
Books
Product Focus
New Products
Online Edge

District Administration - July/August 2011

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