The Big Meeting

Last night, I attended the meeting with Superintendent Susan Nicholson to discuss the plans for finding a replacement principal in the wake of Bob LaRoche's departure.  I was one of about 50 parents who attended.  Two of the attendees are running for School Committee this fall: Susan Monfette and Michelle Kosboth.  

Dr. Nicholson is good at running a meeting.  She is good at extemporaneity and deflecting criticism.  She is good at making you feel as though you are being heard, at least while you are at the meeting. And she is very, very good at changing the direction of the meeting to her advantage.  And so, I find myself, 24 hours later, still processing and wondering how the parents were hijacked by the pilot.  We are taking the very valuable time of two parents and two veteran teachers to interview six candidates for an interim position.  Nicholson's plan is to complete the interviews on Wednesday, as in tomorrow, and then check references and be ready to make an offer by next Wednesday, as in seven days from now.  To call that 'ambitious' is sort of like calling last week's weather 'hot.'  She told us that, at a Massachusetts superintendents' meeting the previous week, other attendees had come up to her in support of each of the candidates who will be interviewed; her way of telling us underlings that we are getting the cream of the crop.  And she went out of her way to tell us that one of the candidates was flying in from California to interview: this was in response to a question about 'energy level', so apparently getting on an airplane is equivalent to running a 500-student school.

Am I sounding skeptical?

Many of my friends and neighbors who were in attendance came forward with specific qualities or characteristics that are vital in a principal.  Dr. Nicholson seemed unprepared to record these: she jotted a few lines on a notepad during the meeting, however, there was never a concerted effort to find out what the attendees wanted to see in a principal.  Even worse, the packets had already been sent to the interviewing committee with the questions already written.

So, the plan is to hire an interim principal for a term of 1-3 years and to begin the search for a permanent principal in January of this year.  Again, I am concerned about the demands placed on our teaching staff and on a new assistant principal with only one year at the Fitz.

So here's the rub: the entire evening I felt that Dr. Nicholson was there not because she wanted to be there or had any interest in any input, but because she was obligated to be there.  She still has not met with the staff at the Fitzgerald, which is quite concerning.  And I, as a parent, with no background in education or academia, am reliant on her for best practice and process information.  Right now, I am not sure that that's enough.