I'm not likely to get to one of the community meetings in the next two weeks to offer input into the selection of the next superintendent for Jacksonville's schools. Therefore, like every good and greatly introverted person, I'll write about it and share.
Jacksonville's next superintendent should have these characteristics:
1. Humility. An ego-driven superintendent who views the schools as being all about him/her will exhaust our capacity to carry on the hard work of education. It's a daily grind and we need to be led by someone who sees the role as one of service, not being served with an active, unceasing PR campaign in the media.
2. Experience. Not superintendent experience, that would be a good thing but it is not essential for me. The next superintendent should have a minimum ten years of classroom experience, being a teacher, and a minimum ten years of administrative experience in a school, of which at least five years are being the principal. Nothing less will ensure that the superintendent has the empathy and understanding for students, teachers, and administrators who daily engage in the hard work of education.
3. A Broad Philosophy of Public Education. Our superintendent should understand that our schools are more than vehicles of imparting information, training workers, and inculcating compliance to the directions of 'betters.' Public education should never be about the test and the year-long course of instruction geared to prepping children to pass the test. Our city provides a system of public schools to guide children through their developmental stages, encouraging their curiosity about the world, exposing them to new ways of thinking and understanding, assisting them in understanding their responsibilities and privileges as citizens, and helping them find their passions that will carry them through long lives that provide great satisfaction.
Our schools have the task of seeing that our children's needs are provided: food, safety, health, and belonging. Our schools are our communities and are much more than the test scores and school grades that the State of Florida assigns them every year. The next superintendent should understand this.
4. Chutzpah. The next superintendent should not be a 'reformer,' but someone willing to fight for our schools and our children, someone who doesn't confuse test performance with actual learning, someone who will oppose the dictates of the political class when those dictates ignore the actual needs of children because wealth can be gained when privatization takes place.
5. An Understanding of the Neighborhood School as an Institution. A superintendent must understand the significance of a school to its neighborhood, especially neighborhoods that place lower on the socio-economic scale. Our schools are community institutions. They provide identity. They are an anchor in the sea that surrounds them. They are places of safety. Their existence stabilizes their communities from accelerated decline. These schools should not be closed; their families, teachers, and principals should not be threatened with dire consequences. These institutions must be maintained and supported.
6. Beyond a Willingness to Listen, A Willingness to Follow What is Heard. The heart of a superintendent should be that of a servant-leader. Someone who doesn't see the position as an aggrandizement of self, but someone who understands that the superintendent serves all. Someone who doesn't go on listening tours to cut off criticism or curry favor, but someone who takes the feedback and acts upon it. Someone who doesn't stick to preconceived notions, but can actually follow the will of stakeholders even if it conflicts with what the superintendent believes.
7. Acceptance of Democratic Control of Schools. Not democratic as in the political party, but democratic as in the citizens control the schools through their elected school board members. The next superintendent should understand that his/her bosses are the seven board members, not Gary Chartrand, not the other wealthy/political elite in the city, not the Jacksonville Public Education Fund. The superintendent works for the Board of Education.
8. Honesty and integrity. It is difficult for democratic control to be effective when a superintendent is dissembling about such matters as budgets, affirming that funds are in place when in fact the superintendent only anticipates that funds will materialize. The next superintendent must be willing to openly disclose the challenges and difficulties that are faced in addressing school issues.
9. An Understanding of the Learning Process. A superintendent must understand how children actually learn as they pass through the developmental processes of their age and be willing to secure to children those learning environments. Young children must play. Older children need to explore. Indulging curiosity is huge. Adolescents need to be free to challenge and be challenged. Technology is not the answer. The next superintendent should know that computer-based learning programs have their place, but are not a panacea. They are but tools placed into the hands of teachers, who wield them appropriately to guide children in learning. Real books cannot be replaced.
10. A Drive to Get Everything Out of a Teacher's Life That Inhibits Teaching: stupid paperwork done simply because some bureaucrat wants paperwork, scripted lessons, district staff whose only purpose is to inspect teachers for compliance to dictates, the list is endless. The next superintendent should remove the chains and let Duval's teachers show what they can do. It will be amazing.
Here is a link for more information and the times/dates/locations of community meetings: http://www.jaxpef.org/news/what-do-we-expect-from-our-next-superintendent/
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