I, for one, am very impressed that the Minneapolis School Board had both the courage and the wisdom to choose Dave Jennings. Just as the Library Board had the good judgment to choose Kit Hadley to head that system. The Superintendent needs - above all else - to be a leader who can and will make decisions because he/she believes in the institution that they lead.
This notion that to lead the public library system you have to be a librarian or come from a library background or, to be a teacher or come from and education background to lead the school district is antiquated and needs to be scrapped. With all due respect to superintendents who come from "traditional" backgrounds, I think one must acknowledge that while some are successful, there are far too many superintendents who may be good administrators or may have been good teachers but are failures when it comes to leadership skills - which is the primary qualification for a schools system superintendent in my opinion. There are myriad reasons for the problems that we have in public schools today. The historic focus of school boards on finding good administrators with the "proper" academic credentials to be superintendents rather than on finding good leaders is but one contributing factor. In fact, the absence of a background inside the educational establishment can be a huge asset in making decisions and guiding these institutions because you are not trapped inside the institutional thinking. Good leaders do in fact, surround themselves with people who are expert in specific areas and then invest in those people both the authority and responsibility to lead/manage those areas. I know Dave Jennings and must strongly disagree that he lacks "relevant expertise"! He is very intelligent, he listens, he makes good (if sometimes unpopular) decisions, he has a great deal of confidence, he works well with people, he is a genuinely good guy, he believes in public schools, he understands his role in the system, and he is a man of good character. He is also a bit of a character with sense of humor. All of these skills will serve him well - better than if he only had "relevant expertise"! Jim Bernstein Fulton -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003 7:26 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Mpls] Jennings is short on expertise, except as PR man. The board hired Jennings as chief operating officer and gave him a huge salary, even though he was short on relevant expertise, judging by his resume. But as an experience executive I am sure he knows how to delegate his duties to subordinants. Someone with several years of experience as a Chief Operating Officer for struggling businesses might have actually figured out how to balance the budget without cutting services as much as Jennings. It's the same thing with the Superintendent job. He's not qualified to run a school district. But he can always delegate his duties to the assistant superintendents. -Doug Mann, King Field Soon to publish a pamphlet entitled Flight from Equality: School reform in the US since 1983 http://educationright.tripod.com REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
