2-14-08
Principal Hire Feedback Synopsis:
Thank you all for your terrific response to our request for feedback on the principal hire. It is clear that you all have a lot of very valuable thoughts that we need to hear and we would like to continue with this avenue of communication. But more on that at a later time. First I’d like to give you a synopsis of what we heard from you about the possibility of hiring Karen Torry and Vanessa Gray as our school leaders.
First, the responses were overwhelmingly in favor of hiring Karen and Vanessa to share the huge giant job of “principal” in a start-up charter school. It was interesting to see comments from several who thought that this was a sane way to address the issue of big jobs for people who are parents. Many wished that they could find a situation like this for themselves.
There were a number of folks who didn’t know who Karen was so we need to make sure to set up some kind of opportunity for everyone to meet her! Actually, I feel certain that pretty much everyone has met Karen in one way or another since she is one of our founders and has spent about a zillion hours working in the school since the beginning but maybe some don’t realize her official role yet. Hopefully we can change that soon.
There were some concerns about how two people would share the job and how the accountability would work and we shared those concerns as well. We spent quite a bit of time in the interview discussing the logistics of how this would work both in the school and with the board. To address the concerns of accountability, we have decided to write two separate job descriptions that lay out who is responsible for what as well as what the overlapping areas of responsibility are. Each person will be evaluated separately by the board both through monthly reports and on an annual basis. We will spend the next month or so setting up an official evaluation process. This process will include feedback from teachers, students, and parents so you can expect some kind of survey going out at the end of the year. Our development consultant, Bonnie Hester (an experienced principal and start-up charter school veteran) will be working with Melanie Stagnitti (one of our parents whose professional skills are in human resources) to help us set up this system so we know it will be both professional and effective.
Another concern was that neither Vanessa nor Karen have taught in the classroom. We recognize that this creates particular challenges and we have had some candid discussions about how to address this. Some of the solutions include bringing in consultants and working with education professionals from the school community, Pacific University and other successful charter schools. This is already happening as part of professional development for teachers and staff. Others include a professional development program that gives Karen and Vanessa additional experience and training that they need in certain areas. To help with this, we have Robin Lindsley who is a very experienced educator with over 25 years of experience in the classroom and a recognized expert in mixed age classrooms. Robin has been working intensively with teachers to target areas that need work as well as providing programming to address those needs. In addition, she has been acting as a mentor and guide to Vanessa as she works to develop our school program. Mainly, we will need to continue doing what we’ve done since we began planning this school: identifying needs and finding resources to address them, whether from within or beyond our own ranks.
On the other hand, both Vanessa and Karen do have plenty of experience in other areas that are very beneficial to the school. As most of you know, Vanessa has a strong background in administration in a small liberal arts college and Karen is a former journalist who has been a child advocacy attorney for the past 15 years. Both have gained the trust and respect of the school district and, as founders, have a deep and wide understanding of the school mission and values. Over the past few years of developing the school, they have gained a great deal of experience and knowledge of the unique characteristics of charter schools along with the ability to face and solve any and all problems that come along with grace, intelligence, and perseverance. And, as a possible point of interest, many successful charter schools are led by non-educators. It is often this different perspective that gives these innovative schools the orientation that is so attractive to parents who are looking for an alternative educational model. So, as is often the case, a thing that might be seen as a weakness from one point of view turns out to be a terrific strength when looked at from another.
So, given the skills and experience that they bring to the job along with the overwhelming positive response from both staff and the school community, the board has unanimously voted to hire Karen and Vanessa as co-principals starting immediately. Thanks again for all of your input and we hope that you will respond as enthusiastically the next time we need your feedback.
Terry O’Day, FGCS Board Chair
