What are these special Board meetings?

A district resident emailed me with some concerns about a special meeting called for the Board on last Saturday. The only description of this meeting was that it was to consider the structure of the district's administration. Given that this was the only description, it was entirely justified to have some curiosity about the purpose and intended outcome of this meeting.

Well, I attended the first of these meetings, and I can tell you that these meetings are a good thing, entirely focused on the future of the district, and a sign of a good administrator looking out for the district.

Dr. Larson requested this meeting as a way of continuing the succession planning for the district as Dr. Peckron retires at the end of this school year. Once she leaves, her position will be open, and he is taking this opportunity to have a discussion about options dealing with how to fill it.

Dr. Larson's Proposal

Dr. Larson proposed splitting the responsibilities for the position of Deputy Superintendent into two different roles. He proposed creating an Associate Superintendent, who would be second in command of the district, and an Executive Director of Curriculum, who would be responsible for the overseeing the current Directors of Elementary, Middle, and High School curriculum.

The Associate Superintendent position would fulfill many of the same administrative responsibilities as Dr. Peckron's current position, but it could be filled by someone with a little less experience. Doing this could keep the cost of filling this position down a bit and would give this person a nice space into which they could grow over time.

The Executive Director of Curriculum position would concentrate the curriculum function in one leg of the org chart, allowing them to focus better on this important job. This would be a new position, but one that is in keeping with the organization of similar districts.

Currently, Dr. Peckron is responsible for both sets of responsibilities, and it is a huge job that she does very well. It may very well be difficult to find someone who can fill both of these roles, and fill them well, so splitting the set of responsibilities makes absolute sense.

This meeting was merely called by Dr. Larson to begin the process of holding discussions around creating this new organization.

The Next Meeting

The next meeting in this process is being held tonight, Sunday, November 18th, at Crestview at 7:00 PM. If you're interested in this, please show up. I'll be there!

-- bab