Article courtesy
of Our
Town
Junior Ivy League
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Room at the Top
Educators aren’t clamoring to become administrators |
Weston, Conn., is a leafy suburb that attracts
world-weary New York families seeking expansive
yards, strong community and wonderful schools.
Weston, and other towns like it, have lately experienced
an explosive growth in families, straining even
their considerable resources and spurring debate
over who gets what – and how much. In Weston,
a group of parents of children with special needs
has been particularly vocal. One school day a few
weeks ago, the town woke up to the news that the
superintendent of schools had hung herself. Now
the finger pointing is being played out in the
local press and at anguished public meetings. Was
she overwhelmed by personal problems, or did she
collapse under the unbearable pressure of trying
to please this demanding community? No one knows.
But the buck stops at the superintendent, and in
this case at least, she couldn’t take it
anymore.
This tragedy reverberates beyond the leafy hamlet of Weston. All
school administrators now operate in a “Gotcha” culture.
The threat of litigation looms ever larger. Parents want results
and they want them NOW! One would think Manhattan would be a
mecca for ambitious educators eager to make their mark. Quite
the opposite. It is increasingly difficult to find qualified
candidates to fill leadership posts; especially in New York City.
For the past decade, plum jobs have gone wanting.
It took over two years to find a qualified candidate
to lead the Hunter College Campus Schools – Hunter
Elementary and Hunter High – schools with
an international reputation for excellence. It
helped when they raised the salary, but candidates
were not banging down the doors. The same goes
for other public and private schools. P.S. 6, on
the Upper East Side, an outstanding elementary
school – great staff, great kids and diverse
and supportive families – is in the midst
of a principal search. Ten years ago you would
have had 80 candidates; today, you’re lucky
if you get 20. Has the well really gone dry, or
is it that nobody wants the responsibility anymore?
Today’s parents, many of whom are high-level
professionals, have high expectations and feel
obliged to engineer their school’s success.
Park Avenue Christian Church Day School, a toney
East Side nursery school of about 180 families,
is still reeling from the news that their director,
Mitten Wainwright, is retiring. Parents expected
Nancy Vascellaro, co-director and “steward
for the school’s philosophy,” to be
the clear successor. But Church officials said
it was not to be. Tossing aside decorum, these
parents are not leaving the selection of a new
director up to chance … or the Church. They’ve
hired a national search firm, Educator’s
Collaborative, and brought in the big guns: Evelyn
Halpert, former head of the Brearley School, and
Joan McMenamin, former head of Nightingale-Bamford
School, were dragged out of retirement to step
into the breach. All this for a sweet little nursery
school that still has a “parlor.” Thirty
years ago, when the last head of the nursery school
retired, many of the staff departed, but Mitten,
who was then a classroom teacher, stayed on and
humbly accepted the mantle of leadership.
The rest, as they say, is history.
To build a reservoir of leaders, you have to have
enough good teachers in the pipeline; and the teacher
shortage is old news. “People will do a lot
for fame – but to work in a low-paying job
and not get any respect?” says Ellen Myers
of Teacher’s Network, a non-profit organization
that supports professional development and grooms
teachers as leaders. According to Ellen, “When
educators are respected, encouraged and empowered
as the professionals they truly are, the difference
in their lives – and the lives of their students – is
remarkable.” Teacher’s Network supports
the people we rely on every day to nurture our
children’s love of learning through IMPACT
II, a grants and networking program, and the National
Teacher Policy Institute (NTPI), which grooms teacher
leaders. Parents have to learn to nurture their
administrators in return.
Everyone works best in a caring, supportive community. It can be
as simple as donating spare theater tickets to your school or dropping
your principal or teacher a note of appreciation. There’s
a limit to all the things a school can do and be. The Rolling Stones
have it right: “You can’t always get what you want,
but if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you
need.”
“Junior
Ivy League” is a weekly column written
by the authors of
“The Manhattan Family Guide to Private Schools.”
Please mail questions to “Junior Ivy League,”
c/o Our Town, 242 W. 30th St., 5th Fl., N.Y., N.Y. 10001
or fax to (212) 268-0614 s
or e-mail to juniorivyleague@aol.com
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