NWA editorial: A showcase showdown?

Superintendent spins wheel on assistant principals

With less than 40 days before his retirement, Superintendent Paul Hewitt will leave a final (maybe) lasting impression on the parents, students and employees of the Fayetteville School District on his way out the door, and, for some, it's not a good one.

Hewitt is the University of Arkansas associate professor who took Fayetteville's top administrative post two years ago when Vicki Thomas departed unceremoniously. He was 68 at the time, leaving little doubt his tenure would be short. But with his extensive experience as a California teacher, dean of students, assistant principal, principal and as a 17-year superintendent, the School Board had found someone who could ably run the district and provide some breathing room in the effort to find a longer-term leader.

What’s the point?

Fayetteville’s departing superintendent misses the mark on plan to shuffle assistant principals at elementary and middle schools.

The school district has taken advantage of it, having hired Oswego, Ill., superintendent Matt Wendt to take over July 1.

It's in the context of Hewitt's departure and the district's transition to a new leader that some parents question the departing superintendent's decision to scramble the ranks of assistant principals in the district's middle and elementary schools.

Don't let anyone kid you: Assistant principals are where the proverbial rubber meets the road. Students know who they are. They're familiar faces before, during and after school. Every school building is strengthened by having good assistant principals. They play a vital role in the administration of schools and in relationships between students, teachers, parents and staff.

They're not just pieces on a chess board.

Hewitt, of course, knows that. But, he said, the role of assistant principals is primarily to one day become principals. We suppose it's like the destiny of all assistant coaches is to one day be a head coach. So how many head coaches are randomly shuffling their assistants around? But let's not be distracted by talking about coaches.

Back to the lowly assistant principals: Hewitt says the district needs to focus on developing great principals. We admire that as a district goal. But Hewitt's chosen approach reminds us of the imprecise nature of zero tolerance policies, the kinds that apply a one-size-fits-all mentality. Human resources management ought not have a lingering resemblance to the machine-dictated reality of The Matrix.

Assistant principals weren't asked their thoughts on their reassignments because most wouldn't want to move, he said. Hewitt, rather, decided a collective push to get these educational administrators "out of their comfort zones" was necessary to help them grow professionally.

"We do not believe that remaining in one school and observing one principal gives an assistant principal the depth of understanding needed to be a great principal," Hewitt said.

Hewitt said he advised Wendt of all major decisions. We're left to assume Wendt backed the move.

Parents have started a petition drive to encourage the Fayetteville School Board, their elected representatives and voice in school district matters, to step in, to undo Hewitt's switcharoo and put off further implementation until Wendt is fully on board, in charge and capable of evaluating the situation.

The request sounds reasonable, primarily because the assistant principal shuffle appears to be just the opposite.

Maybe Hewitt's operating theory -- that assistant principals must be periodically reshuffled in the name of professional development -- has some merit. Undoubtedly, having different bosses can show any mid-level manager a lot of the good and some of the not-so-good approaches leaders can take.

One characteristic these assistant principals would hopefully learn is how their decisions should be informed by their knowledge of the individuals involved and weigh the circumstances of each situation in which they need to provide leadership. Perhaps they would learn that students, faculty, staff and parents generally don't respond as well to spin-the-wheel randomness when it comes to implementing change. Future leaders could learn how to be in consultation with those to be affected by a decision, to listen and apply their common sense to the needs of each employee while also keeping the district's goals in mind.

Or the Human Resources Department could just keep a big The Price Is Right (or whoever) spinning wheel handy for times when reassignments need to be made.

Hewitt's Yahtzee-style dice roll may, to some, seem like cutting-edge, disruptive (in the good way) management. The kind that makes us smile when it comes from a pointy-haired boss dispensing "random acts of management" in a Dilbert cartoon. But in the real world, it's not generating many smiles.

If this is such a necessary and success-oriented tactic, why didn't Hewitt do it when he first arrived instead of as one of his last acts as superintendent?

One school board member, Bob Maranto, took to Facebook to explain it's Hewitt's call, that the school board is about policy, not day-to-day operation of the district. And we agree. But this hardly seems like a routine, day-to-day decision. It's one sending ripples, if not waves, through the district. And we're not so sure the explanation has justified the action.

The school board, which meets Thursday evening, owes parents and students an opportunity to be heard on this disruptive model for assistant principal assignments. They should consider the impact not just on students and families, or on the assistant principals affected, or on the school environments. Maybe they should also consider whether future assistant principals would rather be part of a district where they are individually evaluated and managed, where their professional development seems a little more collaborative than force fed. Where professional futures aren't cast into a giant machine blowing lottery balls into the air.

It's a bad move for a departing superintendent and should be stopped.

Commentary on 05/24/2016

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