Baldrige Award Received

According to the I-SS web site, a delegation of just over 50 administrators, teachers, Board of Education members, and students recently traveled to Washington, DC to attend the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award ceremony. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke presented the award and Vice President Joe Biden congratulated the recipients. Apparently President Obama was not present.

Click on the link below to access the article on the I-SS web site.

I-SS Accepts Baldrige Award

Update:

Click on the link below to download the video of the Baldrige Award Ceremony. (There is a lot of rhetoric but there are also some excellent selections played by the Air Force Band.)

Baldrige Ceremony Video

Missing: Area Advisory Meeting Reports

As I stated in my previous post, the School Board’s selection of Mr. Johnson as superintendent was made before the report of the various area advisory meetings was publicized. Wednesday, I sent Dawn Creason, I-SS Director of Public Relations, an e-mail asking to inspect the final report as well as any intermediate reports of the various Area Advisory Meetings that began on Oct. 1, 2009. I also requested to inspect the reports of any other advisory meetings, including the one with certified personnel, that were held relating to the selection of the new superintendent. I received the following reply.

Mr. Klaene-

I have checked, and the minutes posted online are the reports of the advisory meetings. There were no intermediate reports. Additionally, there have been no meetings with certified personnel relating to the selection of the new superintendent.

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I have read the minutes of the advisory meetings and they are not the reports that were promised. As a matter of fact, each of the minutes includes the following statement.

All information gathered at this and all Area Advisory Meetings will be presented back to the community in the form of a report from Mr. Hultberg and Ms. Masiello.

Additionally, at the last of the area advisory meetings, Mr. Johnson stated that the advisory meeting report would be posted on the I-SS web site within a few days. Why is there no report? Why was no advisory meeting held with the teachers as promised? Why was there no public survey as promised?

As part of his comments at the Board meeting, Dr. Cash said: “we reviewed recommendations made through the district advisory meeting process and the data obtained from formal and informal surveys throughout the education and civic community.” How could they review the recommendations if there was no report? What formal and informal surveys was he referring to? Perhaps the Board members simply talked to their friends, relatives, and close associates.

Now don’t get me wrong, I know that Mr. Johnson is a capable and dedicated man. I certainly think that he will do a good job as superintendent. However, the Board promised that they would use a particular process in the selection of the new superintendent. Yet, in the end, they chose to abruptly stop that process and go behind closed doors to make their decision. This casts a dark cloud over the whole process and even worse; it casts a dark cloud over Mr. Johnson. Once again, the School Board has shown a lack of respect for students, parents, teachers, other I-SS employees, and the citizens of Iredell County.

New Superintendent Update

Update: Audio clips have been added.

As I stated in my previous post Mr. Johnson was named New I-SS superintendent at the Board of Education meeting on Monday evening. Dr. Cash, Board Chairman, said that the decision was made at a previous meeting. I assume that it was made done during the closed session after the Committee of the Whole meeting last Monday. Click on the link below to access the official announcement on the I-SS web site.

Board Selects Johnson

Click on the link below to access the announcement on the Record and Landmark web site.

Johnson named I-SS superintendent

Prior to naming the new superintendent, Dr. Cash made a number of comments some of which are not included in those announcements. Some of Dr. Cash's comments are listed below.

“One of the most, if not the most, important responsibilities of a Board is to ensure the placement of a leader or CEO who shares the vision of the institution and is able to capably and responsibly nurture the institution in carrying out its mission. As the Board of I-SS began to consider who would be chosen to become our next superintendent,

we reviewed our vision to improve student learning by igniting a passion for learning and began to contemplate what leadership skills could help us all be excited about our focus on learning,

we thought about our mission …

we considered personal attributes and characteristics of a leader …

we reviewed recommendations made through the district advisory meeting process and the data obtained from formal and informal surveys throughout the education and civic community.

Resulting from this process, several common themes, skills, attributes, characteristics of our next desirable leader emerged.”

You may now listen to Dr. Cash's comments and announcement.

He then went on to make additional comments and stated some of the reasons behind the Board’s decision before making the actual announcement.

While I think that Brady Johnson is a good man and was an excellent choice for Interim Superintendent, I think that naming him Superintendent was a very premature choice. The reports of the area advisory meetings have not yet been publicized, the advisory meeting with certified personnel has not yet even been held, and there has been no public survey. The board made certain commitments regarding the selection of the superintendent that have now been totally discarded.

The Board is again stating that they really don’t care about students, teachers, parents, and the public. They made this decision on their own without the full input of the I-SS stakeholders. That is not a good for anyone but the Board. They were not properly carrying out the duties of their elected positions. Quite simply, they took the easy way out.

You may now listen to Mr. Johnson's comments.

New Superintendent Named

At tonight's Board of Education meeting Dr. Cash stated that Brady Johnson had been selected to be the new superintendent. Before making the announcement, Dr. Cash read a number of recommendations that were made at the various advisory meetings and stated that the Board had made their decision based on those recommendations.

Congratulations to Mr. Brady Johnson!

In a subsequent post I will give more information and some comments.