LETTERS.The Dentist Analogy I loved the analogy used by John Taylor John Taylor, or Johnny Taylor may refer to: Academic figures
Our state department of education is requiring performance assessments and issuing report cards because they are mandated by the legislature. I sent a copy of Taylor's article to several state board members, the state education director and the state department of education. I received no response. RANDY SCARBROUGH Superintendent, River Valley School District, Strawberry, Ark. How ironic that my superintendent gave me a copy of John Taylor's column the day after the Massachusetts Department of Education decided it would test math teachers whose students score poorly on the state mathematics test. I would have liked to share his column with our state education department, but I'm not sure the staff there would have understood it. CURT SIMPSON Coordinator of Administrative Services, West Boylston School District, West Boylston, Mass. Shortchanging Women Thomas Glass shared a lot of insight on the dearth of women in the superintendency Su`per`in`tend´en`cy n. 1. The act of superintending; superintendence. ("Where Are All the Women Superintendents?" June 2000), but he overlooked a major reason. Because of their unwillingness and/or inability for family reasons to relocate or to work in a poor, nonurban area, women in Virginia rarely apply for about 100 of the 134 superintendents' jobs. During the past several years, we finally have convinced some women that even men rarely move from the classroom to the superintendency in the same school system without advancing from small to intermediate to large districts. If more women would agree to serve as superintendents in the small, rural, poor districts, they would gain the experience to be even more competitive in the choice locations. FRANK E. BARHAM Executive Director, Virginia School Boards Association, Charlottesville, Va. Tom Glass failed to mention one barrier: Women, particularly at the lower levels of the organization, often are reluctant or resistant toward working for a woman. I am a successful superintendent with five years of experience. I recently applied for a position in another district that previously had a female superintendent. After I was interviewed by the board in a first round of interviews, a list of candidates was circulated. The union members began calling the candidates' school districts. The president of the secretaries union called the president in my current district to say, "We just had 10 years of a woman superintendent and we don't want another one." The three finalists were all male although our experiences and profiles were very similar. MARY LYNNE DERRINGTON Superintendent, Chimacum School District 49, Chimacum, Wash. When I announced my resignation after six years as superintendent to accept a university position, a former member of the school board asked to serve on the community selection committee for the sole purpose of ensuring the board would not consider another female candidate. When a woman accepts a superintendency and already has community members set against her because of ingrained in·grained adj. 1. Firmly established; deep-seated: ingrained prejudice; the ingrained habits of a lifetime. 2. cultural biases, it is difficult to survive, much less succeed. GAYLA FREDERICKSON Assistant Professor of Educational Administration, South Dakota State University South Dakota State University, at Brookings; land-grant support; coeducational; chartered 1883 as Dakota Agricultural College, opened 1884. In 1907 it became South Dakota State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, and in 1964 its present name was adopted. , Brookings, S.D. A Not So Torrid Tale I was disappointed and quite frankly outraged by Marilyn Grady's guest column ("The Torrid Tale of a Superintendent's Secretary," June 2000). I have worked for my current school district almost 26 years. During that time, I have been the executive secretary to four outstanding superintendents. Each encouraged me to take on more responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the office and to become a problem solver, Through their mentoring, I returned to school and earned my bachelor's degree and had my position upgraded to executive assistant. Yes, on occasion, I incurred the jealousy of other administrators who lacked the ability to make a decision or referred to me as "being out of my box." I earned the respect of the superintendents who considered me a part of the management team by including me in administrative workshops and seminars and who, on many occasions, solicited my input when considering new ideas "New Ideas" is the debut single by Scottish New Wave/Indie Rock act The Dykeenies. It was first released as a Double A-side with "Will It Happen Tonight?" on July 17, 2006. The band also recorded a video for the track. and procedures. I find it foolish to believe that one individual or one isolated incident contributes to the downfall of a superintendent. CECILIA R. BIRDSELL Executive Assistant to the Superintendent/Board Secretary, East Penn School District The East Penn School District is a school district based in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The school district was established in 1952 and was originally known as the East Penn Union School District. , Emmaus, Pa. ISO (1) See ISO speed. (2) (International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland, www.iso.ch) An organization that sets international standards, founded in 1946. The U.S. member body is ANSI. 9000's Value I read Amy Zuckerman's article ("Quality Assurance Through ISO 9000," June 2000) with keen interest. As director of finance in a district of 9,000 students and 17 schools, I was intrigued by the idea of applying internationally recognized quality standards to school districts. We are very interested in pursuing ISO 9001 certification. J. GREG MACK Director of Finance, Lexington County School District 2, West Columbia West Columbia is the name of two towns in the United States:
Jane Hammond Jane R. Hammond (b. 1950) is an American artist who lives and works in New York City. She was influenced by the late composer John Cage. She collaborated with the poet John Ashbery, making 62 paintings based on titles suggested by Ashbery; she also collaborated with the poet contributed a wonderful article ("Our Application of ISO 9000") in the June issue. The Jefferson County Jefferson County is the name of 25 counties and one parish in the United States. The following are named for Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States:
It would have been so easy to have an excuse to neglect the target of excellence in the wake of a traumatic event A traumatic event is an event that is or may be a cause of trauma. The term may refer to one of the followiong:
KARL V Karl V is an opera, described as a Bühnenwerk mit Musik ('stage work with music') by Ernst Krenek, his opus 73. The German libretto is by the composer. . HERTZ Past President, American Association of School Administrators The American Association of School Administrators (AASA), founded in 1865, is the professional organization for more than 13,000 educational leaders across the United States. , Thiensville, Wis. |
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