Stand in the place where you are - R.E.M., 1989

Where do you stand on this; where do you stand on that? Well, I stand on my feet... All kidding aside, I do have some guiding principles that go into my decision making process.

First of all, I stand with the other members of the Board. We are a team, and as such we discuss, debate and decide as a team. We may not always agree on everything, but once the Board has made a decision we move forward in the best interests of the students in our District.

What is best for the kids? That is the question that I, and every board member, ask first and last when making choices. There are always multiple ways to get to the same goal; as long as we keep our focus on the kids then we know we will be heading in the right direction.

Research based and data driven. I've had the pleasure of hearing Douglas Reeves speak at a couple of educational conferences. To paraphrase him, "We already know what we need to do, now we just need to do it." There is a lot (a lot) of research and data out there that tells us what works for kids and what doesn't. A lot of the things we need to do seem like common sense, but it is often hard to change ways that have been institutionalized and ingrained in the culture. I have no qualms about implementing effective strategies into our District, no matter how popular or unpopular they might be, if they are based on sound logic, research and data.

Defined autonomy. I believe the leaders that we put into our schools should have control in their buildings. At the end of the day we hold our school leaders (and all of our staff) to a high level of accountability. They are given the ability to make decisions based on the specific needs of their buildings and the surrounding community. It is the job of our District administration to guide and support these building leaders so that they can be the educational leaders that we expect them to be. As such, the members of the Board often visit schools, but you will rarely see us directly involved with, or the overturning of, decisions made by our school leaders.