Setting Goals

For The School System

To the Editor:

Although I’ve only lived in town a handful of years, this year I will see my fourth superintendent and third high school principal in the Newtown schools. Gone are the days of 20-year tenures for school superintendents; that rarely happens anymore. In fact, most superintendents stay with a school system for a very short amount of time.

When a superintendent served a school system for the better part of 20 years, he developed goals, set the course, hired staff, and made it happen. The Newtown Schools enjoyed exactly this during the tenure of John Reed. When a school system has a long-term leader, the job of the Board of Education is somewhat easier. The Board can follow the superintendent’s lead.

But those days are gone. We cannot assume that our school leaders will stay for more than a half dozen years, because, in today’s world, they often don’t. So then, gone too are the days when we could rely on a superintendent to be our primary goal-setter or our direction-setter. It has become critical that our Board of Education develop goals for the schools and set the course for us to meet those goals, hiring a superintendent whose charge is to help us achieve our goals. If we don’t, we will be changing our course constantly, which will have us running in circles, chasing our tails.

Perhaps in the days of long-term school leaders, Boards of Education were well served by smart people who had common sense and a good moral compass. But those days are gone. In a time of short-term school leaders, it is critical that the Board of Education be comprised of smart people who have common sense, a good moral compass and knowledge of education.

The board must take responsibility for knowing what a quality school system is and how we differ from the definition we create. The board must know what goals to create to close the gap between who we are and who we want to be. The board must set a course for the school system’s leaders and then be able to evaluate those leaders on how they move us towards where we, the community of Newtown, want our schools to be.

As you decide for whom to vote on Tuesday, ask yourself who you want setting the goals and direction for the school system. Do you want someone who has taught at every level, K -12 and been an administrator at the elementary and high school levels? Do you want someone who has created and spent school budgets? Do you want someone who has set educational goals for and with students, teachers and schools? Do you want someone who has worked in and studied excellent school systems? Do you want someone who knows what our schools could be? I do. I am someone who can. I am Julie Luby and I can help us set a course for school improvement that will take us where we want and need to go.

Julie Luby

Candidate for Board of Education

15 Fox Run Lane South, Newtown                   October 31, 2007