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Doug,

I find the hiring of Mr. Raymond as Chief Accountability Officer to be a more interesting development. It appears that they are turning to a person from the business community, rather than one from the "academic" community. We should follow this with great interest, as if this is successful, it will be a great model for GCS. Many of us have been saying for some time that taking a greater business approach to running an organization with an annual budget of $1/2 billion is necessary. GCS is desperately in need of people with a business, bottom line approach is needed in the administration and school board. Right now, the word "accountability" among these people might as well be a word in an obscure language... they don't know the meaning of the word.

The good people of Charlotte knew what they were doing when they rejected Terry Grier as superintendent, but he keeps fooling the good people of Guilford County, over and over, every day.

Why not nip all this in the bud and have the citizens help select the Super. If you have a Super who inspires trust, loyalty and projects competence, people would have not trouble trusting his principal appointments. When a Super projects incompetence (except for spinning one disaster after another), encourages political division and strife in his district, is kept in power solely by ingratiation with one or two politically powerful people, is almost universally loathed by the teachers, and has left a trail of political chicanery literally stretching from coast to coast, is when prolems arise.

It seems this would be much simpler.

Doug,

Terry Grier would never allow such an approach to selecting principals in this district. It's his power base. Heck, by contract, the school board can't even have input into the process. Let's face it, Grier is a dictator. He can hire who he wants, and he can move principals around as he chooses. It's part of the spoils system that keeps him in power. All school employees know that they serve at Grier's pleasure. When push comes to shove, who are they going to serve? It's not even a serious question. The public participating in the selection of principals will never happen in this county during the Grier Regime. Grier's contract guarantees it won't happen.

Stormy,

Which page or section of the contract are you referring to? I don't see it.

Jennifer,

I don't know as I have never seen the contract. I am citing this based upon what I have heard school board members say in the past that they have no authority over school hirings, it is guaranteed to Grier by contract. the most recent was the hiring of the Chief Academic Officer. Are they uninformed as to what is or is not in Grier's contract? I've also been told that Grier has autority to conduct consulting and other interests outside of the school at his choosing; the board has no authority over him there either.

Stormy, I think the deal with Grier is that the school board must approve any principal hirings, but once they are hired Grier can place them in any job he sees fit.

In other words, a person is just hired as a principal, not as the principal of such-and-such school.

I know the BOE has a personnel section on the agenda of their monthly meeting that they must vote up or down. However, they don't consider these individually - they just get a long list of new hires for principals, teachers, teacher assistants, bus drivers, etc. It's usually a rubber stamp "yes" vote.

I wonder if perhaps the board doesn't want any control of principal hirings and firings. After all, it's easier to say, "We don't have any control over that" than to answer the tough questions. Just a thought.

I've never heard of a school system's superintendent being elected by the general population. Typically, they're hired and fired by the elected School Board. The current organizational situation (Board hires Super) in Guilford is pretty typical of probably every school system in North Carolina.

I wouldn't say Grier's powers are dictatorial in light of the fact he does have a Board he reports to and is responsible to for his actions, which is very typical of most organizations/corporations. I would consider Grier's position the same as a CEO and most CEO's are given quite a bit of latitude in surrounding him/herself with personnel comfortable with the CEO's mgmt style and philosophy.

The last thing any Board of any organization should do is to micromanage the decisions made by the CEO they've appointed to the position. If they feel they must, then it's time to get a new CEO.

Having the community getting involved in the hiring of a principal is ok provided the majority of the decision of hiring is arrived at by the local Board.

Principals won't have much autonomy if they end of "running for office". What's next, campaign ads, slush funds and kissing babies?

That said, it would be good for the public to be better educated about the academic requirements involved in being a principal, not just clamouring for discipline at all costs. If even a few more taxpayers and parents came to grips with the problems faced in our schools, it would be worthwhile to get their input. But if it degrades into the usual shouting match, then let the superintendent handle it.