WMS Principal "Resigns"

[lilly]

OK, what gives? And why?

Does anyone know how the hiring committees are selected for these positions? And how do they invite/select the parent representatives? We don't seem to be having a run on great hires (art chair, PPS directors, principal). Maybe things should change? And what is the big secret about how the hiring committees are constructed?

Or, maybe there is a problem with the job expectations and descriptions?

[Chris_Wendt]

Lilly queried:
“…Does anyone know how the hiring committees are selected for these positions? And how do they invite/select the parent representatives? We don't seem to be having a run on great hires (art chair, PPS directors, principal)….”

First, the roles and responsibilities in the professional hiring process require further elucidation. “They” is actually, in this case, she. Meaning, hiring a principal is the direct responsibility of one person, the Superintendent of Schools. Appointing committees, selecting members for committees those are nice touches, but actually just so much smoke and mirrors, having the effect of attempting to diffuse responsibility for the potential of making a bad hire or several bad hires.

However, no one has a crystal ball for hiring super stars, or to prevent hiring turkeys.

One thing that should be done is a postmortem, conducted by the Superintendent to review this “resignation” and the assumptions made and actions taken during the selection, interviewing and hiring and due diligence processes. The postmortem should carefully consider Lily’s pointed question, how was the hiring committee selected? Who influenced the selection, and was this committee selection, and thus the entire hiring process, tainted by the whiff of nepotism, just to use an example?

Maybe a better way to view this would be for the Superintendent to ask herself, looking retrospectively at the names of the hiring committee members: “Was there even a remote possibility of this person or that person NOT being appointed to that committee, based on special “influences” on me?”

That is what I mean by the “whiff”….

Chris Wendt