At Tuesday's meeting of the HCDS Board of Education, Dr. Kaweeda Adams of HYA provided an update on the superintendent search. She presented the professional profile, created based on community engagement, and a summary of the community survey conducted earlier in the process. Those documents are reproduced below and can also be found here.
In the Leadership Profile report, "Academic Improvement and Instructional Focus" are identified as Highest Priorities, after "Communication & Transparency" and "Rebuilding Trust & Morale." In the Community Survey Summary, "Establish a culture of high expectations for all students and personnel" is ranked second under "top-rated leadership profile characteristics."
It was reported, as it has been before, that the board received twenty-nine applications for the position of Superintendent of Schools, and nine applicants have been identified for further review. The board conducted the first round of interviews with the candidates this past Sunday. It is expected the semi-finalists will be interviewed in an executive session meeting on Tuesday, May 26.
One of the members of the BOE asked if the process being followed now was the same process that had been used in the past. BOE president Mark DePace replied, "Not last time but four years ago." In other words, it is not the process that resulted in hiring Juliette Pennyman in 2023, but it was the process followed to identify LisaMarie Spindler in 2022, who resigned after fourteen months in the position.
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What’s that old saying about the definition of insanity?
ReplyDeleteHCSD is a machine built to produce jobs for adults.
ReplyDeleteKids are the fuel for the machine.
The fuel supply is shrinking, but the machine can't shrink with it (Labor Unions, apathetic community).
That's your 5.8% tax hike.
The machine will work harder and sputter to produce jobs, its real purpose, until it breaks and there are no kids left.
By then, two decades of Hudson children will have passed through it with suboptimal outcomes.
And the teachers will still lose their jobs.
This is the great hollowing out of the Hudson Valley. The math has already been done. The only question is who admits it last.
What is the argument here, commenters? Should HCSD *not* have a superintendent? Is HCSD, with its enrollment of ~1650 students, really a bellwether for the entire Hudson Valley region, or is that just malarkey? Are there not top-performing public schools elsewhere in the region, in communities facing similar demographic and economic challenges?
ReplyDeleteMaybe they should stop repeating the same mistakes over and over by using the firm that gave us two superintendents in a row who were objectively duds. Both stayed for barely a year or so, left the district worse off, and with somewhat of a golden parachute. This firm seems to be working less for the district and more as a talent agent for a pool of Ed. PhDs who get shuffled around like mid range professional athletes. Maybe the board should just look into hiring from within the district and find someone who has roots here, relationships with the teachers and parents, and won’t shuffle off to the next sucker district when the job gets tough.
DeleteAs far as needed a superintendent—yes we do. But do we need one, and the large back office of six figured administrators for just 1,600 students? That’s an average to small sized high school in most of the country. Many states have just one district per county, not one per each set of primary and secondary schools. As student enrollment continues to decline, the local districts should look into consolidation. Not necessarily closing and combining schools, but back office administration… why not?
This is not a debate, a conversation or a question: the HCSD is terrible at what it does (or, more accurately, at what it doesn't do). Has the addition of 1 individual administrator made any difference in the educational outcomes of students? No. Has the HCSD come up with more than jingoistic bloviation when it comes to future plans, actions and goals? No.
DeleteSo what's the point of defending the status quo UNLESS you're feeding off that particular public tit? None.
Thus support for the status quo is best understood as defending the jobs of non-performing administrators and consultants at the expense of our children. It's a sick and sad commentary on how shamelessly a group of bureaucrats and their supporters can use children for their own benefit -- disgusting. Made even more so by the BoE's choice to terminate educators while sparing back office paper pushers.
Nobody is saying abolish the superintendent, Michael. The argument is that Columbia County runs 11 of them for roughly 9,000 students. The national average is one per 3,500. Florida runs one per 43,000. Union Jack is right: that's not a school system, thats a job preservation scheme with classrooms attached. The question isn't whether HCSD needs a superintendent. Its whether Columbia County needs eleven.
ReplyDelete- Consolidate the districts.
- Economies of scale, fewer top heavy admins.
But this will not happen. Because the HCSD primary objective is jobs, not kids.
Also if Hochul opts into this (as rumours from Albany suggests she will), HCSD is going to have a very tough decade.
https://www.city-journal.org/article/federal-scholarship-granting-organizations-private-schools-new-york
And see here: https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2026/05/08/kathy-hochul-opts-into-federal-tax-scholarship-school-choice/
HCSD can now fix itself... or the feds and fiscal gravity will.
A specific, strong academic improvement plan should be number one on the list.
ReplyDeleteEverything else listed is generic and can be applied to literally ANY job. Please do better, this list needs to be more education focused. Strong communicator? No sh%t. That needs to be a given at this point. The bar is being set really low. Not just here but for the entire country.
You have nailed it. The greatest threat to America is illiteracy. A population that cannot read.is doomed live hopeless lives
ReplyDelete