Superintendent Fleishman Introduces Interim Principal Harold

Elaine Harold, Amy Kelly and David Fleishman

Superintendent David Fleishman kicked off our third Principal coffee by acknowledging Amy Kelly’s commitment to the Franklin community and the social and emotional growth of her students.  He also recognized the room full of sixty parents and spoke of how the level of engagement at the school has grown tremendously under Amy’s direction.

Interim Principal Elaine Harold was introduced.  Elaine has served as an Interim Principal for the past two years in the Newton Public Schools.  This experience combined with seventeen years as the Principal of the Fiske School in Wellesley will ensure a successful year.  In addition, Elaine is familiar with the curriculum, knows the other elementary school principals and can also take care of building challenges.  Elaine is very excited to join the Franklin community and is extremely impressed by the level of engagement among the families.  Her goal for this year is to keep the Franklin on a steady course but not to allow anything to stagnate.  She will push forward where needed but will avoid unnecessary changes as it increases the anxiety among students, teachers, and parents.  She will also be instrumental in setting up the next principal for success. 

Elaine is very well respected by her former staff and peers.  She is a terrific mentor for new teachers and will continue the work that current Principal Amy Kelly has done help our teachers develop in their roles.  Elaine is looking forward to getting to know the students and parents at the Franklin.  If any questions or concerns arise, she asks that parents go first to their child’s teacher with an issue and then bring it to her attention if it is not resolved satisfactorily.  Parents are welcome to setup appointments with Debbie Mastroianni to meet with Elaine but she also has an open door policy and is happy to check-in any time she is available.  As part of the Franklin community, we can help Elaine with our support, an open and honest dialogue, providing new ideas, and by sharing feedback to better understand Elaine’s reasoning.

Next steps for the Interim Principal transition and the search for a new principal:

·         Elaine Harold will serve as the interim principal through the remainder of the 2014-15 school year.

·         A meeting will be scheduled in December to meet with Franklin parents and form a large focus group.  The heart of the discussion will be to ascertain what is working well at the Franklin, what are the areas that need more focus, and are what the qualities that we want in a new principal.  A similar meeting will be held with the faculty.

·         Interviews of potential candidates will begin in January.  Candidates will be interviewed by a committee made up of teachers, parents, another Newton elementary principal and administrators from the central office.

·         Candidates that make it to the second round will visit another elementary school in Newton where they will be evaluated on how they engage with students, handle problems and observe teaching and learning in classrooms.

·         The final round of interviews will be a large group meeting that will include parents.  There will be an opportunity to ask questions of the candidates and see how they respond on the fly.

·         Interim Principal Elaine Harold will also meet with finalists one-on-one.

·         Finally, reference and background checks will be completed.

Superintendent David Fleishman is confident that we will have a named principal for the 2015-16 school year by the upcoming February break.  We are starting to look very early in the process and we are going to be the first to get the best candidates.  The Franklin is a very desirable school given the engagement of the families and the diversity of the students. 

David has been through seven or eight Principal searches in the five years he has served as superintendent.  He gauges their interpersonal skills by their ability to give clear, concise, answers; how well they can think on their feet; and how people not listed on their reference list describe them.  His specific criteria for a highly qualified principal include:

·         Ability to read a room

·         A careful listener

·         Able to understand the culture of the school

·         Knowing how to pace positive changes

·         Ability to manage conflict

·         How to respectfully disagree

·         How to manage a building

·         Someone who is thoughtful, fair and firm

·         Loves children and parents

·         Sees parents as allies

·         Works well in teams

·         Effective with new and seasoned teachers

Questions from parents:

·         Will the responsive classroom continue? Yes, this is a very high priority.  Beginning in October, Newton Public Schools received a $2 million grant to implement a multi-tiered approach to social and emotional learning in elementary schools throughout the district.  Amy Kelly’s new role will be working with all of the Newton schools leading a multitude of professional development opportunities.  

·         How will you recruit?  Some people will apply through finding the job posting, and we will proactively reach out to certain individuals who we hope will apply such as current principals, assistant principals and coordinators who are capable of leadership at a large scale.

·         Would we reach back out to people that weren’t hired in other searches?  Unlikely as it has been a couple of years since we did a search.

·         What if we don’t find anyone?  Highly unlikely as it is a very desirable job.  

·         Why isn’t Elaine part of the hiring process?  Typically the person being replaced isn’t part of the process.  For example, the search committee may be specifically looking for traits the interim principal did not possess.

·         What will the transition look like for the incoming principal?  The incoming principal will be named in late February and will start in July.  Where possible they will attend end of the year events and will overlap with Elaine for several days.  In addition, Elaine will remain available for conference calls and questions.

·         What if the named principal changes his/her mind? Highly unlikely as it is a very public process.  The finalists are announced, therefore colleagues of the finalists will know that they are potentially leaving their current roles.

·         Will there be additional support for the Franklin principal in the future? At this time, the Newton Public School are hiring part-time assistant principals for schools with over 450 students.  However, the Angier, Zervas and Cabot schools are being expanded to avoid overcrowding of the elementary school classrooms.  In addition, NPS has been added more teachers and literacy specialists to schools for the past several years.