Chairman Gilliss, Vice Chair Stewart, Superintendent White, and Members of the Board,

Tonight, you will be asked to approve a strategic, limited reorganization of BCPS executive leadership. The Council of Administrative and Supervisory Employees is in full support of this reorganization. There are several reasons for this.

First, this reorganization supports the vision of the superintendent – Literacy and School Culture. The creation of a Division of School Climate and Safety, with dedicated and focused chief level leadership, speaks directly to the degree of importance, and leverage of this division. It addresses concerns regarding student safety voiced by all stakeholders, as it aligns resources for the physical and social emotional needs of our students, creating a more viable conduit to the schoolhouse. It also ensures the effective use of additional staffing given to BCPS by the late County Executive Kamenetz.

Secondly, at the last Board meeting I spoke to you about my enthusiasm for the commitment from System leadership, to ongoing collaboration between and amongst zone leadership. This helps to create much needed consistency and inter-rater reliability around principal growth and evaluation. I said that the most important thing an executive director does is increase the skills of the building principal.

This reorganization allows executive directors to supervise a far more manageable number of principals thereby increasing their ability to coach, supervise, and grow principal effectiveness. The move from 4 Zones to 3 begins to address the concerns CASE has had regarding consistency as well.

Lastly, this reorganization speaks to both of Superintendent White’s foci based on her vision. A good leader has a vision, shares it, lives it, and supports it in any number of ways, but most noticeably, by organizing resources and staff to support the vision, and Ms. White is an excellent instructional leader.

Some may suggest that reorganization should wait until a new superintendent is named. CASE feels however, that we have waited long enough, and frankly we support Ms. White as the next superintendent. We applaud the fact that Ms. White is putting her fingerprints on the System and we encourage her to continue. Because, as Louise Heath Leber says: “There’s always room for improvement – it’s the biggest room in the house.”

Thank you
Tom DeHart
CASE Executive Director