Posted 10:43 AM by Susan Darst Williams

CUT OPS BOARD TO SEVEN? YEP.
BUT SEE COMMENTS: TIME FOR A
NON-EDUCATOR AS OPS SUPERINTENDENT

The effort to trim the school board at the Omaha Public Schools down from 12 members to 7, for demonstrable benefits, proceeds in the Nebraska Legislature. See:

http://nebraska.watchdog.org/20019/ops-fight-escalates/

Looking forward to some refreshing change at the top in OPS. Note the comments below this update. What a great idea, to change Nebraska law so that a non-educator could become the next OPS superintendent.

To effectively change the culture in a huge bureaucracy like our state's largest school district, we need someone with experience OUTSIDE of that culture. Duhhh!

No big corporation with assets and revenues in the multi-millions insists on having someone whose skills are sharply limited at the helm. For example, does a telecommunications company insist on having only a lineman as the CEO? Does a giant trucking company limit the chairmanship only to someone who has driven a truck most of his or her career?

Nooooo. So why would we think that only a teacher would know enough to lead the way with one of the largest school districts in the country, one in which a sizeable percentage of the kids are dropping out and not graduating? That's crazy.

Isn't it the definition of insanity to keep doing something over and over and OVER, the same way, not changing anything, when it never works?

It's time to change Nebraska law so that you don't HAVE to be a certified teacher to become a school superintendent.

Why WOULDN'T we want leadership now from someone with broader life experience outside the classroom and the school petri dish?

Why WOULDN'T OPS benefit from the wisdom and horse sense of a retired business guru, a retired general, some superstar who started off life in the ghetto but overcame those disadvantages and knows how to inspire OPS staff to help a whole generation of kids follow suit?

Furthermore, we ELECT important public officials, don't we? So why WOULDN'T we prefer to ELECT our high-paid school superintendent? Wouldn't that be a way to signify that the electorate is, after all, in charge, and not the teachers' union?!?

LET'S DOOOOOOOO THISSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

Labels: Nebraska appoints school superintedents, Nebraska school law, Nebraska superintendents have to be certified teachers