Leadership Lite
School Administrator, December 2018


A Frosty Departure
One night last January, Rob Picou, superintendent of the Lower Yukon School District in western Alaska, inadvertently left a door ajar at his home. The next morning, he found three feet of snow piled up in his kitchen.

That may have been the clincher for a career swerve by Picou, a veteran of 20 years in school administration in Alaska, to accept the superintendent’s job some 3,700 miles away in Tupelo, Miss. In case he needed further motivation, on his way to Mississippi for the job interview, Picou lost his cell phone while riding down the frozen Yukon River to a remote airport.

“As soon as (the Tupelo job) opened, I turned my paper work in,” said Picou, a New Orleans native.
SOURCE: Daily Journal, Tupelo, Miss.



But Where Was His Board?
A typical middle school boy dreams of becoming a professional athlete or entertainer. In LaPorte, Ind., Leo Cavinder had a burning desire to be a superintendent and run a school district. And he somehow managed to do so … as a 7th grader.

Cavinder created the LaCav Community School Corporation, replete with an official-looking website that carried updates about weather-related school delays and closings. He even got the Indiana Department of Education to unwittingly issue him an official school identification number. (Upon discovery of the clever hoax, it was revoked and no funds exchanged hands. Plus, local TV and radio stopped including LaCav among its snow-day announcements.)

In a story about the caper that aired on local TV news, Cavinder had this to say: “I had seen other school corporations, and I just thought it was cool to have my own.”
SOURCE: WSBT, South Bend, Ind.
 

Bonding Over the Elements
Sometimes it takes a topic with deep personal meaning to engage parents and community members. Emilie Lonardi, superintendent in Downingtown, Pa., discovered that topic to be snow-day decisions.

After facing a flurry of calls and no calls last winter, Lonardi wrote an article for her district’s website explaining the multiple-step process that she follows before making a decision. She promoted her personal protocol with posts about it on Facebook and Twitter.

The reaction was like nothing else she had ever contributed. Her article reached 8,712 readers. It received likes from 313 and was shared 15 times in short order. Most impressively and surprisingly to the author, Lonardi counted 29 positive comments.


Wisecrack or Compliment?
Donna Andre, a state trooper in northern New York, had just read the riot act to a 15-year-old boy with repeated transgressions with the law when the troubled teenager inadvertently redirected the police officer’s career path. The boy looked at her earnestly after the scolding and said, “You should be a teacher.”

Andre accepted the unusual advice. She gave up law enforcement and entered education, spending the past 25 years filling various posts in the schools of Franklin County, on the state’s border with Canada. In June, she retired as superintendent of the Brushton-Moira Central Schools.
SOURCE: Malone Telegram
 
 
Short, humorous anecdotes, quips, quotations and malapropisms for this column relating to school district administration should be addressed to: Editor, School Administrator, 1615 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314. Fax: 703-841-1543. E-mail: magazine@aasa.org. Upon request, names may be withheld in print.