Leadership Lite
School Administrator, June 2018
Cutting to the Quick
Brian Woods has spent plenty of hours in the hot kitchen of the superintendency of the Northside Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas. But for one hour recently, Woods found himself in a real kitchen, assigned to a team of culinary students at Harlan High School participating in a Top Chef competition run by the Culinary Institute of America.
Woods and his three teammates had exactly 60 minutes to prepare a meal that included flat iron steak, fingerling potatoes and cucumber. The superintendent was tasked with chopping onions, basil and other ingredients.
“I brought marginal cooking skills, and I was assigned very appropriate tasks,” Woods said.
Judges awarded Woods’ team second place among the six competing school districts.
Instilling Youth in Others
Peter Corona, the ageless wonder in AASA’s membership ranks, has taken to running a physical fitness class for senior citizens three mornings a week at his local community college near his home in Walnut Creek, Calif.
Patricia, one of Corona’s current students, recently announced, “I’m thinking of protesting this class.” Corona, who turns 90 this year and has attended 61 consecutive AASA national conferences, asked her why.
She responded, “When I entered this class I could not tie my shoes, was short of breath, had difficulty climbing stairs, seldom rode a bike and rarely took walks. Now I am agile and flexible, my posture has improved, I’m able to tie my shoes … climb stairs with ease, ride bikes and take long nature walks on weekends.”
Patricia, who is 70, then got to the reason she is upset with Corona’s fitness class. “I am thinking of protesting this class because the merchants won’t honor my senior citizen’s card. They think I’m too young.”
When the Greeley Tribune-Republican in Colorado republished its top news headlines from exactly 100 years ago, the lead story described the closing of the local high school in Grover, saying it would remain shuttered until voters approved a new bond to rebuild the school. In the meantime, the high school’s 18 students were attending classes in an abandoned business in downtown Grover.
In other news, the Loveland Town Board outlawed dancing within the city limits, but allowed an area farmer to open his barn for dancing, and he made $100 from patrons on the first night.
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.