Leadership Lite
School Administrator, August 2019



Paper Conservation

The senior class at Marietta High School in Georgia has an annual tradition on the first day of school: They plaster their school in toilet paper.

Last fall, they went even further to make their presence known by toilet papering the front yard of Superintendent Grant Rivera. The seniors documented the deed by posting images on social media.

Rivera took the gesture in stride, showing off his sense of amusement. He stated on Facebook: “Obviously, the … Class of 2019 ran out of space in our yard so they graciously left the rolls of TP at our front door. Well done, seniors. Well done.”
SOURCE: Atlanta Journal-Constitution




There’s Wisdom in That Face, Son
For more than 20 years, Garn Christensen, superintendent of the Eastmont School District in East Wenatchee, Wash., has caught up on his professional reading on Friday afternoons aboard one of his district’s school buses. Over the years, he has gotten to know a lot of bus drivers and students. He’s also plowed through piles of journals.

Last fall, Christensen was in his usual front seat on the passenger side. A rather rambunctious kindergarten pupil climbed aboard and was assigned to the seat across the aisle, right behind the driver, where the driver could see his every move in her rearview mirror. For the first 20 minutes, the youngster was squirming constantly, talking loudly, poking his seatmate and generally giving the driver all kinds of grief.

Then the boy noticed Christensen, leaned across the aisle and, according to the superintendent, “looked me right in the eye and said, ‘I am really sorry about your face.’”

Christensen asked the boy what he meant.

“You have folds, big folds all over your face.”

The superintendent paused briefly. “Yes,” he said, “if you are lucky enough to be an old guy, you will get folds from smiling, working, laughing and worries.”

The boy took both his hands and began to softly feel his cheeks in search of his own folds.
 

Superlative Qualities
To celebrate School Board Member Recognition Month, the Kentucky School Boards Association published School Board Member Superlatives in its monthly magazine.

Among the honors accorded were most social media moxie, most vested interest (to the board member with the most children currently enrolled in the district), class clown, best education lingo interpreter and most likely to be mistaken for a student.

The board member cited for most team spirit was a 25-year member of the school board of the Bowling Green Independent School District. She and her husband customized their Chevy pickup truck by having it repainted purple and gold, the district’s colors.
SOURCE: Kentucky School Advocate
 
 
 
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.