Leadership Lite
School Administrator, March 2021 

Cool Job Titles

Two of the more distinctive central-office administrator titles involving recent appointments:

Stephanie Houston assumed the title of assistant superintendent of innovation and engagement in San Bernardino County, Calif.

Nancy Duran was named chief of college, career and military readiness in Killeen, Texas.

Outside of education, the most atypical-sounding titles of late included data wrangler, recruitment evangelist and growth hacker — all titles that probably reside on the office cubicles of talented millennials.

Audience Interloper

In this age of virtual meetings, you can never be sure how attentive your audience truly is on the other end of the connection.

After he finished a meeting via YouTube streaming to about 600 district employees, Ken Wallace, superintendent of the Maine Township School District in Park Ridge, Ill., received from one staff member the photo of the employee’s cat intently tuned in to the proceedings.

Like many superintendents, Wallace said he was keeping a spare dress shirt and sports jacket in his office to give that dignified look to digital duties on screen during the pandemic.

Plotting Every Misstep

Todd Barnett was filling in as administrator at a primary school in Council Bluffs, Iowa, when a teacher brought in a 1st grader on a disciplinary matter. The boy was in tears when Barnett asked him to explain what happened. Through heavy sobs, the boy explained he had brought a small replica knife to school to show to his friends.

After the expected discussion about dangers and wrongs and as the matter was about to conclude, the boy’s teacher, who’d been standing by silently, jumped in: “And tell him what else.”

The boy again burst into tears, reluctant to confess. The administrator pressed on.

“I stole my mother’s wallet.”

“Why would you steal your mom’s wallet and bring it to school?” Barnett asked.

“Well,” the boy said, “I knew it was against the law to bring a knife to school and the police would take me to jail so I took my mom’s wallet so I’d have bail money!”

SOURCE: Lolli Haws, chief administrator, Green Hills Area Education Agency, Council Bluffs, Iowa
 

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. Email: magazine@aasa.org. Upon request, names may be withheld in print.