Leadership Lite
School Administrator, December 2015



Hero Worship
Jeff Rose, superintendent in Beaverton, Ore., has learned a good way to elevate one’s approval ratings: Use Twitter to announce a snow closing.
Last winter, he got a big popularity boost that included tweets like these from his followers: “the real mvp @JeffRoseSupt” and “in other news @JeffRose Supt was noted Time magazine’s person of the year!”
One clever Twitter follower who appreciated the day off from studies added Rose’s head to a photo of the presidents on Mount Rushmore.
Source: Oregonian, Portland, Ore.


A Boss Captured Doing It All
Parents and students received an unusual introduction to David Law when he was about to take over the superintendent’s job of the Anoka-Hennepin School District in suburban Minneapolis.
Law distributed a quirky video that showed him mowing the grass outside a school building, driving a school bus, coaching the school swim team and performing an array of other jobs in the school district.
While the production exaggerated the extent of his duties, it offered a true glimpse into his past. Law did serve as a swim coach, and he did earn a bus operator’s license during his earlier days in education.
Source: Star-Tribune, Minneapolis, Minn.


Even More Native Talent
The May 2015 installment of Leadership Lite pointed to a distinction of the board of education in Jourdanton, Texas, where all seven elected members are graduates of Jourdanton High School.
Topping that is Aliquippa, Pa.
For the past several years, all nine members of the school board in the western Pennsylvania community were graduates of Aliquippa High School. (Five board members sans an Aliquippa education are being seated in early December.) And taking it one step further, David A. Wytiaz, the superintendent of seven years, is a member of the Class of 1978 at Aliquippa High School.


The Name to Know
Jeffery Smith led a content life as a math teacher for 15 years at Bethel High School in Hampton, Va. Then, in early July, a steady stream of e-mails began to flow his way, all asking for his input on significant school matters or seeking a major piece of his time.
Smith realized the Hampton City Schools had hired a new superintendent who shared his name, including the uncommon first-name spelling.
“I am getting a lot of attention … but I can’t make any decisions because I was hired to teach math,” the teacher said. “I know he will do an outstanding job, based on his expertise and, you know it, that name.”
Source: Daily Press, Newport News, Va.



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.