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GREENWICH, Conn. As all Greenwich Public Schools parents know, the district is searching for a new superintendent who will be committed to longevity in the system. However, Board of Education Chair Leslie Moriarty says the district need to prove itself worthy to potential candidates.
We have to make Greenwich an attractive place for them to come, said Moriarty. I think this is a great place to work. We have so many resources and assets, but our board is going to make efforts in refining our agenda to focus on the key areas of how we conduct our business.
In 2012, Moriarty says the school board wants to see more progress on academic achievement. We have areas where we are succeeding, and there are areas where we have clearly not seen the progress, she said. The district needs to evaluate which initiatives have been successful and help prioritize what to use going forward, she said.
Parents of kids at all levels of achievement want students to be more challenged and to have faster growth, Moriarty says. The challenge of the board and the administration is addressing all those needs and addressing them in a high quality way, she said.
That begins with having an excellent teacher in every classroom, a concept the district is supporting with good hiring practices as well as professional development and training. It also means focusing on administration. If you have high-performing administrators that perform their jobs better, then that trickles down through the schools and the system, said Moriarty.
Moving forward, the onus will not only be on students, faculty and administration, but on the school board as well. In the past, Moriarty says board members did not use management systems effectively. Training was lacking among members, she added, which helped to create a difficult environment.
Were trying to change the level of knowledge and engagement of all board members, and were using the right tools to get our jobs done, she said. I think the efforts that our board is going to take in refining our agenda to focus on the key areas of how we conduct our business, will prove to any superintendent candidates that were serious about being a good partner, and thats going to be critical.
Parents will get the chance to sound off on important issues for a new superintendent to focus on at community forums next week.
Forums on the superintendent search will be held Monday, Jan. 9, from 7 to 8 p.m. in both the Central Middle School auditorium and the Eastern Middle School auditorium. Another forum will be held Tuesday, Jan. 10, from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Western Middle School auditorium.
For those who cant attend the forums, a survey is available online. The deadline for completing the survey is Jan. 12.
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