Superintendents are dropping like flies around New Hampshire. Dr. John Goldhardt tendered his resignation with the Manchester School District today, and several other districts are looking to replace their Superintendents.
When you see Superintendents jump from school to school or state to state, board members and parents might want to view that as a red flag.
A simple google search may turn up posts on these Superintendents that might reveal the problems they had in the districts where they have worked. Do you want to hire someone who has failed in the eyes of the community? Probably not.
Good leaders are hard to find, but sometimes the people working within the school district stand out as someone who can lead. There are no guarantees, but sometimes an internal track record reveals a lot.
Why are superintendents dropping like flies?
Years ago schools were run by the Principal. In private schools, this is still how things are done. Is there even a need to have another administrator in the district? I’ve been hearing from parents that have questioned whether this position is even necessary.
I’ve found that parents want three things out of their school:
1) Quality academics & teachers
2) Safe school environment
3) Parental respect and engagement
When this is achieved, you have happy parents. When any of those factors are failing, it causes disruption in the school. Families will leave, parents become angry, and it hurts the public school. So why, with such a simple prescription, are we seeing so much discontent in public education today?
Superintendents have lost their way. They have abandoned the simple prescription, and replaced it with fads, poor quality curriculum, unsafe buildings, and have even gone so far as to disparage good parents who simply want to parent their own children.
They follow federal fads, instead of leading towards excellence.
Parents are fed up with what they are seeing in their schools. From books with pornographic content, political social justice, dabbling in pseudo psychiatry, to disrespecting the role of the parent, it doesn’t surprise me that parents are rising up.
Parents do not want their kids exposed to the garbage that has infiltrated their school. They want to make decisions on whether their children wear a mask or receive a vaccine. They want the politics out and their children taught quality academic content. They are not looking for their kids to become social justice warriors, they want their kids EDUCATED.
It is not up to the school district to turn their kids into community organizers or Antifa warriors.
Administrators need to do some soul searching if they want to work in a peaceful environment. Stop with the fads and go back to the basics. Go back to teaching these kids how to read, write, add and subtract. Bring joy back to the classroom by allowing teachers to do their job, without having to psychoanalyze their students and police them on masks.
Stop pushing gender ideology, and Critical Race Theory on these kids and respect them enough to educate them on history and science. When you do that, parents will rally behind you, support you, and fight for you.
If you cannot do that, or you are unwilling, then maybe it’s time to have that discussion. Why does New Hampshire have School Admininstraties Units (SAUs) with Superintendents, to begin with?
Are they even needed?
