Osceola County Superintendent Resumes

[Geo]

Superintendent candidate resumes appear below.

New resumes will be added as I receive them (not much more than a few days
thereafter, hopefully).

Please fell free to submit any comments. If in your opinion any particular
candidate stands out for serious consideration, please speak up.

[wallsr]

I'm sure they're all great people, but none of the people who submitted the
attached resumes would get a second look from me.

Ray

[Geo]

I'm not sure I would agree about Mr. Slonaker. His experience seems worthy
of a second look:

As the Mathematics Supervisor for the Pittsburgh Public
Schools, I led the design and implementation of a
curriculum and assessment structure that has resulted
in drastic increase in student achievement, both in
State assessment results and in classroom performance.
Working with my colleagues in the curriculum,
instruction, and professional development department, I
was responsible for designing and presenting
professional development opportunities to teachers and
principals in over forty schools, communicating the
vision to all stakeholders, budgeting for the
mathematics program in all schools, and participating
in district-level decision making processes.

If all of this can all be verified, it seems relevant to what a
superintendent needs to be capable of. I also like his communications
innovations.

One concern however is the size of the school district. While Pittsburgh has
16% more schools, it has half as many students.

What am I missing?

[RayWalls]

While Mr. Slonaker may be good at what he does (I don't know anything
about him), I'm just not seeing much relevant management experience on
his resume. His budget experience seems to be limited to that of his
local mathematics department, which I would guess is sub $1 million
annually. I also don't see any high level leadership positions or any
leadership positions that have been held for a sustained period of
time.

Again, just my two cents.

Ray

> > candidate stands out for serious consideration, please speak up.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Geo]

The phrase "local mathematics department" implies a math department at
perhaps one school. But unless I misread him, Mr. Slonaker managed the math
budget for all 65 schools in Pittsburgh. Of course, this would have to be
verified, especially since in "budgeting for the mathematics program in all
schools" seems to conflict with "Developed, monitored and administered
annual budgets for the mathematics program in the Cumberland Valley and
Marple Newtown School Districts", unless these two school districts cover
all of Pittsburgh (which I doubt).

[Geo]

Correction!

Make that 64 schools, not 65.

[Geo]

Here's resume #6.

Sadly #5 is so large that it can't be posted here as a single attachment.
It's 21 pages. It was scanned as a graphic from paper rather than being
converted as text. If anyone wants to see it, please stop by and I will
print it for you.

[Geo]

Golly, I need to read what I write before hitting send!

It's resume #6 that can't be posted. #5 was posted just fine.

>  5 Barbara McGann .pdf
> 250KViewDownload

[Geo]

Here's 7, 8 and 9.

-----Original Message-----
From: harm...@googlegroups.com [mailto:harm...@googlegroups.com]On
Behalf Of Geo

[Geo]

Here's #10.

-----Original Message-----
From: harm...@googlegroups.com [mailto:harm...@googlegroups.com]On
Behalf Of Geo

Sent: Monday, April 11, 2011 8:03 PM
To: harm...@googlegroups.com

[Roy Sampson]

1) Given the state the schools system are currently face with regarding bullying on campus as well as off campus, can briefly mention what
a. measure(s) you have implemented in dealing with this issue in your current position
b. what measures you will implement across the school systems to ensure the safety of all children?
c. how will you ensure that this method is implemented in all school?

2) What method (s) do you have in place in dealing with out-of-zone students?

3) There is a lack of qualify minority (non hispanic) teachers in classroom throughout Osceola County, what will you do to recruit minority teachers in this area?

Thats all for now

[Geo]

These are good questions Roy. I think that they all fall into the
category of "long answer". Could you please repost them to the "long
answer" thread? Thanks!

Long answer:
http://groups.google.com/group/harmonyfl/msg/e753504c7ad9dec6

[Geo]

Here are #11 and #12.

[Geo]

Here are #13 and #14.

[Geo]

Here's 15, 16 & 17.

Note: #15 includes an addendum.

[Geo]

Here's #18 and #19.

FYI, at the most recent committee meeting (see http://tinyurl.com/3srnm4f )
we reviewed the first 14 resumes and all but the following were eliminated:

#5, #6, #7 and #9

Please reread these and offer your opinions. I will be calling these folks
in a few days.

[Geo]

Here's #20.

[spberube]

George--

Something I've noticed about many of these candidates is that they move from job to job frequently...sometimes, every 2 years or so....

While not ALL of them have done this, it stands out in my mind as I read the resumes.

In the corporate world, this is frequently viewed as a negative and in an interview, would likely generate the question "Why?"

I'm not sure how it's viewed in the public sector, but it certainly makes me wonder about why someone changes jobs frequently...after 2 years, you're barely settled in and you move on...???

Troubling to me..

Steve

-----Original Message-----
>From: Geo <IIDIMG...@spammotel.com>
>Sent: May 4, 2011 5:50 PM
>To: harm...@googlegroups.com

>Subject: [HarmonyFL:1013] RE: Osceola County Superintendent Resumes
>
>Here's #20.

[Geo]

I've noticed that as well Steve. While moving around every few years
in my field (IT) is pretty common since technology changes so rapidly,
I would agree that such transience is not a very good sign in the
field of education.

The longer that a superintendent has been in one position the more
likely he or she has been effective in that position, IMHO.

[spberube]

So, is it fair to presume that a good question for a candidate might be:"Why is your average tenure in a job about 2 years?"

And, if the response is "I moved for more money" what should the next question be??

Since most of the candidates appear to be currently employed, it would appear that they are willing to give up their positions to come here, likely for greater salary...While it's hard to fault someone for moving up, let's try to avoid being just another step on the ladder...

Where I'm leading is this: If any of these folks are moving a lot for money, what will stop them from doing that once they're here?? While I realize that you can't stop people from looking, I think it should be a negative if a candidate has a history of frequent moves. After all, why would you hire someone that likely will be planning to leave quickly??

History DOES repeat itself....

Steve

-----Original Message-----
>From: Geo <IIDIMG...@spammotel.com>

[Geo]

Here's #22 through #24.

Like #6, #21 is too large to post as an attachment (30 pages). It was also

[spberube]

I like # 22 the best of ALL so far...major reason is that he doesn't seem to jump from job to job every couple of years...

His acievements, if true, are quite impressive as well.

-----Original Message-----
>From: Geo <IIDIMG...@spammotel.com>
>Sent: May 5, 2011 8:35 PM
>To: harm...@googlegroups.com

[Geo]

Here's #25 through #27.

Note: #28 is too large to post as an attachment. It's 11 pages and contains
a few very large scanned images. If anyone would like to see it, please stop
by and I will print it out for you.

To my understanding, these are the last of the resumes that the committee
will be considering since the deadline for resume submission is today.

[spberube]

Did anyone notice that #27 lives in OSCEOLA, IN?? What a coincidence...

Anyway, it strikes me that this is another group of candidates that seems to change jobs very frequently....What has happenned to stability?

-----Original Message-----
>From: Geo <IIDIMG...@spammotel.com>
>Sent: May 6, 2011 7:57 PM
>To: harm...@googlegroups.com

[Geo]

Here are the audio recordings of the phone interviews that I had with 8 of
the 9 candidates with whom I spoke at length recently. Candidate 22 declined
to give his permission to publish the audio of his interview.

2011-05-07 Initial Phone Interviews
http://tinyurl.com/3br3fet

2011-05-14 Initial Phone Interviews
http://tinyurl.com/3dleswn

Attached also are the "long answer" responses of these candidates.

-----Original Message-----
From: harm...@googlegroups.com [mailto:harm...@googlegroups.com]On

Behalf Of spberube
Sent: Saturday, May 07, 2011 9:43 AM
To: harm...@googlegroups.com