Thoughts on Executive Coaching

On Friday, September 14, I attended a seminar on “Coaching to the Core,” a new form of Executive Coaching for the building principals in the state of Iowa. I think it is a great idea but as Dr. Troyce Fisher put it, “we need you to be our critical friends and tell us how to make it better.” First of all, I was honored to be invited to this gathering of leaders from the education field within our state and as the day went on, some questions arose.

When I chose to enter into the superintendency, a good friend, who also does school audits for about 60 schools in Iowa, told me that there are two types of superintendents, those who are finance people and those who are educational people. I have always tried to be an educational person. What I mean is that understanding school finance is certainly a prerequisite for this position but sometimes, we superintendents worry about finance more than we should instead of worrying about school improvement. I have always tried to be an instructional leader to the building principals with whom I work. I have told that to our principals here in Pleasantville. The concept of the Executive Coaches is to hire retired principals or superintendents to serve in this capacity. I hope that these coaches work with the resident superintendents to work together to make our principals stronger. I worry that the local superintendent will be left out of the mix and I hope that does not happen.

My other concern is that the plan starts to begin with principals in low achieving schools. I would also like to see first or second year principals be involved with this coaching. While I believe that the low achieving schools might need some executive coaching, they might not as well. It was never really discussed or shared as to how the schools would be classified but some of our best schools in this state are listed on the SINA list due to different circumstances. By involving our newer (and younger) principals, we can help to mold them into the instructional leaders they want to become. If you believe in the concept of Deming’s Continuous Improvement model, shouldn’t all principals be involved in some sort of coaching? I do understand the concept that you have to start somewhere, and the first cohort of 100 principals is a great start. I just hope that all principals will have a chance to be involved in this activity that will help them all grow. As the old saying goes, “A rising tide raises all boats.”

I do believe this is a great idea and the time has come for us to work with all levels of educators. There has been a lot of attention given to improving the quality of teachers in the classroom, but leadership is vitally important as well. Developing the leadership traits of our building principals is a tremendous idea and I salute the School Administrators of Iowa, the Wallace Foundation and the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL Midwest) for joining forces to develop this concept. Job well done gang.

Big Rebates for PCSD

The Pleasantville Community Schools underwent a major renovation this past summer with the complete retrofitting of a new HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) system. This new system is very energy efficient and should save the school money in heating and cooling bills.

The heating system replaced three boilers that converted water to steam to heat the classrooms with two new high-efficient boilers that will heat water and run it to some of the necessary classrooms.

The air conditioning system will utilize some traditional rooftop units that will draw in the outside air and cool it before it sends it into the affected areas. One of the major areas the rooftop units will cool will include the gymnasium and locker rooms. These areas had previously not been air-conditioned. In the older part of the high school, new technology was utilized called VRV technology. This is a “variable refrigerant volume” style that is relatively new to the United States but used extensively in Europe.

Due to the foresight of the School Board and the project management team from The Baker Group, all of these technologies qualified for an Energy Efficiency Rebate. At the Regular School Board meeting on Monday, September 10, representatives from Mid-American and The Baker Group were on hand to present a rebate check in the amount of $36,768 to the School Board. This money will be put back into the Physical Plant and Equipment funds to help supplement the expenses from this project. The total cost of the project was $3.25 million and was paid out of the Physical Plant and Equipment funds as well as the Local Option Sales Tax funds.