Share your view on the LCPS controversy
Posted 11/16/2006 05:19:00 PM
I want to invite readers to write in with their thoughts on what should come of the situation in the Las Cruces Public Schools.
But I want to caution you – my e-mail inbox and comments submitted on my blog have been full of profanities and libel all week. If that’s your intention, don’t bother. I’m looking for insightful pieces that convey thoughts on how the school district should proceed from here, with the goal of healing and improving our schools.
Length isn’t an issue. It’s what you write that will be an issue. Nasty personal attacks won’t be published. Rumor won’t be published.
I’m looking for constructive dialogue.
E-mail your responses to me at heath@haussamen.com. Because of the nature of the situation, I’m not going to require that you include your name, but I would prefer it, so those who do include their names are more likely to have their responses published.
If you include your name, please also include a phone number, so I can verify that you are who you claim to be. I’d like to receive responses by Sunday at 5 p.m.
I’ll publish the best responses Monday morning.
6 Comments:
LCPS Board step carefully with the Diaz situation the students/staff of the district should not suffer when Diaz sues the school district
How can we have another superintendant that appears to be the problem? There was a lot of termoil when Brian Haines started replacing people in leadership positions. Now the county runs far better. I think the "good ole boy" comfort zone of cronyism has been challenged by DIAZ and now they are trying to get rid of her too. When February comes around I'm voting for all new board members!!!
It's really funny to see how many people jump to the conclusion that Diaz is just doing her job and we should just rally behind her and let her continue her work, all based on no personal experience or evidence other than what she may have said on TV.
Folks, its time for a little critical thinking. I know it’s hard, and we all want to go back to watching "Dancing with the Stars", but pull out your thinking caps and sit still a minute before you jump to any conclusions here.
In this situation, it is best NOT to use a TV interview with Diaz as the decisive means of determining if she has your support. We all need to look at facts, documented history and evidence presented through the testimony of those who have worked with her, who I assure you, are not all crazy, selfish, petty people. Where there is smoke, there is fire, and it appears there is a WHOLE LOTTA SMOKE pouring out of Ms. Diaz's tenure, and now she is trying to do damage control before too many people see it. It also seems that the board is panicking and trying to avoid some sort of legal or financial payoff obligation with her, rather than waiting to see if it is SHE who may have breached her contract and owes US some money. They are coming from a position of weakness, as as such are not performing THEIR duties to provide effective leadership and oversight on behalf of the community.
It’s important to not allow yourself to be conned by how nice she looks on the TV, but to demand answers to substantive questions about this woman's past, her time here, and what we can expect for our future if our board continues to be so negligent in their oversight of our school system.
Let's get it straight,either we base our decision on known facts OR we use the hackneyed cliche of "where there is smoke there is fire" The smoke is being generated by those who don't have facts available but who are attempting to sway public opinion by rumors,innuendo,character defamation,laymen's psychoanalysis(pschobabble),personal attacks on what Diaz drives,what she wears,the University she attended,the way she wears her hair, the people she dines with etc.etc. ad nauseum.I for one am weary the orchestrated lynch mob mentality of those who hide their ugliness behind "fear of reprisal".
Please consider posting this article link. Thanks.
http://www.connpost.com/localnews/ci_4684136
Super Fund Clean Up
“The best leaders are those who empower others to lead.” (Bill Gates) If one concurs with the words of Bill Gates, there can be no doubt that the current school board members and the last two superintendents have failed this school district. When “agendas” are made behind closed doors and in closed session, no one is empowered besides those who sit behind those doors. I have repeatedly heard Ms. Diaz make broad statements to the news media and parents, such as “ ‘We’re’ working on it…” or, “We’re looking at it…” or, “We want to bring in the best professionals…” or , “We have set up focus groups in the different schools to evaluate…” My questions are: Who is the “we” in “we’re”? What is the stated purpose and agenda of these “focus groups”? And, how many parents, students, community members, teachers, and administrators have heard of, let alone been invited to be part of, “focus groups” operating within their local schools? If such “focus groups” are indeed operating within our schools, I would like to inform the school board and Ms. Diaz that they either have failed miserably in communicating this information or done an excellent job of selecting a “few” who are operating in obscurity. Sadly, whatever the case may be, Ms. Diaz and the Board have failed miserably in their ability to “tap into the genius” of the many talented individuals within this community! They have, in essence, “disempowered” those who have a great deal of insight and could be instrumental in bringing forth a plan for positive change in this school district. Sadly, unless we demand more as a community, we will continue to be “led” by a board that operates under a veil of secrecy and “governed” by superintendents who are hired to carry out the Board’s narrow, and some might even say, “personal” agendas.
Besides understanding how to empower others, most good leaders understand this simple adage: “If you do not know where you are going, every road will take you nowhere.” As leaders in the classroom, teachers understand that they must identify the goals for any unit of study and state the objectives and devise the teaching strategies for meeting those objectives. We know the “road” we are asking the students to travel. Should we expect any less from our school board and superintendent? It is time that we demand a publicly-crafted strategic plan for this school district. No longer should we allow the Board or Superintendent to state one or two “broad generalities” (such as, “improve literacy” or “do God’s work”) as goals for this school district without stating the objectives as to how to achieve those goals. (It would really be a “blessing” to know what Ms. Diaz’s objectives are for her goal “to do God’s work.”) Such practices simply leave too much room for personal agendas, whether they are that of the Board or a Superintendent, to take priority. And, sadly, we are, yet again, suffering the fallout that results from such poor leadership practices: Students are without textbooks, monies for programs have been frozen and then unfrozen, and board members are fighting amongst themselves over the continued tenure of Ms. Diaz. In essence, administrators, teachers, and students are, once again, being held hostage on a “road going nowhere.” Our students and community deserve more!
As a community, we must demand that the current Board “put the wheels in motion” to establish a strategic plan for this district in which all interested members of this community are “empowered” to take part. The talented students, parents, community members, business leaders, teachers, professors, and administrators would have no problem identifying the strengths and areas of weaknesses of our schools. Nor would these groups have difficulty identifying the goals and developing the objectives that would put the District on a road “going somewhere.”
Ms. Diaz has stated that any new CEO or leader meets with resistance and problems during the transitioning process. (kvia interview) I hope she is considering the possibility that the amount of resistance and the number of problems that a new CEO experiences during a transitioning period is directly related to his/her ability to be an effective leader. Ms. Diaz has failed to seek community input on crafting a plan for this school district. She has never communicated a plan, unless it is being communicated to the Board behind closed doors, for this school district. Yet, she has she has communicated the need to bring in “the best” from outside the community to help “lead” our district that leaves many of us asking, “Lead us where?” (What a scary road!!) Ms. Diaz and the current Board’s lack of leadership have failed the community, district employees, and most importantly—the children! Until we have a long-term plan in place for this District, we will continue to be bogged down in turmoil. Furthermore, we will have no tool to guide us in the hiring of future superintendents or electing school board members that share “our” district’s vision, nor we will have no tool for evaluating their work. “We” need to define our road and choose leaders who know they will be held accountable for empowering and facilitating us in taking that road.
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