Strategic planning trainer Jeff Cohn gestures while talking to the Crete-Monee’s school board and administration Tuesday as teachers Susan Duran and Mary Bragg — the only non-participants attending — follow along. Photo credit: Dennis Sullivan
by Dennis Sullivan
editor@ewcnews.com
Feb. 26, 2015
Crete-Monee School District’s board of education has agreed to keep the current vision statement and an amended mission statement in place for a few more months.
Elected officials, voting 4-0 Tuesday, tasked Supt Nathaniel Cunningham with editing the two documents and completing the mission statement by adding its goal.
Cunningham, who has headed SD201U since July, is scheduled to present his changes to the seven-member board in March.
Maurice Brown, Nakia Hall, Tom Hysell and Kim Sanders, acting during the 2½-hour special meeting at Crete-Monee Education Center, also agreed to give Cunningham several months to update SD 201U’s overall strategic plan. Brown said that plan has been in place since 2008.
Earlier, the board selected an architectural firm and Hall reported on her participation in a recent gathering of state agencies and organizations focused on public education.
Roles, core values & beliefs Board members and administrators then engaged in a spirited two-hour discussion intended to clarify roles, as well as the core values and beliefs guiding SD201U into the future.
Keeping the discussion focused was Jeffery Cohn, a certified Franklin Covey trainer in the area of trust and strategic alignment. Cohn heads the Olympia Fields-based Brave Dialogue firm, which specializes in school district interaction and communication issues.
Cunningham started the discussion by reminding elected officials educational inputs and outputs were distinctly different from those of business. But Cunningham, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, was quick to acknowledge similarities between a school superintendent and a military leader in the way attitudes “trickle down” through the system.
Cunningham’s administration consists largely of individuals the board hired or promoted in 2014 prior to his arrival. Assistant Supt of curriculum & instruction Laura Hirsch is the only holdover from the previous administration. Assistant Supt of human resources Lyle Neal was previously principal of Talala Elementary School in Park Forest.
Board, administrators differ on district progress Cohn asked participants to indicate how they think the school district is doing on his homemade “good to great” chart depicting a horizontal (good) line angling upward (great) at 45 degrees.
Administrators clustered their dots on the horizontal section, while elected officials’ dots were squarely in the center of the upward portion. (Brown humorously indicated his enthusiastic belief the district is doing better than great by initially placing his dot up and off the chart.)
Hall and Sanders were disturbed by the difference.
But Hysell, drawing on his 40 years as a classroom teacher and administrator, said it was a mater of “perspective.” Faculty and staff, he said, “don’t see the movement so much because you’re down in the trenches slogging through every day.”
But Hall was clearly concerned that administrators don’t share the board’s enthusiasm, saying, “We brought in a superintendent that has shown Level 5 (very high) leadership.”
Hirsch responded, “We’re trying to build a cohesive team. Everybody’s getting to know each other. We’re doing good things, but collectively, we don’t feel like we’ve hit that mark yet.”
Assistant Superintendent of Student Affairs Monica Spence agreed, saying, “We’re on the cusp of a breakthrough.”
Hysell said the board’s broader view naturally gives elected officials a more positive perspective.
“One of the things we can see are pockets of greatness,” Hysell said. “We’ve got individual teachers doing a great job, and that becomes contagious. These people are pulling others along with them whether they want to go or not.”
‘1,000 points of no’ Cohn, perhaps alluding to Cunningham’s earlier “trickle down” remark, suggested a large organizational structure – particularly one with tenured employees – can derail policies and goals unless the board has established strong support for its superintendent.
“There’s a lot of diffused power in school systems,” Cohn said referring to a phrase known as “one thousand points of ‘no.’”
“Does the board,” he asked, “have the right policies to make (Level 5 leadership) happen?”
The school district encompasses Monee, most of Crete and University Park and Park Forest’s Will County portion.
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Original material copyright 2014 Eastern Will County News; all rights reserved.
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