Post by title1parent on Jun 21, 2009 14:22:13 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/opinions/1632334,6_4_NA21_EDITORIAL_S1-090621.article
Birkett good choice, but was D204 board hasty?
June 21, 2009 Sun Opinion
Considering what school districts cost the taxpayer, the $60,000 that Indian Prairie School District 204 says it saved by not conducting a nationwide search for a new superintendent is chump change.
If nothing else, casting its net wider than the boundaries of the district should have served to confirm, or not, whether Deputy Superintendent Kathryn Birkett was the right person for the job.
This is no criticism of Birkett. We think she is extremely well-qualified to be a school superintendent, whether here or elsewhere.
Birkett has spent her entire 30-year educational career in District 204 -- starting as a teacher and advancing steadily through the ranks. She brings something to the district no one from outside could hope to match -- an institutional knowledge of the district beginning only a few years after its inception.
That the board was unanimous in its choice of Birkett bodes well for her potential success in the position.
We believe this is a ringing endorsement of the district's staff that the board felt it could promote from within rather than go outside.
Hiring for key positions is almost always a crapshoot, and if you have confidence in the devil you know it often makes more sense to go that route rather than bring in the devil you don't. In other words, promoting an employee who already knows the district and its procedures -- as the city did when it made Finance Director Doug Krieger its city manager -- can be beneficial.
Board members have had a long time to see firsthand Birkett's abilities and become comfortable with her potential leadership of the district.
In no way do we think the board made a bad choice, but we would argue that if only to insulate itself from inevitable charges by the district's critics that it acted hastily, it should have interviewed some qualified educators from out of town -- which is what it had set out initially to do, saying this would be a long search for the right person. The person may be right, but the search certainly wasn't long or exhaustive by any means. Birkett was the only person interviewed.
However, what's done is done. We consider Kathy Birkett to be an excellent person for the job, we welcome her knowledge of the district to this important post, and we wish her all the best.
Birkett good choice, but was D204 board hasty?
June 21, 2009 Sun Opinion
Considering what school districts cost the taxpayer, the $60,000 that Indian Prairie School District 204 says it saved by not conducting a nationwide search for a new superintendent is chump change.
If nothing else, casting its net wider than the boundaries of the district should have served to confirm, or not, whether Deputy Superintendent Kathryn Birkett was the right person for the job.
This is no criticism of Birkett. We think she is extremely well-qualified to be a school superintendent, whether here or elsewhere.
Birkett has spent her entire 30-year educational career in District 204 -- starting as a teacher and advancing steadily through the ranks. She brings something to the district no one from outside could hope to match -- an institutional knowledge of the district beginning only a few years after its inception.
That the board was unanimous in its choice of Birkett bodes well for her potential success in the position.
We believe this is a ringing endorsement of the district's staff that the board felt it could promote from within rather than go outside.
Hiring for key positions is almost always a crapshoot, and if you have confidence in the devil you know it often makes more sense to go that route rather than bring in the devil you don't. In other words, promoting an employee who already knows the district and its procedures -- as the city did when it made Finance Director Doug Krieger its city manager -- can be beneficial.
Board members have had a long time to see firsthand Birkett's abilities and become comfortable with her potential leadership of the district.
In no way do we think the board made a bad choice, but we would argue that if only to insulate itself from inevitable charges by the district's critics that it acted hastily, it should have interviewed some qualified educators from out of town -- which is what it had set out initially to do, saying this would be a long search for the right person. The person may be right, but the search certainly wasn't long or exhaustive by any means. Birkett was the only person interviewed.
However, what's done is done. We consider Kathy Birkett to be an excellent person for the job, we welcome her knowledge of the district to this important post, and we wish her all the best.