WCS Director Interviews: Round Two Schedule

The three finalists for Director of Schools in Williamson County will each spend a day next week touring the district, visiting schools, and participating in a second interview with the School Board. The public is invited to a morning reception all three days (August 18, 19, and 20) from 8:15am until 9:15am in the Carolyn Campbell Conference Room at the Central Office. In addition, the evening interviews from 6:30pm until 8:30pm each night in the same location are also open to the public.

Michael Looney, current Superintendent of Butler County School District in Alabama, will visit on Tuesday, August 18, 2009. Looney received the highest number of "points" when the School Board completed a matrix system comparing the candidates following the first round of interviews.

Dr. Barry Carroll, current Superintendent of Limestone County Schools in Alabama, will visit on Wednesday, August 19, 2009. Carroll received the third highest number of "points" on the matrix, behind both Looney and Dennis Dearden.

Dennis Dearden, a Senior VP for the Partnership for Excellence, will visit on Thursday, August 20, 2009. Dearden, who received the second-highest "point" total on the matrix, is a former assistant superintendent from Fairfax County Schools in Virginia, and most recently served as Superintendent of Marana Unified School District in Arizona.

The daily candidate schedule is as follows:

8:15-9:15am - Public Reception

Carolyn Campbell Room

9:15-10:15am - Meet with Senior Staff

Carolyn Campbell Room

11:00-11:40am - Tour elementary school

Chapman’s Retreat

12:00-1:15pm - Tour middle school & lunch with students

Page Middle

1:45-2:30pm - Tour high school

Ravenwood High

2:30-3:45pm - Tour district

4-5:30pm - Return to hotel

5:30pm - Travel to dinner

5:45pm - Dinner with School Board

Technology Conference Room

6:30-8:30pm - Public Interview with School Board

Carolyn Campbell Room

Let the School Board members hear your thoughts about each of the candidates. You can find their email addresses here.

Is Dearden Always Looking for the Next Best Thing?

Dennis Dearden, one of three current finalists for the Williamson County Director of Schools position, was an applicant for a superintendent's position in Florida the SAME DAY his resignation became effective in Arizona in 2008.

Dearden's letter of interest for the Pinellas County School District in Florida is dated June 30, 2008 -- the same day his resignation from Marana Unified School District in Arizona for "personal reasons" took effect.

Dearden's letters of recommendation for the position in Florida are glowing, naturally. The question that must be pondered is how does one go from stepping down to focus on spending time with family, to applying for an identical job across the country on the same day? Especially when Dearden stated in an April 3, 2008 Arizona Daily Star article that he had no immediate plans for other employment.

Dearden is also quoted in the Daily Star with the following:

"I feel strongly that I must devote my full attention to my most important job in life - being a dad to my three children."

Although Dearden was not chosen as a finalist from the 36 Florida applicants, Williamson County becomes at least the third superintendent position Dearden has applied for in the year since he resigned in Arizona -- behind Pinellas County (June 2008) and Washoe County Schools in Nevada (June 2009).

Williamson County doesn't deserve to be used as a "stepping stone" -- we deserve and must demand commitment from the person handed the role of Director in the top district in Tennessee. Perhaps Mr. Dearden resolved his personal reasons for resignation quickly and decided he could balance parenting with the demanding duties of a Superintendent. The Daily Star reported that one of Dearden's sons had just returned from a 16-month tour in Iraq around the time of his resignation. The bottom line is that the School Board has the responsibility to determine to the best of their ability the motives of all three remaining candidates before making this important decision for our community.

Did Dearden's Administration "Ignore" Arizona parents?

Dennis Dearden, one of three finalists for the Williamson County Schools Director position, wrote a special column dated September 24, 2008, for The Explorer newspaper in Marana, Arizona. Entitled "How to Make a Difference in K-12", the column promotes a public "community conversation" presented in conjunction with the Tucson Chamber of Commerce.

In the column, Dearden writes:

As a former superintendent, I can think of nothing more important than to find a way for us to attract, support and retain the very best teachers for all Tucson’s children. As stated in a recent McKinsey and Company report, “The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.”

I believe that recruiting and retaining high quality teachers is essential to improving the quality of education in Southern Arizona, but other aspects such as creating professional development opportunities for educators and finding ways to build quality schools and providing more educational resources are also essential.

I trust that you agree that the quality of the classroom teacher has a tremendous impact on student success.

Two comments (same reader, perhaps?) in the online edition of The Explorer were made in response to Dearden's column. The reader comments are relevant because Dearden, Senior VP of the Partnership for Excellence at the time of authoring the column, was superintendent of Marana's school system for three years from 2005 until June 30, 2008.

The two comments posted are:

Marana USD parent wrote on Sep 26, 2008 1:40 AM:

" This is pretty amusing considering that under his watch Marana USD totally ignored the parents on the East side of I10 within the district, refused to do anything about the overcrowding in the schools, and then shoved a useless boundary change down the throats of the parents while still allowing Amphi students to overcrowd our schools. What a hypocrite.

There is no communication between the MUSD administration and the parents of the students they serve. You certainly never see the high and mighty School District Board members at any events on the East side of I10.

There is No support from the Marana Town Council for the schools on the East side of I10, even though 1/2 the kids are residents of the Town.

All of the legislative bodies need to step up and address the disparity in funds, services and facilities for those living on the West side of I10 versus the East side, or are we just on the wrong side of the tracks for them to really give a damn? Then again, if you look at those who run the Town and the School Board, they all reside on the West side of I10, so I guess they are all scratching each others backis. "

Ma wrote on Sep 26, 2008 1:44 AM:

" Obviously they don't want significant parent input, as they schedule it smack dab in the middle of a workweek. Clue people - most of us have to work, unless of course, the government agencies and public sector businesses are giving paid time off for us all to attend this?

Yeah, that's what I thought. "

Maybe the comments are just a disgruntled parent venting about Dearden's leadership while at Marana. You can't please all of the people all of the time in any district. But given the accusations that parents were "totally ignored" and that there was "no communication" between administration and parents, our School Board members need to do due diligence while considering Dearden to ensure that this is merely an isolated opinion and not something more widespread.

Looney, Dearden, and Carroll Finalists for WCS Director

Michael Looney, Dennis Dearden, and Dr. Barry Carroll are the three finalists chosen by the Williamson County School Board to be invited back for a second interview. Eliminated from consideration during the special board meeting were Interim Director Dr. David Heath and James Wilson of Georgia. The three finalists will be invited to schedule tours and interviews August 18-20.

The Board members used a matrix evaluation form provided by search firm Ray & Associates to compare the candidates head-to-head (Candidate 1 to Candidate 2, then Candidate 1 to Candidate 3, etc.) without discussion of individual candidates. The matrix was completed by each board member during a recess and the results were tabulated before the meeting reconvened and the results were announced.

Looney, the Superintendent of Butler County School District in Alabama since 2005, scored a total of 44 on the matrix. Dearden, a retired superintendent from the Marana Unified School District in Arizona, scored 28 on the matrix evaluation. Dearden is currently a senior VP with the Partnership for Excellence, he formerly was an assistant superintendent in Fairfax County, Virginia. Dr. Carroll, superintendent of Limestone County Schools in Alabama, scored 23 on the matrix.

Dr. Heath scored 15 on the head-to-head matrix and Wilson scored 10. Of note is that Board President Pat Anderson and Janice Mills both placed Dr. Heath above every one of the other four candidates. Comparatively, seven board members did not score Dr. Heath above a single one of the other four candidates. Looney was second behind Dr. Heath on both Pat Anderson's and Mills' matrix. Eight board members placed Looney ahead of every one of the other four candidates, with the remaining four board members placing only one candidate above Looney (two had Dearden above Looney, and two had Dr. Heath above Looney).

So, Brentwood Watchdog's assessment that all signs pointed to Dr. Heath being elevated to the position proved not to come to fruition. Instead, the School Board members (for the most part, at least) appear to have witnessed the interviews with open minds in search of the best candidate to lead our schools. Kudos to each of them for a job well done on this phase. It's possible that by the end of August the new Director of Williamson County Schools will be hired from among Looney, Dearden, and Dr. Carroll. Stay tuned!

Heath and Dearden face School Board's Questions

The Williamson County School Board interviewed two of the five semi-finalist candidates for the Director of Schools position on Monday night. Current Interim Director Dr. David Heath was up first followed by Dennis Dearden. Each candidate responded to the same set of 25 questions asked by various board members.

Dennis Dearden's 20-year history of teaching experience includes time as a teacher, a middle school principal, a high school principal, an assistant superintendent in Fairfax County, Virginia, and a superintendent in Arizona for three years.

Dearden spoke of listening to board members, teachers, community, support staff, students and "constituents" during the first few months on the job to develop a plan people would buy into.

Asked about vision for the district, Dearden said, "A vision is a saying or a slogan until it gets into the heart of the community. Unless it's in there it's just a slogan."

Dearden continued that the vision must be articulated clearly and carried throughout the system from top to bottom. Asked the vision in Arizona, Dearden said, "World Class Education for Tomorrow's Leaders."

On leadership Dearden said, "A leader is a visionary. A leader can inspire. A leader sees beyond the first step." He went on to add that three critical traits of a superintendent are: great people skills, political savvy, and common sense.

As for establishing partnerships with local businesses and higher education institutions, Dearden said that in Arizona, "I didn't ask (businesses) what they could do for the school district, I asked them what could the school district do for them."

Dearden said that working in Fairfax County, a district of 166,000 students representing 150 nationalities and 100 languages, gave him great sensitivity to promoting and understanding diversity and different cultures.

Regarding the WCS strategic plan, Dearden said, "I think you've got a good strategic plan. What I don't know is do people understand the strategic plan at the school and community level."

Asked about the greatest criticism of him by his critics, Dearden said, "I think that for some people that were in the 'comfort zone' -- we're already a good district -- that (change) was uncomfortable for them . . . I would say that's probably also what they would compliment me on now that it's over."

In a follow-up question Dearden was asked if he viewed himself as a "change agent". "Yes," he answered. "But not change for change sake."

One of the most critical issues five years down the road Dearden said would be funding along with some changes in No Child Left Behind.

Dearden, currently a senior VP with the Partnership for Excellence, was most recently a superintendent with the Marana Unified School District in Arizona -- a post he resigned effective June 30, 2008. Dearden cited only personal reasons and devoting more time to being a dad to his three children in a story from the Arizona Daily Star dated April 2, 2008.

Asked why he was looking to return to a superintendent role, Dearden said, "I'm looking for a special opportunity. I want to be a part of a unique district that says, 'I want to be better than just good.' . . . Williamson County is attractive to me because it presents this potential to be an absolutely great district. . . . This is one of the few districts in the country that can pull this off. I really believe that."

During his interview, Dearden also cited passage of a budget override and tax increase to increase funding in Marana schools -- an override that had failed twice previously -- as examples of his leadership. The additional $6.3 million in funds were used to hire teachers, nurses, and other instructors according to an Arizona Daily Star story from May 17, 2007.

Something Dearden wasn't asked about and didn't discuss during the interview was that he was also recently a finalist for the Washoe County School District Superintendent position in Nevada. Although he was not chosen for that position, he was a candidate as late as June 7, 2009 according to a KTNV report on that search. Perhaps Dearden's candidacy there explains why he wasn't available among the first batch of candidates presented by Ray & Associates earlier this year.

Dr. Heath, when asked his views on leadership and his own leadership skills said, "I think I have a lot of traits that a leader possesses. Probably the biggest trait is my ability to look at a problem analytically and have others see it rather simply . . . Not all problems we face are complicated."

In terms of visibility within the schools, Dr. Heath said he would ideally visit each cluster (a high school and its feeder schools) every other month for a day for a total of 4-5 visits to each cluster every year.

In response to a follow-up question about setting goals and whether it's better to set higher goals and let the public see you miss or to set lower goals and let people see you reach them, Dr. Heath said, "I think we can't afford to set the lower goals anymore."

In regards to narrowing identified achievement gaps, Dr. Heath stated, "If we teach standards and test standards then students will achieve and those gaps will be found and remediated along the way."

Asked to define what criticism his greatest critic might have of him, Dr. Heath said, "That I say, 'No', too much."

As for the most critical issues facing the Williamson County School System in the next five years, Dr. Heath said that getting every child to pass Algebra II would fit that category. Rapid changes in information and scientific discoveries also offer critical challenges in terms of how to teach that information.

Towards the end of his interview, Dr. Heath turned his attention to the district's goals and the future.

"Until we can prove to people that there is a benefit to focusing on goals as a district then we can't get to the greater goal of being the best system in the country," he said. "We are never going to be the best system anywhere but Tennessee if we don't change and develop focus on goals."