The pending departure of LaVonne Sheffield as Rockford school superintendent, just two years into her four year contract, should come as no surprise to anyone. Rockford has had five superintendents in 10 years, so by our standards, her time was up.
Sheffield’s exit is the other shoe to drop after Tuesday’s School Board election, in which the mercurial and abrasive school chief lost any hopes of a supportive majority on the new board that will take office later this month. The new board will be disposed to favor the Rockford Education Association, which elected two candidates out of three it endorsed.
The union was at odds with Sheffield about a multitude of issues, including her contention that the teachers must give $11.6 million in concessions in upcoming contract negotiations or else force disastrous program and staffing reductions.
We in Rockford tend to treat our school superintendents as if they were managers in Major League Baseball. If our team is not performing on the field, we fire the manager. It’s not just us, though, it’s common phenomenon at urban school districts.
In her farewell message to Rockford, Sheffield expressed impatience with the community’s unwillingness to embrace change:
“While I still believe in the potential of Rockford and its schools, I also believe that change, by definition, means continuous forward motion. I cannot subscribe to hitting the pause button on change, much less going backward or “rewinding.” So, unfortunately, I must end my tenure as superintendent.
“I leave proud of the significant advancements we have made in our schools over the past two years, and they are many. Chief among them is that we have refocused our schools on teaching and learning by building from the ground up a rigorous, relevant and coherent instructional framework.”
Now, the incoming School Board gets a chance to hire a superintendent. The board will be tempted to find a “make no waves” kind of person, something Rockford often does after a controversial change agent freaks out the home folks.
By the way, how’s that workin’ out for us?
We don’t have the luxury of hiring a Dr. Smiley Face who exclaims, “We’re All Alright, Yeah!” Too many children don’t graduate, too many schools don’t make the grade, we don’t offer enough classes in the right subjects, our technical education offerings are mostly nonexistent, and did I mention there’s no money?
I’ve been observing and writing about “Rockford schools in crisis” for more than three decades, and what I’ve seen isn’t a superintendent problem. The problem is Rockford’s failure to commit to providing “quality education for all children,” which was the name of the plaintiff group in the first racial discrimination lawsuit, filed in 1969.
When a courageous superintendent points out the fact that we’re not “most excellent,” we get angry. Then, a group of angry people forms with the express purpose of seeing to it that the superintendent disappears.
We must get over that defensive reflex. What are the community’s goals and objectives for improving its public schools? Working through Alignment Rockford, Next Rockford, the School Board, the mayor of Rockford, the Winnebago County Board chairman, business leaders and community groups, Rockfordians are capable of developing a mutually agreed upon set of goals for our public schools. Then we can find a superintendent who agrees to work with us to achieve them. Is everybody in?
Related posts:
- Rockford wants a store manager for school superintendent
- Sheffield could spur Rockford to be national lab for public school improvement
- Darned details. Board must have forgot to tell us Sheffield lacks a super’s shingle
- Let’s work together to make Legacy charter school work
- School Board gets cold feet on charters
Yup
Rockford Lutheran still has spots available for the 2011/12 school year. Come to one of the open houses…information available at http://www.rockfordlutheran.org….and what a REAL education looks and smells like.
I agree that when things don’t go well in the school district, the superintendent is scapegoated. It’s been that way for years and it probably will continue to be that way.
However, Ms. Sheffield didn’t appear to do much to try to endear herself to the community. When the proposed cuts to next year’s budget were announced, there was little acknowledgement that the cuts would be difficult for the community to stomach and that the loss of certain programs and schools would be personal losses for many students and families in the district. Change is never palatable, but can be made easier when it’s done with compassion and understanding of the larger impacts it will have. I don’t believe Ms. Sheffield even tried to do this.
Also, I have several friends who are teachers in the Rockford School District. From different people at different times, I heard stories of Ms. Sheffield’s lack of respect for our hardworking, dedicated teachers. Some of these stories were at least partially corroborated from other independent sources, such as comments on news websites, so I have no doubt there was some truth to them. Our teachers have a difficult enough job without the administration putting punitive measures in place for their attempts to make the school environment safer and more focused on learning. I find myself questioning if Ms. Sheffield really understands what it’s like to be a teacher, and I’m leaning toward no.
I also agree that it’s not the schools – it’s Rockford. We have a culture of poverty here that many children in our community are living in. If you lay awake listening to drug deals going on outside your house at night and hoping there’s no gunfire tonight, or if you get home from school and have to take care of your younger siblings while your single mom goes to work because she can’t afford childcare, how do you focus on learning and schoolwork? If your parents never emphasized the importance of education with you, never helped you with homework or went to conferences, how do you know that that’s how to help your child achieve? Now, I am not saying all people who are “poor” exhibit these attitudes or behaviors, but it is certainly prevalent in some Rockford Schools. Some parents are just under incredible stress and it takes all their energy and resources to keep going every day, and they don’t have anything left for anything else. How do we expect those children to learn and excel?
Rockford also has so many people who are intelligent, creative, resourceful, thoughtful, and just plain fortunate. Those of us who may be stronger in these areas need to step up and help those who don’t exhibit these qualities. We can’t help everyone, not everyone wants to be helped, but if we can build some supports around these families in chaos and turmoil maybe we can turn things around for their children. It will take us all and it will take sacrifice on our part – maybe instead of spending one afternoon a week on the golf course, we spend an hour a week with a child who just needs someone to show them that they are special, smart, and capable. We need more selflessness, and we need patience, because it won’t happen overnight.
Yes, we need to work together, to agree upon what\’s next. That by itself is hard enough; do we also need to go through the divisive process of hiring a new super? \"Just Say No\" and find a better way. Why is there any perceived need for Someone to do what WE decide we want done? Save some money (and lots of grief): eliminate the position, and create a council of principals who govern themselves.
I can only hope that with Dr. Sheffield’s departure will come a true self assessment of the challenges that really face our school district. I’d like that assessment to really reflect the condition of our entire city as well.
Our division only grows with Dr. Sheffield’s departure as a focal point of anger. When we subvert the attitudes, accusations, and misconceptions in support of “returning things to normal”, we bury the very things that are, in part, responsible for the very things Chuck points to in his editorial. Returning to “things as normal” at this point can best be portrayed as the classic couples argument of a man asking his partner “What’s wrong?”, with the woman replying “Nothing.”
We know there really is something wrong. Will we choose to walk away from the problem and let it simply repeat on a larger scale in a few years?
Our children can only afford it if we can afford to remove them from Rockford Public Schools. Is that our silent solution?
I don’t usually agree with Chuck’s perspective but I do on this one. I have lived in this community for 37 years and nothing has changed with regards to how Rockford looks at its public education system.
It is never the people of Rockford, it is always the school board or the superindent, but never community attitude. When a majority of Rockford citizens want a quality educational system and a health community it will come – of course it will take work and political courage. Until then Rockford will be on the road to becoming another East St. Louis or Detroit.
Take your pick folks. Do nothting but blame and nothing will change or accept responsibility for yourself.
What it so difficult about distric 205 ? Seems simple to me — we have been spending more than we take in from taxes. (I pay about $2100.00 to the distric) How about we try something different ! Lets set all the schools up for academics excelence first. Then we select ‘A’ school for football and send Johnny there. Next ‘A’ school for basketball, ‘A’ school for soccer – tennis – swimming – track or WHATEVER and send Tom, Dick, and Harriet to that school ! why do we have to have extras at every school. School is for the studints that want a education — all the other children dont really want to be there and would rather be playing sports. If you disrupt the classroom two warnings and the third time you are OUT ! Give the studints that want to learn to be good citizens a chance. “Todays kids – tomarrows leaders.” God help us if we dont start tough love, learning and respect now. PS : Chuck, put this in your colum and watch the fur fly!
Why don’t you give a local person the opportunity for the job and stop hiring out of State persons? – Carol Foster
Leaders have to have some credibility and she had absolutely no credibility. And that is not the “community’s” fault.
It is totally unacceptable and appalling to have a School Supt who represents Rockford at conferences…and then gets so inebriated that she can’t walk. That is totally unacceptable and it is NOT my fault as a community member. It is the Board’s fault for not termintaing her six months ago.
I know many many dedicated teachers in this town and if any one of them did this at a school function, they would disciplined so fast that it would make your head spin!
Until Dr. LaVonne Sheffield quit under pressure RPS205 had had only 2 superintendents, Dennis Thompson and Dr. Sheffield in the last 7 years. If Linda Hernandez, who had ran RPS205 as the interim superintendent after Dennis Thompson left, had been provided the position that was given to Dr. Sheffield, we could still well have had only 2 superintendents in the last 7 years.
Linda Hernandez worked for 27 years in the district and wanted the position commented, “To me it’s kind of a direct slap in the face. I didn’t think I’d even have a chance at being a finalist so to me that’s why I’m out of it,” says Hernandez.
It is not the community that was ‘stupid’, and put us in the position we are today, it was Robert Evans, Nancy Kalchbrenner, David Kelley, Harmon Mitchell, Alice Saudargas, Jeanne Westholder, and Michael Williams, the preceding school board that appointed Dr. Sheffield.
Rockford’s eyes are wide open and we are listening intently and the community expects the school board seated on April 28th to do the same. For some it will be an opportunity of redemption, for others the chance to step up to the plate for the first time and deliver what the community elected you to do. It is not the mayors, Alignment Rockford, Next Rockford, or any other group’s goals that need to be considered. What our school board needs to needs deliver is safe and quality education without making sacrifices to please others at the expense of our children.
Doug Clayburg
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