Jones launches new leadership board

Education Commissioner Dwight Jones Monday exhorted the new School Leadership Academy Board to help prepare “the next generation of Colorado leaders to meet the next generation of Colorado challenges” in education.

Jones opened the first meeting of the board, which was created earlier this year by House Bill 08-1386. The goal of the legislation is to create a state academy for training school administrators, starting with principals. The board is to be the advisory body for that academy.

“We’ve got to get this right,” Jones said of training education leaders. “We’ve got to say what makes sense for Colorado.”

The task is urgent, Jones said, because of the impending “vacuum” of school leadership, which is looming because many school administrators are due to retire in the near future. “We’re not just going to have enough high-quality leadership to fill the vacancies that are coming. … We’re already behind the eight ball.”

And, Jones said, education faces “a new set of challenges requires a new set of leadership skills.”

The commissioner noted that it used to be sufficient for school leaders like superintendents and principals to be good administrators. Now, the changing world of education requires them also to be instructional leaders and entrepreneurial managers of their schools.

Jones urged the board to work on “what kind of training and preparation” is required for this new model.

Board members spent the first meeting on general orientation and broad discussion of what 21st century school leadership looks like and what principal training should include.

The program starts a bit behind an eight ball itself.

HB 08-1386 requires that $50,000 in grants be raised before an $87,000 state appropriation becomes available. CDE Assistant Commissioner Jeanette Cornier said work has started to raise the money, partly with the help of the new Colorado Legacy Foundation, a non-profit that Jones started to assist CDE with various initiatives.

Cornier told board members that even though there isn’t money now to pay their travel expenses, they should keep track of those for future repayment.

Once the money is raised and the state funds are unlocked, two staff members will be hired, Cornier said. But, the first task of the new program director then will be to raise additional money to pay for the training programs.

“We hope to get something [training programs] going as soon as next fall,” Cornier said.

The board members are:

•  Kevin Aten, principal, Mountain View High School
•   Linda Barker, director of teaching and learning, Colorado Education Association
•   Floyd Beard, executive director, East Central Board of Cooperative Educational Services
•   Jeanette Cornier, assistant commissioner, Office of Teaching and Learning, Colorado Department of Education
•   Jim Eck, senior director, McCREL (Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning)
•   Jay Helman, president, Western State College
•   Mark Hyatt, president, The Classical Academy
•   Lynn Rhodes, dean of education, University of Colorado at Denver
•   Mary Rubadeau, superintendent, Telluride School District
•   Mary Seawell, associate director, Get Smart Schools
•   Nathan Smith, principal, Del Norte Middle School, Del Norte School District
•   Mary Kay Sommers, principal, Shepardson Elementary School, Poudre School District, 2008-2008 president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals
•   Tim Taylor, president, Colorado Succeeds
•  Jane Urschel, deputy executive director, Colorado Association of School Boards

Jones is to appoint a chair, vice chair and secretary before the board’s next meeting. Cornier said she expects the board to meet about three times a year.