Interview with Ms. Eileen Cooper Reed, Cincinnati School Board

The School Board’s Role in Decision Making: Insights from the President

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The School Board’s Role in Decision Making: Insights from the President

Elaine Cooper Reed, Cincinnati School Board President, discusses issues facing public schools today with host Mr. Arthur Griffin. Ms. Reid discusses the challenges she has faced with school funding and downsizing, as well as many other issues. This episode is revealing and helpful as she shares with us many insights she’s garnered over years as a member of the governance team.

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Leading Today for Success Tomorrow!

Biographical Background

After practicing clinical social work for several years, Eileen Cooper Reed attended the University of  Cincinnati College of Law, graduating in 1984. Her Administrative Law Team won 1st place in the National Administrative Law Competition. She was awarded the Shmieg-Weil Award for being the Outstanding Moot Court Competitor in 1984.

After Law School, Eileen became a staff attorney for the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati. She served as a Hamilton County Assistant Prosecutor before being tapped as a Juvenile Court Referee. During her stint at Juvenile Court, Eileen spent three years handling truancy cases in Juvenile Court. These cases were heard at the school site and it was there that she developed a thorough understanding of attendance issues in the Cincinnati Public School system.

In 1992, then Mayor Dwight Tillery appointed Eileen to the Mayor’s Commission on Children. While serving on the Commission, she opened and became Director of Children’s Defense Fund in Cincinnati. For the next 11 years, Eileen advocated for children in Cincinnati and eventually, became the Director of the Children’s Defense Fund, Ohio advocating for children across the state. She and her staff documented the needs of Cincinnati and Ohio children in child health, child welfare, early childhood care and education, and K-12 education and used those statistics to propose sound policies to legislators from the local to the federal level.

Eileen was appointed to both the Ohio Department of Education’s Achievement Gap Task Force and the Early Childhood Task Force. While serving on those bodies, she learned about educational issues across the state and noted how Cincinnati did in comparison to other areas of the state. Under former CPS Superintendent Steven Adamowski, Eileen became the only community member of the CPS Redesign Team where she developed a thorough understanding of the CPS method of assessing school and student achievement. During that time, she and her staff at the Children’s Defense Fund were responsible for engaging parents and community in both the academic redesign process and, subsequently, the CPS community learning center and facilities programs.

Having previously served on numerous boards, Eileen currently chairs the SC Ministry Foundation Board of Trustees, is a Director of the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati and is a member of the Xavier University President’s Advisory Council.

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Related Web Links:

• Cincinnati Public Schools web site

• CPS Board President Page (Eileen Cooper Reed)

District Leader’s Podcast is produced and copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2007. All rights reserved.

For more information email us at podcast@districtleaderspodcast.org or phone us at 1-866-435-5337 (toll free) and leave a voice message for our co-hosts.

Interview with Ms. Sandra Dungee Glenn, Chairwoman, School Reform Commission, School District of Philadelphia

Being Part of the Change Process in  Our Urban Schools

Categories: Parents and Community · Change Process · Coaching School Leaders · Communication · Partnerships · High Stakes Testing · Leadership · Making the Tough Decisions · Improving Student Performance · Trends in Education  · Urban Education · ARCHIVE

Description

In this insightful and engaging interview, Ms. Sandra Dungee Glenn discusses her experiences through her life as first a community organizer and then a member of the Philadelphia school board, highlighting the differences between seeking change from the administration and then becoming part of the administration itself. In her interview she discusses the importance of public accountability, the necessity to letting parents know what’s going on in their schools, and the general state of public education throughout both her own state and the nation as a whole.

Sandra Dungee Glenn has been actively involved in public education for nearly a decade. In September 2007, Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell appointed Ms. Dungee Glenn to the position of Chairwoman of the School Reform Commission (SRC), the governing body of the School District of Philadelphia. As the nation’s eighth largest public school system, the District commands a $2 billion dollar operating budget, manages 20,000 employees, and currently has 167,600 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

The SRC was formed in December 2001 through an unprecedented partnership involving the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania which sought to address what was at that time a school system in financial and academic distress. Since then, under the SRC’s leadership, the District has experienced five straight years of test score gains and continues to be engaged in America’s most sweeping and innovative public school reform initiative.

Thanks to initiatives that flowed from the task force’s recommendations, the District has seen a significant decrease in the number of teacher vacancies; there were 38 vacant positions at the start of the 2007-2008 school year, compared to 51 at the start of 2006-2007 and 112 at the beginning of 2005-2006.

Biographical Background
Ms. Dungee Glenn graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1978 with a Bachelor of Science degree. Since then, she has had a career spanning more than 20 years in public policy, electoral politics and community organizing. She served as Associate Director with the Philadelphia Area Project on Occupational Safety and Health and Regional Director of Pennsylvania Citizen Action, receiving an outstanding service award from both organizations. From 1991 to 1994 she served as Chief of Staff to State Senator Chaka Fattah.

Ms. Dungee Glenn’s electoral and political experience is extensive. In 1983, she developed and implemented a voter registration drive for farm workers in South Jersey. Ms. Dungee Glenn served as: Field Director for the Hughes for State Representative campaign in 1986; Voter Registration Director for Goode for Mayor campaign in 1987; Campaign Manager for Fattah for State Senate in 1988; Philadelphia Voter Registration/GOTV Coordinator for Dukakis for President in 1988; Campaign Manager for Fattah for Congress in 1994 and 1996; and was Campaign Manager for Blondell Reynolds Brown’s campaign for Philadelphia City Council in 1999.

In 1988, Ms. Dungee Glenn was elected Delegate to the Democratic Convention from the Second Congressional District in Pennsylvania, and served as Director of the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee from 1996 to 1997. She was appointed to the Platform Committee of the Democratic National Convention in 1996 and to the Credentials Committee in 2000. Ms. Dungee Glenn also served as Pennsylvania State Director with the NAACP National Voter Fund from August 2000 until June 2001 and led a successful non-partisan statewide voter mobilization campaign.

Ms. Dungee Glenn currently serves as President of the American Cities Foundation, an organization committed to the development and implementation of a national urban policy and to defining a new relationship between cities and the federal government. She is the recipient of various awards including: the 2003 Leon J. Obermayer Distinguished Graduate Award; the Arts & Entertainment Network 2002 Biography Community Heroes Award; Women Making a Difference Award, 2001; and the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc., Pennsylvania Chapter Women of the Year Award. In 2002, Ms. Dungee Glenn was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Urban Health Initiative Fellow and by the Philadelphia Tribune as one of 2007 Most Influential African-Americans.

An alumna of the Philadelphia public schools, Ms. Dungee Glenn graduated from the School District’s Philadelphia High School for Girls. This native of West Philadelphia now plays an active role in the SRC’s initiatives to build schools and renovate others, including plans for a new West Philadelphia High School.

Related Web Links:

• School Reform Commission, School District of  Philadelphia

• The School District of Philadelphia

District Leader’s Podcast is produced and copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. All rights reserved.

For more information email us at podcast@districtleaderspodcast.org or phone us at 1-866-435-5337 (toll free) and leave a voice message for our co-hosts.

Interview with Pittsburgh PA School Board President, Mr. William H. Isler: President and CEO, Family Communications, Inc.
Exec. Dir., The Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning & Children’s Media: School Board Public Service as Leadership for Students and their Future, Is it Achievement?

Key Topics include: Leadership | School Board Member | ARCHIVE | Trends in Education | Making the Tough Decisions | Improving Student Performance | Urban Education

Description

Join us for a compelling interview with a prominent school board member who has served education through many organizations. Mr. William H. Isler offers a broad and deep view on several critical issues from his history of deep involvement involved in early childhood education and public service, from his role as school board president in Pittsburgh PA in this conversation and interview with District Leader’s Podcast co-host Arthur Griffen Jr..

Mr.Isler’s education service experiences spans service on this urban school board and Saint Vincent College’s Board of trustees, but also leadership of  Family Communications, Inc., and The Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at Saint Vincent College (to name just a few of the outstanding areas of service).

Topics in this episode include leadership development and vision, student achievement, closing the achievement gap, equity, urban education, child development, breaking trends in education, and funding of educational programs.

Mr. Isler argues passionately about community responsible to early childhood education: from equity, to research  evidence, demographics and funding.

His vision of the power of substantial early childhood foundation is heard in the quote he refers to  “You can give children ABC’s and 123’s or you  can give them tools for learning..”

Join us for another not-to-be-missed episode of the District Leader’s Podcast to be encouraged about the future of our schools and servant leaders.

Biographical Background
Bill Isler is a longtime professional educator and advocate for children. He began his career as a teacher and administrator, then served the Pennsylvania Department of Education as Commissioner of Basic Education and Senior Program Advisor for Early Childhood Education before joining the Family Communications, Inc., staff in 1984 and becoming the inaugural Executive Director of The Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at Saint Vincent College in 2005.

Under his leadership, FCI continued to produce the award-winning MISTER ROGERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD, longest running program on PBS, while expanding into the development of training materials for individuals who work with children. FCI also publishes books for children and for adults and produces materials related to MISTER ROGERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD. A significant accomplishment of the last two decades is the growth of partnerships with non-profit agencies and institutions. These collaborations have attracted more than $30 million in support from foundations and governmental agencies for innovative programming such as the Girls’ Math, Science and Technology Project, developed cooperatively with Carnegie Mellon University to engage young girls in math and science for the technology demands of the 21st century workplace.

In addition to his leadership role at FCI and The Rogers Center, he is President of the Pittsburgh School Board, President-elect of the Council of Great City Schools, and advisor to the National League of Cities Council on Children, Youth, and Education, Rand Promising Practices Network, Hillman Cancer Institute, and the Allegheny County Department of Human Services Office of Children, Youth & Families. He is a Board member of The Grable Foundation, Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, and Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, an Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a member for more than three decades of the Association for the Education of Young Children. He received The Pittsburgh Foundation’s Isabel P. Kennedy Award for child advocacy and was named “Person of the Year” in 2007 by the Mentoring Partnership of Southwestern Pennsylvania. He is also “Alumnus of Distinction” of Saint Vincent College, and currently serves on the college’s Board of Trustees.

Related Web Links:

• Herricks Union Free School District

District Leader’s Podcast is produced and copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2007-2008. All rights reserved.

For more information email us at podcast@districtleaderspodcast.org or phone us at 1-866-435-5337 (toll free) and leave a voice message for our co-hosts.

Interview with Long Island’s Connetquot School District Superintendent
Dr. Alan Groveman
Urban Education and Difficult Decisions

Key Topics include: High Stakes Testing · School Board Member · School Safety · Leadership · Improving Student Performance · Professional Development

Dr. Alan Groveman, Superintendent of Schools for Long Island’s Connetquot School District, is interviewed about critical school topics by host Edward Milliken for District Leader’s Podcast Episode 13. Dr. Alan Groveman discusses vital issues that are effecting the superintendents and our schools ranging from school violence and security, to parental involvement, professional development and strategies for improving student learning. A striking characteristic of this episode is how superintendents and school leaders need to effectively balance and meet the demands for all children to achieve learning standards (No Child Left Behind) and the demand that communities have for their schools to be safe havens for their children to attend.

Don’t miss this episode of The District Leader’s Podcast. A prime chance to join your colleagues as they consider these discuss a vital dimensions of the impact of state testing on teaching and learning.

“Leading today for success tomorrow”

Biographical Background
Dr. Alan Groveman, the Superintendent of Schools for Long Island’s Connetquot School District serving as the School Superintendent in this large suburban school district. He has placed an academic emphasis on all student programs so that pupils master the standards that are required for graduation in New York State. As a result, Connetquot pupils consistently meet and exceed learning benchmarks for academic performance.

In addition, Dr. Groveman, through extensive volunteer work, has developed an unparalleled expertise in designing and implementing organizational health and safety measures. For example, in the local fire department Dr. Groveman has been both a Captain and a Rescue Safety Officer. In addition, he has been a member of an EMT Team as well as a confined space and tactical rescue leader. With such a background, Dr. Groveman was appointed as a school district crisis management director. This experience has already proven to be invaluable in Dr. Groveman’s role as Superintendent of Schools.

As an educational leader and a health and safety expert, Dr. Groveman thoughts on student learning and pupil protection are regularly sought out by colleagues and the media.

Related Web Links:

• Connetquot Central School District http://www.connetquot.k12.ny.us/

District Leader’s Podcast is produced and copyrighted by The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2007-2008. All rights reserved.

For more information email us at podcast@districtleaderspodcast.org or phone us at 1-866-435-5337 (toll free) and leave a voice message for our co-hosts.