A wrenching honor for one lucky superintendent - Leadership lite - brief notes - Brief Article

School Administrator, Dec, 2001

A Monkey of a Millstone

It must be something in the Great Lakes air because Michigan's intermediate school district superintendents have figured out the craziest ways to have fun when they get together. For the past quarter-century, the superintendents have honored one of their own with the "monkey wrench award."

When asked why he was selected as the current recipient, Joe Caimi of the St. Clair Intermediate School District, claimed not to know. So The School Administrator asked Jann Jencka, Ingham County's superintendent who was named last year's winner. She gleefully exclaimed that Caimi was selected because "he is a character in the best sense of the word who deserved to have this millstone around his neck for a year."

Jencka, as the first female recipient, added a border of lace to the mounted monkey wrench before passing it (along with the speeches and video testimonials about the previous 24 recipients) to Caimi. The latter admits he has begun "careful and thoughtful planning" to pick the next recipient. "I will dedicate my year to this task of finding a 'suitable sucker' as Jann said in presenting the award to me."

Michigan is home to an additional pair of dubious superintendent honors: The Bird, a pelican-like statue, and the Ugly Shoe Award. Stay tuned.

Snow Test

When Ed Melanson served as superintendent in Franklin, N.H., he had a simple test for deciding whether to cancel school on a snowy morning. Melanson would take his four-wheel-drive Toyota 4Runner up a narrow, steep hill near his home. If he made it to the top, school was safe for the day.

His successor in the superintendency, Christine Tyrie, has her own method. "I'm not one who goes out at four in the morning driving around the roads. It's a guy thing," she told The Associated Press.

Convincing Portrayal

Though many observers are beginning to think superintendents need superhuman powers to survive on their jobs, community members in and around Bloomington, Ill., know they already have an educational leader with transcendental qualities in John Capasso, who recently assumed the superintendency in LeRoy, Ill.

Capasso transforms himself physically and mentally in late winter every year to play the role of Jesus Christ in a local stage production of the American Passion Play. It's performed every weekend from Lent to just beyond Easter, and he's been playing the part convincingly for the past 16 years. He even grows a dark beard for three months.

Asked if he played the part of superintendent as knowingly as he apparently fills the role of Jesus, Capasso had a ready response: "No, ask anybody," he said, laughing.

Alternative Jobs

Central-office administrators in the Wake County Public Schools in Raleigh, N.C., know that the tighter measures surrounding standardized test administration can be a pressure-filled experience for educators. So they conclude their presentations to site-based test coordinators with an overhead transparency that offers some advice should they get overwhelmed by the stress over high-stakes testing.

The overhead lists job announcements from McDonald's and Burger King.

"We also tell them we are just teasing and we need all of them to hang in there," says Karen Banks, assistant superintendent for evaluation and research.

Decimating Dewey

During a recent elementary school visit, Robert Winter, superintendent in Glynn County, Ga., observed a media specialist teaching 1st-graders how to find a book using the Dewey decimal system. She concluded by asking a student volunteer to demonstrate.

The child, saying he wanted to locate a book about cowboys, accompanied the superintendent to a library shelf full of titles about Indians. "Wherever there are Indians, there are cowboys," the youngster proudly announced.

The media specialist went red with embarrassment, only proving, Winter says, "that the teaching isn't always the same as the learning."

Doltish Decisions

Hoping to develop a work climate in his school district that's consumer friendly and customer oriented, Denver Superintendent Jerry Wartgow has created a Dumb Rules Committee to deal with pointless procedures.

But who decides what's dumb?

Paul Moralez, a middle school student, told a Denver reporter that he nominated "no running in the halls" as his choice for expunging from the rules book.

"You might be running out of time and you can't run," Moralez beefs.