Double Identities and Super Heroes - school administrators - Brief Article

School Administrator, Jan, 2001

A Mystery Visitor

A couple of months back, Peter Edgecomb invited the combination 3rd-and 4th-class from the New Sweden Elementary School to visit his hobby Christmas tree farm for a field trip.

A week later, Edgecomb, who is superintendent of the Maine School Union 122 in New Sweden, Maine, was walking through the elementary school when he poked his head into the classroom of students who had been on the visit. A substitute teacher who did not recognize the superintendent cautiously asked, "And who might you be?"

Edgecomb played coy. "I think the students can answer that question."

Several students chimed in. "That's Mr. Edgecomb. He's a tree farmer."

Finally, one student gave away his other identity. This brought instant relief to the substitute teacher, who no longer had to figure out how to get the tree farmer to leave her classroom.

Super Hero I

Shortly after David Rideout's appointment as the new superintendent of the Livingstone Range School Division in Clarestone, Alberta, he stopped in to one of the local schools as part of an orientation tour of the district.

It was quickly obvious to Rideout that the teachers had informed their students of his impending visit. Rideout was walking past an open 2nd-grade classroom door when he overheard a young boy quiz his teacher: "Miss, is that our new Super-Nintendo?"

Super Hero II

When Jack Sullivan, superintendent in Westbrook, Conn., walked into a kindergarten class, the teacher asked the youngsters if they could identify the visitor in their midst.

One student, without hesitation, shouted, "I know him. He's the super-lieutenant."

On the Road With Larry

When he retires soon as director of transportation services in the Columbus, Ohio, Public Schools, Larry Mixon has plans for a new career on wheels. He's planning a business that will take people on dream vacations.

For that purpose, he has purchased one high-falutin' camper--what Columbus Dispatch columnist Barbara Carmen called "a Westin on wheels."

Officially, says Mixon, "it's a Pace Arrow, 37-foot, Class A RV [with] Corian countertops, wood-plank floor. The bedroom slides out, as does the galley-dining area, for more room.

Mixon, who earlier served as the district's superintendent, says in his new role he will be "the driver, tour guide, chef and chief bottle washer. I love to cook. I love to talk. I love to travel."

The Ultimate Control Freak

Think you qualify as an obsessive boss? Probably not compared to Stephen Reunig, CEO of the Diedre Moire Corp. in Millstone Township, N.J., a recruiting firm for biotech and software companies.

Reunig personally scripted his firm's 244-page Standard Operating Protocol. All new employees must copy the document in longhand three times over, a task that may take 12 hours. It covers everything from desk decor to how to properly shake a client's hand.

In a front-page profile of Reunig in The Wall Street Journal, his office manager had this choice comment:

"There's only one word I can think of for him and that's `anal.'"

All For One

When a student at Somerset County Vocational Technical High School in Bridgewater, N.J., needed an early dismissal for a doctor's appointment, the office receptionist dutifully paged her over the public address system during the first lunch period: "Will Olga Suebits please report to the high school office?"

Within minutes, nearly 100 attentive students had gathered near the receptionist's desk.

"Why are all of you here?" the receptionist queried the group.

"Well," replied one student, "you just announced, `Will all the students please report to the high school office,' so here we are.

A Half-Cooked Answer

Dean Kranhold, assistant principal at Central High School in Aberdeen, S.D., overheard a student in the attendance office next door to his provide a unique excuse while being questioned about her latest in a series of absences from school.

"Nobody ever believes me around here," the student beefed, "and half the time I'm telling the truth."