Friendly rivals, job swapping and wacky administrative stunts - Leadership Lite - Brief Article

School Administrator, Sept, 2002

Neighborhood Scuffle

The event was intended to promote a violence-free school zone, but the superintendents from neighboring New Jersey school districts had fighting words on their minds.

After Atlantic City Superintendent Fred Nickles introduced himself at the public forum, the superintendent of Pleasantville, N.J., Andrew Carrington, pretended he'd never heard of the community Nickles represents.

"Excuse me, where is Atlantic City?" he asked.

Nickles seized on that slight, telling his friendly rival, "We're willing to take you on!"

"Violence free!" Carrington replied.

(Source: The Press, Atlantic City, N.J.)

Dad and Son Swap Shoes

The students and staff at the combination middle school-high school in Union Springs, N.Y., didn't need to learn a new name when a new principal took over recently. They call the new principal "Mr. Palumbo" the same as they addressed his predecessor.

That's became James A. Palumbo Jr., who had been a middle school principal in the Jordan-Elbridge district in an adjacent county, took over the principalship from his father, James A. Palumbo Sr. The elder Palumbo had served most of the school year as interim principal.

"Now my superintendent ... wants my father to take over my job as an interim." said Palumbo Jr. just before making his job move. "That would really make this unusual, but dad's really going to retire this time. My mom put her foot down."

His strong-willed dad had other ideas. He decided to fill his son's vacated spot as interim principal in Jordan-Elbridge, where he became known as "the new Mr. Palumbo."

(Source: The Syracuse Post-Standard, Syracuse, N.Y.)

High Jumpers

After you've already puckered up with a pig, what can a school leader possibly offer as an incentive to motivate the troops?

Franklin Till, superintendent in Broward County, Fla., promised to jump from the sky if the district staff surpassed the previous year's contribution total to the local United Way campaign. They did, and Till delivered, leaping with a parachute from a U.S. Army transport plane at a height of nearly 1,300 feet.

In Hanover County, Va., after school system employees contributed 18 percent more to their United Way campaign, Stewart Roberson made good on his promise to do something adventurous he'd never do otherwise.

Roberson, the county superintendent, took a 170-foot downward leap affixed to a steel cable, reaching a free fall of nearly 80 mph on the Extreme Skyflyer at Kings Dominion, a nearby amusement park. The daredevil ride is similar to a bungee jump.

Till and Roberson haven't publicly answered the logical question: How do you top this?

Wacky Principals

Is there any stunt a principal won't promise to perform as an incentive for student performance?

Consider these recent acts compiled by education writers around the country:

* An elementary principal in Middletown, R.I., lay on top of a bed of nails while a teacher used a sledgehammer to crush concrete blocks over his stomach. (He did it to demonstrate a scientific principle: distribution of force.)

* A principal in Virginia Beach, Va., jumped into the frosty Atlantic Ocean in January.

* An elementary principal in Bucks County, Pa., allowed students to turn her into a human ice cream sundae after they reached their aggregated reading goal of 5,000 books.

* A pair of elementary school principals in Bucks County ate worm lomein prepared by food service students at the local technical high school.

* A principal in Independence, Mo., soaked all day in a bathtub of blue Jell-O after the students surpassed a reading goal. She's now an assistant superintendent in the district and no longer has a blue tint.

Credit for Creativity

Linda Adkins, director of communications in the Highland Park Independent School District in Dallas, Texas, was helping to administer a placement test to a young girl in high school. The student was fumbling over this question: "What document does a government give its citizens to identify and protect them while traveling in foreign lands?"

The student sat puzzled for a few seconds before suggesting, "American Express?"

No End in Sight

Of all the phone calls Robert Hicks has received over the years as superintendent of the Exeter-West Greenwich Regional School District in Rhode Island, this is his favorite:

"The last day of school is a waste of time, you should call it off and make the next to last day the last day."

Short humorous anecdotes, quips, quotations and malapropisms for this column relating to school district administration should be addressed to: Editor, The School Administrator, 1801 N. Moore St., Arlington, VA 22209-1813. Fax: 703-528-2146. E-mail: magazine@aasa.org. Upon request, names may be withheld in print.