The Rochester Joint School Committee met on the evening of Thursday, May 10, at the ORRHS Library to discuss the results of the annual evaluation process for Superintendent Doug White. School Committee members rated White’s performances on a scale of one to four, where one indicated that he was not meeting the expected standard and four represents an exemplary score.
Six categories were broken down into several subsections, including the quality of his relationship with the School Committee, educational leadership skills, and personal management. Sharon Hartley, Chairperson of the Massachusetts School Superintendent’s Union #55 School Committee, began running down each line item on a PowerPoint display, encouraging members to speak up to illustrate their reasons for why they scored White the way they did.
Part way through the evaluations, several School Committee members stated that they did not feel that putting members on the spot to explain their positions was an appropriate way of discussing the results of the evaluations.
“This is either kudos or a one-way mediation to address a situation,” one member said. “The final score is really what’s important, with the comments to support it,” said another. “We don’t need to know who gave what scores and why.”
“If you look at my contract, the evaluation is part of the agreement,” White said, citing that this scoring system is just one way of evaluating his performance, abdicating that there could be more balanced, detailed, and thorough ways of measuring his success.
“I know it’s tough,” he said. “I appreciate each and every one of you. I’ve had relationships with all of you across the year and I hope that can continue. What we want to do is be able to give a quality education of for our kids, so please, give me the tools to help accomplish that,” White said.
Overall, Superintendent White scored an 90%. He got support for being an excellent educational leader. His scores cited his strength in engaging with principals, teachers, and staff, setting, and reporting professional goals, and demonstrating a high priority on the renewal of curriculum and instructional programs, though some felt that he was not active enough in the process of curriculum renewal.
White was also praised for his leadership and support in areas of student transportation, food, and health, but was criticized for having little knowledge of the progress and issues in those same areas.
“I’m so thankful to have a committee that feels confident to talk about these issues and work through the problem spots,” Hartley said.
By Eric Tripoli
