More than two candidates would have been preferable, but USD 259 appears to have two capable finalists for superintendent. Denise Wren (in photo) is Wichita’s assistant superintendent for high schools and was formerly principal at Wichita North. John Allison is superintendent of the Mt. Lebanon school system in Pennsylvania, though he spent much of his career in the Shawnee Mission school district.
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30 Comments
Why was it neccessary for the District to spend vast thousands of dollars and spend almost a year searching just to hire a Superintendent from within?
We need to consider Mr. Allison as the possible best candidate for the position.
A PDF on John Allison.
http://www.mtlebanon.org/DocumentView.asp?DID=2404
Hope he has good comptroller experiences. We need someone that knows the business end of a school as well as the education portions.
I have reviewed the backgrounds of the candidates for USD 259 school superintendent. I find John Allison’s qualifications and experience vastly exceed the other candidates for the position.
I had thought that with the short time to review qualifications that perhaps Martin Libhart, the current acting superintendent of the Wichita school district should be persuaded to continue until the end of the school year but I now feel that John Allison, with his outstanding experience at a relatively young age, needs to be hired immediately so he isn’t lost to another school district.
Interestingly, as I understand it, John Allison’s mother graduated or at least attended Wichita’s North High School. John Allison himself spent several years in a management capacity in the Shawnee Mission School District serving north Overland Park, Prairie Village and Mission Hills, Kansas. That’s a superlative recommendation in itself.
Wichita’s USD 259 school district has some 50,000 students and 8,000 employees. Roughly 4,000 of the employees are directly involved in teaching our students.
USD 259 is desperately in need of someone with John Allison’s credentials to bring in fresh ideas, review the so-called superintendents executive staff, and get to work trying to close the learning gap in our multi-cultural school system.
A lot of unrest is developing among our teachers after almost a year without a real superintendent. This is a chance to pick up the sticks and continue the path set by outgoing superintendent Winston Brooks.
Thanks Regular for furnishing that pdf describing John Allison at his current Mt. Lebanon school superintendent’s position. It’s worth reading.
I think John Allison sounds qualified, he would be ‘coming home,’ and that’s always good. I think he sounds like the superior candidate of the two!
———
From the link Regular provided:
“The only way I know
how to approach the way
I do business is to be
honest, open and upfront.”
– John Allison
Before coming to Mt. Lebanon, the Kansas City native was deputy superintendent at the Grapevine- Colleyville School District in
suburban Dallas-Fort Worth since 2002. Parents in the 14,000-student district demanded quality. Test scores were high and money was limited.
Previously, he was associate superintendent for education services after rising through the administrative ranks at the Shawnee Mission School District in Kansas, a hulking district with 31,000 students in 54 schools
across 14 municipalities.
At heart, Allison is a teacher of world geography, American history, American government, social studies, psychology and economics. He also has been an assistant
athletic director and has coached basketball, track, volleyball, soccer, football, cross country and tennis. His undergrad degree is
from the University of Kansas and his master’s is from Emporia State University, also in Kansas. He has completed most of his work toward a doctorate at St. Louis University, a degree he intends to finish.
Joe Rodella, the former president of the school board that unanimously voted to hire Allison, spoke glowingly on the day the board
announced its decision, although his opinion has since changed. “I probably was not optimistic enough,” Rodella says of Allison’s good performance.
He intends to complete his doctorate.
Okay, I’ll settle for that.
mrcontroversy,
I’ve met the other candidate. It would be difficult in the race between the two to be the lessor, because one of them has that spot tied up in a perfect package with ribbons and bows.
Linda,
I think if that happens, there will be a feeling on an awful lot of voters that the process was rigged.
If Wren becomes superintendent, look for at least one of the incumbent board members to get voted out in April.
Let’s lynch em.
It is painfully obvious that the process was rigged from the start.
Current Superintendents in other Districts/former USD 259 “under” superintendents Mark Evans and Ralph Teran weren’t even in the “final three” cut. Both definately applied.
What’s up with this?
What does she have on them?
If we began listing we could have quite a list of why she is descredited, so what does she have on who?
How do you know this, Blaidd?
I’m not challenging you, just asking.
Reporter’s curiosity and all that.
I have sources within the district who still have contact with Teran and Evans.
I’m hoping you know how to get hold of me.
I would very much like to hear more about this.
Seldom to I disagree with Linda, but Denise Wren has worked her way up the system in some very tough schools. Ms. Wren completely cleaned up North High School – which is a pretty amazing thing.
Denise Wren is the better candidate.
Denise Wren cleaned up Pleasant Valley Middle school. This women has been at some tough assignments and has always returned positive results. The decision is very easy if you ask humble me.
“Seldom to” should have been “Seldom do I disagree with Linda…”
In reply to some of the above comments, Denise Wren did not “clean up North High” back in 2003 or so. The outstanding teachers at North High School took on this challenge. Denise Wren actually tried to obstruct this effort for a time, then saw the handwriting and got behind the cleanup. The thought that Denise Wren “turned things around” actually came from a mis-informed EAGLE newpaper reporter who wrote without checking with anyone else.
I attended the meetings at North High School this morning (Saturday) to hear the presentations by both candidates.
John Allison clearly has the best education, job experience and people ability to take on the Wichita school superintendents position. He is a Kansas native and attended high school and college in Kansas. His mother coincidentally graduated from North High School where the interviews are being conducted today. He gained valuable work experience in school administration in the Shawnee Mission, Kansas school district plus a couple other out of state school districts.
Now its time to make the decision for John Allison and move forward as quickly as possible.
I also attended both meetings this morning abd agree with JWink that John Allison would be the best pick for Wichita.
Denise Wren did a marvleous song and dance number though, to the ohh and awe of her supporters in the audience. By and large, the teachers and support staff were not impressed with her. She will be just be part of the “good ole’ boy (girl) system that infests the Admin. offices.
Call your BOE members and express your wishes, I did.
Let’s go with a real leader, John Allison.
From the photograph, Denise Wren looks like Paul McCartney’s (1960s version) younger sister.
We need a change agent, not a bully to lead us and our schools into the future.
I hope the BOE sensibly chooses John Allison instead of Denise Wren.
Denise Wren may or may not have turned things around when she was in charge at North and PV Middle School, but we currently have a mess that’s getting messier at the largest high school in town – due to administration not taking the disciplinary hard line in regard to dealing with students-gone-wild and gangsta wannabe’s. Even though district policy states “no electronic devices”, school administration is currently considering allowing students to utilize their cell phones during passing periods – as though before and after school and during lunch isn’t good enough. Next, it will be OK for students to use them during class. In fact, Denise Wren mentioned letting them do just that at this morning’s meeting with the teachers. She mentioned allowing students to text each other during class as part of a lesson. She will say (and this was her primary stumping quote this morning) that “it is all about the kids”.
Denise has apparently been out of the classroom too long. Such expressions as “it is all about the kids” amount to nothing more than NCLB buzzwords that will sound good to students, parents, and school board members, but will amount to nothing in the long run. She is directly in charge of our district’s high school principals. She has listened to complaints and she’s been in the buildings and seen what is going on, yet she has done nothing to tighten things up.
And now she wants us to let students utilize cell phones in the classroom.
As a teacher of 25+ years in the field of education, I will state that it is NOT “all about the kids”. It is all about how we deal with the kids. Until we get a better handle on student behavior and can have classroom environments that will foster a positive learning environment for all, we teachers will just continue to bang our heads against the chalkboard and wish that things could be better.
Amen strght_p
Why is Denise Wren pushing college for all the students? Vo-tech offers some students a very good option for their future.
People in positions of power downtown have been out of the classrooms for years. They do not understand today’s students, the problems and issues facing these kids, or the problems of the teachers trying to helping these studetns. The students are overtested and downtown fills its offices with useless data which has little real world application.
This district needs a new change and direction. SOS = same old stuff is NOT working. People are tired of “the good ol’ boy newtwork”. Maybe some one from outside this district can see that the emperor really isn’t wearing any clothes.
I dunno, “Skeeter” –
A lot of legitimately aspiring young people got into Computer Sciences as a Vo-Tech option in the 90s. They’re the ones today sitting in their Moms’ basements with nothing better to do than blog.
Chalk it up to grade inflation or simply that things are a lot more complicated than they used to be, I dunno. But the fact of the matter is today’s Bachelor’s Degree is about the equivalent of what a high school diploma used to be on, say, a 1970s resume.
There’s always been a zig-zag between the goals of K-12 education. Do you keep ‘em in the classroom for 13 years and hope they grow up and maybe pick up something by osmosis along the way? Or do you make education a process of indoctrination and throw out (or push out) those who can’t keep up with the herd? (Which results in more 15-year-old drop-outs with no career opportunities except from the Crips.)
“…downtown fills its offices with useless data…”
Sadly even if some of that data they spend millions to collect was of value, no one would know it. It’s the collecting of, not what the data might show that is important to ‘downtown.’
As a candidate for Wichita superintendent, John Allsion has many good qualities. However, there are three red flags. The BOE needs to consider the following: 1)His experiences in the Grapevine and Shawnee Mission school districts have not prepared him for an urban school district like Wichita. They do not have the racial diversity or economic diversity we have here. 2)John Allison said he is not a change agent. A school district can stand still or move forward. We need someone who will make those changes to help us move forward. 3) It appears that John Allison has not had any experience as a building principal. This experience is crucial.
Bottom Line –
Your local school board is the refutation of the CONard “the best government is closest to the people.”
There’s no governmental body closer than your school board. And how pleased are you with it? Not just Wichita, anywhere?