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Monthly Newsletter
April, 2010
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Dear , 
April in Santa Fe means the end of snowfalls and the beginning of a lilac invasion. For all of us at the SFLC, it is also the time when a new cohort of school leaders will gather at the Hotel La Fonda for an opportunity to advance their leadership skills and capacity. We have participants coming from around the country including New York, Michigan, Colorado, Texas, California, and Washington D.C. We have schools heads, division heads, team leaders, deans, and a secondary school placement counselor all bringing their school leadership experiences to the leadership seminar.
A number of our participants have corresponded about how this seminar is a much needed boost to get them through the remainder of the school year. One head of school wrote, "I think a break in Santa Fe would let someone return energized to meet the challenges of the last six weeks!" In this issue of the SFLC Monthly Newsletter, Gary tackles this very sentiment. What is it about the spring that makes all of us in schools feel like we are in a dead sprint to the end? And to what end? Spring is also hiring season. Tim's column on the moral act of hiring will reinvigorate your hiring processes for faculty, staff and administrators. What could be more important than hiring the right people? And for those of you who are already making your summer reading lists, Carla takes a look at two books that you might add to your bookshelves, Women's Ways of Leading, by Linda Lambert and Mary Gardner, and What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20, by Tina Seelig.
Finally, as you look to next year and begin to craft your own professional development calendar, join us November 14-17 at the Hotel La Fonda for our next Santa Fe Leadership Seminar. Details and registration will be included in our May Newsletter.
Happy April and we will see you soon in Santa Fe!
Gary Gruber Timothy R. McIntire Carla Robbins Silver
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| Click here to read and respond to the SFLC blog, Lead On! |
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Couldn't make it to Santa Fe in April? Mark your calendar for our next seminar, November 14-17.
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Details and regstration in the May issue.
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Hiring is a Moral Act
Timothy R. McIntire
 "Moral" means to make something better and not debase it. Whether you have a role in hiring or are ultimately responsible for it, the consequences of your managing the processes that deliver the person new to your school are great: the stakes are high; the rewards, immense; the dangers, many.
School leaders worry appropriately about attracting professional staff who can perform at a level of excellence in very stable communities over a long period of time with little formative evaluation. While tools for hiring gathered from workshops, education, experience, or tradition are many, the only effective ones are based in building relationships with candidates. To do so, you need to know who you are as a school community and come to know persons who seem appropriate for the position and build your mutual relationships.
Of course, herein lie many rubs. ( Click here to read the full article).
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Spring Term
Gary Gruber
Schools exercise a variety of calendars but even those that are on two, relatively even 15-week semesters have something akin to Spring Term. Those schools that have quarters or trimesters make it easier to have a legitimate calendar-related Spring Term, but in the minds of most teachers and students, the calendar, other than for exams, grades, and reports, has little to do with what most people think about regarding the last term before a long, Summer Break.
In fact, Spring Term is highlighted by a Spring Break -- an almost sacred tradition that must somehow be connected with the rites of Spring herself. I remember all too well the exodus from college to a place, unknown to me at the time, called Ft. Lauderdale. Of course, my college was in the north and going south where it was warmer, sunnier, with the promise of bathing suits on the beach lured many to drive all day and all night just to get there. Where many travel these days during a Spring break range from the exotic - a South African ecology trip - to a community service week with Habitat for Humanity. Whatever the choice, it seems like taking a deep breath before diving in for the last lap is a good idea that has spread far and wide.
Spring Term is often regarded as the final push to get through the year. Think about that phrase, "get through the year." or even "final push." Does it mean finish with a measure of grace and style or does it mean simply survive intact? (Click here to read the full article).
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Summer Reading Suggestions Part I
Carla Robbins Silver
With the arrival of spring term, you might be starting to put together your summer reading lists - for students, parents, faculty and, hopefully, yourself. Summer may be the only time in the year when you get to sit with a book, undisturbed for hours, without the pull of school work. In each of the next three newsletters, we will provide a few recommendations of books on topics of leadership, some new and some classics, to add to your summer reading selection. I also would suggest subscribing to the Klingbrief, an electronic publication put out each month by the Klingenstein Centerof Teacher's College (Subscribe by emailing klingbrief@tc.columbia.edu.)The Klingbrief offers an assortment of lively reviews of books, articles, blogs and other media, on teaching and leadership that might give you a few more summer and year-long reading ideas or just serve as some food for thought.
Click here to read reviews of these two books: What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20, by Tina Seelig and Women's Ways of Leading, by Linda Lambert and Mary E. Gardner.
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About Us
We are excited to meet you. We are the Santa Fe Leadership Center team, Gary Gruber, Timothy McIntire and Carla Silver. Click here to read more about our careers and leadership experiences.
Please visit the Santa Fe Leadership Center to learn more about our programs and our other leadership services and opportunities.
Santa Fe Leadership Center
17 Camino Redondo, Placitas, NM 87043
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