Dr. Yonson: Say It Ain't So!

From Montgomery Media.

Public meets with finalists for school district superintendent
Published: Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Elizabeth Yonson. Sun staff photos by BOB RAINES
By Nick Malinowski
Staff Writer

With the search for the next Springfield Township School District Superintendent down to two candidates, the school board hosted community meetings Tuesday and Wednesday evening to give resident a chance to examine the finalists.

Superintendent Roseann Nyiri is retiring in July after seven years on the job.

On Tuesday, Elizabeth Yonson, currently the superintendent of the Morrisville School District, spent the day in Springfield, meeting teachers, administrators, staff and students before addressing parents and answering their questions in the high school auditorium.

The Morrisville district has a student enrollment of 1,050 and an annual budget of about $19 million.

Yonson told the 25 parents in attendance at the high school auditorium Tuesday that Springfield, which is larger than Morrisville yet more intimate than other districts, would allow her to be personally involved with the staff, a prospect she found attractive.

Of her five years at Morrisville, Yonson said she was most proud of raising the proficiency levels and closing the achievement gap between white students and students of many minority groups.

Questions from parents included concerns about Yonson’s commitment to the position, planned curriculum changes and goals, the importance of athletics and afterschool activities and ways to save money.

On Wednesday, Wendy Royer, director of elementary education in the West Shore School District in New Cumberland, was asked most of the same questions as well as additional ones, many focusing on her lack of experience as a superintendent at another school district.

Royer explained that because of West Shore’s size — 8,000 students — and her work on curricular programs for multiple buildings, she had gained leadership skills that would translate to Springfield.

Both candidates said they appreciated the strong community support for the Springfield School District and would make gaining a firm understanding of the needs of the constituents a priority before looking to make any changes.

Following Wednesday’s meeting with Royer, Laurie Kristiniak, president of the High School/Middle School PTA, said the meetings were a poor forum for parents to get to know the candidates, and that it was impossible to make substantial judgments about either one because many of the questions demanded precise and thoughtful answers that the format did not allow.

The search would have been better had a parent group had the opportunity to meet with each candidate in face-to-face interviews, she said.

“In no way did the search team replace the stakeholders,” she said. “We felt our insight as parents is an insight a majority of the board members don’t have. How can that not be important?”

Fifty-seven candidates applied for the position, and the school board reviewed 16 applications, interviewing six candidates before arriving at two, school board President Malcolm Gran said Wednesday.

The public, teachers and staff were not included in earlier steps of the recruitment process to preserve confidentially, so that rejected candidates were not put in an awkward position within their current districts, Gran said.

Yonson and Royer were eventually selected because of their track records of creating strong curricula and improving their schools, he said.

Although both candidates were relatively local, Yonson from Bucks County and Royer from just outside Harrisburg, Gran said that the national search was necessary.

“We had some fascinating candidates from, really, around the world, one from Italy, one from Canada,” he said.

The board is not required by law to do any type of candidate search, he said.

To decide between Yonson and Royer, the board will again meet with each candidate and go through responses prompted by this week’s meetings from the community and teachers.

A hiring date has not been set, but residents should contact the board with reactions by Sunday, Gran said following Wednesday’s meeting.