Renfroe Principal Tapped as New CSD Community Relations & SLT Director
Decatur Metro | January 20, 2010Decatur edTV is reporting Renfroe Middle School Principal Bruce Roaden announced last night to the Renfroe Student Leadership Team that he has been tapped as the school system’s new Community Relations & School Leadership Team Director.
Writes Andrea at edTV…
Roaden will continue to be the RMS principal until 12 noon each day and then head over to his new job based at the CSD’s District office at Westchester.
…CSD Board Chair Valarie Wilson says Roaden has done a wonderful job increasing student achievement and earning the respect of teachers and staff during his three-year tenure at Renfroe. “This new position will expand his leadership role in our community,” Wilson told Decatur EDtv, “as he interacts with the public on behalf of the City Schools of Decatur.”
Welcome to the wonderful world of school communication Bruce!
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My first reaction is disappointment. I think Mr. Roaden is fantastic at the job he’s currently doing, and I wonder why we would now pull him away from that job. He’s received many accolades in recent months–it doesn’t make sense to pull him away from that, does it? I hope he’ll still be able to hold down the fort at Renfroe in the same manner he’s currently accomplishing in a half-time capacity. Just one more move by the superintendent that has me scratching my head.
Don’t you think Mr. Roaden had some say so- nay, perhaps even applied and asked for the position? Is he not a grownup professional capable of saying no and making choices? Might this not build his resume so he might explore other avenues of professional and personal development. Seriously.
Sure, it was very much his decision. I’m just a little worried now that Renfroe will start to fall apart without him, especially because I have a rising 6th grader! I would be sad to see him drift away from Renfroe.
I didn’t mean to be snarky, on you either, btw. I know you are just concerned. I think this is probably a good think in the long run for CSD and Roaden.
Nell~ Totally agreed! Mr. Roaden is quite the politician in my personal dealings with him.
ps Thanks for the b-day song to Ms. 13!
This is the tradeoff we have been forced to make by the (IMO overly demanding) parents who wanted more community involvement in practically every single decision the board makes.
Does anyone think that increased communication and community engagement will be free?
Congrats to Bruce Roaden. I hope he enjoys a chance at a new job. I with CSD Mom though in that I also have a rising 6th grader and I was really looking forward to having him as a principal. I thought that CSD had finally found the right person for the job and I was hoping he would stay long term.
The announcement makes it sound like he is doing BOTH jobs, not leaving one for the other. Am I misunderstanding?
WinnonaMom, I was also a bit confused by this. This response from the Asst. Superintendent may help clarify things, though I don’t know whether this is the long-term plan.
“Bruce is the RMS principal in the morning. Derrick thomas, current assistant principal, is the interim principal in the afternoons.”
Well that sounds like a recipe for disaster.
C’mon, Paula. Diverting our experts from the important mission of educating our children to dealing with whiny parents can’t be all that bad.
Yes, How DARE these parents actually think for themselves and have opinions. They’re supposed to be at home, reading to their kids or baking muffins for the cupcake sale. They’re not supposed to actually expect the system to communicate with them.
Come on. Intelligent, involved parents are the main reason this school system is so good and is able to attract excellent teachers. A skilled PR person would be able to counsel CSD staffers in how to effectively communicate with these parents. Point number one: don’t act as though they’re pesky whiners.
Even if they ARE pesky whiners!
Hhmmmm. Whiny? ( Not sure of spelling.) Gee, I’ve been called so many things. Pain in the ass, sure. Opinionated, you bet. Let’s see, just the other night, a bulldog of sorts..”.why don’t you just let it go.” Stubborn, do I really need to reply to this one? Whiny? Not so much. Whiny, to me, implies not willing to do the work and expecting things to change based on your whims.
My hope, is for the best 8.6 plus interest million dollar end product possible for the Fifth Avenue site and surrounding community. That’s why I whine. We’re not there yet. If our whining is effective and all of Decatur ends up with the most efficient plan possible for Fifth Avenue which maximizes the space for our children’s use, it will all be CSD’s glory and that’s the way it should be.
Okay, I promise to never whine about being called a whiner again.
But this thread is about Renfroe’s principal–no one said anything about 5th Ave. or lot size or the other side of the tracks or Westchester or…
Or flood plains.
Or Scott Blvd.
Or uncontrolled children and pets.
Or playgrounds and volleyball pits.
Or church playgrounds.
Geesh, no good whine or bubbling fury opportunities. A dull night in Decatur.
Cudos to Bruce. Sad for the students and faculty at Renfroe. Shame on the CSD administration for inflating the overhead at a time when more budget cuts are coming down the pike. Why do we need another layer between the SLTs and the administration?
1) Why does that inflate the budget?
2) Because the SLTs are largely ineffective.
I’m with Bee on this one–maybe now the SLTs can be effective.
Since I think Mr. Roaden is the ultimate middle school principal, I understand everyone’s disappointment that he is moving out of RMS. But I suspect that he is ambitious and we might have lost him to another school system if he couldn’t move up in CSD. So congrats to him and glad he is staying. A whole other issue is whether there should be more admin positions in Central Office as opposed to increasing staffing in the schools themselves.
Frankly, I’d like to see Bruce in the Superintendent’s position. I’m not naming names, but all other potential CSD candidates for that position scare the devil out of me.
It is a darned shame to lose him from Renfroe, and I don’t think Mr. Thomas is quite ready for prime time yet.
Mr. Thomas is very competent and trusted.
After years of disappointment at Renfroe, Decatur FINALLY found a principal who did wonders with the school. And now they’re making him a PR person? Heck, right now, it’s a buyers market for communications professionals. Had the city school system advertised that job, they would have gotten hundreds of applicants, and at a salary far below that of a quality middle school principal. Good middle school principals? Scarce as hens teeth.
I think CSD desperately needed a good community relations person, but I don’t understand this appointment. I adore Bruce, and I think he’s a great principal. But I’ve never noticed that he likes communicating with the public that much. He generally doesn’t want to give out too much information, and that’s not what a community relations person does.
I think this is a waste of school system money and of a fabulous principal.
OTOH, Julie Rhame would have been a fabulous hire (if she weren’t on the school board.) I hope they consulted her and she has some good reasons why she’s doing this.
“He generally doesn’t want to give out too much information, and that’s not what a community relations person does.”
The goal of a community relations professional should never be to give out *more* information. A trained monkey can do that. Effective communications begins with someone who knows how to size up complicated issues and present their relevant information articulately so that those in the community can become valuable contributors to the process.
Burying constituents in more information is no better than withholding it. Our current media have made information overload the status quo — and they’re why we’ve become so comfortable with the idea of becoming offended or outraged with just a rudimentary understanding of complex issues.
If Mr. Roaden is skilled in managing complexity, and in bringing people together in a shared understanding of the challenges at hand (which all accounts seem to indicate he is), I see no reason why he shouldn’t excel.
I don’t think the doubts are about Mr. Roaden so much as about timing, where the greatest need lies, and the best fit in a time of limited resources and staff. Compared to years of instability, RMS finally has finally had a few years of stability and success and everyone hates to put that at risk. Any transition, even from one excellent principal to another, results in some instability as teachers, staff, children adjust from one leader’s style to another. It may all turn out fine but there’s only so much simultaneous change that a system can absorb.
You’re right, a PR person may not want to give out TOO much information. But giving out too little information can be a bad idea, also. In this community, I don’t think folks want someone who is tight-lipped.
Another issue with Bruce–he doesn’t live in the city. I don’t doubt he’ll excel at whatever job he takes on. I just think we could have kept Bruce as principal, and hired someone to do this job who would do a great job for far less money.
Was this job ever advertised? Y’all may be right that this was an effort to promote Bruce to hold on to him. I also think he’d make an excellent superintendent.
I guess I didn’t think the problem with CSD was that there were TOO FEW people in the central office.
I concur with Karass about the stability at Renfroe.
What does the fact that he doesn’t live in the city have to do with anything?
Well, if you want somebody to handle community relations, wouldn’t it be an asset to actually live in the community? Again, I’m not saying Bruce won’t be fabulous at this job. But PR people are dying for work, and good principals are hard to find. (I know, I’ve gone through five principals at Renfroe.)
If that is your stance on employment then maybe the teachers, principals, and all school workers should have to live in the community also. That way everyone could have your community ideal and “assets”.
I handle community relations in Atlanta; so I need to move? I don’t want to move. I like my house.
Mr. Roaden has goals and aspirations to move up in the world, so he is. Had CSD not promoted him, we may have lost him. If he can’t do both jobs, another person will be hired to properly lead Renfroe. Bruce has worked too hard to see his school falter yet again. I would not worry. Many CSD staff do not live in Decatur, because they personal time out on the town might be spent running into children or parents, and then the two would intermesh too much for most anyone. For some of you, I really think you should talk to parents in other public school systems. Decatur does a FANTASTIC job, sure it has flaws, but overall WAY better than many of my friends who have kids in other systems.