April 2019: School Administrator
Advertisement
Staff
Editor's Note
A New Normal
TANNERSVILLE IS a tiny 200-year-old village (population 539) located inside the sprawling Catskill State Park in upstate New York. It’s also the location where Susan Vickers as the superintendent of the small school system is trying desperately to make sense of her role right now.
Ever since the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., last February, she has been expected to be her school community’s answer person on all things related to safety and security for the 372 students and 102 staff who make up the Hunter-Tannersville Central Schools. Like most educators who land in school leadership because of their knowhow in teaching and learning, pedagogy, personnel management and student support, Vickers faced a steep learning curve to become conversant in matters of school fortification and “hardening” classrooms.
Two nights after Parkland, at a school board meeting, Vickers pleaded with the board and community to begin action to replace all interior doors in the schools, built in 1931.
Now 14 months later, she says, “My knowledge of this issue is growing daily.” But the angst of feeling ill-prepared to protect those in her care hasn’t fully subsided. She concedes, “We are only one page ahead of [the Monday morning quarterbacks] in understanding what to do.”
In publishing her piece “Education Leader and Security Professional” as the lead feature this month, we see Susan Vickers as the representation of everyone who leads a public school system today when the new normal, as she puts it, “has to be a strong disposition to protect.”
Jay P. Goldman
Editor, School Administrator
703-875-0745
jgoldman@aasa.org
@JPGoldman
Advertisement
Advertisement
