February 2023: School Administrator
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A contested Workplace
In the buildup to this month’s issue, I reached out to an experienced supervisor of school libraries in a Florida school district to write about her long-established practices for vetting new book acquisitions. She expressed interest, then backed out of the assignment. Ditto with the next library administrator I approached with the same request.
Just too hot to handle right now, they reported back.
As Carl Cohn’s cover story “Schools as Contested Places” conveys in illustrative terms, work in public education has taken on considerable discomfort. Conservative views on race, gender and sexuality — including what books ought to be accessible to students in their libraries — have led to supercharged confrontations in a wide array of school communities.
In some cases, well-funded national organizations have fueled what once were nonpartisan local school board elections, creating new board majorities determined to tackle critical race theory in classrooms, LGBTQ lessons and any remnants of pandemic-related practices. As Cohn notes, several superintendents were forced out of their jobs expeditiously by the new board makeups.
To counter this deleterious dimension, article contributors Sheldon Berman and Ross Wiener share their thoughts on mobilizing to reclaim the public good of public education. And superintendent Nate Rudolph describes his community-building efforts in a small Minnesota district.
We recognize our readers cover a spectrum of political inclinations, so we would welcome hearing from you as these issues continue to play out in school governance.
Jay P. Goldman
Editor, School Administrator
703-875-0745
jgoldman@aasa.org
@JPGoldman
Awards of Excellence
This issue of School Administrator Magazine was the recipient of the Silver Trendy Award in the Monthly Trade Association Magazine category.
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