LM Feb.2021_lo

This Wasn’t InThe Manual.

A NewSuperintendent Navigates the Pandemic

By Dr. Michael Shapiro Superintendent, Eswood CCSD #269

H

e seemed like a perfectly ordinary man. Solid, midwestern roots. Knowledgeable and affable. Pillar of the community. One would never have

posted and texted the members of my community that we would be going to full remote learning by order of the Governor. Joe got out just in time. How did he know? Pardon my facetiousness, but 10 months later, the timing still makes me chuckle. The warnings about COVID were bubbling up during our February month of transition, but I think very few people expected the complete shutdown to come. Along with every other first-year superintendent challenge—budget, levy, Board navigation, grants and expenditure reports—now I had to engender the utmost trust possible from a community with whom I had built no political capital. I utilized every communication mode possible to stay in contact with my community, sending twice weekly updates, recording Facebook video messages and using Remind for real time communication. A staff that had not yet, even in 2020, fully embraced technology quickly acquainted themselves with Zoom

suspected that he was in possession of prophetic capabilities, perhaps even extra-sensory perception. When my predecessor (Joe Schwartz) told me he wanted to take retirement as soon as he was eligible, at the end of February, and that the Board had approved a one-month transition in which we’d work together, I thought the stars had aligned. I was going to have my first superintendency, AND I was going to have the benefit of an overlap of one month with the man already in the job. While I knew that new superintendents often spend time working with the district in the spring prior to officially coming on board, my opportunity seemed to me to be unique. Joe retired, and his last day was Friday, February 28th. Exactly two weeks later, March 13th, I emailed, used the Remind app, website posted, Facebook

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LM February 2021