Leadership Matters June 2014

New IASA president … (continued) _______________________

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Kuffel to Ravitch: ‘I am no hero’

become, Kuffel said. “My dad was an avid reader and he had a great work ethic. For me, there’s no disconnect between my personal and professional life,” he said. Other educational influences included Principal Steve Hutton at Tremont, where Kuffel began his teaching career, and Dr. Brock Butts, a superintendent and a past-president of IASA. “Steve Hutton was ahead of his time when it came to professional development and building capacity in educators,” Kuffel said. “He also taught me how to deal with strife. He used to say ‘the dogs keep barking, but the caravan moves on.’ I come back to that today with all that goes on in the social media and calls for reform in public education.” From Butts, Kuffel said he learned about managing school finance and providing stability for programs. When he looks ahead, Kuffel sees rugged terrain for public education, especially when it comes to outside expectations and demands. “Schools don’t fear accountability, but it’s difficult to be accountable to everyone when they sometimes have different agendas,” Kuffel said. “Are we supposed to be accountable to Springfield? To business leaders? To parents? “To me, it should be about the students, and I still have a strong sense of in loco parentis, standing in the stead of parents. It is a profound responsibility to be in charge of someone’s child during the school day, and those pressures have grown during the past 30 years. Now it’s not only teaching, but feeding, cleaning, loving and teaching character and other things that used to be done at home.” Kuffel said he has the utmost respect for educators who continue to press on despite fewer resources and more demands -- teachers and administrators who soldier on while the “barking” gets louder. He said as president of IASA, he is committed to the association’s vision “Maximum Educational Success for All Students.” “Unquestionably the greatest accomplishments we can make to bring that vision and mission to reality is at the level of our own Local Education Authority (LEA). The questions we ask, the stands we take for children, the way we communicate with our parents and public, grow exponentially in power when a common message is carried across our state,” Kuffel said. “Why should we not expect the citizenry of our state to see us as the ones who ‘Stand for Children’ or who ‘Advance Illinois’? “

In the fall of 2013, a letter written by Geneseo Superintendent Scott Kuffel caught the eye of national education blogger and

outspoken defender of public education Diane Ravitch. Kuffel had written a letter in opposition to the state changing the cut scores for the ISAT test and Ravitch added Kuffel to her honor roll in a blog entry titled “A Hero Superintendent in Illinois.” Wrote Ravitch: “…Superintendent Kuffel joins our honor roll because he fearlessly blasted this callous indifference to the students and teachers. It is great when leaders show leadership.” A few days later, Kuffel wrote Ravitch to say “...I am no hero. I’m a superintendent of a public, PK-12 school district in rural Illinois. The hero is the principal who comes in early on a Sunday morning to replace sod on the football field where vandals damaged the turf before graduation. The hero is the school nurse who makes the difficult call home to parents and tends to a scarcely seen scratch on a kindergartner’s arm. The hero is the AP US History teacher who holds study sessions at 8 p.m. at night after kids are finished with their practices. The hero is the art teacher who spends her own money for supplies and materials because she knows the budget is dwindling, but the need for the arts is more important than ever. The heroes are the parents who sacrifice time for fundraising and make meals for another parent who just tragically lost a child. The heroes are school board members who take the criticism and complaints for hiring, for spending, for firing, for taking ‘hard lines’ in difficult times. “The heroes are those who try. They try every day for their ‘littles’ who come with scant learning experiences or understanding of manners. They try for the businesses and realtors in town who pressure for high quality schools because that drives local economies and housing. They try because they believe that what happens today has impacts on tomorrow that we’re never really sure we’ll see. “And those are the heroes in whom I believe. They are the heroes who keep me coming to work every day. They’ve kept me coming to District 228 for 11 years, and I know they’ll keep me coming for a few more.”

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