Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

An analytical selection process

An analytical process for Superintendent selection:

1. Establish a committee for the selection process. This committee should have existing community leaders (township, city, business, school board, etc.), teacher representatives, school administration representatives, booster group representatives, etc. The committee should also have a facilitator (several, if the group is large). The board should not approach the selection as they did the treasurer because the role of Superintendent is very different.

2. The committee should define measurable (quantitative) criteria and prioritize them. No more than 50 criteria should be identified, structured into no more than 5 categories. At least 2 metrics should be defined based on these measures. This approach will minimize the emotional content of a decision and make comparisons possible. Two metrics will minimize the ability of anyone to manipulate the numbers. (Aside: a weakness of the boundary committee report was that the criteria defined were used qualitatively).

3. The committee should conduct step 2 in several open forums, in different school locations, and at different times of the day and week.

4. With the criteria, measures and metrics defined, the school board should rank the candidates. The top candidates should be assessed based on the metrics defined AND the intuition of the board members. Any difference between the metrics and the intuition must be discussed, and resolved within the board.

5. After selection, the board should publish the rating of the selected candidate based on the metrics, plus any insights from the intuition that can be expressed effectively. This will demonstrate to the community that their efforts drove the selection. Of course, only the successful candidate?’s rating should be published.

The above is a rough guide. There are numerous things that may require adjustment depending on what the community says about the selection, and the candidates attracted to our schools.

Note that many people want to offer criteria that cannot be measured. Reaching agreement on how candidates compare using such criteria is very difficult, if not impossible. These criteria should be employed as part of the intuition mentioned above. Examples include honesty, courage, and vision.

Measurable criteria include years of experience, experience in specific situations, education level, and financial experience in both years and size. Criteria that support a leadership assessment (a category in this schema) include nature and levels of community involvement, and ratings of peers, subordinates and supervisors.

The approach described here requires considerable effort, but tends to garner community support for the results.

characteristics for a new Supt.

I am pleased Forest Yocum is retiring from PLSD. His administration did not perform well and I believe a very significant % of the community, including many teachers and administrators, are also pleased he is leaving.

Now to the characteristics and qualifications of Forest's successor:
o Honesty, integrity, morality, and similar personal values are essential.
o Next most important is a significant record of accomplishment as an executive in the military or business world. Military rank of Lt. colonel or higher (or equivalent other service rank) or a position in business as leader of a multi-level organization with a budget of $100million or more would provide the experience and abilities we should look for.
o The person selected must have the ability to communicate openly and effectively with the diverse elements of our community and then to prepare plans that are supported by a significant majority of the community.
o There must be a strong interest in and dedication to a top 10-20% education system without being an educrat.
o The individual must understand that rapid growth creates tremendous pressure on the schools and on the individuals of the community and that the schools must take a strong stand regarding growth being manageable and much lower than we have experienced.
o The selected candidate must be able to merge the best elements of the education establishment with those of his/her military/business experience to creatively control costs without significantly reducing quality of education.
o There must be a record of repeatedly preparing others in his/her organization for additional responsibility and promotion.
o There must be a record of successfully managing rapid growth in a limited funds environment.
o Under no circumstance would I promote a present employee of the PLSD into this position. While there may be 1 or more with the ability to perform the tasks I believe our new superintendent must perform, we need someone who comes in with a clean slate and who can quickly and objectively evaluate the situation and prepare and sell a plan to deal with our many problems. I believe any insider would be less objective, initially certainly more knowledgeable, and quite likely have baggage with at least part of the community. The objectivity and no baggage are essentials of whomever we hire.
o I would review some of the candidates interviewed for the Columbus Schools superintendent last year. There were 2-3 that appeared to have some of the qualifications I list here.
o I would not depend on the education establishment for many of the candidates. That is where Forest came from and they have a very strong mindset that is contrary to what we need. The education knowledge my candidate would need can be provided by the existing staff of the PLSD.

In a separate message, to be sent in a few days, I will provide background data and analysis supporting why I think we need an individual such as I have described. A friend and former Pickerington resident typified the person I favor. Tony had a position as Dept Head for 2 plants of a Fortune top 10 manufacturing firm. Prior to taking that position he had retired as a Navy Captain with several years in various command positions on board ships of various types and sizes. His career Navy experience had also included time as Asst. Commandant of the U.S. Naval Academy. I don't know, but I suspect his compensation would not be much if any above what we have paid Forest.

I would not put together a citizens committee to have a significant role in the interview or decision making process. However, I might ask a limited few knowledgeable and interested people to talk with the final 2-4 candidates and provide their input to the Board.

By Bill Miller

Surrender Heck

I liked the approach of Bill and his bullet-hole presentation. It seems we need a strong disciplinarian. P.T. at all the schools 5:30 A.M. SHARP!!! For you civilians P.T. stands for Physical Training. Bill have you ever been in the Military? I think it is a real wake me up to run everyone down the road and into the Sycamore Creek, then up the ravine, then crawl on their belly?’s with a little machine gunfire overhead. Of course they would learn to keep their heads down because of the razor-wire above them. Oh!! I just forgot we aren?’t aloud to discharge firearms within the city limits. I wonder if our good neighbor John Donley will allow us to rent his property. He has a deal to annex into the city and still be able to discharge his firearms and he is located just south of the current High School. See the City Manager does have a vision she saw this coming months ago. The kids would be so tired in the evening that they wouldn?’t even consider playing a sport. Think of all traffic problems that would solve.

Once the kids and the instructors get some of that excess energy burned off they will be ready to sit in their class rooms and not cause any more problems. The very first issue is the finding of additional class room space because the voters can?’t afford more taxes. Our United States Army has just down sized over the last 8 years and I am sure they have plenty of tents that could be set up as class rooms outside our schools. They are quite comfortable. In Nam, they would give latrine duty to those that were what you might call a discipline problem. We could have one of our favorite developer?’s build a wooden line of out houses that collected the material and those that misbehaved would be responsible for empting the latrines. I think we could just burn like they did in Nam. You might want to do that after lunch.

Getting the kids to school and back is very simple. They can just plan march to school in formation. You would be surprised just how fast time flies marching to a cadence. I got a few I could loan to the older kids. The buses can?’t may the turn at the old four way stop so why put the City through all that bother to correct all their traffic and road problems.

Those that were honor students could come to school one hour early and build the fire in their class rooms pot belly stoves. This would be reserved for the older kids above the age of 12.


No organization is complete without a uniform to wear. We would need uniforms and everyone would be required to wear the specified uniform of the day. I would suggest nylon jumpsuits. How about purple nylon jumpsuits. These nylon jump suits would do a public service because they would take less water to wash. Just think our kids would feel part of the larger group and they would be saving Pickerington Ponds at the same time. I call that multi-tasking.


I am afraid there will might need to change the name of the township to something more appropriate. I just don?’t think Violet and Pinkerington are good names for our new image. How about the City of Purgatory in the Township of Hazard? They will stand up and pay attention now!



By Yosemite Sam

Involve the Public in Process

With much interest, I read Bill Miller's opinions of the characteristics and qualifications of Forest's successor.

I differ in opinion with Bill.

First of all, Bill seemingly advocated excluding public input into the search process when he commented, ''I would NOT put together a citizens committee to have a role in the interview or decision-making process...I might ask a LIMITED few...'' (Yes, believe it or not, Bill Miller, a PATA founder, said that not a City of Pickerington official).

I would do just the opposite and involve as many citizens as humanly possible in the process ... that way you have a process that may unite the community and build community support for the final decision that our Board of Education will make.

Secondly, I find his comments about 'under no circumstance would I promote a present employee of the PLSD' rather closed-minded and narrow. As a highly-educated parent, I find Bill's advocation of 'an executive in the military' with a rank of 'Lt. Colonel or higher' or a 'Navy Captain' rather frightening. With all due respect to the outstanding men and women in the military, the fact is that the U.S. military is the world's largest spender of tax dollars (and, in some cases such as the infamous $300 toilet seats, the U.S. military knows how to waste tax dollars). We should probably ask Bill's friend, Tony, how much he has spent on toilet seats while in the Navy.

And, Bill, do we really want the Columbus City Schools candidate leftovers?

And, with an annual PLSD budget of about $50 million, why does Bill advocate a business 'leader of a multi-level organization with a budget of $100 million'? So we instead of an 'educrat' we get either a 'military-crat' or a 'business-crat' ?

Don't we really want someone who will has the leadership skills and passion for quality, cost-effective education of our students? (By the way, Bill Miller never once mention kids, students or children in his comments.)

Yes, we do differ in opinions ... and I would bet many others have very strong opinions too ... so let's hear them all in the decision-making process ... not just a few!!