Friday, May 2, 2014

Breaking News: Dr. Don White Approved as New Superintendent

In a unanimous vote, moments ago the D181 Board of Education approved Dr. Don White as the new Superintendent. Dr. White is currently the Superintendent of Troy District 30C.

Updates to follow.....

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Troy? Where the heck is that? Is it a high achieving district?

Anonymous said...

Resume up. However, why couldn't the BOE tell everyone a single thing about his bio? And why approve him by "consent agenda?" So White's reign begins with a total lack of transparency by the BOE. Typical but ridiculous. What did they think would happen if someone brought a motion to approve Don White -- using his actual name -- as the new superintendent? And once approved, why not at least state publicly during the meeting that he was the sitting superintendent in Troy 30C, instead of making everyone google his name while waiting for the info to be posted on the district website?

Dr. White: I hope you are reading this post. I welcome you, but I hope you realize that this first action by the BOE is typical of their lack of transparency. They should have proudly announced your name in a motion and then proudly announced where you are coming from. I hope you will make them realize that they looked like idiots tonight. Good luck with them.

jay_wick said...

Plainfield area...

http://thetimesweekly.com/news/2014/apr/29/troy-30c-superintendent-resign-end-school-year/

http://iirc.niu.edu/School.aspx?schoolid=56099030C041001

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs066/1103777180704/archive/1103867983603.html

jay_wick said...

Dr. White's Resume

Dr. White's Personal Site


Nice profile:

Donald White, Ph.D. ’04 | ISU School of Education Alumni ...superintendent of Troy Community Consolidated School District 30-C in the Chicago suburbs ... he preaches the merits of teaching with technology. Perhaps more importantly, he models within the state of Illinois and beyond the myriad ways embracing technology empowers administrators, energizes teachers, and engages students ... He’s also had the opportunity to create a prototypical modern classroom.

“We began with the concept of an empty room and then began to put things back in that are needed to teach in a 21st century classroom,” White said. While traditional standards such as the reading rug remained, he added at least five netbooks or laptops for portable technology, white boards, a document camera and Mimios, which are devices that make a white board interactive.

“Every time we get the funding, we continue our mission of building engaged classrooms with tools,” White said. “But if the teacher doesn’t use them, it’s an expensive paper weight.”

Training is consequently key to White’s plan for introducing technology, which he advances for the fundamental reason that it’s an integral part of life for young people. “We don’t do this for the bells and whistles but because students today spend more hours on social networking sites, texting, and using emerging Web technology than they do studying.” Yet educators not only expect but typically demand students unplug when they enter the classroom.

“Frankly, students are learning how to use these tools outside of the school,” White said. “Why would we as educators not take advantage of the positive impact these tools could have in engaging students in learning inside the school?”

The answer is often a fear factor. White has witnessed it in teachers who are hesitant to take advantage of emerging technologies and administrators who would gladly eliminate data analysis from their daily duties.

Anonymous said...

I was at the special board meeting and came off as pretty friendly. I wish him good luck.

However, I was looking at his contract and resume on Boarddocs and some things concerned me. On page 5 of his contract, number 9, "Other Work" concerned me. It basically says that, with board approval, the superintendent can teach at a college/university, perform lecture tours, do consultation work, et al as long as it didn't interfere with his duties here. Do we really want another Schneider? I'm willing to give Dr. White the benefit of the doubt, but that's scary. If I had my way, I would not have put this in his contract, or at least add a provision saying any lectures that deal with how the district performs must be openly presented to the district community first.

Another issue I found, this time in his resume, is the fact that this would be his fourth superintendent position. While I'm glad he has experience, I'd like him to be here for the long haul. I'd rather see him have 15 years in one place than 3 places. That would show me that he knows his stuff, and can perform well.

I just hope my concerns are misguided and is exactly what the district needs to turn itself around. If you're reading this Dr. White, I wish you good luck and look forward to working with you

Anonymous said...

If you want to check on his, or any certified staff for that matter, teaching/administrative certificates, you can check out the Illinois State Board of Education website:

http://webprod.isbe.net/ELISInquiry/NormalPages/Educators.aspx

Anonymous said...

Correction to last post: the site for the ISBE is http://isbe.net/ELIS/default.htm

You will have to click on "Public Search"

Anonymous said...

I too welcome Dr. White. Also, I too have no appetite for administrators touring the lecture circuit. I hope Dr. White puts an end to this practice. Our administrators are full time employees and should devote their energies to this district. If they want to lecture or publish they should become consultants or university professors. Also, no more tuition reimbursements! We need administrators who come here with PHd's and Ed's, not those who earn them on the job on our dime. I also think we need a less top heavy administration. I was shocked to learn that every administrator has their own personal assistant. I lead a major company and I share one assistant with a pool of 30! Finally, there is one more month left of school. We need information on what math will look like next year. And for goodness sake, you cannot approve a pilot for new math materials before you determine what the curriculum will be! We do not even know which grades will have grade level math. Dr. White, welcome and please hit the ground running!

Anonymous said...

Maybe if we put an end to moonlighting then Dr. Schneider will leave on his own accord.

Anonymous said...

To the person who commented that Dr. White created a prototypical 21st century classroom in D30C, I hope you realize that every classroom in D181 pretty much meets this prototype, and surpasses it, since there are more than 5 laptop/IPAD/computer devices dedicated to each classroom. In fact some of our grades, such as the 5th grades at Elm and the Lane have 1 to 1 IPADS and other grades do as well, with IPADs purchased by the PTO's. Perhaps this is what appealed to Dr. White about our district, that he would have classrooms at the ready where he can ensure that technology is used appropriately. That would be a good thing, as long as Dr. White remembers that what makes D181 great is our wonderful teachers. They should be allowed to teach and not simply become, as some of our current administrators have suggested, "facilitators of learning" where students teach themselves using the technology under the guidance of the teacher. That is not what I want for my elementary student.

Anonymous said...

While I think it is great that Dr. White is a tech guru, more importantly, from reading stuff available on the internet about him, what appeals to me is that he says he is "data driven." I hope that means that as first steps, he will ask the current administrators to produce the "data" that shows how the current L4A plan is working or not working. So far, there has been zero accountability for this plan because the BOE and Schuster never demanded that data be produced and properly analyzed to see if the program is working -- for any student -- high, low or average. Each tier of students should be looked at to determine if the Schneider's experiment of "raising the floor to raise the ceiling" has worked. I know it hasn't on the top end, since the highest achieving 4th graders this year learned LESS (just compare where they are at in the book) this year, than they did as accelerated 4th graders who were taught 5th grade material pre-L4A while everyone else learned grade level math. The highest end students have been slowed down in their learning. So much for teaching to everyone's ability. I sincerely hope Dr. White does right by our kids and asks to see the data, asks Dawn Benaitis, our Director of Assessment to explain it. By doing so he can quickly determine 3 things: 1. Does the data support a continuation of the L4A in its current format? 2. Does our current Director of Assessment know how to collect, analyze and explain data? and 3. Have any of our students been harmed by the L4A program?

Anonymous said...

Dr. White: As a concerned parent, I am asking you to quickly evaluate two administrators: Benaitis and Schneider. Give them tasks that will allow you to figure out if they know how to do their jobs and if what they are doing is harming our kids. You certainly sound on paper like a very smart man and a proven administrator. Don't be fooled into thinking that just because these people were hired and promoted by Dr. Schuster to a district of D181's caliber, that they are what is best for our district. Don't just buy into what bet Dr. Schuster will suggest, that they are great and that their ideas should continue to be implemented, no questions asked. Please don't become a YES man for the current BOE. Please come in and show the D181 parents, teachers and staff that for once, the BOE made a good decision and hired someone who will bring transparency, integrity, and accountability back to D181.

Elementary and Midde School Parent said...

Welcome to D181 Dr. White. Parents have been waiting a long time for Schuster to leave and a new set of eyes to take over. Please look over everything, from the current curriculum programs, to those that we don't have (full day kindergarten, k-8 foreign language, appropriate tiers for all levels), to whether your central administrators are performing at the caliber that should be expected in a district like D181, to whether the budget has been mishandled by central administrators, to how the facilities issues have been handled/mishandled in the past and should be addressed going forward. Please tell your board members to do their jobs too. Please tell them to come prepared to meetings and actually engage the way our elected officials should, if they truly want to represent the interests of those who elected them. Please bring transparency back to D181. Hold a town hall meeting, conduct a satisfaction survey (perhaps BWP to run one or look to Pleasantdale district 107 for a good model), direct your administration to answer all FOIA requests. It would be great if you'd share with the community during one of your first meetings, what you believe in with regards to the above topics. If you do that, you will quickly gain the trust and respect of everyone.

Anonymous said...

So glad to hear that starting on May 5, Dr. White will be serve as the Co-Superintendent, who will take over on May 27 full time. What happens to Schuster on that day? Her contract goes until June 30. IS the BOE going to pay her for 1 month of not serving as the superintendent, or is she walking away one month early, without getting paid? (HAH!) Would be nice too if the BOE would explain itself, since their last public word on the matter was that Schuster is leaving on June 30.

Anonymous said...

I am an elementary school parent and would also like to welcome Dr White to the district. I would like to suggest another data driven question pertaining to Learning For All. How many parents have had to tutor their children either professionally or themselves to fill in gaps/holes, help their children keep up, or to even give their children more b/c they have been held back as a result of this plan. That will be an important compenent to consider when analyzing data to determine whether or not this plan has been successful. Please ask the parents.

Anonymous said...

Please consider attending Schneider's lecture tomorrow. At the request of several board members, he will be presenting the lecture that he has been presenting at multiple conferences - the one that claims L4A is a success.

Tuesday, May 6: "Non-Negotiable Principals for Creating Inclusive Schools for All" (Elm School, 7-8:30pm) (A second session originally scheduled for this morning has been canceled due to low (3) registrations; the May 6 event is confirmed.) The May 6 event will focus on the non-negotiable principles that are necessary in order to create proactive, high achieving, inclusive schools for all students. Dr. Kurt Schneider, the Department of Learning, and D181 staff will share research, federal law expectations, and national, state, and local data trends. Time for Q&A will be included. Please RSVP by contacting FRN Parent Liaisons Amy McCurry and Christine Allen

Anonymous said...

We are extremely lucky to have Dr. White as our new Superintendent. Besides having an impressive resume, he is also a very nice man. He will be a wonderful asset to our district!

Anonymous said...

It would be wonderful if the district could create a podcast of the Dr. Schneiders's presentation so everyone could be aware of this.

Perhaps someone from the Technology Dept. could setup the necessary equipment.

Anonymous said...

If Dr. Schneider's lecture tomorrow is sponsored by the district, I would think that a podcast or live streaming should be available.

Anonymous said...

I would greatly appreciate a podcast to the Learning for All talk too since I do not have child care.
Thanks in advance!