February 1, 2024 • 20 mins
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Bryan Wright: brwright44@gmail.com
Mark McBeth: mark@educationalrelevance.org
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bryan R Wright (00:01):
Welcome to Educational Relevance, A
platform for experiencededucators to share proven
successful strategies My name isBrian Wright.
I'm alongside mark Macbeth.
We have a guest in our building,Dr.
Elliot Moser.
Dr.
Mosser is an excellentadministrator who'd been a
leader of many school districts,a superintendent and principal.
(00:23):
He has been responsible fordesegregating schools in Duluth,
Minnesota.
He has been responsible forturning schools good to great,
but he is also been responsiblefor programs K to 12 as far as
school districts and turningthose schools who had struggling
programs into highly successfulprograms.
(00:43):
We are honored to have Dr.
Moer join us today.
Mark McBeth (00:45):
Thanks Brian.
So, I think it's a, it's afascinating conversation about
managing, facilitating, andgiving direction to a school
board as a superintendent whenthey're kind of your boss and
yet you're trying to facilitatetheir direction.
And so I wanted to go a littlebit more into that depth.
(01:07):
I know that you talked to usbefore about surrounding
yourself with good people.
A school boards are elected, andso you just have what comes in.
How do you approach that whenyou first come in as a new
superintendent?
How do you approach that schoolboard to kind of understand who
they are and what their agendais?
Dr. Elliot Moeser (01:29):
Well, thank you Mark.
Let me start off by identifyingthat school boards can come in
different sizes and shapes.
a superintendent has to stay outof the politics of school board
elections, and I'll give you anexample In a community where I
(01:50):
received an appointment assuperintendent, there had been a
superintendent for, in thiscommunity for 20 years.
He had he was well ingrained inthat community and he, he felt a
little too comfortable and hebecame involved in endorsing
(02:11):
campaigning for school boardmembers.
It was a competitive schoolboard, race.
School board didn't like thatand they dismissed him
Track 1 (02:23):
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (02:24):
and hired me.
And it was a lesson for me.
And when I taught administrationcourses at the college level, I
emphasize to my students.
That you can't always pick who'sgonna be a school board member,
(02:47):
nor should you get involved inthat election because if
candidates that he campaignedfor, lost.
the candidates he was opposed towon and they assumed leadership
in that school district.
How do you get to board members?
(03:07):
Do things both informally,informally, there's a informal
power structure and a formalpower structure within a school
district.
The superintendent needs toknow.
you need to communicate with allthe board members evenly.
You don't show favoritism tosomebody who may think the way
(03:27):
you do.
You have to be very careful onthat, you do need to communicate
with your board members.
Keep them up to date.
No surprises.
I, I did not mind a nine memberschool board because I could
lose a couple board members.
I could have two board memberswho hated me, who hated me.
(03:50):
I'd still have seven that wereon my side.
And it was okay in a communitywhere you have a five member
board and you lose two, eh, it'sa little different.
you're on the edge on that.
And you need to work ondeveloping trust and
communicating with all yourboard members.
(04:10):
on an even basis.
I always worked through theschool board president and
developed good relationshipswith my school board presidents
and that I found that to be acritical I've had school board
members die.
While they were in office andwe'd have to re appoint a new
(04:31):
school board member.
And we've, I've gone throughthat.
I've gone through a time where aschool board where I was the
interim superintendent.
had a school board member whoquit, and the board decided not
to appoint somebody.
You, you don't always have toappoint somebody when someone
dies or quits as a school boardmember.
(04:53):
You have as a superintendent,you have to remember that the
school board member is electedand they're gonna be there.
You as superintendent are theone who can go and that doesn't
mean that you're not strong.
I will argue that you're in abetter position from an
(05:17):
employment position.
If you're a strongsuperintendent, then if you show
weakness and are not providingleadership to that school board
setting goals setting a missiontrying to get everybody on board
is critical in today'smarketplace.
With school boards though, mark.
(05:39):
It's getting more difficult'cause people are being elected
to school boards for personalreasons or political reasons
more than I've seen in the past.
And I'm seeing moresuperintendents leaving
positions if not leaving theoccupation.
(06:01):
Because of the political natureof education in the year 2024.
Mark McBeth (06:08):
Given your experience how do you
facilitate.
Board members conversations backto the real purpose, which is
educating each kid in thatschool.
How, how do you get them to havethat dialogue?
When they want to have anotherpersonal agenda and that's their
(06:30):
number one thing.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (06:32):
I always felt.
I had to get board members torespect each other that the
other board members were not theenemy.
That there weren't two sides orthree sides.
And sometimes the enemy is notthe superintendent, another
board member.
(06:52):
And that's where I, mentioned aretreat.
I've always felt that gettingboard members together talking
over things in being candid is agood practice and understanding,
the needs of somebody else onthat board.
you don't necessarily have toget people to give up their,
(07:15):
their belief system.
Whether it's personal, religiousor political you know, I don't
know that I ever engaged insaying to a board member, you're
wrong in wanting.
To improve English test scoresor most recently in my last
(07:37):
interim superintendency I hadtwo school board members that
were extremely interested inequity, diversity, equity,
inclusion.
and I happened to think thatthey were right in, that school
district, three of the otherboard members may not have been
as committed to those topics.
(07:58):
so I had to persuade people toto collaborate.
In that, in that district, Ispent a lot of time on this.
There had been a, a harshseparation the old
superintendent and me.
the old superintendent in thatdistrict was a friend of mine,
and I still consider him afriend, but there had been a
(08:21):
schism between the board andthat superintendent.
There were some members of theboard who wanted to take legal
action against that outgoingsuperintendent.
They wanted to take punitiveaction.
They were angry, I spent a greatdeal of time to convince, that.
(08:41):
Their job as a school board tomove the district forward to
help children.
To give teachers the tools toteach.
wasn't going backwards anddealing with revenge and getting
even with that outgoingsuperintendent, and we spent a
(09:02):
lot of time talking about thatbecause some of the board
members hurt.
And they felt that they had beenmade to look bad in certain
circumstances, and they wantedto get even.
And I indicated to them thatthat's not why I became the
interim superintendent.
I lived in that community and itwas a K eight school district at
(09:26):
kindergarten through gradeeight, and I knew the high
school in that community.
because I had beensuperintendent of that high
school for 17 years I said, Ican help move you, in the right
direction so your kids aresuccessful.
And we got there and we did somegood things in,
Track 1 (09:48):
Yeah,
Dr. Elliot Moeser (09:48):
of
Mark McBeth (09:48):
all the time with teachers and school
administrators.
they were looking at assessmentscores, things like that, right?
To determine whether you'regetting kids to learn.
What role did that play inschool boards?
Dr. Elliot Moeser (10:02):
Well, in some districts, it plays a bigger
role than in others.
in the high school where I wassuperintendent and principal,
data was big time.
They, wanted that school to beranked at the top in the state
of Wisconsin.
but more importantly, Theywanted a CT scores, SAT scores,
(10:26):
PSAT scores that would get thekids into college and into the
best colleges.
In another district where I wasan interim for seven years, data
helped me convince the schoolboard that they had an extremely
good school district and theydidn't believe it.
(10:46):
And, that they had greatteachers.
They had a community whereeducation was important, but
they had had difficulty.
They had four superintendents infive years, and there was a,
feeling of negativity in theschool district, and the board
was not feeling good about theschool district.
(11:07):
So I was able to use data showthe.
That were moving forward.
Now, what I did there to yourquestion mark, was I knew I had
to show the board data.
In that case, I hired anadministrator to just deal with
data and to do testing andinterpret data.
(11:30):
to teach teachers how to givetests to teach the children how
to take tests.
It isn't just in gathering data.
It isn't just test scores thatinfluence how well kids do.
in testing, in assessment takingtests is a skill in itself.
(11:51):
Giving tests is a skill initself.
Brian Wright knows very well theindividual that I hired, he had
been an administrator for me
olivia_6_01-26-2024_101 (12:01):
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (12:01):
Nicolet in my 17 years as superintendent.
And I brought him out to thisschool district and we ended up
having the, the best test scoresin the state of Wisconsin.
And, the environment in thatschool district changed
overnight the use of data.
And using data properly.
(12:23):
I data can sometimes be used inthe wrong way, meaning public
relations in newspapers, indismissing superintendents or
principals.
We use the data to strengthenour teaching and learning.
And, that those are twodifferent things.
Right now I am, the executivedirector of an organization
(12:47):
called closing the AchievementGap Consortium.
It is geared towards closing theachievement gap in southeastern
Wisconsin concerning students ofcolor and, white students.
Data is extremely important.
we've hired a company that, doesthe data for us so we know where
(13:11):
we're weak.
We, recently did a mathinstitute we found that
fractions were the weak spot.
Or a weak spot in southeasternWisconsin.
Learning.
And the data is what us there.
And we didn't really knowfractions were that critical of
an area of learning in our,schools, in, southeastern
(13:35):
Wisconsin.
we know because we use data.
Track 1 (13:39):
Very good.
Bryan R Wright (13:40):
You're talking about data and how data can be
used for successes, can also beused for failures.
how do you walk that fine line?
between doing what's best forstudents while trying to serve
the egos of some of the schoolboard members that's there.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (14:01):
Well you, you can't deny, I don't care if it's
in Kansas or if it's in Coloradoor Wisconsin.
Assessment is part ofeducational scene
Bryan R Wright (14:17):
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (14:18):
and it's not going to be removed.
It's part of the accountabilitymovement.
That is happening at, at theschool board level.
and it's going to be there.
the test scores, at least inWisconsin, they're released.
They're, public.
And I never would try to findexcuses on why there were test
(14:43):
scores at a certain level.
I would always try to put thingsin the positive vein of how we
were using the test scores toimprove learning among the
students.
I hired our testingadministrator to help teachers.
and administrators how to usedata.
(15:06):
How can you use the, the testresults?
In the state of Wisconsin, we,we got into the topic of when,
testing took place and, testscores are released so that
teachers can use them.
It didn't do any good to get thetest scores at a certain time of
the year.
And you weren't able to use themwith your teachers.
(15:26):
and the kids.
Data has to be used withteachers and not just the kids.
it should be part of aprofessional development
program.
At least I found that using dataand using assessment is part of
professional development.
And I school board members wantto be able to put in the
(15:50):
newspaper, their localcommunication, their
newsletters, on the website thetest results.
You, probably can't fight that,it's there'cause it makes it
sound like you have something tohide
Bryan R Wright (16:04):
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (16:05):
you need to be transparent.
And when you're transparent asan administrative leader, you're
taking something away from thosecritics who want to attack the
schools whether it's a publicschool or a private school.
be candid be transparent,
Bryan R Wright (16:23):
Okay.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (16:23):
but then, but that data improve instruction.
Bryan R Wright (16:26):
Alright, thank you boss.
I'm gonna say this to you.
Mark, I gives you one lastquestion and
Mark McBeth (16:32):
Well
Bryan R Wright (16:32):
we really appreciate Doc
Mark McBeth (16:34):
yeah, we'll kind of summarize some of the key points
We, we got the idea that asuperintendent you never want to
get involved in the politicalparts of the election.
The process, picking favoritism,treat e each board member
individually, but as a team, Thethe other side was to help board
members respect each other'sstuff so that they're on the
(16:55):
same side.
So even though they might comein with their own agendas and et
cetera, is really to get eachother to respect each other, and
then their roles in there.
And never to give up on the, theoverall goal of the students and
maintaining that with the theboard that this is the
objective, this is why we'rehere.
Even if they had their own.
(17:17):
Own stuff going on.
There was some acknowledgementthat there's some real
challenges in the school boardtoday because of how people are
coming in under a particularagenda.
And that that leads a newchallenge to superintendents.
And it's kind of sad to hearthat some superintendents are
leaving the profession becauseof that.
we talked a lot about data,which I thought was really
valuable, how to use data notonly for school boards to be
(17:43):
able to look at their own goalsand how, how they're moving
forward.
But to be very transparent withthat, with teachers, students.
Parents and, the school board,and then utilize it at all those
different levels to move theorganization forward.
and the other thing is, hiringpeople that know data that can
support how to collect thatdata, when to collect that data,
(18:06):
how to use that data and, beable to pull all that stuff
together.
I thought that was really good.
And I think when you rely ondata, as we did as principles,
when we have data we remove theperceptions, we remove our
personal values and, and, andperceptions and just say the,
(18:26):
facts are, and so now what do wewant to do now?
Bryan R Wright (18:30):
Absolutely.
tremendous points.
Dr.
Moja, I wanna make sure you getthe last word on what we're
talking about with school board.
So lemme turn this back to you,sir.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (18:41):
Well, thank you.
Mark did a fantastic job ofsummarizing our conversation.
my 38 years as a superintendentgiven me respect for school
boards some of my best friends.
Have come from the ranks ofschool board members.
I know that may sound strange,but over the years I, have
(19:02):
become personal friends withsome of the board members.
a superintendent needs to havethat flexibility to respect a
board members and to, respectthe administrators and teachers
who work for thatsuperintendent.
And, you need to facilitate,I'll use that word again.
(19:24):
And I think that's Mark'sfavorite word.
I like that.
Use that word a lot.
You facilitate thatrelationship.
I, always felt that my staffwould work that much harder for
me or with me if I respect formy staff.
And the same thing would applyfor a board.
(19:46):
You need to respect them andthey will work with you as long
as you are being respectful.
And show respect their position.
So thank you very much.
It's, it's good talking withboth of you.
Mark McBeth (20:01):
Thank you Brian, I hope we can reserve the right to
interview him again because Ithink there's so much more
there.
Bryan R Wright (20:09):
I'll tell you right now.
I think that we can do thatagain.
Right.
I feel confident in that idea.
Dr.
Moser, thank you for everything,you said today, mark great
talking with you again toeverybody else.
Thank you very much for this andhave a good day.
Bye-Bye.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (20:23):
Thank you.
Welcome to Educational Relevance, A
platform for experiencededucators to share proven
successful strategies My name isBrian Wright.
I'm alongside mark Macbeth.
We have a guest in our building,Dr.
Elliot Moser.
Dr.
Mosser is an excellentadministrator who'd been a
leader of many school districts,a superintendent and principal.
(00:23):
He has been responsible fordesegregating schools in Duluth,
Minnesota.
He has been responsible forturning schools good to great,
but he is also been responsiblefor programs K to 12 as far as
school districts and turningthose schools who had struggling
programs into highly successfulprograms.
(00:43):
We are honored to have Dr.
Moer join us today.
Mark McBeth (00:45):
Thanks Brian.
So, I think it's a, it's afascinating conversation about
managing, facilitating, andgiving direction to a school
board as a superintendent whenthey're kind of your boss and
yet you're trying to facilitatetheir direction.
And so I wanted to go a littlebit more into that depth.
(01:07):
I know that you talked to usbefore about surrounding
yourself with good people.
A school boards are elected, andso you just have what comes in.
How do you approach that whenyou first come in as a new
superintendent?
How do you approach that schoolboard to kind of understand who
they are and what their agendais?
Dr. Elliot Moeser (01:29):
Well, thank you Mark.
Let me start off by identifyingthat school boards can come in
different sizes and shapes.
a superintendent has to stay outof the politics of school board
elections, and I'll give you anexample In a community where I
(01:50):
received an appointment assuperintendent, there had been a
superintendent for, in thiscommunity for 20 years.
He had he was well ingrained inthat community and he, he felt a
little too comfortable and hebecame involved in endorsing
(02:11):
campaigning for school boardmembers.
It was a competitive schoolboard, race.
School board didn't like thatand they dismissed him
Track 1 (02:23):
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (02:24):
and hired me.
And it was a lesson for me.
And when I taught administrationcourses at the college level, I
emphasize to my students.
That you can't always pick who'sgonna be a school board member,
(02:47):
nor should you get involved inthat election because if
candidates that he campaignedfor, lost.
the candidates he was opposed towon and they assumed leadership
in that school district.
How do you get to board members?
(03:07):
Do things both informally,informally, there's a informal
power structure and a formalpower structure within a school
district.
The superintendent needs toknow.
you need to communicate with allthe board members evenly.
You don't show favoritism tosomebody who may think the way
(03:27):
you do.
You have to be very careful onthat, you do need to communicate
with your board members.
Keep them up to date.
No surprises.
I, I did not mind a nine memberschool board because I could
lose a couple board members.
I could have two board memberswho hated me, who hated me.
(03:50):
I'd still have seven that wereon my side.
And it was okay in a communitywhere you have a five member
board and you lose two, eh, it'sa little different.
you're on the edge on that.
And you need to work ondeveloping trust and
communicating with all yourboard members.
(04:10):
on an even basis.
I always worked through theschool board president and
developed good relationshipswith my school board presidents
and that I found that to be acritical I've had school board
members die.
While they were in office andwe'd have to re appoint a new
(04:31):
school board member.
And we've, I've gone throughthat.
I've gone through a time where aschool board where I was the
interim superintendent.
had a school board member whoquit, and the board decided not
to appoint somebody.
You, you don't always have toappoint somebody when someone
dies or quits as a school boardmember.
(04:53):
You have as a superintendent,you have to remember that the
school board member is electedand they're gonna be there.
You as superintendent are theone who can go and that doesn't
mean that you're not strong.
I will argue that you're in abetter position from an
(05:17):
employment position.
If you're a strongsuperintendent, then if you show
weakness and are not providingleadership to that school board
setting goals setting a missiontrying to get everybody on board
is critical in today'smarketplace.
With school boards though, mark.
(05:39):
It's getting more difficult'cause people are being elected
to school boards for personalreasons or political reasons
more than I've seen in the past.
And I'm seeing moresuperintendents leaving
positions if not leaving theoccupation.
(06:01):
Because of the political natureof education in the year 2024.
Mark McBeth (06:08):
Given your experience how do you
facilitate.
Board members conversations backto the real purpose, which is
educating each kid in thatschool.
How, how do you get them to havethat dialogue?
When they want to have anotherpersonal agenda and that's their
(06:30):
number one thing.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (06:32):
I always felt.
I had to get board members torespect each other that the
other board members were not theenemy.
That there weren't two sides orthree sides.
And sometimes the enemy is notthe superintendent, another
board member.
(06:52):
And that's where I, mentioned aretreat.
I've always felt that gettingboard members together talking
over things in being candid is agood practice and understanding,
the needs of somebody else onthat board.
you don't necessarily have toget people to give up their,
(07:15):
their belief system.
Whether it's personal, religiousor political you know, I don't
know that I ever engaged insaying to a board member, you're
wrong in wanting.
To improve English test scoresor most recently in my last
(07:37):
interim superintendency I hadtwo school board members that
were extremely interested inequity, diversity, equity,
inclusion.
and I happened to think thatthey were right in, that school
district, three of the otherboard members may not have been
as committed to those topics.
(07:58):
so I had to persuade people toto collaborate.
In that, in that district, Ispent a lot of time on this.
There had been a, a harshseparation the old
superintendent and me.
the old superintendent in thatdistrict was a friend of mine,
and I still consider him afriend, but there had been a
(08:21):
schism between the board andthat superintendent.
There were some members of theboard who wanted to take legal
action against that outgoingsuperintendent.
They wanted to take punitiveaction.
They were angry, I spent a greatdeal of time to convince, that.
(08:41):
Their job as a school board tomove the district forward to
help children.
To give teachers the tools toteach.
wasn't going backwards anddealing with revenge and getting
even with that outgoingsuperintendent, and we spent a
(09:02):
lot of time talking about thatbecause some of the board
members hurt.
And they felt that they had beenmade to look bad in certain
circumstances, and they wantedto get even.
And I indicated to them thatthat's not why I became the
interim superintendent.
I lived in that community and itwas a K eight school district at
(09:26):
kindergarten through gradeeight, and I knew the high
school in that community.
because I had beensuperintendent of that high
school for 17 years I said, Ican help move you, in the right
direction so your kids aresuccessful.
And we got there and we did somegood things in,
Track 1 (09:48):
Yeah,
Dr. Elliot Moeser (09:48):
of
Mark McBeth (09:48):
all the time with teachers and school
administrators.
they were looking at assessmentscores, things like that, right?
To determine whether you'regetting kids to learn.
What role did that play inschool boards?
Dr. Elliot Moeser (10:02):
Well, in some districts, it plays a bigger
role than in others.
in the high school where I wassuperintendent and principal,
data was big time.
They, wanted that school to beranked at the top in the state
of Wisconsin.
but more importantly, Theywanted a CT scores, SAT scores,
(10:26):
PSAT scores that would get thekids into college and into the
best colleges.
In another district where I wasan interim for seven years, data
helped me convince the schoolboard that they had an extremely
good school district and theydidn't believe it.
(10:46):
And, that they had greatteachers.
They had a community whereeducation was important, but
they had had difficulty.
They had four superintendents infive years, and there was a,
feeling of negativity in theschool district, and the board
was not feeling good about theschool district.
(11:07):
So I was able to use data showthe.
That were moving forward.
Now, what I did there to yourquestion mark, was I knew I had
to show the board data.
In that case, I hired anadministrator to just deal with
data and to do testing andinterpret data.
(11:30):
to teach teachers how to givetests to teach the children how
to take tests.
It isn't just in gathering data.
It isn't just test scores thatinfluence how well kids do.
in testing, in assessment takingtests is a skill in itself.
(11:51):
Giving tests is a skill initself.
Brian Wright knows very well theindividual that I hired, he had
been an administrator for me
olivia_6_01-26-2024_101 (12:01):
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (12:01):
Nicolet in my 17 years as superintendent.
And I brought him out to thisschool district and we ended up
having the, the best test scoresin the state of Wisconsin.
And, the environment in thatschool district changed
overnight the use of data.
And using data properly.
(12:23):
I data can sometimes be used inthe wrong way, meaning public
relations in newspapers, indismissing superintendents or
principals.
We use the data to strengthenour teaching and learning.
And, that those are twodifferent things.
Right now I am, the executivedirector of an organization
(12:47):
called closing the AchievementGap Consortium.
It is geared towards closing theachievement gap in southeastern
Wisconsin concerning students ofcolor and, white students.
Data is extremely important.
we've hired a company that, doesthe data for us so we know where
(13:11):
we're weak.
We, recently did a mathinstitute we found that
fractions were the weak spot.
Or a weak spot in southeasternWisconsin.
Learning.
And the data is what us there.
And we didn't really knowfractions were that critical of
an area of learning in our,schools, in, southeastern
(13:35):
Wisconsin.
we know because we use data.
Track 1 (13:39):
Very good.
Bryan R Wright (13:40):
You're talking about data and how data can be
used for successes, can also beused for failures.
how do you walk that fine line?
between doing what's best forstudents while trying to serve
the egos of some of the schoolboard members that's there.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (14:01):
Well you, you can't deny, I don't care if it's
in Kansas or if it's in Coloradoor Wisconsin.
Assessment is part ofeducational scene
Bryan R Wright (14:17):
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (14:18):
and it's not going to be removed.
It's part of the accountabilitymovement.
That is happening at, at theschool board level.
and it's going to be there.
the test scores, at least inWisconsin, they're released.
They're, public.
And I never would try to findexcuses on why there were test
(14:43):
scores at a certain level.
I would always try to put thingsin the positive vein of how we
were using the test scores toimprove learning among the
students.
I hired our testingadministrator to help teachers.
and administrators how to usedata.
(15:06):
How can you use the, the testresults?
In the state of Wisconsin, we,we got into the topic of when,
testing took place and, testscores are released so that
teachers can use them.
It didn't do any good to get thetest scores at a certain time of
the year.
And you weren't able to use themwith your teachers.
(15:26):
and the kids.
Data has to be used withteachers and not just the kids.
it should be part of aprofessional development
program.
At least I found that using dataand using assessment is part of
professional development.
And I school board members wantto be able to put in the
(15:50):
newspaper, their localcommunication, their
newsletters, on the website thetest results.
You, probably can't fight that,it's there'cause it makes it
sound like you have something tohide
Bryan R Wright (16:04):
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (16:05):
you need to be transparent.
And when you're transparent asan administrative leader, you're
taking something away from thosecritics who want to attack the
schools whether it's a publicschool or a private school.
be candid be transparent,
Bryan R Wright (16:23):
Okay.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (16:23):
but then, but that data improve instruction.
Bryan R Wright (16:26):
Alright, thank you boss.
I'm gonna say this to you.
Mark, I gives you one lastquestion and
Mark McBeth (16:32):
Well
Bryan R Wright (16:32):
we really appreciate Doc
Mark McBeth (16:34):
yeah, we'll kind of summarize some of the key points
We, we got the idea that asuperintendent you never want to
get involved in the politicalparts of the election.
The process, picking favoritism,treat e each board member
individually, but as a team, Thethe other side was to help board
members respect each other'sstuff so that they're on the
(16:55):
same side.
So even though they might comein with their own agendas and et
cetera, is really to get eachother to respect each other, and
then their roles in there.
And never to give up on the, theoverall goal of the students and
maintaining that with the theboard that this is the
objective, this is why we'rehere.
Even if they had their own.
(17:17):
Own stuff going on.
There was some acknowledgementthat there's some real
challenges in the school boardtoday because of how people are
coming in under a particularagenda.
And that that leads a newchallenge to superintendents.
And it's kind of sad to hearthat some superintendents are
leaving the profession becauseof that.
we talked a lot about data,which I thought was really
valuable, how to use data notonly for school boards to be
(17:43):
able to look at their own goalsand how, how they're moving
forward.
But to be very transparent withthat, with teachers, students.
Parents and, the school board,and then utilize it at all those
different levels to move theorganization forward.
and the other thing is, hiringpeople that know data that can
support how to collect thatdata, when to collect that data,
(18:06):
how to use that data and, beable to pull all that stuff
together.
I thought that was really good.
And I think when you rely ondata, as we did as principles,
when we have data we remove theperceptions, we remove our
personal values and, and, andperceptions and just say the,
(18:26):
facts are, and so now what do wewant to do now?
Bryan R Wright (18:30):
Absolutely.
tremendous points.
Dr.
Moja, I wanna make sure you getthe last word on what we're
talking about with school board.
So lemme turn this back to you,sir.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (18:41):
Well, thank you.
Mark did a fantastic job ofsummarizing our conversation.
my 38 years as a superintendentgiven me respect for school
boards some of my best friends.
Have come from the ranks ofschool board members.
I know that may sound strange,but over the years I, have
(19:02):
become personal friends withsome of the board members.
a superintendent needs to havethat flexibility to respect a
board members and to, respectthe administrators and teachers
who work for thatsuperintendent.
And, you need to facilitate,I'll use that word again.
(19:24):
And I think that's Mark'sfavorite word.
I like that.
Use that word a lot.
You facilitate thatrelationship.
I, always felt that my staffwould work that much harder for
me or with me if I respect formy staff.
And the same thing would applyfor a board.
(19:46):
You need to respect them andthey will work with you as long
as you are being respectful.
And show respect their position.
So thank you very much.
It's, it's good talking withboth of you.
Mark McBeth (20:01):
Thank you Brian, I hope we can reserve the right to
interview him again because Ithink there's so much more
there.
Bryan R Wright (20:09):
I'll tell you right now.
I think that we can do thatagain.
Right.
I feel confident in that idea.
Dr.
Moser, thank you for everything,you said today, mark great
talking with you again toeverybody else.
Thank you very much for this andhave a good day.
Bye-Bye.
Dr. Elliot Moeser (20:23):
Thank you.
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