Meet Thomas Crowe, ECISD's interim 'healer'

Source: Odessa American, TexasSept.存倉 05--Some have said Thomas Crowe is a healer. To those who know him, he has the ability to come into a school district, assess the issues, enact a plan and move forward.As the new interim superintendent at Ector County Independent School District -- just since Aug. 20 -- Crowe, 62, has made Odessa his new, though temporary, home for the next several months until the school board hires a permanent superintendent. That process has started, with interviews planned for late October.The appointment of Crowe was preceded by six-year superintendent Hector Mendez announcing his retirement in March, then former chief of staff H.T. Sanchez became the interim superintendent until he took the superintendent job in Tucson, Ariz. (June 29), and finally Human Resources Director Brian Moersch was named the "acting superintendent" on July 1 until Crowe was hired in August.For now, Crowe is at the helm of the 30,000-student school district, and with 38 years of experience around Texas in various capacities and in places from Katy to McKinney to Willis, Crowe has seen and learned a lot over the years."The opportunity to have Mr. Crowe has been very impressive. With his experience, he's already proven to be very important to the district in helping the leadership team and amid working with opening this school year," board president Ray Beaty said on Wednesday.To people Beaty has visited with, Crowe is "very knowledgeable and brings a lot of information to the district that's been beneficial."On Wednesday, Crowe sat down with the Odessa American in his office at the ECISD administration building to talk about the first few weeks of school and his assessment of ECISD. Crowe said he's missing his wife of 28 years, Mary Jane, a retired educator as well, and his two longhorns, two horses and dogs in the small town of Bandera, south of Kerrville in central Texas, where the couple retired. He joked about getting back into the routine of driving in traffic compared with slow-moving Bandera and said he's thriving just fine in the dry West Texas heat."I've lived in several places in Texas and each of them has their own flavor. You adjust to it and move on," Crowe said.Odessa American: How have the first two weeks gone?Interim Superintendent Thomas Crowe: They have gone very well. I went to several campuses the first day and it seemed to be going very smoothly. The principals were very well prepared for the first day of school. The kids are happy. Well, they're happy and they're sad. They're happy to see their friends, but sad that summer is gone. But they're very engaged on the campuses as I walked around. That was good.You start out right away establishing those relationships with those kids and engaged in what's going on. And, of course, we're growing every day. We check the numbers and there's challenges with that.Getting enough staff members and room for the kids ... unfortunately we had to shut some campuses down as far as enrollment. In a fast-growth district ... this is pretty common of course. We have the challenges of still having some teaching positions open, but we're working hard to fill those as well. Other than that, it's gone real well the first two weeksOA: What are some of the remedies to solving those problems?CROWE: We're beginning to look at alternate certification for some with bachelor's degrees with interest in teaching or someone who might be an aide right now, looking into alternate certification. That's the main thing you do at this point. Most of your really qualified candidates are already committed somewhere, so you look at alternative ways of filling those positions.Sometimes you have to overload classes, put more students in a class than you really want to, but it's necessary and teachers understand that. We hope that they have the attitude of 'Hey it's another child coming in. Bring him on. We'll teach him.'As far as rooms, you look at portables. (He mentioned ECISD's bond issue for new schools). People tend to get upset about portable classrooms. There's nothing wrong with portable classrooms. I've been involved with them. In fact, in Katy, we had 180-some portable classrooms, but it was part of the growth plan and when you say it's part of the growth plan you don't want to build a school too soon. So you let it get overcrowded or two of them near each get overcrowded before you build that new school. Then you move those portables to another fast growth area.Education takes place in those classrooms, and the main thing you have to make sure of is safety. Easy access to main building location is the key.OA: What's your assessment of ECISD? Its strengths or differences from other districts?CROWE: One of the big strengths of the district is leadership, the superintendent's leadership team. I've told the board, I've been in several districts that's had really great leadership teams -- this one is as good or better than anyone I've ever been around. They are focused on the success of the children and every consideration we have is about what is going to help the kids be successful.I have a saying and they live it. The saying is, 'We make decisions based upon what's good for kids not for the convenience of adults.' And they live that.Sometimes we have to work a little harder, do a little extra, but if it's for the good of the kids, we do it.The district, we have some work to do. I don't think anybody's hidden that. We look at campuses that have required improvement, but it's not impossible work. That's one thing I've focused on when I talk to principals is that together we can do this. But we have got to do it together. We've got to find where we are and where we want to get to and put a plan in place that's step by step gets us there.It's work, but at the same time, I don't want them putting so much pressure on the teachers and on themselves that people forget those aren't numbers those are kids. When you look at that percent you should see a kid's face.So I want them to keep focus on building those relationships because once you build those relationships then the instruction and the curriculum will kick in. I want them to be aware we've got work to do. I don't want to put so much pressure on them that they lose focus these are kids that we're trying to help be successful.It's not Odessa High being successful, it's not Permian being successful, it's kids being successful.OA: Is that coming from your philosophy on leadership? ... What did you say in your interview (with board members for this job)? How do you pitch yourself?CROWE: The way I pitch myself if that I'm a communicator and some people have said I'm a healer. I come in when there's been strife or division or trouble and heal those wounds and move forward. I think that's kind of my focus.I am very involved. I get on campuses. I think it's important they see the superintendent at least sees what's going on; on campus, I think it's important the teachers see the superintendent. To know, again, we're in this together. I'm not up here dictating things. I'm here to hear what the challenges are. I'm here to address those challenges.I'm not the most brilliant man in the world. I don't have all the answers, but if I get smart people togeth迷你倉r... When I was hiring, I always tried to hire people smarter than I was. I wanted to be the dumbest person in the room, because they have the great ideas. Then what we do is hash those ideas around. Then do what I call 'throw them up against a wall and see what sticks.' And then we can all go out and support that.I guess collaboration would be the key to my leadership. With that, you get people who are collaborative but can't make a tough call and I've made the tough call. I've had to release people, I've had to do different things, so you got to be able to do both. You have to be able to collaborate, but when there's a fire you don't need to get together to collaborate, someone needs to pull the fire alarm. (Laughter.)A saying I've used with principal groups already here in working with teachers to help the kids be successful what I don't want is there's a saying 'the beating will continue until morale improves (Laughter). I tell them, I don't want that. (Laughter.) I want them to support them. And help them feel good about what they're doing. Find the strengths.Yeah we've got challenges, but we got things. We're strong academically here, too, so find those strengths and celebrate them so the teachers don't always feel like you're criticizing the things that haven't happened. Let's talk about what has happened.OA: In the search for the next, permanent superintendent, what are some things, qualities that you think are important for ECISD or just in general?CROWE: I think someone who can communicate. In this day and age, the superintendent has to be able to communicate to many publics, to the staff, to the community, with media, with principals but to be able to communicate your vision and where you want to go in a way people will see it and they want to move toward that vision.So a good communicator. Someone who is willing to work with others and accept others' ideas. One thing I've noticed here in ECISD a lot of leadership has been promoted from within, which is a very good thing as long as that's not all you do because I think you need ideas from other places, too.I think that's maybe where I can be beneficial over these five or six months. I've got experiences from different parts of Texas, from where I started in Indiana -- you know, just different ideas. Nothing wrong with 'the ECISD way,' but what about this? Let's take a look at this? Let's study this? And so I think it's someone who can bring new and different ideas and throw them up against the wall and see them stick. They may not be a fit for ECISD but you have to talk about them. You can't just come in and assume well that ain't going to work because we've never done it that way. Of course, you know the definition of insanity is doing the same thing today as you did yesterday and expecting a different result so you got to have somebody who's got to come in that's got different ways of doing things. So you move forward.OA: You have a lot of experience. Are there things now that are so much different from when you started in public education?CROWE: Back when I started, we were in vacuum and when I walked in and closed my door in the classroom, that was my world and nobody needed to invade my world. I was going to do it my way. Well, we can't do it that way anymore.OA: Just because?CROWE: Because of state testing, because of district assessments you've got to have a common goal for everybody in that area and I think that's No. 1. I think No. 2 is mass communications. Texting. Everbody's taking a picture. You have to watch what you're doing and watch what you're saying. One thing that's changed back when I started the paddle was pretty prevalent in the classroom. But you don't do that anymore (laughter). That's a lawsuit waiting to happen today. Which there's a good side to the paddle and a bad side to the paddle you can handle something that quick (snaps).OA: Do you find discipline is different or children react differently now?CROWE: They're different. A lot of that happens from home. And some of it's good and some of it's bad. I think that parents ... my parents wanted me to have more than they had. I wanted my kids to have more than I had. I hope that my two sons want their kids to have more than they had but not at the expense of someone else. Not as 'the rules are good, but not for my child.' You see more of that today. 'Boy the rules are good, but my child's different, now you've got to make the exception here.'People look for exceptions more and I think it's because of an enabled society. We've become very enabled -- what I want, I want it now. And instead of waiting for it to happen over time. So that's changed. 'Course, I'm kind of old fashioned. I'm 62 years old, so that bothers me a little bit. You can use Johnny Manziel example. I mean, he's going to do what he's going to do and his parents have lost control. And, because, I don't mean to hammer on him because everyone hammers on him, he was allowed to get away with things when he was younger, and all of sudden you can't reign him in. And so I don't want to see that.I hate to see that with young people, because it hurts the young people. Sometimes 'no' is the best answer. ... I used to tell my students when I was in the classroom, it's real easy for Mom and Dad to say 'yes,' it's real tough to say 'no' because they want you to have more but 'no' is the right answer. 'You can't do that. You can't have that.' And so I hope we get back to more of that where parents are willing to say to Johnny and Susie, not because I said so, because I'm the parent, you're not. It's best for you.'OA: How do educators balance having the kids six hours a day? Sometimes the parents don't even have them as long, so how do you balance not parenting them but teaching them how to behave?CROWE: It has fallen more on the schools to do more of the parenting of children. I live on sayings, one of my others that I've used a lot is, 'Kids don't care what you know until they know that you care.'And so I think in the classroom, you have to show them that you care then you can discipline them, you can teach them, because they know that you care.And you can probably think back to your days in school there were teachers who you knew cared about you and you would jump through hoops for them. There were teachers who you knew who were teaching a subject, not kids. And you did the work, but you probably wouldn't jump through hoops for them, so it has fallen more to teachers and we've got to have teachers. ... I think it's more important to hire teachers who have a caring heart than know the curriculum inside-out we can teach them the curriculum, we can't teach them to care. ... If I've got to have one or the other, I'm going to take the caring heart.OA: Has anything surprised you?CROWE: Probably the biggest surprise was the number of schools that needed required improvement. And when I realized how many there were, I knew we had serious work to do so we've been working on that.--Contact Lindsay Weaver on twitter at @OAschools, on Facebook at OA Lindsay Weaver or call 432-333-7781.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Odessa American (Odessa, Texas) Visit the Odessa American (Odessa, Texas) at .oaoa.com Distributed by MCT Information Services自存倉