{"id":35825,"date":"2019-03-05T21:42:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T21:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=35825"},"modified":"2019-03-05T21:42:32","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T21:42:32","slug":"aisd-faces-big-challenges-with-new-superintendent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=35825","title":{"rendered":"AISD faces big challenges with new superintendent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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So, it appears Doug Loomis is going to be the new superintendent of the Amarillo Independent School District.<\/p>\n

How does that sound? OK . . . I guess.<\/p>\n

I don’t know Loomis. He’s been employed by AISD for three decades. He’s been filling in as superintendent since Dana West quit suddenly in 2018 after just three years on the job.<\/p>\n

I have two takeaways from the AISD board’s decision to name Loomis its sole finalist.<\/p>\n

First . . .<\/p>\n

Trustees John Betancourt and Robin Malone<\/strong> think the school district should have gone outside the district to look for the next superintendent. I agree with them. It’s not that an outsider would have risen to the top necessarily. It merely is that a strong field of candidates from other districts, with other outlooks, different perspectives would have given AISD trustees a wider range of options to consider.<\/p>\n

I have argued in the past — during my days as an opinion journalist — for governing bodies to cast a wide net in their search for top administrators. The Amarillo Globe-News made that argument when Amarillo City Manager John Ward left the city; the council then elevated his deputy, Alan Taylor, to the manager’s job. Taylor did a fine job, but the paper argued that the council would serve itself better by conducting a national search. Taylor took the “criticism” personally, even though we said at the time we had nothing against Taylor per se as a candidate for the top administrative job.<\/p>\n

AISD could have strengthened the field of contenders by opening it up rather than conducting an exclusively in-house search for superintendent.<\/p>\n

Second . . .<\/p>\n

Loomis inherits a district in turmoil<\/strong>. Indeed, he is part of the reason for AISD’s tumult. You see, it was on his watch that Amarillo High School girls volleyball coach Kori Clements resigned suddenly after a single season. She blamed the administration for a lack of support when she was confronted by the parent of one of the girls who played for her at Amarillo HS, one of the state’s most heralded volleyball programs.<\/p>\n

The AISD administration and the board of trustees should have stood behind Clements. Neither of them did. Indeed, the offending parent — the one who harassed and hassled Clements over her daughter’s playing time — reportedly is a member of the AISD board!<\/em><\/p>\n

I don’t live in Amarillo any longer, so I don’t yet know how much of this controversy has subsided. I have a strong hunch there remains a great deal of latent distrust of the school board and administration over the support they give to their educators and support staff.<\/p>\n

Is the superintendent-to-be going to deal with that up front and aggressively?<\/p>\n

My advice: He had better.<\/p>\n\n

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So, it appears Doug Loomis is going to be the new superintendent of the Amarillo Independent School District. How does that sound? OK . . . I guess. I don’t know Loomis. He’s been employed by AISD for three decades. He’s been filling in as superintendent since Dana West quit suddenly in 2018 after just … Continue reading AISD faces big challenges with new superintendent<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6251],"tags":[214,8314,8441,8319],"class_list":["post-35825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-news","tag-aisd","tag-amarillo-high-school","tag-amarillo-hs-girls-volleyball","tag-kori-clements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35827,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35825\/revisions\/35827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}