So the Eagle Ridge Academy Board plans to hire a new Director tonight? The only trouble is that the community has no idea who the candidates are, and they won’t know until some time before the meeting. The question, as discussed below, is why the secrecy? Sadly, we can guess. This is standard politburo behavior.
A prediction: ERA will hire a re-tread with no experience in classical education.
Why? One reason is that re-treads are all there are out there. How many successful classical schools exist, public or private? Too few. Though the charter school statute provides the possibility of a rigorous classical education, the ponderous apparatus of licensure and education degrees has spent fifty years shedding the richness of the classical model until not even the vestiges remain. It is rare to find a credentialed administrator who still has his or her educational soul intact. The Board once hired one, but the task of operating a truly excellent school proved too much for them. Rather than rise to the occasion, they lowered the bar for themselves by casting her out.
The other reason is that this Board, at the end of the long day, has no real love of classical education. They don't get it. Perhaps the teachers still cling to an ideal of what education should be, but they have shown every sign of surrendering to a utilitarian approach. The more that ERA looks and runs like a conventional public school, the happier the Board will be. Sadly, that approach utterly eviscerates the rationale of the school.
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Because it appears as though the Eagle Ridge Academy Board of Directors is not dedicated to a classical model it seemingly has no desire to put in the real time and effort to locate a stellar candidate ~ a month just doesn’t pass the sniff test. For all the myriad of problems that NOVA Classical Academy's board has created for itself, most recently the eerily familiar sacking of its director, John Greving, it still has demonstrated the commitment to classical education by conducting thorough nationwide searches in its laudable recent hires of a Dean of Students/Director of Operations, http://www.novaclassical.org/files/Nova-News-05-30-08.pdf, and a Curriculum Director, http://www.novaclassical.org/files/Nova-News-04-18-08.pdf. Wow, now those are people about whom you can issue press releases, trumpet from your web page and in promotional literature. A re-tread? Well, you hide them on the back pages hoping that nobody notices.
Eagle Ridge Academy, because of it’s location in the ‘burbs, will always have before it the battle against the big public and private schools like Edina, Minnetonka, Eden Prairie, Blake, Breck and Providence with their fat wallets, smorgasbord of class offerings, high-tech science labs and the lure of a “real high school” with football and homecoming. In the past four years however, Eagle Ridge Academy, has begun to establish a reputation as a worthy educational alternative by not trying to look like its neighbors. Enrollment has increased because of this. A strong director with demonstrated classical education experience is needed for leadership and reputation to forge ahead.
The mission statement of Eagle Ridge Academy challenges students to achieve their highest potential. It’s time for the board to step up to the plate unless this is all they have to offer.
I will be there tonight - I don't know why though. As far as I could tell by the schedule, there was not a place for public comment. So I am assuming (I know..why do I do that??) that the questions are already put together and we are just going to watch this bad movie run its time. I will post my thoughts after the movie...does popcorn and nachos come with this show??
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