For Whom the Bell Tolls

Welcome John Howitz, new Executive Director of Eagle Ridge Academy! John holds a Minnesota principal’s license, has been a social studies teacher, and has founded a charter school. He has been the alternative Programs Coordinator for the Minneapolis Public Schools, the Executive Director for the Metropolitan Federation of Alternative Schools, the Principal at MTS/PEASE Academy in Minneapolis, and the Assistant Principal at Crossroads High School in Anoka. John comes to Eagle Ridge Academy with a lot of experience in fiscal management of schools and large alternative programs and has been successful in building programs throughout his career. He and his daughter are currently in Poland teaching English, but I’m sure he would love it if you stopped in to meet him in August. We look forward to a great year with renewed energy and enthusiasm. Welcome Mr. Howitz!

==================
Laura Langhoff
Board Chair
Eagle Ridge Academy
7255 Flying Cloud Drive
Eden Prairie, MN 55344 952-746-7760 x 112


Nearly four months ago when this blog began, something in my cynical heart still believed that hope springs eternal. Not a lot of hope, but enough to dedicate the time and energy to this blog. Hope that certain members of the Eagle Ridge Academy Board of Directors even having years ago tragically misplaced their heads up their asses might be miraculously able to extricate them in time to do the right thing ... they definitely had plenty of opportunities. The search for a new director was the latest of those opportunities.

It's no surprise to the regular readers of this blog that I adored the former Eagle Ridge Academy director, Judi Ingison, not only for the innumerable good things she did for the school, but also for the person she is. In my estimation, the new director has mighty big shoes to fill. But as much as I loved Mrs. Ingison and despised the witch hunt that ended her tenure, I also knew that the school could find an excellent replacement if they chose to do so.

Guess what? Yea, I know the element of surprise is nonexistent ... the Eagle Ridge Academy board of directors is nothing but consistent. Well, at least they can now go about their summer without the pressure of finding an excellent director for Eagle Ridge Academy.

Who is John Howitz? Apparently he is the ideal director for Eagle Ridge Academy. I could spend a lot of time pondering the board's reasoning behind hiring someone with "a lot of experience ... in large alternative programs" (aka programs for at-risk kids, admirable ventures but hardly how I would describe Eagle Ridge Academy) or why he's not coming on board until August. (He's not even picking the staff he's going to work with for the year? Is anybody hiring teachers? Does the school even need to hire teachers? Is the staff already in place for next year and the board hasn't bothered to tell us? Is Brucker doing the hiring? The EdPost job listings indicate that he is or was.)

However, my heart's not in it. It feels too much like picking on the mentally challenged or the differently abled.