New superintendent faces big challenges

At the end of this month, new Superintendent Jim Golden will take over the reins of the Sisters schools with a charter to maintain Sisters history of strong schools while adjusting to the severe budget crisis plaguing this district and school districts all over Oregon and the nation.

There is no indication that the budget crisis will get better.

"In the last staff meeting I asked that we have an outline and pro forma prepared that will support additional cuts of 5 percent, 10 percent and 15 percent," Golden told The Nugget. "In these uncertain times, I want us to have thought through and penciled out in some detail what steps we will take if our budget shrinks again unexpectedly.

"Although it may sound trite, my first major objective is to listen and observe, to identify what is working and what is not. We can't continue to increase spending for decreasing results, we have to fundamentally change the 'educational system' by which we operate. But to change the system we must first have trust. Trust between the parents and the schools, and trust between the board, the administration, and the teachers."

Golden, the staff and the school board will work on goal setting through the summer.

"Definable goals, and agreement on where we are now are the first steps to building trust and a common vision of the future. Once we have agreed on clear, measurable goals, then we will develop 'dashboard gauges' that will clearly and succinctly tell us in real time how we are performing against the goals we have chosen." said Golden.

Test scores are one measure, Golden acknowledges, but he says that "we must develop measurable goals beyond these standardized tests to monitor the health, wellness and 'happiness' of the Sisters schools and the population that we serve."

Golden's challenges in defining, developing and maintaining his "goals for excellence" will only get more difficult if the predictions of interim Sisters Superintendent Dennis Dempsey prove true.

Dempsey is also superintendent of High Desert Educational Services District, and based on what Dempsey is hearing at the state level, Sisters schools will likely be facing an additional budget deficit for the 2011-2012 school year of between $900,000 and $1.5 million. For the 2010-2011 school year that starts in August, the budget reductions totaled more than $1 million, resulting in cutting six school days and a 2-1/2-person reduction in force.

"Next year and the following year it will get increasingly difficult to find budget savings. To avoid reducing all programs to a mediocre level, we will undoubtedly have to look at cutting entire programs," Golden said. "Unless we are very creative, these cuts could easily include some of the very programs that make Sisters schools so special.

"I intend to focus on the systems problems and not the people issues. If we can identify and remedy the dysfunctional systems, most, if not all, of the people issues will take care of themselves," he said. "I see the parents as our partners in the continuous improvement of the education of their children. If we are able to draw on the extraordinary community support Sisters schools have enjoyed to date, we should be able to fill in the gaps where the tools for excellence are not supported by the budget available."

Golden has the unique advantage of understanding Sisters schools from the inside out. He has been a teacher and assistant principal in the Sisters school system, and then returned to Sisters schools administering programs through the High Desert ESD. He also gained considerable perspective from his time as principal of Crook County High School.