This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, June 20, 2013 : The board that governs the Grand Center Arts Academy decided Friday morning not to act on a request from an advisory committee that Lynne Glickert be hired as interim principal for the coming school year.
Glickert, who has been principal of the charter school since it began three years ago, has won strong support from parents at the academy since she learned last month that her contract would not be renewed because of “philosophical differences,” not performance issues.
In response to the parents’ reaction, the board of Confluence Academy, which operates the school, said Louise Losos, who had been hired as principal, would not serve in that role, though she remains under contract with Confluence.
But at the same meeting where Losos’ job as principal was withdrawn, the board reaffirmed its decision not to rehire Glickert. It also set up an advisory committee including parents, board members and staff at the arts academy to influence such decisions in the future.
Meeting earlier this week, that panel passed a motion asking that Glickert be hired as interim principal for the coming school year, which begins Aug. 12. In the same motion, it asked that the board look into splitting off governance of the academy from the four other charter schools in St. Louis run by Confluence, and that once the governance question is settled, conduct a nationwide search for a new principal.
Meeting Friday morning at Confluence’s Old North campus, 3017 North 13th St., the board heard from Paul Tice, the board member who heads the advisory committee, on what the group had discussed.
Then, the board went into closed session to discuss the interim principal issue. After 45 minutes, board chair Sonya Henry told the audience, which included several parents of students at the arts academy, that no decision on an interim principal had been made and board members would be “taking the time they need to make the best decision for the kids.”
She did not specify when the board may take up the topic again. The next scheduled board meeting is July 19.
Splitting off the arts academy?
Before the closed session, board members discussed what Tice reported out of the advisory committee meeting. The question of whether the arts academy should be split off from other Confluence schools became part of a broader discussion about governance, including whether Confluence should create a position of superintendent or chief executive in charge of all of its schools who would report to the board, and whether all of the schools should be under the same sponsor.
Currently, the schools operate under different charters with different sponsors, with Grand Center Arts Academy sponsored by Saint Louis University and the other four schools sponsored by the Missouri University of Science and Technology. That university has put the four Confluence schools on notice that they have to raise their academic performance.
The board decided to form a committee to take a further look at the structure issue. But arts academy parents who attended the board meeting and were also at the advisory committee meeting on Monday said they were not happy with how the motion that was approved earlier had been changed. They said they would have preferred that the focus remain on the possibility of separating the arts academy from the other Confluence schools.
The board also heard an enrollment report that three students had withdrawn from the arts academy but the school had also exceeded its target of 75 sixth graders for the fall. It hopes to have an enrollment of 550 students for the coming school year.
How many other students may withdraw could depend on the resolution of the issue with Glickert, who has said that despite the board’s action not to renew her contract, she would come back in an interim role.
“My position on this has not changed,” she told the Beacon in an email. “I am eager to return and would accept the offer.”
Toeing the line
One member of the advisory committee, Erin Gonzalez, said she wouldn’t necessarily pull her daughter out of the school if Glickert did not return, but she would worry that such a decision would indicate a direction that she would not like the school to go.
“They should put her on a six-month review, with meetings every month,” she said. “Give her a list of items where she needs to improve. We need a solid person in that school.”
As the board met in closed session to discuss the question of an interim principal, Mindy Carney, who formerly headed the parents association at the arts academy, said she would like to know more about the philosophical differences that had led to Glickert’s departure. Glickert has signed an affidavit saying the board could discuss details publicly, but school officials say it is their policy not to release details of personnel matters.
Carney said in an interview that she thought the differences between Glickert and the board amounted to a matter of management style.
“I think the board has no idea of how the needs at the arts academy are different from those of the other schools,” she said. “They expected all of their principals to toe the same line. They would lay out the line, and the principals would go back to the schools and put things in place.
“Our program is so different, and what they suggest doesn’t always work. Lynne advocated for us, always diplomatically as far as I know, though there may have been some sharply worded emails. I don’t think they were prepared for someone who would question their ideas.”
She noted that Glickert studied for a long time how best to run an arts academy, and she had a better understanding of what the school’s students need than the board did.
“If Lynne Glickert did everything the way they wanted her to,” Carney said, “GCAA would be just another confluence school on probation.”
Carney said her daughter, who studies the violin, is on track to be part of the academy’s first high school graduating class. Would she remain in the school if Glickert doesn’t return?
“We’re still talking about that,” Carney said. “My daughter doesn’t want to leave, and I don’t want to take her out of a school where she is happy. But if they don’t bring Lynne Glickert back, I will have to seriously question their judgment.”
In an interview earlier this week, Terry Noble, who is director of human resources at Confluence and has been Glickert’s supervisor, said he was surprised to hear Glickert say she had no idea what the philosophical differences were, though he declined to discuss them.
“You don’t work two or three years with each other and not know where you agree and disagree,” he said.
Asked about the uproar in response to the decision not to renew her contract, Noble said:
“I would say the parents demonstrated they are genuinely concerned and care deeply about the school and showed their support for Ms. Glickert. There was some surprise at the degree and all the emotion involved. It definitely made an impression.”
He noted that the board has already acknowledged that it made a mistake in announcing the hiring of Losos as principal at the same time that it announced that Glickert would not be back. He said though Losos remains under a one-year contract, at $110,000, her specific duties with Confluence have not yet been determined.
If the board were to determine that Glickert could come back, even on an interim basis, would Noble be able to work her after all that has transpired?
“I can work with anybody,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean that because I can work with them that it always turns out to be the best situation for both parties.”