May 8, 2007
Board of Education approves Gainous for new county job
In a meeting today, the Board of Education approved Principal Phillip Gainous to the newly created position of Liaison for Leadership Development. Gainous will leave his post as principal and begin his three-year term in the new position on July 1.
At approximately 11:20 a.m. today, Gainous received a phone call from Community Superintendent Heath Morrison informing him of the decision. The Board of Education made the formal announcement at 2:30 p.m. today during their meeting.
On May 3, the Montgomery County Association of Administrative and Supervision Personnel (MCAASP) – made up of administrators and non-superintendent officials throughout the county – approved Gainous' letter of interest in the job.
A replacement principal has not yet been selected, though according to Gainous, the new appointment will be the focus in coming weeks. "Nobody is concerned about my leaving, it's who's coming in," he said. "Folk are into the next step."
Morrison plans to speak with students, staff and parents at Blair about the qualities they seek in a principal. According to Cherrie Avery, Gainous' secretary, the tentative dates for the meetings are May 21, 22 and 23.
After these initial meetings, the Board will create a panel to formally choose the principal. Gainous said that the panel is likely to include another principal from the Downcounty cluster in addition to students, staff and parents.
In his new position, Gainous will serve as a coordinator between Montgomery County Educational offices – including the Office of Organizational Development (OOD), which works on staff development throughout the county. Gainous will work with principals and other administrators throughout the county, helping them evaluate and improve staff members.
As a part of his duties, Gainous may visit Blair in the coming years to work with the new principal. "I imagine that I'll be back through here," he said.
He will also be on the MCAASP Board of Directors as the Vice President of Leadership Development, making him the primary person of contact for Montgomery County's Professional Growth Systems (PGS), which aid in staff improvement.
Though Gainous is excited about the prospects of his new career, he realizes that leaving Blair, a school he has led for 23 years, will be difficult. "I am looking forward to the new job," he said. "The hard part is leaving Blair."
At approximately 11:20 a.m. today, Gainous received a phone call from Community Superintendent Heath Morrison informing him of the decision. The Board of Education made the formal announcement at 2:30 p.m. today during their meeting.
On May 3, the Montgomery County Association of Administrative and Supervision Personnel (MCAASP) – made up of administrators and non-superintendent officials throughout the county – approved Gainous' letter of interest in the job.
A replacement principal has not yet been selected, though according to Gainous, the new appointment will be the focus in coming weeks. "Nobody is concerned about my leaving, it's who's coming in," he said. "Folk are into the next step."
Morrison plans to speak with students, staff and parents at Blair about the qualities they seek in a principal. According to Cherrie Avery, Gainous' secretary, the tentative dates for the meetings are May 21, 22 and 23.
After these initial meetings, the Board will create a panel to formally choose the principal. Gainous said that the panel is likely to include another principal from the Downcounty cluster in addition to students, staff and parents.
In his new position, Gainous will serve as a coordinator between Montgomery County Educational offices – including the Office of Organizational Development (OOD), which works on staff development throughout the county. Gainous will work with principals and other administrators throughout the county, helping them evaluate and improve staff members.
As a part of his duties, Gainous may visit Blair in the coming years to work with the new principal. "I imagine that I'll be back through here," he said.
He will also be on the MCAASP Board of Directors as the Vice President of Leadership Development, making him the primary person of contact for Montgomery County's Professional Growth Systems (PGS), which aid in staff improvement.
Though Gainous is excited about the prospects of his new career, he realizes that leaving Blair, a school he has led for 23 years, will be difficult. "I am looking forward to the new job," he said. "The hard part is leaving Blair."
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But the way he ran the school was like a kind dictator. His attitude seemed to be "I want what's best for you, but I also know what's best for you and I don't care what you think, this is what's going to happen". He was very stubborn once he had made a decision, which can be both a good thing and a bad thing. Although I was not around when the pledge policy was protested, Mr. Gainous was very stubborn and simply refused to back down on forcing kids to stand for the pledge (even now, the official policy is that you can be sent to the principlal's office for not standing, of course this isn't officially called a punishment, he maintains it's just for a "discussion"). Of course like MCPS always does when there's a lawsuit, he backed down a bit and at least made it so the only punishment for not standing was to see him.
Jump forward to this year, and you hear about the policies of detention for coming late to school and mandatory IDs after they are proven to not be necessary. For the ID policy he continued his policy of not backing down and when forced to do so backing down only the slightest little bit. People complained about color-coding, it got a story about it in the Washington Post. Mr. Gainous was suddenly taking a lot of heat. So what's his solution? Allow the ESOL kids to change colors if they want to so they won't get picked on. People get Saturday detention if they lose their ID during the day? First change it to the punishment only if there is insubordination, then change the definition of insubordination to not having your ID during the day, this definition was changed a good amount of time after the change from detention being not having an ID and for insubordination. He thought he could slip one by us, he was wrong.
The solution to this is that they simply haven't enforced it. But just know that it's still on the books and when they feel the time is right (they don't think they'll get a lot of heat from the students or media) they'll start enforcing the rule "already on the books", sort of like the detention policy. They maintain that they are simply enforcing pre-existing rules. You mean they weren't actually written down anywhere previously? Oh that's ok.
So yeah I wasn't a big fan of Gainous, but I did respect him. He stood firm in what he believed and really did believe he was acting in the best interests of the Blair students. Earlier on I compared him to a kind dictator and the problem with him leaving is it's possible the new principal could be a strict dictator, more of the attitude of "I'm an adult and the principal, you're a bunch of kids and students, you'll do what I say". Gainous has been reasonable and willing to talk about things at least and explain his horrible reasoning at least. He didn't have to do that. Mr. Gainous cares about Blair, and I can't say that for all principals I've seen. There is definitely room for improvement in a principal, but with Mr. Weast as part of the decision, we'll be lucky to get a replacement as good as Gainous has been. MCPS beurocracy, here we come. So glad I'm getting out of here in 2 weeks.
You want input? Talk the SGA, that's what they're there for. And until you run a school with 3000 kids, think twice before you criticize someone who has done such wonderful things for Blair.