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Two school administrators and a principal dressed like penguins walk into a Sheraton ballroom. This isn't the beginning of a joke, even if it sounds like one.
This is the regularly scheduled meeting for all 161 Portland Public Schools principals, vice principals and assistant principals on Thursday, Feb. 1.
Cynthia Gilliam and Greg Baker from the school district's central office are wearing tuxedos. Skyline Elementary School principal Ben Keefer is dressed in a rented penguin costume. The trio is at the Sheraton Portland Airport Hotel to perform a skit with an "urgent" message for the district's administrators, many of whom—in real life—face parent and teacher opposition to the districtwide adoption of new curricula and lingering doubts about school closures.
The skit's message is based on a recent business book. Here's its story line: The iceberg is melting, and it's up to the leaders of the waddling tribes of penguins to warn their dependents, who are totally in denial. The danger, however, is real. And if the penguin leaders fail to convey their doomsday warnings convincingly, the adorable aquatic characters in this anthropomorphic fable will be swallowed by the cold, rising sea.
The translation Superintendent Vicki Phillips is currently pushing school-district leaders to adapt to changes in the district's course offerings, school configurations and boundaries (see "Hurricane Vicki," WW, Feb. 7, 2007).
Phillips, who led a portion of the Feb. 1 meeting, didn't participate in the penguin skit. But it's clearly in her interest to arm her charges with ways of heading off any dissent that could threaten to undermine her fast-paced reforms.
The penguin lesson, staged by the district's new Office of School Leadership, was based on Harvard business professor John Kotter's 160-page book Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions. The lesson broke down the process of successful change to eight steps, from "creating a sense of urgency" (Step One) to voilà, Step Eight: "creating a new culture."
At least a few Portland principals weren't amused by the 90-minute lesson in leadership that, they say, came at the expense of more pressing concerns at their schools.
"It was the most ridiculous waste of time," says one principal who attended but asked to remain anonymous for fear of punishment.
The cost of the penguin exercise, including costume rentals and 200 copies of Kotter's book, stands at $3,427, and was paid with grant money.
Meanwhile, some administrators praised the exercise. "The district's making an effort to get administrators to know each other and get on the same page," says Greg Crabtree, an assistant principal at Beaumont Middle School. "You have hundreds of people you're trying to shepherd, and you can't do that in a memo."
But Sellwood Middle School parent Sean Murray questions the business lesson's "urgent" need to overcome dissent, saying, "We should be able to
take a breath and take the time to make proper
decisions."
WWeek 2015