New Principal named at Hardy

[Anonymous]

This letter is being sent home with students today:

May 27, 2011
Dear Parents, Guardians and Families of Hardy Middle School:
As you know, every year we conduct a nationwide search for the best principals to lead our schools. To deliver
a high quality education to all students, it takes a strong school leader who is singularly focused on raising
student achievement. Astounding advances are possible when the right principal is leading a school. I want to
thank you for your continued support of Hardy and the feedback you have provided this spring as we searched
for candidates who could lead Hardy Middle School.
Many of you have engaged in the principal selection process for Hardy by interviewing the candidates and
making a recommendation to me. I sincerely appreciate your time and efforts on behalf of our students. After
balancing your input and recommendations, I have concluded that your recommendation, Dr. Mary Stefanus,
is the strongest candidate to lead the Hardy community. I am happy to report that Dr. Stefanus has accepted
the offer of principal of Hardy Middle School. Her official appointment will begin on July 5, 2011.
Dr. Stefanus comes to DCPS from St. Louis, Missouri, where she taught and led in middle and high schools for
more than 30 years. Dr. Stefanus began her career in education as a physical education teacher before
becoming an assistant principal, dean of students, vocational coordinator and principal. During her time as
principal in Missouri, she led a struggling middle school to win “Missouri Gold Star” recognition and boasted
some of the highest middle school math scores in the state. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Physical
Education and Health, a master’s degree in Secondary School Administration, and a doctorate in Educational
Administration. We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Stefanus to the DCPS and Hardy communities.
I would like to thank Daniel Shea, interim principal, for his hard work and dedication over the past months. His
decades of experience in education leadership have provided stability in this process as we sought a
permanent principal for Hardy.
I would also like to thank everyone who participated in the principal selection process, especially the school
community panel that interviewed a number of quality candidates. Dr. Stefanus is excited to meet all of you,
and I hope you will give her your warm welcome and support.
Sincerely,
Kaya Henderson
Acting Chancellor

[Anonymous]

Interesting. So was she th unanimous choice of the parents who interviewed her?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. So was she th unanimous choice of the parents who interviewed her?

Yes.

[Anonymous]

More information: http://georgetown.patch.com/articles/dr-mary-stefanus-is-the-new-hardy-middle-school-principal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This letter is being sent home with students today:

May 27, 2011
Dear Parents, Guardians and Families of Hardy Middle School:
As you know, every year we conduct a nationwide search for the best principals to lead our schools. To deliver
a high quality education to all students, it takes a strong school leader who is singularly focused on raising
student achievement. Astounding advances are possible when the right principal is leading a school. I want to
thank you for your continued support of Hardy and the feedback you have provided this spring as we searched
for candidates who could lead Hardy Middle School.
Many of you have engaged in the principal selection process for Hardy by interviewing the candidates and
making a recommendation to me. I sincerely appreciate your time and efforts on behalf of our students. After
balancing your input and recommendations, I have concluded that your recommendation, Dr. Mary Stefanus,
is the strongest candidate to lead the Hardy community. I am happy to report that Dr. Stefanus has accepted
the offer of principal of Hardy Middle School. Her official appointment will begin on July 5, 2011.
Dr. Stefanus comes to DCPS from St. Louis, Missouri, where she taught and led in middle and high schools for
more than 30 years. Dr. Stefanus began her career in education as a physical education teacher before
becoming an assistant principal, dean of students, vocational coordinator and principal. During her time as
principal in Missouri, she led a struggling middle school to win “Missouri Gold Star” recognition and boasted
some of the highest middle school math scores in the state. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Physical
Education and Health, a master’s degree in Secondary School Administration, and a doctorate in Educational
Administration. We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Stefanus to the DCPS and Hardy communities.
I would like to thank Daniel Shea, interim principal, for his hard work and dedication over the past months. His
decades of experience in education leadership have provided stability in this process as we sought a
permanent principal for Hardy.
I would also like to thank everyone who participated in the principal selection process, especially the school
community panel that interviewed a number of quality candidates. Dr. Stefanus is excited to meet all of you,
and I hope you will give her your warm welcome and support.
Sincerely,
Kaya Henderson
Acting Chancellor

Wow. Guess that addresses the issue of experience with a middle school. I'm a little envious of principal with phys ed background.

[Anonymous]

Kaya didn't mention that the new principal has been retired for two years.

Most principals come from the local area, many were promoted from within DCPS. But for Hardy, they did a national search of retired principals - the only kind that would come to DCPS - nothing to lose.

She aready has a pension and doesn't have to worry about her reputation being ruined.

Wonder how long she'll stay.

[Anonymous]

I was on a panel that interviewed Dr. Stefanus at another school. She’ll be a great addition to Hardy. This isn’t her first rodeo, she knows her stuff, and she can take the long view. Congrats and all the best on a great new addition to Hardy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was on a panel that interviewed Dr. Stefanus at another school. She’ll be a great addition to Hardy. This isn’t her first rodeo, she knows her stuff, and she can take the long view. Congrats and all the best on a great new addition to Hardy.

Another school in the DC area?

[Anonymous]

This person interviewed for the position at Jefferson. She was good on paper but a terrible interview. Maybe that was first time jitters and she had a chance to regroup herself for Hardy.

What I find to be intriguing and this is probably going to be the same situation. Last year, every candidate that was put forth for an interview panel last year got a position with DCPS. Such as the principal who's now at Johnson Middle School, she interviewed last year for every available position. She was finally appointed to Johnson and during this school term alone, she has two incidents involving altercations.

I am guessing, how many times does one get a bite ay the apple?





















i

[Anonymous]

I think you get pretty much as many shots as you want at interviewing and judging from the candidates I saw last year, all were placed. Most were woefully unqualified.

However, I think once you're in the school, you have exactly 1 year. Then you are out.

I heard Amidon-Bowen's new principal is out. I think this is 3 principals in the last 4 years.

Given that some higher profile (read more affluent parents) schools have openings, I shudder to think who the next victim, er, principal will be at Amidon-Bowen.

[Anonymous]

At the principal interview process for Jefferson Academy we met Dr. Stefanus and two other candidates.

I spoke to most of the participants afterwards and the consensus was we had three strong candidates, each with different skills. Everyone had a preference for one candidate or another, but nobody outright disqualified any of the panelists.

Nobody left despondent over quality of panelists, to the contrary, we wanted to merge them and use their strengths. If I had to guess, the attendees split into thirds when asked for their preferred panelist.

My impression, as a parent, is that Dr. Stefanus is a highly qualified with a 30 years experience running schools in a large diverse system. I am not sure what it exactly takes to make things work over there at Hardy, but I’ll bet Dr. Stefanus can get you there. Good luck

[Anonymous]

I've heard that there is a very small principal pool and that all who apply get a job somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the principal interview process for Jefferson Academy we met Dr. Stefanus and two other candidates.

I spoke to most of the participants afterwards and the consensus was we had three strong candidates, each with different skills. Everyone had a preference for one candidate or another, but nobody outright disqualified any of the panelists.

Nobody left despondent over quality of panelists, to the contrary, we wanted to merge them and use their strengths. If I had to guess, the attendees split into thirds when asked for their preferred panelist.

My impression, as a parent, is that Dr. Stefanus is a highly qualified with a 30 years experience running schools in a large diverse system. I am not sure what it exactly takes to make things work over there at Hardy, but I’ll bet Dr. Stefanus can get you there. Good luck

Are you really a Jefferson parent, or do you work for central office

[Anonymous]

What is with this each principal was strong. NOT!!! You might have talked with people after the paneling but what did you see when Dr. Stefanus was interviewing? I will tell you, you saw even the Instructional Superintendent being polite in his assessment of how she was responding to questions. Really, there was a collective sigh of relief when Dr. Stefanos finished.

The answer has already been stated that the panelist at Jefferson wanted to merge the three candidates. So, I am assuming there was about 33% of each candidate that were willing to settle to be combined for the perfect principal.

This stuff about what their applications are presenting to us is just as bogus as one can get. We have never gotten the writing sample, that each and every candidate is supposedly to submit. I would rather have that in front of me, than those same inane questions that are highly manipulated to fit the school to the principal.

Even when DCPS said that they used this mechanism of going after principals who are successful in their schools districts. Well, this shows me that they go after former prinicpals who were successful.

Which gives me the me the analogy of Dan Snyder going after the former superbowl coach Joe Gibbs and we see where that got us. LOL.

[Anonymous]

I am a parent of several DCPS children and we live near Jefferson. The principal panel was open to all stakeholders who also attended an info session the week prior. About a dozen parents participated, along with community activists and DCPS staff. The event I attended was 100% polite, not an ounce of disrespect on display.

I am familiar with everyone who was in the room, and I spoke to parent participants after the panel. Protest if you want, people had preferences, but there was consensus that each candidate brings significant strengths. Far from being pathetic, we left feeling like DCPS has its stuff together. Half of the parent participants greeted DCPS staff as they left the panel and thanked them for a good experience.

When Dr. Stefanus interviewed she gave specific examples and detailed answers. She has a million techniques for a million situations. She looked like a successful middle school principal with thirty years of education experience totally in command of the situation. I thought that as a group we could have asked better, more pointed questions. But she did fine. For example, we asked her about the IB process, and despite her lack of experience, as a parent I was convinced she could make IB work. The worst part of the whole process was the warm stale air in the room. After 45 minutes I had no hesitation indicating on my handy dandy form that I could envision her as principal of our school.