White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Geiger: Connors Successful Outreach to Minorities Factor. Geiger runs.

WPCNR White Plains World Telegram. By John F. Bailey. April 17, 2002. 4:30 PM EDT. Larry Geiger of the White Plains Board of Education said Wednesday that the efforts that Timothy Connors, the "Superintendent-Select of the White Plains Schools" (announced Tuesday), made in addressing the achievement gap, which impressed Geiger about Mr. Connors was Connors' ability to involve minority parents in the Danbury schools and keep them involved.

Mr. Connors is leaving his position as Superintendent of Schools in Danbury, Connecticut, to take over for outgoing White Plains superintendent, Saul Yanofsky, in July, pending a successful introduction to the community next Tuesday evening.

Speaking to WPCNR by telephone from his New York office, Wednesday, Mr. Geiger said he was “delighted we have an excellent candidate for the new Superintendent of Schools.” Asked about Mr. Connors’ Danbury district’s track record at improving minority test scores and Connors’ efforts at improving minority achievement, (one of the Board of Education’s chief criticisms of Dr. Yanofsky), Geiger said he had never seen all the Danbury test scores.

Impressed with Connors’ “all student plan.” Motivation of Minority Parents.

Geiger said what impressed him about Connors was that “He’s talked about a push of an all-student plan, where you try to evaluate what things can be turned around, what teachers are doing well to make a student to be more successful. He feels test scores can be a helpful tool for each individual student to indicate what it is we need to do to help (students).”

Geiger said Connors was successful at involving minority parents in his schools on a continuing basis, inviting them and getting them in to the school to participate actively in their childrens’ education, and motivate the parents with individual plans to help their children. Geiger said, the difference was that Connors was able to motivate these parents to show sustained involvement over a period of time.

Impressive candidates.

Mr. Geiger said the Board was “faced with different candidates at different places in their careers, at different levels of experience, in different kinds of situations, and all were very impressive. We heard from all of them about the strategies they followed, the tactics they employed, the way they interacted with staff. The Board found it a learning experience interviewing them.”

Connors experience a clincher. His city a “fit.”

“But, the match between Mr. Connors experience, he’s an experienced superintendent, and probably has seen and been through many of the situations a superintendent is likely to come across, and some of them are hard to predict. He’s been a superintendent in three different situations. He’s (now) in a system which is in fact bigger than White Plains in terms of students and staff. But, it (Danbury) is a small city school system It has a diverse population with a range of academic skills and needs. So that’s very competitive.”

Moved into New Towns Before.

Another factor in the Board’s decision, made after listening to the City Committee members’ comments after they had interviewed the final two candidates, Geiger said was that Connors has moved into this kind of situation before, he knows what to do to come into town and win the confidence of a community all over again:

“He somewhat has made the transition to become a new superintendent on a number of occasions (at Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Bloomington, Minnesota, and Danbury), which is something we looked for as well.”

Geiger said he did not know a lot about Connors’ stay in the Bloomington, Minnesota, Superintendent position, but that Connors told them he left to come back to Danbury to be closer to his 86-year old mother.

Geiger summed up Connors’ strengths as a people person:

So he knows how to listen well, and understand the culture of each community and work within that culture, not to impose a new culture, and use that culture of a particular location to magnify the effectiveness of learning. That combination of factors seems to make him the right person for the White Plains job.”

Will he stay beyond 3 years?

Board of Education President Donna McLaughlin has been reported has saying that the Board is anticipating a 3-year contract with C|onnors. This would allow Connors to negotiate the new teachers contract which is up in 2003. WPCNR asked Geiger what he expected.

Geiger said first of all, the board does not have a signed contract yet, that the board has to go through that process, but that Connors has made a commitment to take the position.

“I don’t want to speculate, normally he’s there three to five years. The expectation is he will honor whatever the initial contract is. I don’t know how long he’ll stay. I don’t think he knows. I don’t think you can predict that. I think the expectation is that it’s going to be a long enough period of time to make an effort to build on the strength we have.”

Connors Made Geiger feel Comfortable.

Asked about a special chemistry between the Board of Education and Connors, Geiger said,

“I think we all felt very comfortable (with Connors). I can’t speak for anyone besides myself. My feeling was that Connors is the kind of person, who will come in…he’s a very genuine and sincere person. A very outgoing person and those qualities I think will enable him to come into the district and make that connection he needs to make with teachers, all levels of staff, with administrators, with students, with our diverse community, the city government, as well as the community leaders.

A “Connector.” A Reach-Out kind of guy.

“He seems to have an ability to do that. And, he’s proud of that. He basically demonstrated that potential when we talked to him,” Geiger explained. “He has a very good sense of, a keen awareness of the importance of P.R. (public relations) in the most positive sense which is to make sure people are fully aware of what’s going on in the system and appreciate the depth these forces might have. He’s a very “hands-on” kind of person. He told us he likes to go to one school every day. He gets to know the students. They get to know him. They get to know him as a person who is for them, on their side. You get the feeling this is the kind of person you want working for White Plains.”

Geiger said in reaching out to other organizations discussing Connors, he got the feeling that “what you see is what you get” with Mr. Connors., “ You get this friendliness, this openness, this caring about the students, the commitment to the job, the working real hard at it, liking it loving, getting the sense of wanting to wade into the job and the community.”

Involves all parents.

Geiger said Connors wants to reach out to parents, who just as a cultural thing want to stay away from school, and involve them deeply and is committed to that.

Citizen Committee interviewed final two candidates for 3-1/2 hours each. Shared extensive views on the two with the Board

Geiger said the Citizens Committee selected by the Board of Education to interview the final two candidates, the third candidate withdrew from consideration because of a health problem.

Jerry Gorski, President of the White Plains Teachers Association, a member of that Citizens Committee said the other candidate that was not selected was a woman. Mr. Gorski also said that the Citizens Committee interviewed Connors and his co-finalist for 3 and ½ hours each on April 10 and 11 and shared their comments on each Finalist with the Board of Education in a “Debriefing.”

Gorski told WPCNR today that, in his opinion, the Citizen Committee felt the two were equally strong candidates and did not make a recommendation to the Board of Education as to a preference.

Nancy Smith, CO-President of the PTA Council, another member of the Citizen Committee reviewing the “Final Two,” declined to comment on her feelings about Mr. Connors’ selection.

Geiger says he is running again.

In a final news morsel, Mr. Geiger told WPCNR that he has decided to run again for another term on the Board of Education at the May 21 election. He and Stephen Sules, the two incumbents, will run against Maria Valentin and Robert Tuck. Petitions are due at Education House by May 1 to run for the two vacant School Board seats.


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