Members in the Spotlight
To share your member news with AASA, please contact Nick Penning at npenning@aasa.org.
June 1, 2010 - AASA has awarded a mini-grant to Superintendent Bill Hughes of Greendale, Wisc., to engage in work related to Ready by 21. Specifically, the grant will help Greendale establish a coordinating body of community and youth leaders who are focused on core principles of creating and maintaining school readiness of Greendale youth and children, reduce risky behaviors of youth in Greendale, and create alternative pathways for success of Greendale.
May 18, 2010 - Fred C. Sales, retired superintendent of Gateway, Monroeville, Pa., was given a special recognition award by the Historic Charleston Foundation for his work with the foundation in the preservation of historic buildings in Charleston, S.C.
May 18, 2010 - Gregory Morris, a specialist in special education and Medicaid reimbursement issues for the last 17 years, has joined Leader Services as a National Consultant. Morris is a great friend of AASA and the leader in the successful fight to retain school district’s ability to get Medicaid reimbursement for health care services to low-income students and students with disabilities. He will continue to work with AASA on Medicaid and health care issues.
April 6, 2010 - M. Shubel, an AASA member since 2007, has been installed as president of 170,000-member ASCD in 2010-11. She is the superintendent of the East Grand Rapids Public School District in Michigan. Born and raised in Michigan, Shubel earned degrees from Michigan State University, including a doctorate. She has worked for the Michigan Department of Education as an education consultant. Later, she served as director of school development services at Ingham Intermediate School District in Michigan.
March 9, 2010 - Ronald L. Lankford, superintendent of the Webb City School District, will join the Missouri Department of Education as deputy commissioner for fiscal and administrative services, effective Aug. 1. Lankford, an AASA member since 1998 and a member of the AASA Executive Committee, was honored earlier this year as Superintendent of the Year by the Missouri Association of School Administrators. Lankford began his career as a social studies teacher and counselor in the Harrisburg School District. He joined the Webb City School District (Jasper County) in 1977 as a junior high principal. He was named Webb City’s superintendent in 1998. He previously announced his plans to retire as superintendent at the end of this school year.
March 9, 2010 - Retired Superintendent Peter Corona of Walnut Creek, Calif., hasn’t missed an AASA national conference since the late 1950s. Corona has authored a new book, Little Italy: The Way It Was, about his personal stories about growing up during the first half of the 20th century in a section of San Diego.
March 9, 2010 - Purdue University Press has just released a new book, A Call to Leadership: The First Fifty Years of the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents, by Linda Dye Ellis, a central-office administrator in the Mount Vernon Schools in Fortville, Ind. The 244-page hardcover book references AASA throughout its 24 chapters and appendices. Three Indiana superintendents, including Gene White, the current office holder in Indianapolis, have served over the years as presidents of AASA. (The others are Richard Miller and Dean Speicher.) The relationship between AASA and IAPSS figures most significantly in Chapter 13 titled “Uneasy Alliances.” The book’s unit price is $35 and it can be ordered from Purdue University Press (419-281-1802).
Jan. 5, 2010 -Heath Morrison, first-year superintendent in Washoe County, Nev., is one of nine senior education, business and military leaders who recently graduated from the 2009 Broad Superintendents Academy, a 10-month executive management training program run by The Broad Center. Morrison, who joined AASA as a member in 2008, is part of the eighth class to graduate since The Broad Superintendents Academy was founded in 2002. Morrison previously worked as a community superintendent in the Montgomery County, Md., Public Schools. A complete list of this year's graduates can be found at http://www.broadacademy.org/fellows/2009.html
Jan. 5, 2010 - AASA Emeritus Member Ronald J. Fitzgerald of Acton, Mass., has published a new handbook, Brain-Friendly Learning. (See www.improvedlearning.info for more details.) Since retiring from the superintendency, he has done considerable work in this area, first delivering a presentation on the topic at an AASA National Conference of Education in Orlando, Fla. Fitzgerald joined AASA in 1963.
Dec. 15, 2009 - Twin Rivers Unified School District in suburban Sacramento, Calif., was named the 2010 recipient of the Leadership through Communication Award jointly sponsored by AlertNow, the National School Public Relations Association and AASA. The award recognizes AASA member Frank S. Porter, superintendent, and Trinette Marquis, director of communications, for demonstrating exemplary leadership in the enhancement of school-to-parent communication within their school system and the communities they serve. Learn more.
Dec. 15, 2009 - Harry E. Eastridge, 69, of Sagamore Hills, Ohio, an AASA member since 1988, died Oct. 17 of cancer. Eastridge was the recently retired superintendent of the Cuyahoga County Educational Service Center. Among other leadership roles, he served as superintendent in Middletown, Ohio, from 1987 to 94 and co-wrote a book, When the Choir Began to Sing. Eastridge held adjunct professorships at Baldwin-Wallace College, Kent State University, University of Cincinnati and Wright State University. He was named Ohio Superintendent of the Year for 2009 earlier this spring, and his daughter told the Middletown Journal that her father was scheduled to attend the AASA national conference in Phoenix in February 2010 to receive the award before becoming ill.
Dec. 15, 2009 - Kentucky Commissoner of Education and AASA member Terry Holliday received the 2008 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award from Vice President Joe Biden in a Dec. 2 White House ceremony. The award is the nation’s highest presidential honor for organizational innovation and performance excellence. Holliday has been an AASA member since 1997.
Nov. 17, 2009 - Durham (N.C.) Public Schools Superintendent Carl Harris has been appointed to the U.S. Department of Education, where he will be the deputy assistant scretary of education for policy and strategic initiatives. Harris was Durham superintendent for three and one-half years. He has been an AASA member since 2005.
Nov. 17, 2009 - After 16 years with the New York State Council of School Superintendents in Albany, N.Y., Thomas L. Rogers has been named district superintendent of the Nassau BOCES in Garden City, N.Y. With 4,300 staff and 56 school districts, this is the largest BOCES in New York state. Rogers earlier was a program associate in the New York State Senate Majority Program Office. He recently co-founded Public Schools for Tomorrow, an organization of public school leaders. As AASA member since 1996, Rogers earned a doctor of education degree from Teachers College at Columbia University.
Nov. 17, 2009 - Milton L. Snyder, a former deputy executive director of AASA in 1980s, has written a memoir, Maybe Milton Should Work in the Woods. Snyder served as superintendent in Prince William County, Va., as well as three school systems in Washington State: Marysville, Anacortes and Federal Way. He also was a deputy superintendent in Oakland, Calif. He continues to work as a consultant in educational technology and resides in Mount Vernon, Wash. An AASA emeritus member, Snyder joined the association in 1966. Copies of his self-published book can be ordered via MiltSnyderBook@gmail.com.
Oct. 6, 2009 - James Buckheit became the new executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators on Oct. 1, replacing Stinson Stroup, who is retiring after 26 years of duty. Buckheit is executive director of the Pennsylvania State Board of Education, a post held since 2003. Earlier he worked for the state education agency in Pennsylvania as director of school services and coordinator of dropout prevention.
Oct. 6, 2009 -Governor Mike Beebe has confirmed Tom Kimbrell, a 10-year member of AASA, as the new Arkansas commissioner of education. Kimbrell has worked since 2005 as executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, AASA’s state affiliate. He has spent 25 years in Arkansas education, beginning as a teacher and coach in the Paragould School District. He became superintendent of that district for eight years before taking the same position with North Little Rock schools. Kimbrell, 47, earned his doctorate from Arkansas State University.