Status Update on Principal John Klemme

John Klemme, Principal of Scarsdale High School has been out of school due to health issues. Many of you have inquired about his status and how the high school is handling his absence. We asked School Superintendant Michael McGill for an update, and here is the information he shared with us.

How long has Mr. Klemme been out? John has been on sick leave since just before the December holiday.

Is Mr. Klemme on disability? The principals' association contract and district policies provide for sick leave, which is normally used up before disability kicks in.

How is the school managing without him? In terms of how we're operating with only three positions for the short term: everyone — including department heads and district office personnel — can pick up some slack for a limited period of time. There's no way to put a hard and fast limit on what that "limited period" is — probably it's several months -- certainly not years. The longer the school goes on without the four positions, (principal plus three assistant principals) however, the more the jobs of those who are doing the backfilling will slip and/or we'll see slippage in the gains made possible by the new assistant principal position over the last two plus years. Predictably, we'll then be back to slower response times, less followup to problems, more kids falling through cracks, less pro-activity, fewer efforts to improve program -- like the 9th grade transition.

What does his prolonged absence tell us about the need for three assistant principals at Scarsdale High School? The third assistant principal position was added for several reasons. Among them: faculty and school leaders expressed concern about delays in followup on student behavior issues and leadership's inability to devote adequate followup and support for a range of other matters involving kids and families. Also, the existing leadership staff were so heavily focused on daily operations, they couldn't be adequately proactive in addressing longer term concerns or school improvement efforts.

The position has enabled school leaders to attend to student behavior issues more rapidly and in more depth, as well as to anticipate problems in the making. That's both improved effectiveness of service and to some degree reduced the incidence of difficulties. It's also given leadership more time and to address a whole range of related student-parent-teacher problems that don't involve discipline, technically speaking. Additionally, it's helped assure adequate support for special education services, which one of the assistants has to coordinate. The mandated requirements in this area have increased significantly over the past decade.

The time saved, plus time originally planned to increase proactivity, has resulted in the much improved ninth grade transition process, a leadership development program for current department chairs, a coherent school-wide focus on developing critical and creative thinking, appropriate support and followup for the Advanced Topics program, and most recently, effective leadership for a review of the behavioral code following the problems last fall — among many other efforts.

The issue isn't whether the school can run without this kind of support; for years it operated without the position and got along. Rather, it's whether the traditional level of service would meet today's student/parent/teacher expectations and needs, as well as state-mandated requirements. The people in leadership positions can only do what they can do in a day that ordinarily begins around 7 and ends somewhere around or after 5, with many nights out. If we take one of the positions away, the remaining people will still put in the time; they just won't be able to cover the same amount of ground.

When is Mr. Klemme expected to reach a decision about returning to work? I'm in communication with John about his situation, and we're working together to reach the best decisions about the future. Although I can't put a deadline on this process, I think we both agree that it would be best to reach a resolution in the nearer term, rather than letting matters slide on through the spring.