Ed Koch--and the Superintendant

A couple of months after Steve Leitman became our Superintendent of Schools he called me over from a crowd of women and asked How am I doing?

I smiled and said You mean in an Ed Koch how am I doing kind of way?

His response was Exactly.

When Steve Leitman came to our school district, educationally we were stuck in the Stone Age. There was no technology. The “teachers in charge” pretty much ran the schools; the middle school was actually a junior high; and kindergarteners learned more from Sesame Street than in the classroom.

There was no FLES program. Music and band was lackluster—especially in the middle school. The few playing fields available for our usage were in dangerous disrepair. The buildings were falling down. There was no classroom space. And “Spirit Day” at the high school was all about the consumption of spirits.

The district needed a leader. We needed a decision maker—someone who was not afraid to have a point of view. We also needed someone who was not afraid to surround himself with people brighter than himself. We needed a person who was comfortable asking a parent what their opinion was because he understood parents know things—they are an excellent resource—especially when it comes to special education. We needed a leader who was visible--who was not too full-of-himself to walk the hallways, or to play saxophone with the kids at the middle school concert.  We needed a leader who did not attend varsity  playoff games for ten minutes with his back to the field, but rather stayed the duration to cheer the athletes on. We needed a seamless curriculum and articulation. We needed Steve Leitman.

And yesterday I had the opportunity to watch and listen to the funeral services for Mayor Ed Koch.

The ex-mayor was a good man—a mensch. He never wavered in his beliefs. He pulled New York City from the depths of despair. He viewed criticism as opportunity. And it was his foundation that allowed Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg to propel the Big Apple into the healthy thriving city it is today.

New York City is New York City because of Ed Koch.

And I answered the Superintendent’s question directly—as was his expectation. He did not expect me to be disingenuous. He did not expect me to parrot back what he wanted to hear—he expected me to tell him precisely how he was doing.

And I said that even if people did not agree with his educational decisions, they were happy to have a leader who actually made one. Because people like a commander who commands. And as long as he remained true to his word and did not use smoke and mirror tactics as camouflage, he would be well-respected.

Our district is our district because of Steve Leitman.

And when I compare what the school district had then with the former Superintendent , to what we have now with the current guy, I realize sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Not every successor is Rudy Giuliani or Mike Bloomberg. Not everyone builds on a solid foundation. Some successors do not take things to the next level. 

And so the better question to be answered right now is not How is Rob Feirsen the current Superintendent of Schools doing, but rather What (if anything) is he doing?