By Peter E. Weber
Fresno Citizens for Good Government
It always comes down to leadership. Superintendent Mike Hanson is providing the leadership that is making possible the long-awaited turn-around taking place at Fresno Unified. Tony Perkins, the Silicon Valley sage, once said to me that it’s always about the leadership team. He said, “’A’ people hire ‘A’ people; ‘B’ people hire ‘C’ people”.
Superintendent Hanson’s decision to bring new leadership to some of our struggling schools has yielded quick and dramatic results. When Turner Elementary raises its API scores by a whopping 61 points after struggling for many years, it’s because new principal Steve Gettman believes at his core that all students can succeed, that teachers will thrive if they are provided with school environments that are conducive to learning, and that we cannot expect different results by stubbornly repeating what we were doing before.
Mr. Hanson and his team have proven they are deserving of our community’s support. If they need more instructional coaches or more instructional minutes in K1 to K3, let’s give it to them. If they insist on protecting the hard-won fiscal stability they have recently achieved, let’s support them. Indeed, let’s do everything we can to help them accelerate their progress.