The Northport Public School Board of Education (BOE) rated superintendent Neil Wetherbee “effective” once again at its regular meeting on Monday evening.
Northport, like other school districts, continues to follow the Marzano School Leader Evaluation Model, a tool recommended by the Michigan Council of Educator Effectiveness.
Wetherbee, who is in his ninth year as Northport superintendent, said while the evaluation process of rating school leaders using different domains remains the same, the ratings from last year to this year are labeled slightly different due to state changes that were put into effect July 1. Before the state changes, the rating labels were “ineffective, minimally effective, effective, or highly effective.” The new evaluation label ratings for teachers, principals, and superintendents are now “effective, developing, or needs support.”
“It’s taken a lot of the nuance out of the evaluation process,” Wetherbee said. “Really anything less than effective (rating), the board is not looking to retain the employee, so it’s really not the best tool for providing meaningful feedback. It’s more of a compliance piece… they (the board) provides me feedback throughout the year in various methods.” The six domains Wetherbee was rated on as a superintendent include “a data driven focus on student achievement, instruction of a viable and guaranteed curriculum, continuous development of teachers and staff, community of care and collaboration, core values, and resource management.”
“We’ve made a lot of changes since I started nine years ago and I feel like we are now at the point where most of those changes have been implemented and we’re now more in the monitoring and tweaking phase and I appreciate the board’s support in adopting what I’ve put forth,” Wetherbee said. “I’m pleased with how the school year’s going and how we’re moving forward as a district.”
The school also held its organizational meeting before the regular board meeting Monday evening, which affirmed the roles of the seven BOE members that are elected for terms of six years. The board’s newest member, Jamie Scripps, was appointed as the BOE vice president, taking on the role that former member Barb Conley previously held. The other board members, Daniel Duffiney, Danielle Percy, Ben Purdy, Jacob Zimmer, Ryan Blessing, and Thomas Wetherbee were confirmed to continue serving in their same BOE roles moving forward.
