Gloria Ferris

Last night after I watched the 11 p.m. news on Channel three, I went to bed with hope in my heart. The Cleveland School Board has chosen three finalists that are quality people with great credentials. Two of the finalists have outstanding educational credentials, but the third, Bill Denihan has the credentials that it will take to make the Cleveland Schools a success story. Bill is an outstanding administrator who has the ability to listen, debate, compromise, and take action. He will do this without ever losing sight of the goal–educating our city’s children so that they will be successful, productive people.

I moved to Cleveland in 1973 because I was hired as a Cleveland schoolteacher. I stayed five years, but I never lost my interest in education. I taught when there were teachers who remembered the glory years of Cleveland– when it was considered one of THE educational institutions in the United States. Although the city’s demographics have changed since those years with Bill Denihan at the helm we can again be a model of urban education for the nation.

Here is why. Bill Denihan loves this city. He knows the people and the networks that are in this city. He will not hesitate to ask anyone and everyone to help him reach his goal of turning around our city schools and moving forward. He understands the necessity of using the assets you have to build a successful organization. He will not reinvent the wheel. He will hone in on the strengths and weaknesses of the organization so that he can make sure that what works continues to work and he can turn his attention to shoring up the weaknesses so that they do not continue to bring the system down. He will fix the nuts and bolts and grease the wheels so that the school system again becomes efficient and effective.

Bill has the connections in the city, county, and state to make our school system the shining star that it deserves to be. Bill has faith in other people’s integrity and desire to succeed. In other words, Bill brings out the best in people. We need that. We need a leader who can rally the troops and allow those troops to do their jobs with dignity and aplomb. Bill knows Cleveland and Clevelanders. There isn’t a learning curve that will slow him down. We don’t have time for a learning curve. We don’t have time for building working relationships. We don’t need new educational models. We need a CEO who can hit the ground running. Bill Denihan is that person.

Full disclosure: I am glad to call Bill Denihan my friend because he never loses sight of what Cleveland is and where it can go.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 5th, 2006 at 9:25 am and is filed under Cleveland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.