During a two-hour executive session Tuesday, Haines Borough school board members started an evaluation of superintendent Ginger Jewell. Jewell holds a three-year contract and started on the job last July.
Board president Anne Marie Palmieri said the board and Jewell discussed evaluations filled out by board members as well as results of an online survey of Jewell’s performance completed by parents, staff and community members.
“We had a frank, honest discussion about the six standards in the (board’s) evaluation (form) and how those different pieces fed into the evaluation,” Palmieri said. “Coming out of the discussion there were concerns raised in some areas for growth. We’ll be working with Dr. Jewell on strategies to address those.”
A summary evaluation will be written in the coming weeks and released to the public, Palmieri said. The summary will include “detailed points and some of the other information we heard,” she said. “We expect there will be conversations with Dr. Jewell over the next couple months.”
About 58 community members, parents, and district employees filled out anonymous surveys of Jewell’s performance, but most were from staff.
Palmieri said she turned those over to Jewell. “I wanted (Jewell) to see the comments and see the survey responses so she would be able to speak to that and we’d be able to have a more productive conversation,” Palmieri said. “Whenever you go into an evaluation, it’s helpful to have that information ahead of time to really think about it so the conversation is productive.”
Respondents marked on the survey whether they were “staff,” “parent” or “community.”
“They’re not trackable. When I read through them, I didn’t see anything that was identifying (of the writer),” Palmieri said.
“My feeling is it’s better to give a person specific examples and have that come from the source rather than for me or the board to summarize the situation in a general statement,” Palmieri said.