Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back to another exciting school year. Our editor would love to devote five or six pages of this newsletter to boasting about how we saved tenure for administrators. But, that would be a waste of space, and dishonest. As we reported last spring and throughout the summer, the risk of losing tenure was very low from the moment the Zarb Report was released. Claiming victory for a non-existent battle is not our style.

Our biggest fear during the entire legislative session was that the constant cry of “wolf” from uninformed organizations might bring about the very thing we feared most i.e., a self-fulfilling prophecy. Fortunately, those heroic legislators who fight to protect our rights have a very thick skin, and are not yet offended by others who claim victory for their labors. To them we offer a very sincere and well-deserved Thank You. Hopefully, as we face future anti-public school administrator actions (and they will come), there will be less hysteria and hyperbole from others as fiction is separated from the facts.

I assure you that our lobbyist has his finger on the Albany pulse and will only sound the alarm when and if it needs sounding. Your job as a school administrator is far too stressful without adding more unwarranted concerns to your plate. Please remain calm; do not become part of a manufactured frenzy as we analyze the situation and advise you accordingly. We have been monitoring the Governor’s tenure assault for the past nine years, and our prognosis has been 100% accurate. The attack failed again in exactly the way we consistently reported that it would. On this topic, ENOUGH SAID!

This year ESSAA will expand in many directions. Your Executive Board has designed a calendar of projects, publications, and activities that have been tailored to meet your professional needs, the first of which will be our State Conference to be held in affiliation with Syracuse University on October 5. You will soon receive a separate mailing about this pragmatic and useful meeting.

We are also in the process of regionalizing our state membership to assist us in better meeting your specific needs, and to enhance our communication network . Part of this process will be an expanded program to publish additional state newsletters as well several regional ones. Our goal, as always, is to keep our membership informed about what is going on in the State of New York that is most important to us as school administrators . Last year our rolls increased by more than 175 members. We must all help our new members have a smooth transition into an organization that understands their problems –those they face day in and day out in our public schools. ESSAA is a professional association of school supervisors and administrators FOR supervisors and administrators.

We know what we are talking about, because we, like you, are practitioners who run the schools of New York.

Best wishes for a successful school year.

John F. Sullivan