Sunday, May 07, 2006
The super and the paper disagree
Elizabeth Strother
Recent columns
- For those who have too little
- Time to gather mountain views
- Our blind spot on roads
- Following the money trail
From the RoundTable blog
Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Tiffany Anderson is "a very intelligent person."
"She's a dyed-in-the-wool teacher with an instinct for working with children." She relates well to students and teachers.
Marshall Leitch is regional director for the Virginia Education Association in an area that includes Montgomery County. He said those nice things and more about Anderson when I phoned him the other week.
I wanted to ask him about his experience as a source who was quoted in recent newspaper stories about the superintendent's first year on the job. It has been a year of considerable achievements and some controversy.
Anderson is unhappy with the coverage, to put it mildly. And she has sent e-mails that make her unhappiness clear to school district "Staff and Families." One e-mail complains the stories "have attempted to create a divide between administration and the teacher's association." Another alleges "there were many misquotes and statements taken out of context from [school] Board members, myself and others."
Leitch is one of those "others." He told me he did, indeed, say complimentary things about Anderson over the course of about a two-hour interview with Roanoke Times reporter Niki King, and King did not include his words of praise when quoting him in the recent stories.
But did he think he had been misquoted, or that his published comments were taken out of context?
No, he did not.
Another of Anderson's positives, he told me, is that "she has advocated for improved salaries in the current budget and encouraged the school board to do the same" -- a big plus, particularly in the eyes of one whose life's work is to improve teachers' lot. His quote about that wasn't in the stories, either.
But, Leitch explained, "I didn't expect Niki to dwell on it, because I knew the story she was after."
The story she was after was one King inherited when she took on the Montgomery County beat late last year: controversial personnel changes that Anderson had made. As a teacher advocate, Leitch is in a position to hear from teachers and to talk on the record without fear of losing his job -- a good source for a reporter trying to nail down what substance, if any, underlies sometimes anonymous complaints.
What he has to say about employee morale is uniquely important to a story about staff changes. Any competent reporter will zero in on those comments as the ones that can throw some light on a conflict that is difficult to report but of legitimate public interest. That's not "taking quotes out of context," but adding perspective.
"I did say that a number of steps the superintendent made were extremely awkward, primarily to do with administrators," Leitch confirmed. "Mostly teachers have not been affected by that awkwardness." But, he said, Anderson's administrative style "has created nervousness and unease and fear, mostly on administrators -- but that, in turn, does have an impact on teachers."
Did King quote him on that? Yes, of course she did.
Together, do the omissions and inclusions make the stories unfair? Absolutely not.
Both stories provided ample balance to any and all criticism of Anderson. Named sources, albeit not Leitch, attested to her accessibility to parents; her advocacy for teacher salaries; her strong support, even on personnel issues, on the school board; and, most important, the school system's improved results.
So why the thin skin? I'm perplexed.
I read both stories, unaware of the superintendent's angry reaction, and thought, on balance, she and the schools had had a great year. I wanted to clone her so that Roanoke might turn its school accreditation woes right around. The friction over personnel changes? I thought what any disinterested reader would think, not being privy to sensitive personnel information: The jury was out on her management style. I still think it is.
So I did not think Anderson had a perfect year. But, come on -- great is great. Not even the pope lays claim to infallibility except under the strictest circumstances. And good reporters look at that askance, too.
Whatever the beat, they are no one's public relations flaks.
The superintendent of a public school system is hired and fired by a school board. But they all work for the public. What happens in a public school system -- everything, good and bad -- matters to the public. People want to hear the good news, and they need to hear the bad.
Getting as close to the whole story as possible is a good reporter's only interest. That's all I see here.
Of course, I do work for the newspaper. Cynics may sneer if they will, and I expect some will.
You have to have a tough hide to enter any public forum -- or develop calluses, fast.
Elizabeth Strother is on the editorial board of The Roanoke Times.
