Harrisburg school district Receiver Dr. Janet Samuels rang a bell to start today’s convocation at Harrisburg High School.
“I wondered: Why did you come back?”
Dr. John George asked that question today to hundreds of Harrisburg school district faculty and staff, who packed the auditorium of Harrisburg High School.
George, who is helping to lead the district’s recovery team, was half-joking, and the large crowd chuckled in response, but George quickly turned serious.
“I had the pleasure to ask a few of you, ‘Why did you stay through a decade of a difficult situation?’” he said. “One by one, I got the exact same answer from every single person I asked, and that was, ‘Because of the children.’ And that’s an incredible statement.”
The crowd then applauded in acknowledgement, marking one of the many emotional high points during this morning’s school opening convocation–a part orientation, part pep rally and part group hug to kick off the 2019-20 school year, which begins for students in a week.
District Receiver Dr. Janet Samuels opened the 45-minute meeting by ringing a bell, symbolizing a “new day” for the district, a theme stressed repeatedly during the ceremony.
“As we begin the new year together, may we recommit ourselves to excellence and expect nothing but the best,” she said. “It is the power of our beliefs and our expectations that can spark a burning desire in our students and rekindle their joy of learning and, of course, to move forward in a very successful manner.”
Samuels then called upon the faculty and staff from each of the district’s 11 schools and academies to stand up to applause.
“You indeed are very, very special and very important,” she told them. “And this is an opportune time to thank you for all that you do and all that you’re going to do to impact the students here in the Harrisburg school district.”
The convocation also was marked with implicit—and sometimes explicit—criticism of how the district was run previously, under the nine-year administration of former Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney.
“This is not business as usual,” said Samuels, who was named district receiver in June and quickly fired Knight-Burney. “I want to underscore that. It is not business as usual.”
Samuels went on to list several areas where the district’s 835 faculty and staff should expect improvements under her leadership, including an emphasis on early learning, curriculum materials, safe schools, clean buildings and a more responsive human resources department.
“This is about the business of service and support and putting our children first,” she said. “That means working together arm in arm, shoulder to shoulder to make a difference.”
Harrisburg school district faculty and staff packed into the Harrisburg High School auditorium today for a districtwide convocation.
Samuels also praised George, the financial recovery plan service director for the 6,000-student district, noting his key role in helping to turn around the Reading school district before agreeing to take on a similar role in Harrisburg.
“It’s my pleasure to be here and be part of this incredible team of people who are going to do amazing things here in the Harrisburg school district,” George said. “You’ve been through an incredibly difficult time period. That time period is over.”
George mentioned several areas where his team was making progress, most notably in straightening out the district’s troubled finances.
“We have to rebuild the budget,” he said. “We don’t know yet where we stand exactly. We’re getting close to figuring that out.”
He also pledged that the administration would treat faculty, staff, parents and students with “integrity, respect and kindness.”
“One thing I can tell you—there’s going to be no nepotism,” he said, a statement that may have gotten the loudest cheer of the morning. “That’s over.”
After the convocation concluded, Jody Barksdale, the head of the Harrisburg Education Association, remarked on the different atmosphere she already felt in the district, just two months after Samuels took over as the court-appointed receiver.
“Everybody feels like it’s a fresh start,” she said. “It a new era for the Harrisburg school district.”
