"I start today," former Springfield Superintendent Norm Ridder said this morning during a news conference in the Memorial Administration Building. "I'm working right now."
Board President Jeff Koch said Ridder was hired for two years, with the second year as a board option. Ridder's name had been brought up often during the board's search for someone to replace "retired" Superintendent C. J. Huff. Ridder was highly recommended by those who were in charge of the search for a new superintendent for the Kansas City School District.
"Dr. Ridder's name came up a number of times."
After retiring from Springfield following the 2013-2014 school year, Ridder spent the past year as the interim superintendent in the Mehlville School District in St. Louis County.
Ridder made it clear that he was not here to be a caretaker or a bridge to the next top administrator. "The whole time I'm here," he said, "I'll die for this district."
Ridder is stepping into a situation in which more than 300 teachers have left the R-8 School District over the past three years, but he insisted there was no such thing as "bad morale."
"Teacher retention is critical." He said his experience showed him "there's no such thing as bad morale; it's a bad system."
Ridder said he would begin having meetings with individual board members, administrative staff, teachers, students, and community members and would formulate a plan to address the district's needs.
22 comments:
I wonder if he's caught up on reading The Turner Report.
I am so excited I can hardly stand it!! Please please let this guy have the ability to drag us out of the dumpster!!
He seems like he is what we need in Joplin. Throw out the BAD SYSTEM and focus on the right things!! I hope that he can do it in two years. It depends on how fast he can see through those that are in positions that they are not competent to be in. There is a list of names of people that should be prepping their resumes. It will look better to leave of their own free will before being shown the door!!
I highly doubt he needs CJ Huff to help him, so why do we get back that $50,000 that CJ was paid and let this man do what he does best, fix things?
I like what he's had to say already, I hope he can turn this situation around and get us back on track. He must love a challenge LOL.
Optimism, wow. What a great change of pace!!
What??? It wasn't Dr. Debbie Fort? I'm shocked.
Close buddies with Huff due to working in close proximity. He's retired.....what are the terms of the contract? Has to be a sweet deal? Working 550 hrs for how much??? $150,000? 11 hrs per week? Where is the rest of this story?
They asked him today if Huff was going to do consulting with him. Koch said only for all the lawsuits the school has. Huff has to clean up that mess by himself. I also heard one of the reporters ask how much he was getting paid. They said he was going to make less than he did in St. Louis and in Springfield. They said is getting what Huff was getting. He started working full time today and is not limited to the 550 hours that "retired superintendents" in Missouri can make because some of his time was in another state.
Apparently Norm Ridder wasn't very well liked in the Springfield community when he was Superintendent
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wed-rather-have-a-Blind-Monkey-for-Superintendent-than-Norm-Ridder/240085688929?fref=ts
What an exciting day for Joplin Schools! We are finally moving in the right direction. It's unfortunate that the paranoid and bitter voices of 1:34 and 3:02 won't drop the hatefulness for this moment. It serves no purpose as it is unfounded. Working in a neighboring district in no way implies that the two administrators were friends. In all actuality, most of the administrators in Missouri disliked Huff as much as the rest of us. So, why don't we enjoy this day, hope that the district begins to do better, and find something real and substantial to focus our energies on rather than just being hateful for the sake of it. It's time to move forward.
Mission Accomplished
5:53....you are ignorant. Ask either of them, I know them both. They were and are good friends. Not that this means anything but it is a fact. And yes I know....anyone who disagrees with you is bitter, paranoid...blah, blah, blah. Save it. You have nothing of substance to say so this is what you spout off. That's your best play? Sad.
5:28, No one is liked by everyone. My question is, why are there no reasons given for the dislike?
Thank you for saying so! Good grief. Give the guy a chance and stop being so negative people!
@7:46 PM
You're correct, and I admit I was too quick to jump to conclusion when I saw that FB page. Upon looking it over, I saw no reasons given to why the page even existed or why whoever created it disliked Dr. Ridder.
I was wrong for jumping to conclusion, I think it is best for all of us to give the man a chance and see what happens.
Did your parents have any children that lived?
This was one of two great candidates that can move the school district in the right direction.
He knows what it takes to make the district suscessful. I think that giving the man two years is the right thing to do!
Praises to the current Joplin School Board!!
How do you know this was one of two great ..........inside info.....
I could be wrong, but I didn't take the comment that way. I thought the commenter was saying that he or she had another candidate in mind who would have been a good one.
Correctomundo.......
Carthage former Superintendent would have been a great choice as well!
Parents, you have to be careful with Norm Ridder. Very strange things have followed him throughout his career. When he started in Lyons, Ne, the town had it's first murder in more than 30 years, and it was a woman from his church. The whole police department in days had either been killed or disappeared. He was at Boystown during the height of the Franklin Conspiracy, where kids where being used as sex slaves at parties for the rich and powerful (google it). When he was in Iowa, kids were disappearing at an alarming rate. Most have never been found. He was in Colorado Springs when a satanic cult was uncovered at the Air Force Academy, and within a couple years of him moving to Springfield, a football coach who had been at the school more than 15 years, whom everyone liked, suddenly freaked out, kidnapped a girl in broad daylight, took her home, and executed her, and then waited for the police to come arrest him. This is what someone trying to prove their loyalty to Satan would do. Can't prove anything, but the coincidences are remarkable.
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