McGuire takes the helm at Guilderland,
prepared to steer an inclusive course

GUILDERLAND — The new superintendent of the Guilderland schools, John McGuire, began his career 30-odd years ago teaching emotionally disturbed students. He went on to help usher in an era of integration for special-needs students.
"It was interesting and challenging work," said McGuire of his first job. "I tell people it helped me prepare for a career in education and they think I'm kidding."
He continued, in a serious tone, "Special-education students had been excluded from public schools or segregated. There was a lot of advocacy and reaching out to colleagues and trying different learning experiences."

McGuire, who has worked for the last three years as the superintendent of schools in rural Greenwich, N.Y., says he relishes the chance to lead the larger suburban Guilderland district. He will begin work Nov. 12 and be paid $164,000.
Asked how long he intends to stay at Guilderland, McGuire said, "I’m 60 years old. I’d like to stay a good long time."

Education runs in McGuire's family. His mother was a teacher as were his aunts and uncles. His wife, Brenda, is an educator who taught for many years and now owns her own business, consulting for schools across the country.

Their elder daughter, Sarah, a sociologist, is an associate professor at Tufts University interested in political gender issues, currently writing a book, Convention Contention, on advocacy in presidential politics. She and her husband, Jim, an environmental engineer, have two young children — Quinn and Graham.
The McGuires’ son, Bailey, teaches fifth grade in Nevada — "He’s just dynamic at it," said his father with pride — while their younger daughter, Maddie, is starting her sophomore year of high school, where she’s a cheerleader and lacrosse player.

Early leader

McGuire grew up in western New York, in a mining community in Livingston County. While his mother taught, his father worked as a machinist.
"I always did well in school. I think I enjoyed the social aspects," McGuire said. He was a leader, serving as president of both his school’s student government and of a county-wide organization of schools.
His favorite subjects were English and social studies, and he played baseball, basketball, and football. "I was equally mediocre at all of them," he said with a chuckle.

McGuire graduated from the York Central Schools in 1965 and went on to the State University of New York College at Geneseo, where he majored in education with a minor in psychology.

Varied career path
His first job was in the Rochester schools, teaching emotionally disturbed students. In the midst of the Vietnam War, he soon enlisted in the Air Force. "I was going to be drafted in the Army," he said.
McGuire was stationed in Illinois as an "education specialist," he said, and did office work on the base, administering GED tests and handling GI Bill benefits. When the war ended, he was discharged, a year short of his four-year enlistment.

He stayed on in Illinois to complete his master’s degree in education at the University at Illinois.
McGuire was accepted into the doctoral program at Syracuse University’s School of Education in the administrative program. "I did all of the course work and took the qualifying exam," he said, and then, instead of finishing his dissertation, he accepted a job offer. "I had a young family to support," said McGuire.
Finishing up his dissertation might some day be a retirement project, he allowed. McGuire had researched the impact of witness testimony on landmark case law in special education. "Syracuse University was a font of advocacy," he said, "and I interacted with a lot of the key players."

He was particularly interested in the PARC case, in which the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children sued the commonwealth; the 1971 decision was a landmark in establishing the responsibility of states to educate children with disabilities. Four years later, special education programs were made mandatory when Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, responding to discriminatory treatment. Until its passage, American schools educated only one out of every five children with disabilities.
"I love education law," said McGuire.

The job that called him away from his studies was with the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. He worked as the statewide coordinator for 22 private residential schools.
"I learned I wanted to be close to the progress that was being made," said McGuire. He became the associate director of the United Cerebral Palsy Association.

He returned to a school environment as director of special programs at Shenendehowa, a job he held for over five years. Then he moved to general education as the director of instruction for the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk schools.
That move was a tough one, he recalled. "What I learned was, I had labeled myself," McGuire said of his long career dealing with special-needs students. "At first, I wasn’t invited to interview," he said of applying for posts in the general education field.
"Being a specialist was a disadvantage in getting a job but on the job it was a great advantage," he said. Because of his training, he said, he was in tune with techniques that could be used to reach each student and was, through years of advocacy for students, able to reach out to a wide range of staff members.

He was at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk for about five years and then was invited to apply as the assistant superintendent for instruction at Bethlehem, he said, where he worked for about seven years before taking the superintendent’s job at Greenwich.
"A next step"
He called Greenwich "a wonderful gem of a community and a school district."
Asked what he is proudest of accomplishing in his three years at Greenwich, McGuire said, "The most important work is we’ve created a professional model for improving student progress." He described it as "a teacher empowerment model" and explained, "Teams of teachers are afforded time to come together and analyze student performance data. The focus is always on the outcome, looking at where we are doing well and where we can do better"
"We articulate priority goals, such as increasing the percentage of students achieving mastery in English"We articulate a timeline and by what measure they will assess success."
The model, he said, took a year to design and involved all different members of the school community. "That will endure," he said. "It has become part of the culture of the district."
McGuire also said that "a couple of bond projects" had put facilities "in the best shape ever" and that employee relations were exemplary.
In short, he said, there was "no negative impetus" for his leaving Greenwich. "I’ve gotten great support," he said.
McGuire was drawn to Guilderland as "a next step," he said, referring to "the size and scope" of the district.
"It’s a very fine district," he said. "I’m impressed with the level of dialogue in the community. People in Guilderland care about education."
"Create consensus about our vision"
Asked about his goals at Guilderland, McGuire said, "From Day One, my first charge is to listen as much and as fast as I can." McGuire said he relishes "the opportunity to meet with people in all different roles, to hear what is going well and what could be going better."
He went on, "I do bring something to the table." But, McGuire said, it would be "extremely presumptuous" of him to overlay his ideas on a "tradition of excellence" without first understanding what is in place.
"The important thing to me," he said, "is to come together to create consensus about our vision." He said that "you’re never done" with professional development, curriculum development, and continuous improvement.
Another high priority on his list, said McGuire, is "to engage with the board in our development as a governance and leadership team." He went on, "We need to get to know one another, to interface ways to best serve our students and our community."

Guilderland School Board members have expressed different opinions on what the role of a superintendent should be. The outgoing superintendent has said he considers himself to be a non-voting member of the board.
Asked how he sees his role, McGuire said, "The old school of thought is that the board of education is the governing body, setting policy and advising the superintendent who functions as a CEO. It used to be the school of thought that the two never interface."
A big part of the job, he said, is "implementation and execution of board policies." He went on, "Communication is absolutely essential. I’ve always worked closely and collaboratively with boards"so they feel they can make useful policy decisions."
He was appointed to his new job by a vote of 6 to 3 and said the split vote "doesn’t make it difficult for me." (See related story.)

In recent years, the Guilderland board as been divided over a number of issues — one of them is the importance of required standardized tests, with some members advocating their importance and others warning against teaching to the test at the expense of a rich curriculum.
"We can engage in philosophical debate," said McGuire, "but the reality for me as a practitioner is: This is mandatory. I will never put our district in a position of not complying with legal mandates.
"The standards and accountability movement, as imperfect as it may be, has made us accountable and attend more to student learning," said McGuire. In the past, he said, "The focus had been on process"We would put kids in a remedial program and never ask, ‘Can Johnny read"’"
While McGuire said he is "not a big proponent of a lot of testing," he said required testing does not necessarily mean losing quality programs.

The Guilderland board has also been divided over the reading curriculum. Some parents complained to the board last year about the failure of the district to teach their children to read. The faculty defended the program, presenting data showing the overall success of the reading program and explaining how learning is tailored to meet individual needs of struggling students.
The president of the teachers’ union said comments made by some board members in response to the complaints "sent a chilling message of distrust and has provoked fear in teachers and staff." He said the board seemed willing to substitute its judgment of an academic program for that of its professional staff.
Asked for his views, McGuire said, "We rely on the professional expertise of our people in terms of what we teach and how we teach."
He went on to say, "It’s appropriate to ask, ‘How are our students doing"’"We should be able to go to the table with ideas to share"This should be a win-win debate for our students."
The Guilderland School District, which is proud of its anti-bullying initiative, recently paid a family $5,000 to settle a suit claiming their daughter had been sexually harassed, called "slut," by her coach. A similar suit against the district is scheduled for trial in January.

Last year, a federal judge dismissed a suit claiming racial discrimination. The school district said it had defended its reputation but the mother of the plaintiff, an African-American student at the high school, said she hoped the district would talk about what it would do to create a safer environment.
Asked what, if anything, the new superintendent might do to foster tolerance of diversity, McGuire said, "Part of what I do as superintendent is we talk a great deal about the concepts that embody character."
His first year at Greenwich, he said, he worked with others in the school community to "establish a core value statement." The district decided it values scholarship, character, and community, he said. "That doesn’t change over time"We focus on these to help our students take charge of their lives and to better the world in which they live."
He went on, "As a leader, a big way we can influence and set a tone is by our modeling. That helps to establish a climate."

People, he said, don’t want to be merely tolerated, but rather appreciated for who they are.