Funny . . . all the discussion re: the senior pranks this weekend at West is remarkably a propos in light of some candid comments made at the May 26th D87 Board meeting by Glenbard South principal, Theresa Hanrahan, finishing her second year at the helm.

Hanrahan was giving her state of the school address . . . by and large, a very favorable report highlighted by South’s accomplishments over the past year.

To her credit . . . and to the amazement of many of us used to the glossy praise stuff . . . Hanrahan didn’t just stop there. She grabbed the room’s full attention when she remarked that although South has stayed away from AYP issues that the other Glenbards have faced, “Black students, Hispanic students, low-income students and special education students do not fare well at South, regardless of what data that we’re looking at . . . Prairie State examinations, our own grades, our own attendance, our own discipline. When our students speak to us through student survey, or individual one-on-one interviewing, those kids are not having a great experience at South, and represent groups of students that we need to do a better job by.”

She next went on to say, “We continue to struggle with what I would say is a fairly serious drug/alcohol problem in the community, and certainly that works its way into the building.” She said, “We had one dance this year where we had 11 students under the influence of drugs or alcohol . . . our suspension rate literally doubled overnight.” She added that South has begun to work with a group of parents who are definitely interested and willing to work on the issue. . . but lamented that there are still some parents “who are hiding from the issue, so we shine a very bright light on it because it continues to be a sense of concern.”

Finally, she admitted, “I really questioned whether I should put this in because I didn’t want to offend anybody . . . I particularly didn’t want to offend any of my parents . . . but we do battle a sense of entitlement with some of the issues at South, and probably the best example I can give you is senior ditch days, and we have fought those hard for two years. There is a fairly strong parent reaction that the kids are entitled to that, and it’s a way of thinking that I don’t understand, and that also works its way into our drug/alcohol problem as we deal with that.”

Continuing on that theme, Hanrahan said, “With attendance, if I have any scars on my body as principal, it comes from the attendance wars. It’s been a very tough row to hoe with some of our parents and with our kids. We are up this year a couple of percentage points, and we’ve been hanging right around the 95% that we’ve been wanting . . . but it’s with constant reminders, newsletters, phone calls home, and fairly strong responses to students and parents when kids are not here and should be here.”

She reported that the individual student survey revealed that bullying and homework are regarded as the two top problems at South. A task force is directing efforts towards a better understanding of physical and cyber bullying that exists amongst the student body. The administration is also taking a long look at homework, which seems to fall into two categories . . . “more than honors and AP students can complete,” and “not enough in the regular classes.”

Hanrahan concluded that she has had her fair share of growing pains as a new principal, and didn’t think that she had done the best job of “managing change” . . . but she has worked on that, and while she thinks that she’s a little bit better this year, she has “a ways to go in terms of leading the staff with a sense of confidence, and knowing that our change is manageable, but it’s change that we have to face all the same.”

President Rose Malcolm thanked her for her "honesty, as always” . . . and Tom Voltaggio applauded her for her “ability to look at issues globally in a candid and helpful way.” He said, “It’s hard to fix things if you haven’t defined them.”

My reaction is that in many years of listening to these reports . . . Principal Hanrahan is a breath of fresh air, and in particular, has hit the nail on the head vis-à-vis the entitlement issue . . . which after the mayhem of the past weekend at my alma mater, West, certainly does not appear to be unique to our sister school south of Roosevelt Road.

Call me a dinosaur, but it was also more than a little disheartening to hear that a school principal in 2009 is battling a tenet as basic as attendance, and more to the point, is going toe to toe on the matter not just with students . . . but with parents! (The mind doth reel at the thought of how my military father, Friendly Frank, would have responded in his day. Ouch.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Melbourne,

Sounds like a good leader. And sounds a lot like the issues many middle and upper middle class suburban schools face. Attendance - it's unbelieveable how we still have to spell out the importance of coming to school! Thanks for sharing this.