This petition is for any member of the Wissahickon School District Community who believes that, our School Board of Directors is bound by their oath of office to conduct a fair, rigorous, equitable and transparent candidate search for the position of Superintendent of Schools pending the anticipated resignation of current Superintendent Dr. James A. Crisfield at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year. 

BACKGROUND: 

On Monday, September 30th, 2024 at 5:31 p.m., the following email was sent from the account for the Wissahickon School Board to the Community:

 "Dear Wissahickon Families and Staff Members:

      
It is with decidedly mixed emotions that I share my intention to resign from the position of Superintendent of Schools, for purposes of retirement, at the end of this school year.

Being Wissahickon’s superintendent for the past decade has been the highlight of my professional career. Other than my teaching days in a classroom full of high school students, nothing has been as rewarding and fulfilling as being part of Wiss Nation these past ten years.

There will be plenty of time to reflect more as June approaches. But first, there is much, important work to be done. I intend to do everything I can to keep the district moving forward, keep us getting better at what we already do well, and keep setting the table so that our tremendous leadership team and highly skilled and caring teachers can continue being there for our students.

I will also make it my business over the coming months to ensure your next Superintendent of Schools has everything in place to succeed, because Wiss Nation deserves nothing less than a smooth leadership transition and a continued long-term commitment to excellence.

Warm regards,

James A. Crisfield, Ed.D.

Superintendent" 

 

We believe that our schools, our students, our staff, our families and our community, deserve nothing less than the opportunity to pursue excellence and should settle for nothing less than a well-designed and properly executed candidate application, review and selection process, which would allow for community stakeholder input at designated stages to achieve this goal. A similar process has been ongoing in Lower Merion School District since May of this year, whereby several updates on their Superintendent search have been shared openly with the public (see LMSD website HERE: https://www.lmsd.org/departments/superintendent/search24 ) 

 

***Please add your signature and comments to this petition and share, if you agree and believe that, Wissahickon is made great only when we aim for greatness by serving each other and fulfilling our individual and shared obligations to one another and to our community with fidelity. ***

 

For additional impact, we suggest writing an email (it doesn't have to be long), sharing your thoughts on this issue, or "copy/pasting" the content of this petition, and sending it to each member of the School Board and to Dr. Crisfield ( email addresses listed below). 

 

Amy Ginsburg, School Board President:             Aginsburg@wsdweb.org

Dr. James A. Crisfield, Supt. of Schools:              jcrisfield@wsdweb.org 

Marshall Bleefeld, School Board Director:           mbleefeld@wsdweb.org

Eugene Golson, School Board Director:              egolson@wsdweb.org

Dr. Deanne Morris, School Board Director:         Dmorris@wsdweb.org

Paul Badger, School Board Director:                   Pbadger@wsdweb.org

Steve Walker, School Board Director:                 swalker@wsdweb.org 

Rosetta Chiavacci, School Board Director:        Rchiavacci@wsdweb.org

Zeffy Karagiannakis, School Board Director:   ZKaragiannakis@wsdweb.org 

Joe Antonio, School Board Director:                JAntonio@wsdweb.org 

 

 

Thank you.