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Dream, Believe, Dare, Do 237
no longer sit back and allow our schools to fail. Business leaders must learn
from the Des Moines B/E Alliance and do something about our educational
crisis in America.
Unfortunately, not only has the Des Moines School District failed to insist
upon spreading the Downtown School philosophy throughout its domain,
it may completely destroy this unique learning environment. As this revised
edition of The Disney Way goes to print, Jan Drees is retiring from her role as
principal of Downtown School.
Jack Welch, retired CEO of General Electric, once stated that one of the
hallmarks of a good leader is training a replacement who would be ready to
take over at a moment’s notice. When we asked Jan if her assistant principal
would soon be stepping into the role of principal, she lamented that there were
five other candidates who the District was considering, none of whom had any
experience in the Downtown School teaching practices. In this case, the prob-
lem with the District’s adherence to their HR hiring guidelines is that although
the other candidates may be able to learn and apply a new set of methodolo-
gies, they are not likely to have the degree of passion for the school’s vision and
values that the assistant principal has had for lo these many years.
Wake-up Des Moines: if those five “principals in waiting” are not true
believers in the philosophy that made the Downtown School exceptional,
please do not allow them to wreak havoc with this incredible learning envi-
ronment. Art Wittmack, Des Moines Business Alliance president, continues
to be an exceptional advocate for educational reform. He told us that he
was not aware that “politics” were involved in the decision-making process.
However, he did admit, “What Jan has provided us with is a stable platform
from which others can work. If what we have created is dependent upon Jan
Drees for success, then we have not been successful. It requires a creative
leader, one who understands the goals. We need to reproduce what has been
successful in the Downtown School in the entire district, and that can’t be
done by one person. There’s no question that Jan Drees is a one of a kind
and without Jan’s pioneering work, we wouldn’t be where we are. It took that
pioneering spirit and that genius which Jan has. But when you go through
organizational development, it takes different personalities—from the entre-
preneur to the place where you can deal with the HR issues of a larger estab-
lishment. We are in one of those struggles right now. I am optimistic that
this will be a positive outcome.”
We applaud Art and the Business Alliance for their passion regarding
educational reform. However, it has been over 10 years since the creation of