A conversation at my weekly get-together over coffee with a former colleague turned to a problematic situation at a friend of a friend's school. This school had hired a wonderful new deputy principal. However he had come with a spouse who was not so wonderful and therein lies the problem.
The deputy principal is effective, energetic, a foe to no-one and a problem solver, He is just what the school needs and everyone is happy. With him.
In contrast, his wife is a minimalist. a clock-watcher, judgmental and negative. Colleagues are not happy with her, and they avoid her in the faculty lounge and in departmental meetings.They openly mock and deride her when she is not present, and cold-shoulder her when she is.
The big boss knows, but his calculation is clearly that keeping her is a part of keeping him and he is worth paying this price. My question is is the big boss really aware of the price the school is paying? I have three experiences of this and I think not.
My first experience was first-hand. When I was a newish teacher, I joined a school where the head of another department was highly-effective and highly-popular. He had great people skills, was a great motivator and worked hard and long. Under his leadership, that department had become possibly the best in the state.
His wife, in the department I joined, was none of these things. She was sour, a perpetual complainer, indolent and regularly late. She was famous for reserving the VCR cart (it was a while ago!) for the entire yer in September and showing every video of every text she could find, meaning that some units were covered 100% by screening videos. Her class' results in common assessments like departmental tests or external examinations were below everyone else's. She was mocked in the department, openly derided in faculty meetings and the subject of several student and parent complaints.
Yet she was safe because she and her her husband were a package. Her students, and her colleagues who would pick up her students each year and have to "recover" them were not.
The second was a colleague (same school coincidentally) who was the object of unsolicited advances from another colleague. He rejected them, and over the next semester and a half she subjected him to several complaints, attempts to stir up students against him, misleading allegations and a general smear campaign. He could not say anything because the woman's husband was another highly-effective and highly-popular. teacher in a different department. I also suspect that he felt he would not be believed.
My colleague left at the end of his initial contract, and in my opinion he was five times the teacher she was so the school and students lost out. Five or so years later, that couple divorced, a couple of years after that several stories emerged of hr infidelities and of her having taking retribution against another teacher who had similarly rejected her. After the divorce, the husband left the school and state and one year, she also left the school. Rumors suggest she was asked to leave, but for around 10 years, collegial climate and relationships and of course student learning suffered because a bad teacher's husband was so valuable.
My third example is current so I will try to be circumspect. This is a large G1-12 independent school and has three Divisional Principals, a Business Manager and an Academic Deputy Principal. The Head of the High School is an olde worlde, gentlemanly, well.educated, well.spoken decent chap. He leads the High School quietly and well (it has an outstanding reputation statewide) and has been a fixture for more than 10 years.
Five years ago his wife was hired as Academic Director. To be fair, she replaced someone who was ineffectual and ineffective, but by all accounts she was at least advantaged by her conjugal relationship. However she is brash, loud, unkind to subordinates and lunches alone ... She also appears not to be as smart as many of the faculty and not to really understand the programs. Teachers try not to involve her or to let her know what they are doing
Her value to the boss seems to lie in her sycophancy. While condescending to subordinates, she is obsequious to the Director and appears to support any and every dictum without question. So far, she has appeared to not have caused too much harm however she has also not brought too many benefits. Scuttlebutt suggests she was hired because of her marriage - was she presented a a package?
I have only once hired a couple and I regret it to this day. He was happy but not a great teacher, she was a great teacher but unhappy. We could have done without him, but the school benefited from her. Ultimately her unhappiness led to their departure, but for that year we had her sighs and his desultory-ness. At the same time, i know of many cases where couples have worked out, although off the top of my head all were teachers and none in a leadership or management position. Perhaps that is the issue.
**Comments and questions below. Please.**
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