Mission and Commitment

“For too long, the program relied on me for leadership issues. I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Kathleeen Hurstell Riedlinger observes. “In too many schools, when that principal leaves, in many ways they have to start all over.”

“I thought it was really important to institutionalize what the vision and mission of Lusher is ... tapping a group of leaders who would take responsibility for the implementation and the continuation of that vision ... [and] giving them the opportunity to sit together and use their experience to come up with a plan that’s going to work for us,” she says.

“When I stop, there will be no question that the [next principal] will know that arts are at the core — and that it is a community decision, backed up with a strong group of teacher leaders that will be right there to help a new person come in.”