Reflections on AASA Conferences Past and Present

Twenty years ago, I walked jauntily and proudly on the boardwalk at Atlantic City, N.J., where I was attending my first AASA national conference. I was a graduate student then at New York University and an administrative intern in the central office of a school district on Long Island, where I now serve as superintendent in another district.

I remember excitedly perusing the 100-plus pages of the conference program book, marveling at the vast selection of conference workshops, seminars and meetings over the weekend. The wonderful workshops covered the broad spectrum of everything one needed to know to become an expert in school management.

At that time, I did not know a single person attending the conference, except my brave husband who served as chauffeur, companion and guide.

My superintendent, who had granted me permission to attend, was off networking with his cronies and certainly didn't want to be caught with the likes of me. Yet I mustered the courage to attend sessions on school bus safety, the operations of the school cafeteria and school board-superintendent relationships, all heady material for a fledgling school leader.

That AASA conference included separate programming for spouses. Most of the administrators' wives seemed pleased with their schedule. Celebrity Polly Bergen was doing a makeup session. My husband attended but was politely ejected. Other seminars dealt with flower arranging and "Problems Confronting the Wife of the Superintendent."

Personal Enlightenment

Two experiences from my first AASA conference stand out in my memory.

At one of the General Sessions in the massive Atlantic City convention hall, AASA executive officers were introduced with much fanfare. Each executive was wheeled out by his wife in a rolling chair (indigenous to Atlantic City) to loud music and applause. Once the entire group of officers was on stage, their wives paraded them around in the chairs while the executive officers waved at the audience.

The second experience occurred at a small impromptu meeting for women enrolled in graduate programs for school administration and those with new certificates for administrative positions. Twenty women attended that meeting 20 years ago. Among those present were Margaret Smith, later to become Pennsylvania secretary of education, and Joan Redmond, a former district superintendent in New Jersey. These women leaders were inspiring, highly focused and well organized in their plans to help other women reach their potential and use their personal talents and abilities as educational leaders.

The conference experience enlightened me as it helped me formulate my personal goals. A few years later, when I was working as assistant superintendent in the Bethlehem, Pa., Area School District, the late Effie Jones, who was AASA director of minority and women's affairs, not only took up my concerns about the nature of the spouse program at the conference but offered me an at-large position on the minority affairs advisory committee. I had written her earlier that my spouse, a master plumber, did nor want to attend any more sessions on makeup.

A Changing Picture

While attending many AASA conferences since then, I have observed marked changes in leadership and membership composition. My own growth as a school administrator often was defined at AASA meetings through the years in Atlanta, Dallas, New Orleans and other interesting places.

This past winter in Orlando, Fla., 20 years after my initial encounter with AASA, I walked through the largest convention center I've ever seen. Advanced technology prevailed. State-of-the-art computers, fax machines and video devices were available to everyone.

I'm now in my second superintendency and my husband remains my sidekick at AASA conferences, but it's no longer a lonely existence ... for me or him. As we walked through the vast halls, I was stopped every few moments by a colleague or old acquaintance. I was immediately aware of my sense of belonging. It was with confidence and ease that I attended seminars on technology and discussions on education standards and fulfilled my role as facilitator for an excellent program, "When One Urban School District Bottomed Out."

The schedule for spouses--since renamed the Partners' Program--featured an investment counselor. My husband attended with no fear of being booted. He was joined by other male spouses.

Still Marveling

The shifting demographics 9f the profession was perhaps best reflected in the composition of AASA's musical troupe, the "Singing Superintendents." Several women and non-Caucasians took to the stage in the group that inspirationally sang "Kumbaya."

The changing composition of AASA membership was apparent too, at the annual Women and Minority Affairs Breakfast renamed last year in honor of Effie Jones. The diverse turnout, in one sense, demonstrated the fulfillment of those goals set in place in Atlantic City, N.J., two decades earlier.

Much remains to be accomplished to gain true equity among school leaders. However, the course has been well charted and further movement seems inevitable. I look forward to new dimensions in school leadership at the 1998 conference in San Diego, where once again I'll marvel at the wonderful changes that have been made in school leadership. At the General Session, there will be four women among the association's 11 executive officers, and nobody will be pushing anyone else around.

Lydia Axelrod is superintendent of the Shelter Island Union Free District

COPYRIGHT 1997 American Association of School Administrators
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