Last Thursday at the Delaware State Board of Education meeting, Chris Ruszkowski gave his last public appearance as the Chief of the Teacher Leader Effectiveness Unit at the Delaware Department of Education. State Board President Dr. Teri Quinn Gray congratulated Ruszkowski on his departure to New Mexico. As a few of us feverishly went to Google to find out what that was all about, a DOE employee informed me he was going to be the new Deputy Secretary of Education for New Mexico. I put up a very short post about it right away.
Shortly after, Ruszkowski winked and smiled at me. I have to wonder what that was about. Was it his way of saying “You were right about everything but guess what, I’m moving up in the education world.” Or was it “I can’t stand you, but I’m not going to let you know that.” It could have possibly been “You were wrong about everything. There you sit with your little blog while I’m off to New Mexico.” I’ll probably never know. Or there could have been other reasons. Maybe he really liked the “Surfer Boy” nickname I gave him. Perhaps he enjoyed the cat and mouse games myself and others played with him and it kept him on his toes.
It is my hope his replacement, Angeline Rivello, seizes the opportunity to make this area of the DOE more transparent and less judgmental about our teachers in Delaware. Ruszkowski didn’t just burn bridges, he blew them up.
All I can say is good luck. New Mexico is going to need it!
The Season Of Myths 