If people want to see a school board that knows how to do it RIGHT, read
this story on how the Seattle School Board chose their new superintendent.
The killer is that in the end, they chose the interim superintendent. But
they sure surveyed the field, and I think maybe OUR board ought to consider
some of the candidates that didn't make it in Seattle:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/ 2001750157_websupe29.html
Here's another link:
http://www.komotv.com/stories/27634.htm
That article (about a week after the link Mr. Mork noted) describes how the the third of four finalists pulled out of Seattle superintendent search, in all probability because of the process. All four finalists were publicly flailed by a citzens advisory group.
Perhaps $50 to $80k spent on a search with no result other than a reputation that will make it hard to get others to apply if the search is reopened. (New Superintendent Raj Manhas got only a short-term contract, as I understand it, and was never part of a public search process.)
Manhas, by the way, is a non-educator (a former banker, I believe).
There is obviously lots of room to debate about where on the continuum from "elected representatives deciding independently" to a "community plebiscite" the superintendent decision should fall. I expect we'll have that debate in coming weeks.
Seattle may come out fine, but the process doesn't look like a perfect model to me.
Dennis Schapiro Minneapolis Board of Education Linden Hills/Hawthorne
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