Jim Bernstein wrote: > I am wondering if anyone else is curious why the search for a > superintendent failed to produce at least one good candidate who has a > record of moving through the ranks and is currently a > superintendent of another large district.
I am not surprised that we ended up with candidates of this caliber. However, I am also curious if there are many others in the city who are wondering why we can't find highly qualified candidates, but I don't think there are very many people who even care. > Oftentimes, the largest school districts like Minneapolis find their > superintendents in the ranks of successful superintendents in either > very large suburbs or slightly smaller cities. It seems to be quite > common for the candidate pools for large city superintendents > to include several current superintendents from these smaller cities > who want the challenge (and benefits and prestige) of moving up the > largest districts. > > It strikes me as very odd that either no one serving as a > superintendent of another large district, albeit smaller than > Minneapolis, was either interested or "qualified" to be a candidate > for the Minneapolis position. I mentioned just this type of process in regards to the search for police chief. I think that that search resulted in at least one candidate who fit the description above. Personally, I'd be happy to have Mr. Jennings serve as interim superintendent for another year and start the search over. > I am extremely disappointed with the three finalists. Two career, > mid-level educrats with modest resumes and a former investment banker > with no public sector background who tried to run a large school > district like a business and was essentially fired. I share these feelings. > Perhaps one of these three is the "diamond in the rough" and > we will get lucky! But, I am not optimistic. Ditto. > I cannot help wonder what all of the people who were so adamantly > opposed to Dave Jennings being named superintendent find in > these three candidates that is so much better than Mr. Jennings? I think that many people were upset with the initial process. I wonder how satisfied they are with this one. I suspect that some are happy just to see a majority of candidates of color. > If it were up to me, I would fire the search firm, declare none of the > three candidates suitable and start the process anew. Minneapolis public > schools deserve better. Minneapolis public schools certainly need better leadership than it would appear that any of these candidates can provide. My biggest fear is that the DFL dominated school board will decide that it is important to select a Black superintendent to counterbalance the possible lack of Black representation on the Board in a critical election year, but we should not subject children of color to another cycle of failure. I may be becoming overly cynical, but I don't think that the major players here want change. Whenever you look at the critical factors that might have a positive impact on achievement and that research has shown to promote academic achievement, nothing much changes. Michael Atherton Prospect Park REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
