Hiring a New Superintendent

The last time Seattle tried to hire a superintendent, the process, and the result, was awful. But, as most people know, hiring a strong superintendent for a large urban school district is a very difficult thing to do.

Take a look at back at what happened in Seattle:

Schools urged to call off search, start over - Seattle PI

Education: The School Board Flunks Google 101 - Seattle Weekly

Interim schools chief named superintendent - Seattle Times

Seattle has a new superintendent - Shark blog

And read about what happened in Los Angeles on Friday: All Eyes Are on Schools Chief as He Takes Stage

And finally, read these two very interesting articles:

Turnover at the Top, from the American School Board Journal

"An Impossible Job? The View From the Urban Superintendent's Chair," from Seattle's Center on Reinventing Public Education at UW

I still believe Seattle needs a new superintendent. But I also believe we need to be realistic about the challenges we face if we head down that road.

Comments

Anonymous said…
The Los Angeles link isn't working.
10/16/06, 11:19 PM
Anonymous said…
Leslie here (who is incapable of getting registered on the blog correctly)

Where is the Center for Reinventing Public Education now?

Where are the many people and stakeholder representatives quoted in the articles now?

Where is the CACIE now?

Where are the members of the CAC (except for Melissa Westbrook - thank you Melissa) now?

Where is the polling done by a reputable firm discussing market share and potential debacle of Bex III bond and Ops Levy levy now?

Wonder instead of protests if it is not the time for a new "educational summit" to bring folks together in DIALOGUE as opposed to lots of testimony without feedback?

Can't imagine being a schoolboard member in this climate when just advocating to save good programs and making some small semblance of sense of the history of how we came to be in this place is practically a full time job and stealing thousands of hours towards making the district a better place to educate our kids.

What about an "education summit"?

Also of note is the article in this a.m.'s PI regarding SEA's potential withdrawal of support of school closure plan(s).
10/17/06, 7:14 AM
Beth Bakeman said…
Los Angeles link should work now.
10/17/06, 8:02 AM
Anonymous said…
I want to say - and be perfectly clear - that it is disgustingly disingenuous for a Board member to bemoan the poor quality of communication between the Board and the community. It drives me insane to hear a Board member say that the testimony system doesn't provide the dialog we desperately need.

Their complaints about the system and the rules strike me as incredibly disingenuous because IT IS THEIR SYSTEM. THEY MAKE THE RULES. If they don't like it, they have the power to change it.
10/18/06, 4:17 AM
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