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Goldson: We’ve been deliberate and transparent.
Eighteen people have applied to be New Haven’s next schools superintendent, in a process that began in 2016 and may now drag out until the end of 2017.
Board of Education member Darnell Goldson offered that update Monday night during the board’s bimonthly meeting at the L.W. Beecher Museum School of Arts & Sciences on Jewell Street.
Goldson, who heads the board’s search committee, offered the latest information that he had received from Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, the Chicago-suburb-based executive search firm that the board hired in early June to help them find the next permanent leader of the city’s public schools.
The previous superintendent, Garth Harries, resigned from his position abruptly last fall due to board pressure after serving only three years as schools chief. Dr. Reggie Mayo, who had led the school system for 21 years before Harries’ appointment, has been acting as interim superintendent ever since. At first the board planned a brief interim gig for Mayo. But then it took most of the school year for the search even to begin.
The latest delay, Goldson reported, stems from the board having received far less community participation than hoped for at focus groups held earlier this month by the search firm. He said the new delay could mean the city finding a new superintendent by October or November. Mayo’s interim contract has been extended through Dec. 31.
On Thursday, June 14 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Wilbur Cross High School auditorium, the search firm held an open forum for community members to share thoughts on what they would like to see in the next superintendent. Only 18 people showed up. According to one of those 18, retired Hillhouse High School history teacher Robert Gibson, many of those present were New Haven public school educators, as opposed to parents or other concerned community members.
The search firm also held one focus session with community groups that brought together 13 attendees from 13 different organizations, and one focus session with school groups that brought together 10 attendees from six different organizations.
“That turnout was very low,” Goldson said, “and [the search firm] did say that they were concerned about that.”
On a more encouraging note, Goldson said, 867 New Haveners have filled out the online survey that the board and the search firm put together earlier this month to solicit community feedback on superintendent search criteria.
“The search committee thinks that, while the focus group numbers were very low, the survey was more than adequate for a system of our size,” Goldson told the board. “So we have a couple of options. We can schedule additional focus groups, even though summer will be a difficult time to get people together. We can schedule and advertise public forums, which will be open to the community and all of those folks who participated in the focus groups, but wouldn’t be focused on just one issue. Or we can prepare a leadership profile for the board from the data that we have already.”
Goldson cautioned that the first option, of setting up more focus groups, would likely slow the search process down so that a final candidate may not be chosen until October or November 2017. Going with one of the latter two options, however, would likely keep the search committee on track to hire a replacement superintendent by Sept. 1, 2017.
Goldson said that he will canvas his fellow board members over the next few days before deciding on which route to take, but that he did not want to rush the process to the detriment of finding the right person for the role. “I think that all of us agree,” he said, “that, in this sort of a case, quicker is not necessarily the best route to go.”
Mack: Parents skeptical.
Lisa Mack, the school system’s interim director of human resources and labor relations, briefed the board on what she had heard from community members who did show up to the June 14 forum.
“They were hoping that it was going to be advertised in the media and local news,” she said, citing frequent complaints that people did not hear about the forum until a day or two before it took place. (The Independent posted an item that day, several hours before it took place, as soon as it was informed of the event.)
“Also, we heard time and time again that, because of the last superintendent search, they felt that this process was just the board going through the motions,” she continued. “So why bother coming out? A lot of the parents were indicating that people weren’t attending because it’s just a rubber stamp process.”
Ortiz and Dawson at Monday night’s meeting.
Student board member Coral Ortiz recommended that, in addition to the search committee’s email and text message blasts to public school parents and administrators, the search firm should reach out directly to principals and guidance counselors, who would be in the best position to engage a diverse group of students about what they would like in a new next superintendent. Board member Che Dawson similarly suggested the board partner with the city’s Youth at Work program to incentivize young people to show up to focus groups or forums.
During the public participation section of the meeting, Gibson emphasized the importance of consistent and comprehensive outreach to community members if the board is truly interested in transparency and community input.
Gibson: Go tell it on the mountain.
“We need to use television, radio, print, and internet media to advertise these forums to the public,” he told the board. “There needs to be a concerted effort of the mayor’s office, the Board of Alders, and the Board of Ed to get the word out. We have East Rock and West Rock, and we need to shout it from the mountaintops: New Haven is searching for a superintendent. We want to hear your voice. We want your input. We want your opinions. We must let the people know, because they don’t know.”
Goldson agreed. Later in the meeting, he also pushed back against any calls for the board to rush into hiring a new superintendent.
“We’ve been deliberate,” he said. “We’ve been transparent. This is a democracy, and things take time to happen. And it’s going to continue to take time to happen until it gets done right.”
Goldson said that, of the 18 people who have applied for the superintendent position thus far, 11 are men and seven are women. He said he has not seen the actual list, which is being managed by the search firm, and does not know the names or identities of the individual applicants.