Superintendent Search Season is Upon Us, and It's A Sellers' Market
I was there in the room one excruciating day 10 years ago when Dan Domenech and his family came to the NYC Board of Education offices at 110 Livingston Street, thinking that he was about to be named publicly as the replacement for Ramon Cortines as head of the NYC public schools.
But Domenech's appointment had unravelled the night before, and after a series of private conversations and public speeches that were, underneath it all, about race, Domenech lost out to Rudy Crew.
The lesson? Superintendent searches can be a strange and brutal process. Based on this Washington Post article, apparently not much has changed, whether the search is open or closed: Searches for Superintendents Hang on a Pivotal Decision.
But Domenech's appointment had unravelled the night before, and after a series of private conversations and public speeches that were, underneath it all, about race, Domenech lost out to Rudy Crew.
The lesson? Superintendent searches can be a strange and brutal process. Based on this Washington Post article, apparently not much has changed, whether the search is open or closed: Searches for Superintendents Hang on a Pivotal Decision.
posted by Alexander Russo at 1/22/2006 01:17:00 AM
1 Comments:
At the level that people like Domenech are playing (the overly-large school districts in this country), the superintendent is far more of a politican than an educator. We here in Northern Virginia got to watch Dr. Dan up close and he was one of the best. Politician, that is.
The search for his replacement in 2004 was very interesting since the school board doing the selection had gone through some big changes from the one that chose Domenech some six years before. In the end, the superintendent of a large district represents the majority of the board. Ours had been filled up with business types and we got a very business-like person, very different from the smooth politician he replaced.
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