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School superintendent buyouts: What went wrong?
by Norman Draper, 10 Feb 2006
http://www.startribune.com/1592/story/237720.html
[Excerpt]
Minneapolis schools shelled out $89,808, including expenses, to the Hamilton
Rabinovitz &Alschuler
firm for the search that eventually brought them
Peebles.
The field of finalists the firm landed has been criticized
by some for too
heavily relying on candidates associated with the Broad Foundation, which
operates a 10-month part-time
finishing school for both traditional and
nontraditional would-be superintendents. Peebles and Cheryl King, both Minneapolis
finalists, were Broad graduates, and the third finalist was Joseph Olchefske, who had
taught at Broad and left his
job as Seattle schools superintendent while
under fire.
[Doug Mann] It was a phony superintendent search. The
board
hired Hamilton Rabinovitz & Alschuler as a cover. There were
reportedly over 100 applicants, yet the 3 finalists
were all referred
by the Broad Foundation Superintendent School placement office.
Just a coincidence?
The board
picked Bill Green for at least a one-your stint as
superintendent without a formal search process, like they did
with
Carol Johnson and Dave Jennings.
The board needs to start having its discussions about
policy matters in open meetings
with opportunities for public
input. The superintendent search process needs to be done
that way from start to finish.
And candidates for the superintendent post who don't want
their applications to be made public need not apply.
Audrey
Johnson said that we needed to keep all of the resumes
out of sight so as not to scare away good candidates.
That
wasn't actually true. There were, no doubt, candidates that
might have looked more qualified to the average Minneapolitan,
than the finalists we saw.
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