Superintendent Search Needs No Residents' Panel

How do you hire a superintendent?

Ask school boards across the state of Arkansas and you'll probably get 273 different answers. Every school board has its way of approaching vacancies, and the makeup of school boards are often significantly different with each superintendent hiring process than the one before.

What’s the Point?

The Fayetteville School Board doesn’t need to hand off responsibility for hiring the next superintendent to an appointed panel. That’s what they were elected for.

Now that Bentonville has apparently avoided a search for a superintendent, Fayetteville is the only one of the Big Four school districts in Northwest Arkansas currently searching. Vicki Thomas announced earlier this year that she planned to step down at the end of her contract in June.

At a recent meeting, school board members discussed how to approach their hiring process. One board member suggested the creation of a residents' committee to help with the search process, urging her fellow board members to consider feedback from the public. Bryn Bagwell said five people had told her they wanted to be on the search committee.

Board President Tim Hudson suggested the elected school board might be abdicating its responsibilities by creating such a committee.

Bagwell's admirable desire is to ensure the next superintendent meshes well with the school district and the public. But there's already a residents' committee involved in the hiring; it's called the school board. When voters select people to serve on the school board, they know (or should) that the No. 1 job of the local school board is the selection, oversight and, when necessary, the firing of a superintendent to conduct the day-to-day business of the education system.

Nothing about a resident not being on the school board turns their involvement in the hiring process into something more substantial or fair than the elected representatives who sit on the school board. If the patrons of a school district cannot trust its school board members with the decision to hire a superintendent, that community has the wrong people on its school board.

That said, school board members have a serious responsibility to engage the public in the selection process. When the board hired Thomas, the public was invited to meet-and-greet sessions with the two finalists the board had picked. Five years ago, that felt like a healthy checks-and-balances approach to expose any problems those candidates might have with community engagement.

The school board has put a survey on the school district website seeking feedback from the public on the qualities they should be looking for in the next superintendent. They're starting with the list derived in 2008 as Bobby New approached the end of his 13-year tenure. Patrons are asked to provide feedback in the next few days to help refine the profile. Those who want to participate can go to http://www.fayar.net to submit their comments.

There are plenty of wrong ways to hire superintendents -- those who want a lesson can go back and look at the first effort to replace New back in 2008 -- but there isn't a method that will always produce perfect results. All Fayetteville can do is listen, engage and make a selection without over-thinking the process and making it too convoluted.

Fayetteville has a lot of challenges and strengths to offer a candidate who wants the responsibility to run one of the state's top districts. Now is the time to start vetting those ready and willing to seek Fayetteville's top educational job.

Commentary on 02/22/2014

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