The closely watched search for a new superintendent in Boston has taken such a rocky turn that the search committee鈥檚 revised timeline now envisions January as the starting time for the new schools chief.
Four highly regarded educators said they were not interested in the post after the city鈥檚 leading newspaper identified them as top candidates. The events further delayed a decision the Boston School Committee had hoped to make by the time Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant departed on June 30.
Among the wounded in the dust-up this month: a school committee chairwoman and community activists who are spitting mad that names of possible candidates were published during a confidential stage of the process; a newspaper under attack for doing what it considered its civic duty; and a handful of educators who had to scramble to respond publicly to what they thought would be a private matter.
That the Boston search would run aground is unexpected, given the district鈥檚 efforts to smooth the leadership transition. Mr. Payzant announced plans to retire a year ago. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation paid for studies on his tenure to inform the work of the district鈥檚 next leader. (鈥淧lenty of Advice Awaits Boston 69传媒鈥� Next Leader,鈥� July 12, 2006.)
Despite that care in laying the groundwork for the city鈥檚 first new schools leader in more than 10 years, Boston鈥檚 search was stalled by a clash between confidentiality and public accountability that has produced similar difficulties elsewhere.
In the past decade, said Michael D. Casserly, the executive director of the Council of the Great City 69传媒, districts increasingly have bowed to candidates鈥� demands for confidentiality because good leaders are hard to find, and school boards don鈥檛 want to risk losing top choices by identifying them publicly early on.
Boards are under intense pressure to involve the public in choosing a superintendent, yet have to guard against 鈥渂lowing up the process鈥� by identifying candidates, observed Donald R. McAdams, who studies and trains school boards as the executive director of the Center for the Reform of School Systems, based in Houston.
鈥楧amage Control鈥�
As of this month, only one of the five people The Boston Globe named as top contenders for the post鈥擭ancy J. McGinley, the chief academic officer of the Charleston County, S.C., schools鈥攔emained in the running.
Deborah A. Sims, a top schools administrator in San Francisco, and Mary Grassa O鈥橬eill, the managing director of the principals鈥� training program at Harvard University, declined to be considered further. Two others鈥擜rlene Ackerman, the former superintendent in San Francisco, and Manuel J. Rivera, the superintendent in Rochester, N.Y.鈥攕aid they hadn鈥檛 sought the job to begin with.
District officials say they are still talking with additional candidates. The district鈥檚 search committee had planned to select a group of finalists who would then go through public interviews before the school committee made its decision. Elizabeth Reilinger, the committee鈥檚 chairwoman, said that stage had not yet been reached when the Globe reported on June 27 that the search had been 鈥渘arrowed鈥� to five candidates, and named them.
By the next day, Ms. Ackerman had declared her noncandidacy. On July 1, the newspaper reported the same about Mr. Rivera and said the search 鈥渁ppears to be in limbo.鈥� By July 11, only Ms. McGinley remained.
Ms. Ackerman and Mr. Rivera said in interviews with Education Week that they had agreed to talk to Boston officials, and had made it clear they did not seek the superintendent鈥檚 chair. Public disclosure of their talks, they said, forced them to launch a barrage of e-mails and phone calls to dispel any suspicion they might leave a current job (in Mr. Rivera鈥檚 case) or back out of commitments to new ones (in Ms. Ackerman鈥檚 case, to Teachers College, Columbia University and the Broad Foundation).
鈥淚 spent the next 48 hours doing damage control,鈥� Mr. Rivera said. 鈥淚 had to put this fire out.鈥�
Ms. Sims said she withdrew because she concluded that the search would have to be prolonged, and that she did not wish to be involved. Asked whether disclosure of her name had influenced her decision, she said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 obvious the process hasn鈥檛 moved as anyone would have wanted.鈥�
Ms. O鈥橬eill declined to discuss whether public disclosure of her name had affected her decision. She said only that she had decided not to pursue the job because she is happy at Harvard.
Ms. McGinley, the Charleston County school official, said that having her name disclosed had caused her stress, but that she remains an active candidate.
鈥楶ress Irresponsibility鈥�
Mr. Casserly of the Washington-based Council of the Great City 69传媒 called what happened in Boston 鈥渁nother example of press irresponsibility.鈥�
鈥�The Boston Globe and other press outlets know what the result of publishing this kind of information is, and insist on doing it anyway,鈥� he said, 鈥渢hen turn around and attempt to describe the search process as being in chaos, but it鈥檚 chaos they themselves created.鈥�
Mary Jane Wilkinson, the Globe鈥檚 managing editor for newsroom administration, said the paper stands by its stories. It has received no requests for retractions or corrections about them, she noted.
鈥淭he superintendent is one of the most important officials in Boston, so the names of those under consideration for the job are a matter of legitimate interest to the public,鈥� she said. The search committee was already 鈥渃ommitted to a public process,鈥� and the newspaper believed it to be 鈥渏ust days away鈥� from disclosing the finalists, Ms. Wilkinson said.
Ms. Reilinger, the school committee chairwoman, said it was 鈥渁bsolutely untrue鈥� that the search committee, which she co-chairs, was about to release a list of finalists. The group 鈥渉ad not completed its due diligence around individuals of interest,鈥� she said, and the newspaper鈥檚 stories 鈥渞esulted in the chaos that has ensued.鈥�
District and community leaders still hope to preserve the public interview process for finalists, seeing it as key to community involvement in the decision. But they say they would have to reconsider if it became clear that they would lose strong candidates by doing so.
鈥淎t this stage, we all need to give this some thought,鈥� said Jacqueline Rivers, who oversees a company that provides training for mathematics teachers and who has worked to ensure community input into the search.
In the past several years, a number of superintendent searches have floundered over the public disclosure of candidates鈥� names.
Elfreda W. Massie, a top contender for the job in Montgomery County, Md., in 1999, withdrew after news-media disclosure of her financial problems. John Thompson withdrew his candidacy for the superintendency in the District of Columbia in 2004 when his name became public. The finalist for the post in Ysleta, Texas, in 2002, Hector Montenegro, withdrew after an El Paso newspaper published his name, but patched things up with the school board and became superintendent. The school board member who leaked his name to the media was later censured.
Treading Lightly
The delicate dance between candidates and search firms also complicates the balance between confidentiality and public involvement, Mr. McAdams said. Since the companies鈥� incentive is to deliver a good selection of strong candidates to their clients, it is common practice for them to persuade strong leaders to consider job openings even though they insist they are not interested, he said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just like a young man proposing to his sweetheart,鈥� Mr. McAdams said. 鈥淣o doesn鈥檛 always mean no. But if her body language isn鈥檛 definitive, he might think there is an opening to try again.鈥�
And for many candidates, Mr. McAdams said, there is an incentive to play down how interested they are in the job, both to escape humiliation if they don鈥檛 get it, and to avoid burning bridges back home.
The complex dynamics of the search can lend themselves to differences of opinion about what the word 鈥渃andidate鈥� means, and who does or does not fit that description at any given moment.
鈥淚n every major urban-superintendent search, many of the leading individuals in the field who are consulted about the opportunity can never be accurately described as 鈥榗andidates鈥� or 鈥榓pplicants,鈥� 鈥� Edward K. Hamilton, the chairman of Hamilton, Rabinovitz & Alschuler, the Carmel, Calif.-based firm that is helping identify candidates for the Boston superintendency, said in an e-mail.
Many of those consulted are not actively seeking new jobs and do not declare their candidacy, he said, but still might be willing to talk with a search committee, or鈥攁s Mr. Rivera said he was doing鈥攁dvise them on their search.
鈥淚t is perfectly true that such individuals have not agreed to become candidates and have made that very clear from the outset, but there is nothing to prevent a search committee from trying to persuade them to become candidates if the committee is so inclined,鈥� Mr. Hamilton said.
