Community Advisory Council 3.14.07
The Community Advisory Council in charge of superintendent selection met in a focus group with search committee representative Wednesday to give input on what the district should be looking for in the new superintendent. Among the critical skills members cited: vision, open-mindedness, ability to engage with the community, political savvy, bargaining skills and ability to make partnerships and draw in funding.
While school board members Mark Sanchez and others have expressed a willingness to consider candidates who come from outside education, the committee expressed broad consensus that the candidate needed to be an experienced educator and/or administrator.
Committee members also said a superintendent needs to be open to community input and willing to work with bargaining units, such as the teachers, administrators and service employees. These were qualities that many found lacking in former Superintendent Arlene Ackerman.
Participants cited the widening achievement gap as perhaps the biggest problem facing the district. White and Asian students are performing well and helping drive test scores that are among the highest in the nation for a large urban district, but African-American, Latino and students with special needs have among the lowest test scores in the country. The dropout rate among African Americans is 58 percent, up from 48 percent two years ago, according to committee member Jeremiah Jeffries, a teacher at Sherman Elementary.
The group also discussed the issue of segregation within the school district. The new superintendent will need to work with the board to address this and to revise the controversial student-assignment process. Part of the challenge for a new superintendent, committee members said, will be to find a balance between those pushing for a return to neighborhood schools and those who support the existing assignment process and the system of choice in the district.
At the end of the meeting, facilitator and former SFUSD administrator Carol Choy asked committee members for suggestions for possible candidates. Among the names put forth:
- Current Interim Superintendent Gwen Chan, who has served as leader of the district since Ackerman left the post last year
- George McKenna, assistant superintendent in the Pasadena, Fla., school district, whose work transforming a gang-plagued South Los Angeles high school in the 1980s was the subject of an HBO movie, the George McKenna Story
- Tony Smith, superintendent of the Emeryville school district
- Cornel West, a Princeton University professor, author of the book Race Matters, and one of the nation's leading authorities on race, class and politics.
The focus group was one of several that will be held among key stakeholders over the next few days. Recruiters are also holding open public meetings this Saturday, March 17, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Bayview and from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at School of the Arts in Twin Peaks. The input will then be synthesized into a report that will be used in recruiting and hiring a new superintendent. The CAC on Superintendent Search will meet March 26 from 6 to 8 p.m. to review the report.
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