Superintendent Search

The other day Susan, Sam, Buddy and I (Stroup, Wilkinson, Armour and Thomas) met with some concerned citizens about the impending appointment of a new superintendent for Burke County Public Schools. While none of us are aware who has actually applied for that position, we all agree that it would not be in the best interest of the school system or the students for the Board of Education to appoint a superintendent of schools before the election of new board members in November. That said, we also acknowledge that the current BOE majority will probably appoint a superintendent in the coming weeks.



At the May 26, 2009 board meeting, Mr. Schwartz (of the Raleigh firm Schwartz and Shaw) described the process of selecting a new superintendent. He remarked that superintendent searches usually lasted at least 6 months, but acknowledged the board majority’s desire to cut that time in half.

The “search” began June 2, 2009 and a new superintendent was to be announced August 17, 2009 – 76 days. However, due to the "resolution" of Mr. Burleson's contract (and probably because no applications had been received?) the search was extended to September 23.

These are the issues that concern the four of us as candidates, citizens of Burke and parents/grandparents of school students:

The most important job of the school board is to select the superintendent of the schools.

See the following from the November 2007 “Leadership Insider” published by the National School Board Association:

"For most school boards, no single decision is more critical than the hiring of a new superintendent for the school district. The importance of this ultimate exercise in delegation has only increased as the governance role of school boards has continued to shift to one primarily of direction-setting and oversight."

The same publication “stresses the need for communication with the public during the hiring process. Where criticism has been leveled against school boards over superintendent hiring, it often does seem to come back to a question of communications.”

We have seen examples of boards of education that at least make an attempt to allow public and school principals to evaluate the final candidates for the job. Susan sent me the following late last night, describing the superintendent search in another location:

“The board has invited the two finalists to visit for a day of interviews and meetings. They will visit schools, meet with the School Board and the district’s leadership team, and also meet with an invited group of representatives from a wide array of community organizations. The Board will then conduct site visits to the districts where the candidates are currently employed. As planned, the Board is on track to complete the hiring process and name a new Superintendent before the end of April.”

The search referred to above was to conclude at the end of April – it started November 6 (just about 6 months).

Our call to the current board majority is to allow the proper amount of time to find a capable superintendent and to make that search as transparent as possible – and to involve the community and school employees in that decision at the appropriate time.