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Almost four months after Pedro Garcia’s departure, it’s fair to say the Metro Board of Education is taking its time looking for his successor. It has only just begun searching for a search firm to search for a new director of schools. The reason for the latest delay? Jo Ann Brannon, one of nine board members, is away helping tend to her new grandbaby.
With school board elections coming this summer, the selection process is complicated by fragile political egos, turf squabbles and the shallow pool of qualified candidates willing to try to turn around a failing urban district. Some city officials predict it’ll take another year or longer to replace Garcia, who was paid off and sent packing in January.
Many observers think some board members are miffed because they’re getting the blame for poor student test scores, which has led them to sulk and deliberately drag their feet in a show of defiance to Mayor Karl Dean, who’s asking to help choose the new superintendent. “Some of the school board members are upset, and they’re pushing back,” says a city official close to the situation who asks not to be named.
One board member, George Thompson, admits tension exists with the mayor. ”Does he want to make the decision 100 percent or does he want to deliberate with the school board? That’s unclear,” he tells the Scene.
In an obvious snub, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, the NAACP, the teachers’ union and five other organizations sent a letter—not to the board, but to Dean—late last month demanding “a prominent and meaningful role for the community” in choosing Garcia’s successor.
“There has been a lot of time for the board to think about this, and nothing has happened,” says Marc Hill, the chamber’s education officer.
Since Garcia left, the board has managed only to accept applications from search firms and narrow the field to three companies. The next step, interviewing the firms, awaits the new grandmother’s return to the board, which is anticipated later this month.
“She’s off doing that grandma thing. Truthfully, there’s no big rush,” says board chair Marsha Warden, who isn’t running for reelection.
Warden explains that at this point officials can’t possibly find someone before June 13 when, by law, a 75-day blackout period around the August election prevents any action. “That’s just the way it is,” she says.
Maybe so, but it’s probably news to the Metro Council, some of whose members have been outraged that the board has embraced a plodding pace at a time when a sense of urgency seems more appropriate. Under Garcia, the board wrangled for months over whether to require school uniforms while the system was failing for the fourth straight year to meet student achievement standards under the No Child Left Behind law.
In the law’s mounting scale of sanctions, the state Education Department now is exercising some control over spending and hiring in the system. With benchmarks going up this year, Metro schools likely will underperform again, bringing tougher penalties. Eventually, sanctions could include state takeover, school closings and replacement of board members.
Pushing for Progress Jerry Maynard
“They need to get off their hands and show strong leadership and get this process going, especially since the school system is in the status it’s in,” at-large council member Jerry Maynard says. “It’s not like we have an A+ rating and can afford to take our time. I say to them, ‘Don’t punt this to the next school board.’ They were elected to show strong leadership for the kids. They need to get moving so we can rally around our next director and do what our kids need us to do.”
Once the board does begin hunting, though, it may find few qualified candidates, experts say. That’s because superintendent turnover is high—probably 40 percent annually for urban districts—and because school administrators who usually fill such positions are unwilling to accept the headaches anymore. New accountability standards, high expectations, politicized school boards that feud with mayors—sound familiar?—it adds up to a no-win job description.
Nashville might have to settle for a less experienced administrator or pay what taxpayers would probably consider a high price for a more qualified candidate. It’s a seller’s market, and superintendents in larger districts are commanding $325,000 and more annually in pay and perks. Garcia made $216,000 a year. The job search is even harder, if that’s possible, for districts like Nashville’s, that are failing.
“It’s pretty tough,” says Paul Houston, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators. “A lot of administrators aren’t willing to take on the really tough districts because they can find a challenging but rewarding experience somewhere else with fewer problems. So if you have a district where there have been a lot of problems, that’s going to diminish your possibilities. I’m not saying you can’t find somebody, but it decreases the odds.”
From talking with board members, it isn’t clear they understand the difficulties ahead. Asked what kind of superintendent the district should go after, Warden says, “I want somebody who walks on water, can juggle multiple balls in the air, who is a math genius, charismatic and a woman. A woman of color might not be bad.”
She’s joking, of course, but Nashville’s expectations are high and probably unreasonable. Warden herself, “all kidding aside,” goes on to say that Nashville should hire a strong leader “with big-system experience” and the know-how to turn around a failing district.
Will that person be easy to find? “Oh sure,” she says.
Houston, a former superintendent himself, says it’s a mistake for districts to expect to hire a savior.
“Everybody’s looking for the person on a white horse to ride in and save them from themselves,” he says. “Miracle workers are in short supply. Having an expectation that’s unrealistic is a problem because you’re bringing in somebody to work miracles and then, when they don’t, things go sour. And you’re back on the market looking for another superintendent.”
The possibility that things could go wrong makes some board members glad in at least one way that they’re moving so slowly. “What’s the old saying?” board member Mark North asks. “To every problem there is a solution that is quick, easy and wrong. It’s important that we get this right.”
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