Don’t repeat the mistakes of previous school superintendent searches

In response to the Sunday essay, “The superintendent search,” by John Vellardita: History has a way of repeating itself and if Mr. Vellardita’s piece is used a guide, the search for a new superintendent will once again result in a flawed selection and a failed superintendent.

To be fair, nearly all, if not all, superintendents of large city school districts fail. However, the criteria outlined by Mr. Vellardita should help to eliminate any chance of success. The bullet points he presented could have been written by anyone over the last 50 years without any knowledge of our district. In other words, they are standard boilerplate, feel-good, bumper stickers.

Specifically, they lack any specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-limited goals. Certainly, the goals that the new superintendent is held to should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-limited. Everyone has great character on their resume. Not everyone has or can achieve goals.

For example, how about the character to achieve these goals?

— Really decentralize the schools. Create independent districts with one high school and feeder grade schools at the rate of two per year.

— Don’t lie to or hide information from the trustees.

— Let the independent districts run their schools.

— Keep the budget in the black.

— Keep the state government informed of the specific funding needed every quarter within $1 million.

— Get 200 local business to sponsor student projects.

— Run your staff to achieve these goals on time.

These goals skip the fluffy language used by Mr. Vellardita but state directly what he was aiming at. They are actually measurable goals that the new superintendent should commit to when selected and be judged against. Good luck.