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March 17, 2008

Is there a school leader in the house?

Should the Lowell School Committee select a new superintendent of public schools if a majority of members don't believe they have the best candidate available?

I would hope not.

If a strong consensus doesn't emerge for a single candidate, members should have the courage to renew the search. They have an overwhelming obligation to do what is in the best interest of the city and its 14,000 students, not their electoral constituency of 6,000 voters.

Lowell needs a strong, dynamic change agent who can hit the ground running, not a learn-as-you-go-leader.

The School Department is a $134 million education-business enterprise. It should be commanded by an executive who respects best management practices and value-added results both in the classroom and on financial ledgers.

Elected officials shouldn't settle for a superintendent-lite when a superintendent-more is what's needed.

There's too much at stake for our children and the city's future prosperity.

Even though I don't have children in Lowell's public schools, I regard each of the city's students as “my” children. I must care for them to succeed. If they do, the city's fortunes — and my family's quality of life — will assuredly improve. Yours will, too. But if the students and schools fail, we'll all bear the burden in increased unemployment, crime and social ills.

Selecting the next superintendent is very critical. It will define the School Committee's legacy. More so, it will set the direction of Lowell's 22 public schools — 18 of which are classified as underperforming — for the next five to 10 years.

The next school leader will have to convince people who don't have children in the public schools to take a stake in the lives of nameless others for the sake of the city's future.

Just 17 to 20 percent of the city's 103,000 residents have a connection to the school system as either a student, parent or grandparent.

The next superintendent must find a way to win over a sizable share of that 80 percent outside the circle and make them care about education and all it entails. This includes rallying business and civic groups to partner with schools on a mission of excellence.

This mission is as vitally important as closing student-achievement gaps. The community at large and the schools must connect, must engage, and must be willing to share resources and ideas.

Karla Brooks Baehr, for all her educational accomplishments during her eight years here, never closed the connection gap between the people using the system and those separated from it. Granted, she faced her own hurdles just getting parents involved in the lives of their schoolchildren. But there can be no excuses going forward. Funding issues will mandate that the next superintendent mount a determined campaign to bring a majority of Lowellians into the fold to save our kids and schools.

Is that dynamic leader present among the finalists — Lowell school system insiders Paul Schlichtman and Wendy Jack and outsiders Chris Augusta-Scott of Norfolk and Portia Selene Bonner of Hamden, Conn.?

Of the four, only Augusta-Scott has experience as a superintendent, leading the 1,100-student Norfolk public school system. Schlichtman and Jack play major roles in the Lowell system as data assessment director and curriculum coordinator, respectively. Bonner is Hamden's assistant superintendent.

Baehr had been superintendent in two school systems, Lexington and Wellesley, before being selected here (she wasn't Lowell's first choice, either).

Certainly, the finalists have potential or they wouldn't be here. It will be up to the School Committee to determine whether that potential is big enough to fit Lowell's oversized challenges.

However, Lowell is beyond being an experimental enterprise for a novice superintendent. It demands a wise, perceptive, accomplished leader who can build new alliances and create a community-wide mission statement that is accepted and implemented. More important, the next superintendent must not only inspire the minds of students and staff to succeed but also be able to move them to action.

Jim Campanini is The Sun's editor. Send comments to jcampanini@lowellsun.com.

Posted by Admin at March 17, 2008 5:00 PM