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I'm about to cover a superintendent search... advice?
Briefly about me, I was a government reporter for four years before hopping to education after a cross-country move. Education is new to me and each situation requires a lot of research to make sure I don't mess it up.
My big question with covering a superintendent search is how to make sure the school board doesn't pick a finalist behind closed doors. I hear about this happening all the time, where they want to get a contract signed before making a public decision. But to me, they have already made a decision as a group if they are asking a specific person to sign a contract. In my view this skirts open meetings law.
What I think should happen is the district should have a discussion about the finalists, debate and make a decision without going into executive session. (But if I were ruler of the world, I'd also have hand dipped chocolates at my desk every morning and I don't have that either :p)
I am concerned that the school board I am covering that is going through a search might try to pull a fast one on me. Does anyone have suggestions of what I can do now (while they are still in the process of seeking applicants)? Are there any resources I can check into?
I am familiar with open meetings law, as per my government reporting experience. But I am on new ground with the superintendent search. Thanks!
My big question with covering a superintendent search is how to make sure the school board doesn't pick a finalist behind closed doors. I hear about this happening all the time, where they want to get a contract signed before making a public decision. But to me, they have already made a decision as a group if they are asking a specific person to sign a contract. In my view this skirts open meetings law.
What I think should happen is the district should have a discussion about the finalists, debate and make a decision without going into executive session. (But if I were ruler of the world, I'd also have hand dipped chocolates at my desk every morning and I don't have that either :p)
I am concerned that the school board I am covering that is going through a search might try to pull a fast one on me. Does anyone have suggestions of what I can do now (while they are still in the process of seeking applicants)? Are there any resources I can check into?
I am familiar with open meetings law, as per my government reporting experience. But I am on new ground with the superintendent search. Thanks!
Tags: superintendent
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Meranda Watling on -
I'm by no means a reporting veteran. But I've been covering education here a year and a half, and in that time new superintendents have been hired in three of my four most important districts. (I was also the managing editor/editor-elect of my campus paper when our university named a new president.) So, while I'm not an expert, I have more than weathered this storm.
In fact, if I have to do it again, it may be too soon. The thrill of the chase is fun, but it's just an exhausting process. Which is why all I can say to your third graph is, good luck.
In an ideal world, choosing the next leader of your public schools would be a transparent process. The names of all candidates — at least any that merit an interview — would be released. All finalists would get public billing in a special meeting in front of parents and community leaders. Their resumes and past would be public record before the candidate ever came near signing a contract. This rarely — if ever? — happens. I can tell you it hasn't happened here yet, and I hold out little hope it ever will.
The problem is, the public wants to know and deserves to know. So our job as education reporters is to keep them up to date on any developments we can nail down.
So, what can I tell you from my experience:
• Follow the executive sessions.
While the board has every right — as annoying as it may be — to interview prospective candidates during a closed executive session (at least in Indiana), you should keep track of every meeting they have related to the search. I kept a special folder with each meeting notice. It didn't tell me much about who was being considered, but I could pretty accurately gauge what step of the process they were in by how frequently they were meeting and where. (For instance, several meetings in a row at the onset told me they were reviewing applications. When they started to take meetings off site at steak houses or hotels, I knew they were interviewing. When the meetings began to slow to a trickle, I knew they were closing in.)
Also, pay attention to the where. The first new superintendent hired, I was able to nail down two weeks before they made the announcement because I noticed the small print under the date and time of the meeting. Rather than interview prospective candidates, the meeting notice was a "site visit" and the location was a city in another area of the state — not a specific place just the city. As luck had it, there was only one school district serving that city. I and another reporter (because I was on deadline for another A1 story) began calling down the superintendents and assistant superintendents in that district asking if they had applied or if they knew anyone who had. We got one of the assistant superintendents (who ended up being the hire) to admit he had interviewed. We got a few principals to confirm they had set up meetings the following day with our board members, and a board member who said she had given a reference for the candidate to our district. By that time I was confident enough to go with that person as the likely choice. I had called the local board president to ask about the candidate. But I knew I was on the right track when another board member told me "I needed to talk to (the board president) before I ran the story." The president did not return my calls — that day or any day between my first call and the official announcement — but I knew we had it right because she did call our publisher to ask him not to print it. (To his credit, she would later tell me, he said he wouldn't interfere with the news.)
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Permalink Reply by Meranda Watling on
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(I had so much more to that post, which apparently got cut... grr. Anyway, here's what I remember of it:)
• Know who is in on the search.
The board members may appoint one person the spokesman. They may have their lawyer with them every step of the way. One of my board's created a 10-person community committee with parents, teachers, business leaders, etc. They didn't have anything to do with the final decision — but they were the ONLY community members who met any of the candidates. Find out who the weak links are, and then, politely (at least until it's do-or-die time) hammer them for what information you can.
• Create a list of likely candidates.
I requested a list from my DOE of every person in our state who held a superintendent's license. This won't tell you who it is — but it tells you who it can't be. Mine was several thousand long, but it provided a jumping off point. I knew what current or previous administrators in that district and other area districts might be in a position to apply.
Also, look at what the board says it is seeking. If they want experience managing a rural district or an urban one, or someone with finance background or whatever, that eliminates many people.
Think of it like a game of Guess Who? Every detail you can gather — even if it's just someone slipping and saying "when you meet HIM next week" — can help you eliminate other possibilities.
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Permalink Reply by Dave Brooks on -
Or you could largely ignore a tedious process story which may be of enormous interest to people who work within the school system (your sources will be all agog), but is of little interest to the body of your readers.
Yes, the superintendent is vital to the future direction of the school system, but it's all-but-impossible to discern that direction in advance - all you'll get is platitudes from the hopefuls, and huffing and puffing from some school board members who want X instead of Y without any real indication of how either choice would matter to your readers, and occasional hand-wringing about open government etc.
IMHO, you should spend your time finding interesting, original education stories, instead of squandering hours and days teasing out political-process stories of the sort that we have all read a billion times and instantly forgotten.
Having said that, the one really important thing to do is confirm the background of finalists when they're announced. Make sure that you are the one who finds out that so-and-so never completed the Ph.D. he/she lists on the resume, or didn't actually serve in Afghanistan, or whatever.
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Permalink Reply by John Hilliard on -
I'd be wary of ignoring a search for a superintendent of schools in favor of "interesting, original education stories" ... typically, superintendents are the highest-paid official in a city or town, they make decisions of hiring and firing of top school district officials, and they can make or break a district, depending on how well they function as an administrator. How you handle a story is what makes it interesting.
Where I cover schools, we have state laws requiring that superintendent finalists' names and resumes are public record, plus finalists must meet with the local school committee.
But in my experience, the folks involved with the searches tend to be happy to discuss the progress of their search... usually because they spend so much time working on it, they like to share what they've accomplished with the public.
With that said, figuring out semi-finalists can be a matter of speculation. Work your sources in municipal government as well as schools - generally, word gets around when a top official wants to switch jobs. As for claims on resumes, there's an easy solution: call their past employers and verify.
I covered an administrator search once, and discovered that one finalist hadn't quit a job leading another city, but was in fact fired. Ditto for another administrator in a second town, who got canned but didn't bother mentioning that on his resume. If your superintendent finalist stepped on someone's toes in the past, someone will be willing to talk about it. The results can be surprising: I got a thank you from one search committee for digging up history in one case that they had missed.
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Permalink Reply by Dave Brooks on
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You are absolutely correct that checking the background of finalists is the most important role you can play (I noted that, but only in a throwaway comment - *dammit, stop burying the lede!*) . Sounds like you really hit paydirt in your stories.
I meant to urge against covering the search itself, the process - which is what constitutes 95 percent of "update on search for important local government official" stories.
It feels like news because it has always been news, because it's "important", and because many of your sources are fascinated by it. But almost nobody outside the administration building really gives a damn - and a day spent interviewing search committees to produce a story made of vague platitudes (as they usually are) is a day not spent finding interesting education angles that reporters of my generation (i.e., old) never thought of.
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Permalink Reply by Kate Martin on -
Great advice Meranda, especially on the executive sessions.
Dave: good idea on verifying credentials. To verify Ph.D. or war experience, you can just call the responsible agency right?
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Permalink Reply by Dave Brooks on
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You can call the school to confirm degrees, not surprisingly; talk to the press office and say you want to confirm that X got Y degree in year Z. My experience is that they're glad to help, although it will take a few days.
I've never confirmed a military claim because I've never covered anybody who claimed anything beyond a short term of service, no medals or combat, and it's never been a part of a campaign. Start with the Department of Defense in DC press office. There is also a volunteer (I think) group run by one or more veterans that helps "out" bogus military claims - they've been behind a number of fake-biography stories. The name escapes me, but Google Is Your Friend.
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