How not to choose a schools superintendent
2013 Broad Prize Awarded for Second Time to Houston Independent School District
The citizens of Montgomery County, Md., might want to pay a little more attention to their school board elections. The Board of Education appears out to lunch with its primary charge: to recruit and hire a superintendent to run the well-regarded 144,000-student district.
Let’s review.
In February, Joshua Starr, the superintendent the board hired just four years earlier, left his post before his first contract ran out. Why? The board was split, 4-4, on whether to give him a new contract. Why? Though the board is elected by the public, it didn’t feel the need to publicly explain why the man they had selected four years earlier was being let go. They also didn’t explain why they weren’t explaining. The board issued a news release saying that “the Board and Dr. Starr agreed it would be in the best interest of the district to appoint a new leader to carry forward the Board’s vision.” What vision? It didn’t say.
Starr’s departure concerned many residents, who noted that graduation rates had increased under his stewardship and that he was an advocate of social-emotional learning. Others were not unhappy to see Starr go, but members in both camps worried that the nation’s most experienced, successful superintendents would be reluctant to come work for a board — even in such a highly regarded district — that had just fumbled so badly.
The board then appointed an interim superintendent, Larry Bowers, who had worked in numerous leadership positions in the school district for several decades. Bowers proceeded to start an administrative restructuring even though he was only planning to stay for a few months before a planned retirement. The board launched a national search, using the same search firm that it had used to find Starr. Reports began to emerge of at least one sitting superintendent who had been in the running who took another job, in Florida.
Fast forward to May. The board announced on May 14 that it had a leading candidate, Andrew Houlihan, the chief academic officer for the Houston Independent School District. The 36-year-old Houlihan, said to be a rising star in Houston, had already — in his relatively short career — held more than How not to choose a schools superintendent - The Washington Post: