District Continues Search for New Superintendent

Educational stakeholders from Manayunk, Fishtown, Chestnut Hill, South Philly and beyond met at Saturday to publicly share their opinions on the type of person who should as superintendent.

“We’re going to do things differently... You will see the work that you’ve done today posted on the Web within a week,” said one of the event’s presenters, Harris Sokoloff, director of the Penn Project for Civic Engagement. University of Pennsylvania organized the event with School Reform Commission and United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Through a series of discussions, participants debated the qualities they longed for in a superintendent, which were jotted on large sheets of paper by United Way staff. The takeaways from the discussions will be posted at philasd.org.

Ackerman left office in August with a $905,000 buyout. She recently applied for unemployment benefits, .

After Sokoloff explained debate etiquette at the beginning of the meeting, the crowd was split into two groups to discuss what was right and wrong about nine criteria that the SRC thinks are most needed in a superintendent. Some participants criticized the guidelines for sounding too business oriented. Others said they were too obvious and under-researched—for example, the criteria stipulated that an ideal superintendent have “a commitment to education and an overall passion to ensure learning for all children,” and that he or she “have the knowledge and capacity to run a large enterprise or organization.”

The most discussed of SRC’s criteria was number seven on the list: “Ability to rethink the district’s service model, moving closer to autonomy for individual schools and decreased centralization.”

“Another thing we’ve heard a lot about is the desire among many schools to have more autonomy to how they operate,” School Reform Commission member Wendell Pritchett said. “In my personal view, if we’re going to be cutting anything, the last place I want to cut is the classroom. So that means if we’re going to be cutting things, it’s going to have to be in central services.”

Michelle Havens, copresident of Home and School, and a mother of two, is skeptical as to how impactful these meetings are. She and other parents think the SRC will probably choose their favorite candidate regardless of community feedback.

Event organizers from United Way ended their discussion by asking participants if it was important that the new superintendent be a Philadelphian. Many agreed that she or he ought to have some sort of connection to the city—for example, having a child in the district or having taught here.

Others said proper candidates must live within city limits, and others argued the superintendent should at least have experience in a similarly complex and financially troubled urban environment.

If enough qualified candidates surface, the committee will start interviewing in late March. Sokoloff emphasized, however, that there is no hard deadline for appointing someone to the position. Things can wait until a proper candidate arises.

Sokoloff encouraged participants to express their ideas further on the “wailing wall”—which consisted of three large sheets of paper taped to the wall between the two groups. Sokoloff said the reference was meant not to offend any Jewish people, but to maximize the public expression that will be posted on the Web site.

“If you’ve got something you want to say, write it up there,” Sokoloff said. “It will become part of the public record.”

This was SRC’s second of such meetings. The next will be Monday at West Philadelphia High School.