There will be a long search process for a permanent Cambridge Public Schools superintendent, said members of the School Committee on Tuesday, giving plenty of praise to their acting district leader, David Murphy.
The presented options would see a leader chosen by December; by April; or by December 2025. It became clear quickly that the committee was heading toward the longest.
“I’m committed to taking as long as it takes, knowing that it can’t go forever,” Mayor E. Denise Simmons said. “I am a full proponent of taking our time,” vice chair Caroline Hunter said. “Our most effective timeline will be one that has us making an offer around in December 2025,” member David Weinstein said.
Committee members considered and rejected starting the process over the summer when Murphy was appointed June 25 to replace Victoria Greer, who was asked to resign before the end of her contact.
But the committee has become comfortable quickly with Murphy, the district’s chief operating officer for the previous 17 month since moving over from Medford’s public school district. The discussion Tuesday upended expectations from the summer, when the committee said he might be in place 90 days to a year as a short-term interim superintendent followed by a long-term interim leader, who would be followed by a permanent leader.
“I have good faith in our interim superintendent,” Simmons said, “if it takes a year or two years.”
Member Rachel Weinstein agreed: “We have somebody good holding us through what what needs to happen now, and then we can be thoughtful and deliberate,” she said.
Member Richard Harding went even further, suggesting that Murphy’s surefootedness in the past 85 days since his appointment had not changed just the committee’s stance about finding a long-term interim leader, but whether a wide search for a replacement was needed.
“People were speaking about a very broad, nationwide search. I think now that Mr. Murphy has been here, and I think he’s instilled some confidence in some of us, people may be thinking differently,” Harding said.
Interim but in-house leaders
Murphy arrived confident to the meeting he’d be around a significant amount of time, announcing to the committee some big changes in administration “specifically for the 2024-2025 school year and during my service as interim superintendent.”
Damon Smith, principal of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, the city’s public high school, replaces Murphy for now as chief operating office, overseeing day-to-day operations of the district, while assistant principal Allan Gehant steps up to fill Smith’s role; chief equity officer Manuel Fernandez becomes acting assistant superintendent; executive director of professional learning Chad Leith becomes acting chief accountability officer; and Desiree Phillips becomes executive director for special education.
Smith, principal of CRLS for the past 14 years, already has a role “similar to that of the chief operating officer” by leading the city’s “flagship school” that is also the seat of large custodial, food services and transportation operations, Murphy said. “You can imagine how I feel about pulling a principal out of a school for a year, [but] based on the amount of time that I as COO spent in this building working with Damon and his team, I came to see him as a key strategic [leader] of this district.”
“A hell of a move”
Because these are interim moves – something Murphy stressed more than once – the appointments don’t require committee approval. Harding, despite his praise for Murphy earlier, seemed taken aback by the announcements. “You’ve been on how many days, mister superintendent? This is a hell of a move,” Harding said.
Even Murphy said he was “surprised” he was able to make the appointments, as confirmed by the district’s legal counsel, and said he’d “be inclined” to make it so decisions such as these did need committee confirmation in the future.
Other members were pleased, though. Though the flurry of changes could be confusing, they also fulfilled calls for “a focused, slimmed-down administration where everybody has a very clear portfolio and a unique portfolio,” member Elizabeth Hudson said, noting complaints of administrative bloat that accumulated during Greer’s tenure.
José Luis Rojas Villarreal also approved of filling roles in “a creative way, in such a way that we’re not adding to the central administration” and with “less silos and more integration.”
“It is bold, but I like the fact that you hit the ground running, that you are serious about making things better,” Hunter said. “This is what leaders do. And for me, this is what leadership looks a lot like.”
A process for a process
The process to find a permanent superintendent still wasn’t started formally at Tuesday’s meeting. Instead Simmons discussed steps she called “setting the table” to consider such questions as “How do you work together as a body? How do you make decisions as a body? What’s our goal? What’s our mission?”
A Sept. 26 visioning session would be followed by an October meeting on “best practices” and training on diversity, equity and inclusion practices, followed by starting the search.
It was better, some members said, than the approach suggested by the Massachusetts Association of School Committee that would see a quick search and job offer this December or January. Their remarks reflected alarm from public comment earlier in the meeting that the timeline allowed no consideration from the district’s various stakeholders.
“I don’t know where the notion comes from that we would have anything happening in our district without input from everyone,” Hunter said.
Summer break
Choosing a superintendent would be the committee’s most important decision, and “summer is a hard time for people to be engaged,” Simmons said. Staff was busy enough preparing for the school year, Hunter said.
Rojas wanted work to be done over the summer because “now we’re behind the ball” for a quick choice for leader, based on the state group’s timeline, “whether it’s a national search or not.”
To that point, in a meeting with several in-house appointments, enthusiasm for a wide search seemed lower that in past years.
In the “past couple of worldwide superintendent searches, I think almost all of the finalists could take a CharliePass to the final interview,” Harding said, referring to local mass transit with a critique that big search firms too often “kind of regurgitate the same candidates.”
“This worldwide thing, this thing that we always talk about – having this great, grand worldwide search – it hasn’t really worked for us, quite frankly, in a while,” Harding said.
A stronger
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I was hoping for a process for the interim Superintendent given the position will last for probably a year. Now we have 4 positions interim Supt , Chief Operations Officer, Deputy Supt and Principal filked with no process. Given the confidence displayed in Interim Supt Murphy, I was hoping to not fill positions that may then have to be eliminated by the Permanent Superintendent. This system has major challenges especially in my opinion at CRLS followed by the middle schools but there are other issues as well. The appearance of quickly hiring insiders and potential competitors for the Permanent Superintendent job without a public vetting of qualifications or process is not a great look. Just my 2 cents. Recent examples like Brockton show that school committees must hold to power and accountability and ultimately own decisions. It’s difficult to believe these moves happen in isolation.
I like that they promoted within interim or not. It’s about time that someone could see the qualities that a current longtime Administrator has. Get rid of all the made up “assistant supers, managers ect” that Greer brought in it’s not needed and a waste of money. Personally, look at the school committee now really? They had their chance time for the same old folks to go.
SB courtway the Interims Murphys strentgh is operations so yes get rid of those folks but why hire new folks without the requisite experience. I would have been impressed if Murphy stayed lean rather then make two obviously political appointments. By the way there is no hiring within. There has not been from Cambridge admin since marylou , sarison and Turk. Murphy was here for a cup of coffee and the committee did not want to search for an interim. Fine but now two political hires as soon as you get the interim job? No process? Now a new Superintendent has to fire more folks? No thanks By the way there is no such thing as firing. My tax dollars get spent to buy folks out and to avoid law suits. We are enabled by being flush with cash. Thats over now. The cash cow of office and lab froze.