Cambridge’s search for a permanent schools superintendent is drawing “an enormous number of applicants,” School Committee member Elizabeth Hudson said.
But when those candidates reach the finalist stage, they can expect to get an earful about district failings to be fixed.
Constituents are tired of empty promises, such as for data analysis or being told high-need kids will be given extra support, Hudson said. The dissatisfaction was heard also in a community forum for the search held June 16, the last of eight but the first to be offered virtually. It saw a leap in attendance to 43 people after the series began with a May 29 forum drawing three.
Hosted by Manuel Fernandez, chief equity officer, and Cambridge Public Schools, the June 16 forum invited community members to give input on what qualities they wanted in a permanent superintendent.
“We either fail to collect data in the district, or collect it and don’t use it,” a parent said, a criticism they sent went back to the creation of middle schools in 2011. Another noted what felt like a constant turnover of leadership and the “need to replace everything … something that can be improved with someone new coming in is slowing down to see what’s working,” she said.
“As a district we need to stop grabbing for the next shiny object and finish the things we start,” one parent said.
That point “keeps coming up,” Fernandez said.
Attendees were asked for administrator positives as well as negatives, and an educator said she values when she sees a superintendent visiting schools regularly. “It just feels like there’s an ever-growing disconnect between what people in positions of power making districtwide decisions think is happening, as opposed to actually being in schools and getting a sense of what is happening,” she said, emphasizing a “widening gap” between those in schools and those making decisions.
Using the feedback
Feedback from the forums will be used in candidate interviews and “support the onboarding process” for whoever the School Committee selects from it, said Ashley Pierre, executive director for Human Resources for the district.
Some community members expressed concerns that the process has been “rushed,” given that the community forums are just now taking place a year after the superintendent Victoria Greer’s firing and that the district plans to pick someone before November’s election. But Hudson said the timeline this year doesn’t look “spectacularly different” from previous searches, and that the number of applications coming in is “speaking to the process,” with “at least as many applicants” as that of the past. Asked why the forums didn’t start earlier, Hudson deferred to the mayor and School Committee vice chair. “There are a lot of different ducks that need to be in a row to make any one of these things happen,” she said.
“Is the process done yet? No. So we always welcome input and ideas as to how we can make it better,” Hudson said.
The district can always improve on soliciting input from people who “have greater needs” and thus higher interest in the process, but “one thing I ask people is, ‘show me a previous process that you think is the gold standard,’ and I don’t get many responses to that,” she said.
Administrator assessments
On critiques of how superintendents and the district have operated, the School Committee member felt constituents had reasonable points. “We have not made spectacular leaps and gains in academics,” Hudson said.
“I want somebody, and my constituents are telling me that they want to see somebody, who recognizes that larger pattern,” she said. “I want somebody who looks at what’s happening every day and tells me that it’s working or it’s not – and if there’s something that sounds great but doesn’t work, I want somebody with the backbone to say it’s gotta go.”
She said she does not attribute these recurring, systemic problems to any one “nefarious individual,” but sees them rather as an indication that the district as a whole has “lost sight of the objective.”
When prompted at the forum to give examples of good leadership, several attendees shared positive words about the current holder of the role, interim superintendent David Murphy. One parent said they appreciated that Murphy “ immediately focused on the important thing, which is the students.”
Other answers about what’s working well pointed to the kinds of educators hired in the district, the amount of resources available and “grassroots stuff.”
Current leadership came in for some criticism on its communication skills. An upper school educator said that communication from the district is “grossly inadequate,” and a parent said it was inconsistent: “When it rains it pours with communication from the district,” the parent said.
A stronger
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Did Meg Richards talk to any School Committee members other than Hudson to prepare this story?
Especially in an election year, it is important to get a broader array of voices.
Why don’t we just stop all this nonsense and get a Superintendent who says “stop all this nonsense.
My job is to get the students to learn to read, write and do math at grade level. And, I’m going to propose that we do not allow students to be promoted to the next grade until they show that proficiency.”
“And… in the first half of the 12th. grade, we’re going to do the following: we’re going to present to the students a list of 100 different topics. They can pick one and write a 500 word essay. They’ll have three hours (if needed) to write it. Those who fail, repeat the 12th. grade.”