Proven leader sought

• By JEREMY HARPER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Dec 4, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The new East Baton Rouge Parish school superintendent should be a proven leader who has a record of turning around failing schools and has prior administrative experience in a school system, according to a report based on community input and compiled by a private search firm.

The leadership profile was derived from several focus groups, two community forums and more than 400 surveys filled out by local residents, business leaders and school officials. The School Board got its first look at the profile Wednesday.

The report also says the new superintendent should be a “proven agent of change” with a track record of improving student test scores and should have a deep understanding of curriculum for students of different backgrounds.

Familiarity of technology and budgetary management scored lowest of 12 pre-written qualities ranked by survey respondents.

The respondents were also able to name their own top qualities for a superintendent, and some common answers were that he or she should be an innovator, a coalition builder and experienced with a school system made up primarily of minority students.

John Connolly, a representative from the search firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, said the profile represents “marching orders” for the firm to go out and recruit candidates.

Candidates for the office will get the entire 21-page profile, which also includes what the respondents felt are the strengths and weaknesses of the school system and Baton Rouge as a whole.

The firm will begin recruiting candidates. The firm will present three candidates to the School Board, followed by interviews and a planned selection of a new superintendent by the end of February.

Connolly said the 424 surveys were the most responses his firm has ever received from a district the size of East Baton Rouge. He said of those responses, only 228 were complete and used to rank the 12 characteristics for a superintendent. All of the forms, even the incomplete ones, were used to develop the narrative section of the report, along with some verbal answers, he said.

During Wednesday’s workshop, some board members bristled at the report’s inclusion of community criticisms about school performance, the conditions of buildings and other challenges the system is facing. Many in the business community, the reports says, were concerned the school system is in decline while the area’s economy is expanding.

“Some (of the respondents) expressed that there were apparent divisions within the school district that tend to fall along economic lines,” the report notes. “There is general concern about the appearance of the school buildings and what appears to be the lack of a plan to keep buildings’ facilities and grounds up to a higher standard.”

The report continues: “Concern was generally expressed regarding the need to improve student achievement on standardized tests and for the system to have all schools meet the ‘No Child Left Behind’ annual yearly progress goals.”

Board member Bill Black said most of the criticisms about the school system were either myths or old facts that are no longer true.