Our Views: Open search for school chief
 |
| Advocate Columnists |
 |
Print
Email
Save
Reprints
Twitter
Share
Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Reddit
East Baton Rouge Parish School Superintendent Charlotte Placide is scheduled to leave her post in July, and the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board is discussing the best way to hire her replacement. At issue is whether to hire a search firm to conduct a national search, or hire from a list of local candidates.
We believe the board should try to find the best candidate for the job, whether that candidate be local or from somewhere else. And regardless of whether it uses a search firm, we urge the board to conduct a transparent search that allows the public a clear view of who is being considered, the qualifications of each candidate, and how the board came to its decision in hiring the person who is selected.
As the latest statewide test scores suggest, a number of schools within the school system continue to be troubled. Now, more than ever, the School Board needs the confidence and support of residents to advance academic progress.
A good way to cultivate public trust is through a transparent search for the system’s next superintendent. The search that led to the selection of Placide in 2004 did not meet that ideal.
State law and court decisions make it fairly clear that applications for public jobs are public records. But in 2004, the School Board and its search firm, HYA and Associates, went to great lengths to avoid disclosing applications. The board didn’t make the written applications available to The Advocate until a lawsuit was threatened. And HYA and Associates avoided creating written records on 17 oral “applicants,” which was clearly intended to discourage public scrutiny of candidates.
Placide is well-liked. But when the public does not know who applied for a job, it has no assurance that the best person was selected.
Closed searches for public jobs often are defended as the best way to get the best candidates. The idea is that good candidates will be discouraged from applying if their names are made public early in the process.
But we have seen closed searches that have produced poor results, and open searches that have produced good results. We know of no reliable data that support the notion that closed searches are more successful in yielding the best candidates.
School officials frequently remind us that the public schools belong to us, and that public involvement is critical to the school system’s success. That’s why the public should have a clear view of the process used to select Placide’s successor.
We believe the board should try to find the best candidate for the job, whether that candidate be local or from somewhere else. And regardless of whether it uses a search firm, we urge the board to conduct a transparent search that allows the public a clear view of who is being considered, the qualifications of each candidate, and how the board came to its decision in hiring the person who is selected.
As the latest statewide test scores suggest, a number of schools within the school system continue to be troubled. Now, more than ever, the School Board needs the confidence and support of residents to advance academic progress.
A good way to cultivate public trust is through a transparent search for the system’s next superintendent. The search that led to the selection of Placide in 2004 did not meet that ideal.
State law and court decisions make it fairly clear that applications for public jobs are public records. But in 2004, the School Board and its search firm, HYA and Associates, went to great lengths to avoid disclosing applications. The board didn’t make the written applications available to The Advocate until a lawsuit was threatened. And HYA and Associates avoided creating written records on 17 oral “applicants,” which was clearly intended to discourage public scrutiny of candidates.
Placide is well-liked. But when the public does not know who applied for a job, it has no assurance that the best person was selected.
Closed searches for public jobs often are defended as the best way to get the best candidates. The idea is that good candidates will be discouraged from applying if their names are made public early in the process.
But we have seen closed searches that have produced poor results, and open searches that have produced good results. We know of no reliable data that support the notion that closed searches are more successful in yielding the best candidates.
School officials frequently remind us that the public schools belong to us, and that public involvement is critical to the school system’s success. That’s why the public should have a clear view of the process used to select Placide’s successor.
 | ||||
| Most Popular | Most Emailed | Hot Topics | ||
