Left in the lurch
THE SEARCH committee for a new Boston school superintendent abandoned a rigorous public interview process last summer for fear of alienating candidates, especially highly touted ones like Rochester school superintendent Manuel Rivera. It was kid -glove treatment all the way for Rivera, who slapped the Menino administration yesterday with that same glove.
School Committee chairwoman Liz Reilinger said yesterday that Rivera is "unlikely" to accept the city's top education post. In fact, it appears he will be heading up New York State 's Commission on Higher Education -- unless he has another change of heart.
If Rivera, the 2006 Superintendent of the Year, was playing the field all this time, he certainly hid it well. The School Committee voted in October to appoint Rivera to the post. He then met with key constituencies, including parents and education advocates across the city. Rivera even described his educational philosophy in a meeting with Globe editors and explained how that vision would fit the needs of the city's 58,000 students. The School Committee set his arrival date for July and set his base salary at $275,000.
Rivera represents a new and disturbing trend in urban school superintendents. Like chief executives in the private sector, in-demand urban superintendents operate by stealth. Interviews for new jobs are conducted in secret and under strict agreement that the news doesn't get back to their school boards. It doesn't sit well with Bostonians who remember the open process in 1995, including public interviews, that led to the hiring of Thomas Payzant. But the excitement over landing Rivera, an experienced superintendent with a reputation for improving schools and winning reforms at the collective bargaining table, overshadowed such concerns.
The Menino administration needs to reevaluate its search strategy. A search firm that insists on operating in secret at every stage does not serve the public. Surely there are educators or nontraditional candidates from business, government, or the military who would be willing to make both their educational philosophies and their intentions known. The secret searches may advance the careers and prospects of job candidates, but they undermine public education in Boston.
In retrospect, observers of the school system might have seen this coming. Rivera denied his candidacy at first. Then he withdrew his name when the Globe revealed five people on the short list. Yet his recent actions gave no indication that he was a flight risk.
The Rivera incident is embarrassing to the administration. But there is no reason it should destabilize the school system provided the mayor and School Committee set their sights on someone who thinks and acts more like a public school educator than a runaway bride.
