State education board interviews finalists for commissioner

January 7, 2008 09:14 AM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

(Jim Davis/Globe Staff)

Lowell's Baehr, one of the three finalists, answered questions at a news conference last year.

By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff

Looking for a leader who will improve Massachusetts schools, the state Board of Education and two advisory committees are interviewing candidates today for the job of education commissioner.

The interviews, which are being held in public, will stretch into the afternoon today at the Omni Parker House hotel in downtown Boston.

The state Board of Education late last month named a Massachusetts superintendent, an Ohio education department official, and the education director of a national foundation as finalists.

Paul Reville, chairman of the board, noted that it had been receiving letters and phone calls about candidates, some in support and some in opposition.

"We won't respond to organized campaigns for or against any particular candidate. Our job is to find the person that fits the needs of this board," he said.

The board will publicly discuss which candidate to choose at a Jan. 17 meeting.

Karla Brooks Baehr, the superintendent of Lowell public schools and former Wellesley superintendent; Mitchell Dan Chester, senior associate state superintendent in Ohio; and Richard Laine, education director of the Wallace Foundation in New York, were chosen from a pool of eight semifinalists.

The new commissioner will be appointed as the board debates how to overhaul failing schools, boost graduation rates, and prepare graduates to succeed in college. The commissioner will also be responsible for carrying out Governor Deval Patrick's yet-to-be released education reform plans.

"These interviews are the culmination of a very public, inclusive process of considering our three excellent, highly distinctive candidates," Board of Education Chairman Paul Reville said Friday in a statement. "We are confident that this exhaustive process will yield an exceptional new leader for Massachusetts' public school system."