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July 28, 2005

Jeremy Schwab

A new coalition of black and Latino education activists is pressuring Mayor Thomas Menino to ensure that communities of color have a say in the selection of Boston’s next public school superintendent.

The education reform group Massachusetts Advocates for Children organized the coalition after it became clear that Superintendent Thomas Payzant plans to step down at the end of the coming school year after 10 years as Boston’s top public school administrator.

Calling themselves Community Partners for a New Superintendent, coalition members met recently with Mayor Thomas Menino and School Committee Chairwoman Elizabeth Reilinger at Charles A.M.E. Church in Roxbury.

There, they asked for community inclusion in the search committee which Menino and the school committee plan to form in September.

Coalition members also urged Menino and Reilinger to consider their recommendations as to which search firm to select.

“We want to make sure it is a search firm that appreciates diversity and community involvement,” said Rev. Gregory Groover, who organized the meeting. “No specific promises were made. But we walked away feeling quite optimistic that both the mayor and Liz Reilinger appreciate and understand the value of a community voice having a maximum [input] in this process.”

But Leonard Alkins, the president of the Boston Branch of the NAACP and a coalition member, expressed concern about the lack of specific promises from Menino and his appointed school committee head.

“I think the answers the mayor and Reilinger gave to the committee were not sufficient,” said Alkins, who attended the meeting. “There were no concrete answers given as to what involvement parents of advocates in the community will have in this search committee.”

Alkins said coalition members should have invited to the meeting elected officials and other community members who might have pressured Menino and Reilinger to make specific promises.

“The committee was quite frankly concerned that if there was a large group the mayor would not meet with people who would challenge his comments and statements and my feeling is that is too bad,” said Alkins, who has clashed with Menino in the past. “He has to be accountable to answer the questions that concerned parents have and students have about their education.”

Groover said elected officials were not included in the meeting out of concern they would take the opportunity in an election year to score political points against Menino.

“We did not want this meeting to be a politicized event,” he said.

Whatever their disagreements over tactics, Alkins and other members of the coalition agreed that the school committee and Menino should include people in the process who will represent the views of communities of color.

Reilinger promised that the process would be inclusive.

“This is going to be an open community process,” she told the Banner. “[Ten years ago] it was a very diverse search committee, and we expect it will be this time. We will pay very close attention to that.”

Activists say the selection of the next superintendent will help determine the direction in which the school department moves.

They cite important issues facing the system, including the achievement gap between blacks and Latinos and whites and Asians and the need for more parent involvement in school policy decision-making.

“The superintendent has an impact in terms of their openness to issues like family and community engagement and whether they are supporters of the concept that community should be viewed as a partner in the process,” said City Councilor Chuck Turner, who sent an aide to the meeting at Charles A.M.E. “So I think the attitude toward the community is a critically important factor that a superintendent brings to the district.”

After the search committee is chosen in September, Reilinger said a search firm would be chosen and then candidates will be selected from across the country. The process must remain confidential to protect the job security of applicants, but the school committee will hold open community meetings for input once finalists are announced.

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