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July 28, 2005
Group wants say in school chief search
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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