No decision reached in Fowler-Finn’s fight

Alex Bloom

The ongoing saga surrounding the fate of Superintendent Thomas Fowler-Finn continued through Tuesday without an end, as lawyers for the Cambridge School Committee and [Fowler-Finn] negotiated behind closed doors.

“Fowler-Finn has great strengths and some real weaknesses and that’s why it’s not an easy decision for anybody,” said committee member Luc Schuster.

The School Committee has spent the past six weeks debating whether it will renew Fowler-Finn’s contract, which runs through Aug. 2007. The School Committee must give notice of intent to renew by Aug. 20. The contract will automatically extend through Aug. 2008 if the school committee has given no notice.

“We are in negotiations at the moment,” said committee member Joe Grassi. “The deadline is not an issue.”

The tense negotiations over Fowler-Finn have taken place before the backdrop of a superintendent search in the Boston School District that has turned into a fiasco. The search, which Boston School Committee members decided to make public, eroded as four of the five candidates chosen withdrew their names. As a result, Boston does not expect to have a new superintendent until January.

Cambridge Mayor Ken Reeves, the chairman of the School Committee, maintained that such an outcome would not occur if Cambridge were to look for a new superintendent.

“It’s somewhat preposterous to think that you could need one and can’t find one,” said Reeves. “I’m not in Boston so I’m not sure why it’s been the process it’s been. Cambridge, when it has needed a superintendent, has always been able to find one. I would imagine it hasn’t lost that ability if needed.”

Schuster said that Cambridge would get different candidates than Boston if such a search ever took place.

“If we did a search, we’d find a different pool than Boston,” said Schuster. “Cambridge is a different district with different incentives for a leader.”

Reeves echoed Schuster’s sentiments, touting the district’s many positives.

“The two districts are extraordinarily different systems,” said Reeves. “Cambridge has one high school and spends nearly $24,000 per student. It’s a very resource-rich district, a very-sought after district and we’re a very high-paying district in the state.”

Fowler-Finn was hired from a nationwide search which was narrowed down to three people, according to City Councilor Michael A. Sullivan. Sullivan served as mayor during the hiring process for Fowler-Finn.

“Even with three people, it was still a 7-0 vote on Fowler-Finn,” said Sullivan, who noted that Fowler-Finn was “light years” ahead of the other candidates.

Sullivan said that the superintendent’s leadership abilities are strong, which can be a detriment since some people do not like leaders and would prefer a more personable superintendent.

“He has the capacity to lead,” said Sullivan. “He’s not a good cheerleader but he has the capacity to lead. He’s not out meeting and greeting people but that’s not what he does.”

Sullivan called superintendent the second-hardest job to fill, besides high school principal. If the School Committee does not ask Fowler-Finn to return, Sullivan predicted that the Committee could find a lot of trouble filling the position and that the decision to choose a new superintendent would reflect more on Reeves and the current School Committee rather than the committee that hired Fowler-Finn.

“Some will wonder whether the district wants leadership and accomplishments versus appeasing personalities,” said Sullivan, pointing out that personality politics has gotten in the way of a discussion of district-wide achievement.

“They’ll have some difficulty with regard to a strong leader coming into being able to exert leadership ability,” said Sullivan. “There’ll be a problem with the superintendent exercising authority if there’s always a way to circumvent that.”

Sullivan also touched on the timeline problems that would occur, noting that interviews for candidates might not start until January or February and the search would coincide with an election year.

“It would really be a big quagmire in regards to getting somebody onboard by next August,” said Sullivan.

Schuster would like to see a contract come forth that returns the power to make subcommittees to the School Committee. Fowler-Finn’s contract has hindered the current school committee’s ability to form subcommittees.

“I question the legality of banning subcommittees in superintendent’s contract in first place,” said Schuster. “I don’t believe that a previous legislative body should govern how a future legislative body can do its business.”

Schuster cited a July 18 meeting as an example of how the School Committee’s hands have been tied. At that meeting, committee members had to hypothesize on whether research existed detailing a correlation between standardized report cards and student achievement during the Committee’s critique of the Report Card Task Force.

“We shouldn’t be imagining research on the floor,” said Schuster.

Student achievement would be the primary concern for Grassi.

“I expect student achievement to significantly improve for all of our students in Cambridge,” said Grassi.