Three superintendent finalists to be interviewed, but not publicly identified

Groups of school district employees and school board members will interview the first of three superintendent finalists Tuesday.

The other two interviews are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, and board members hope to announce their selection for the district’s top administrative post Monday.

But that likely will be the first glimpse the public gets of the selection — or any of the three finalists — because board members have chosen not to publicly identify the top three candidates.

“We’re allowing constituent groups to visit with them and representatives thereof,” said Craig Grant, school board president. “And just making the names public, we didn’t think was going to serve too much of a purpose other than just to let the names out.”

Grant said board members made that decision in November during the early days of the search when they had a public discussion about confidentiality in the search. That conversation occurred during a board meeting that included the consulting search firm, Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates Ltd.

Grant has said all three finalists are current superintendents. Not all three are from Kansas, but board members have said they have Kansas ties.

As the Lawrence superintendent search apparently winds down this week out of the public eye, in Wichita last weekend, the state’s largest school district had its two superintendent finalists speak at a public session there.

“It’s one of those processes,” said Lynn Rogers, Wichita’s school board president. “There’s a balance between the public’s right to know, but there’s also some needs to keep the process moving.”

The Lawrence school board is looking for someone to replace Superintendent Randy Weseman, who is stepping down this summer. Weseman has led the district since 2000, and has worked in the district for 33 years. Wichita’s board on Monday selected John Allison, superintendent in Mount Lebanon, Pa., as a replacement for Winston Brooks, who now leads the Albuquerque, N.M., school district.

Finalists interviews

Beginning Tuesday in Lawrence, one finalist will interview with a group of teachers, a group of classified employees, and a group of administrators and board members. Then board members will debrief members of the constituent groups about their impressions. The process will repeat Wednesday and Thursday with the two other finalists.

“We appreciate being given an opportunity to be involved. The Lawrence Education Association strongly believes to make the best possible decision you need to have all of the stakeholders involved,” said Adela Solis, an elementary teacher and LEA president. “We’re glad that they got to the point and invited us to be involved.”

Grant said the school board decided not to divulge candidates’ names because those candidates likely would now hold superintendent positions.

Nancy Noeske, president of Proact Search Inc., has led high-profile superintendent searches, including in Austin, Texas, and Newark, N.J. She said the public typically provides input on the front end of searches, and consultants establish a profile based on those comments to go find candidates. This happened in Lawrence late last year through forums, and parents and members of the public could also submit written comments.

Noeske said in states like Florida and Ohio, which have “Sunshine Laws” involving searches, the best candidates don’t always apply because some people won’t bother if they can’t be guaranteed confidentiality.

“We have to wait to see who our candidates are because a lot of times when you get down to the finalists, some of them can go public, and some cannot by virtue of the positions that they hold,” Noeske said.

Two boards’ decisions

In the Wichita search, Rogers, the board president, said the district had to promise some confidentiality up front to get the best candidates to apply. They developed the plan to have the finalists meet the public later in the search process.

“We did want to see them in public in terms of what they would do and say,” Rogers said.

Grant said it was the Lawrence board’s responsibility to put a new superintendent in place.

“Each of us has been elected by the people, and we basically represent the people and, hopefully, they will trust us to do the best job we can making those decisions,” Grant said. “We didn’t make it entirely by ourselves. We were getting input from samples of constituent groups, but what it basically comes down to is the person will be working for the public but under the direction of the board.”