Plainfielders need to be at Superintendent search meeting tonight

Plainfielders will want to take time this evening to attend the very important public forum which is a first step in the search for a new Superintendent of Schools. It may be your only chance for input into the process.

In the Plaintalker, Bernice publicized the search process in outline last month (see here), and I have had the forum in the Happenings listings for several days.

However, some parents alerted me a few days ago that they had received letters of invitation with an input form IN THE MAIL. As a non-parent resident, I kept waiting for mine. Nada.

Eyebrows were raised in the community when the Board of Ed decided to use a professional search firm instead of the NJ Schools Boards Association, which offers superintendent search assistance.

I argued that such a decision was within the purview of the Board and that the firm -- Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates -- has performed hundreds of superintendent searches (for a list of their nineteen New Jersey clients, see here).

I even suggested that a businesslike schedule that was compressed into a matter of two to three months from start to finish was not unreasonable.

The search process is now consultant-driven, and I want to be hopeful.

But for the consultant NOT to insist that the invitation to this very important public forum be mailed to every household in the city is a serious stumble when they are just coming out of the gate.

This is NOT a knock on the Board of Ed or the Interim Superintendent.

But the community is NOT an afterthought, it is THE FUNDAMENTAL STAKEHOLDER. That is why we call them PUBLIC schools.

The Board and the Interim Superintendent have done much to make the process clear. They should be commended for putting information up on the District's website.

But a consultant that does not tell you that you need to push information out to the community in old-fashioned ways (snail mail to ALL stakeholders) as well is not doing you a good turn.

After experiencing the management style and practices of the most recent Superintendent, some teachers I know who were no friends of Dr. Larry Leverett have opined that Larry's tenure is beginning to look more and more like a 'golden age' of the Plainfield schools. That may or may not be.

But one thing I CAN tell you is that Larry would have made sure the entire community was invited, knew it was invited, and was welcomed -- even pressed -- into the process.

(In fairness, I DID receive a packet with the letter and form in English and Spanish in yesterday afternoon's mail. But this was a personal courtesy of Board member Vickey Sheppard, who took the initiative to send me the packet -- on her own dime.)

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Public Forum On School Superintendent Search.
7:00 P.M. Tonight
At Plainfield High School
950 Park Avenue

Print out the Leadership Profile Form here: Plainfield Public Schools | Plainfield Today

-- Dan Damon

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