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Saturday, May 31, 2008
Brathwaite: I won’t be an interim superintendent
Debra Brathwaite
Dayton Superintendent Percy Mack’s top deputy want to replace her boss but has told the school board she only wants the job on a permanent basis and will not accept the role of interim superintendent.
Debra Brathwaite, Dayton’s deputy superintendent since 2003, just learned Thursday that she would not be offered the superintendency of Princeton schools near Cincinnati, adding to a list of near misses for desirable superintendent jobs that includes Akron and Toledo.
With Percy Mack’s plan to depart for Columbia, S.C., in July, Dayton school board members have expressed a strong preference to name an interim superintendent and conduct a national search for his replacement.
Brathwaite said she has declined an offer of the interim superintendent spot by board President Yvonne Isaacs.
“I’ve been deputy for five years in Dayton,” she said. “I believe I have done some exemplary work. Interim is a temporary position. I have been very open with my desire to be a a superintendent. The process in Princeton really validated my skills. I was up against two sitting superintendents. I think I did pretty well.”
Isaacs said she believes Brathwaite is the best choice for interim superintendent and would be a viable candidate for the permanent job, but now the board must consider its options.
“She made it very clear to me she was not interested in being interim superintendent,” Isaacs said. “I need to now have a converastions with the board. But I don’t believe our position will change with regard to going the interim route and doing a national search.”
Brathwaite said it is the board’s prerogative to conduct a national search but that she believes she has earned the top job.
“When you are interim, it ties you to the positon,” she said. “You are really put on hold and at the end of the day you don’t know what happens. I believe I don’t deserve that. I have really given a ll I have in Dayton.”
Word of Brathwaite’s possible rejection angered some of her allies within the district, prompting a letter signed by every elementary school principal in support of her candidacy for superintendent.
“By being just who she is: Brilliant, hardworking, earnest, fair and generous, she has earned our respect and undying loyalty,” the letter to the board states. “This letter is to let you know that we have utmost confidence in her and her ability to lead not only this district, but any district.”
Brathwaite, a native New Yorker, followed former Cleveland Superintendent Barbara Byrd Bennett to that city from New York City before coming to Dayton. She recently completed a doctorate in education and has run the day-to-day academic operations of the district under Mack. She has been a key player in the development of choice options, including the Dayton Early College Academy and two single gender schools.
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