Bellbrook graduation 2012
Fairfield Senior 2012 graduation
Kroger Aquatic Center opens
Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2000 > August > 20 > Entry
Superintendent search secrecy questioned
Jerome Tillman thought he had the kind of skills that could help the Dayton Public Schools right its sinking ship, but school board members never knew he had applied for the superintendent’s job in March.
Tillman, the dean of the Central State University’s college of education and a former elementary school principal with 30 years’ experience, said he was never interviewed or contacted by a search firm employed by the district after he applied.
“I got no explanation as to how I was eliminated,” he said.
When the Dayton Board of Education hired Illinois-based Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates last December for $30,000 plus expenses, it promised the company total control over the candidate screening process. Under the contract, the company kept applicant names confidential, delivering to the board only its list of six semi-finalists.
“We certainly learned a lesson on what not to do,” board member Mario Gallin said. “I would never do this again.”
During the April search, the board only released the names of two finalists - Kalamazoo, Mich., superintendent Kay Royster and Greg Thornton, assistant superintendent in Greensboro, N.C.
After an outpouring of community support for interim superintendent Jerrie Bascome McGill, her name was added to the short list and on April 17 the board gave her the permanent job.
In response to a lawsuit by the Dayton Daily News, a state appeals court on July 20 ordered the school board to make public the names and resumes of all who sought the superintendency.
The newspaper received the documents Thursday and shared the names with board members. Some of the names on the list raised eyebrows.
“I can’t believe this,” board member Clayton Luckie said as he reviewed the list. “It would have been nice to have known who all the competition was.”
The board interviewed only the semifinalists. In addition to McGill, Royster and Thornton, that group included:
Nathaniel Miller, an area superintendent for the Rockford, Ill., public schools.
Phyllis Chase, chief administrator of Kansas City’s public schools.
David Snead, former superintendent in Detroit.
The board’s agreement with the search firm kept it from being allowed to see who else applied, or learn why the other 19 candidates were not selected. In addition to Tillman, board members said others who were not picked, and whom they might have wanted to interview, included:
Michael H. Jones, executive director of Human Resources for the Seattle Public Schools.
Susan R. Dyer, deputy superintendent of St. Louis public schools and a Central State graduate.
Richard L. Thompson, state superintendent of education in Mississippi.
James Harris, former superintendent of the Buffalo, N.Y., public schools.
Gene Harris, executive director of Project GRAD at Columbus Public Schools.
“When you hire someone, you want your hands on everyone who applied for the job,” said Lester Weller, chairman of the Dayton Education Council, a coalition of educators, parents, city employees and community representatives. “You can’t rely on someone else to pick for you. That’s ludicrous.”
Sam Mikaelian, a consultant from the search firm, said in April that he promised applicants their names would be kept confidential unless they were selected as one of two finalists.
Using a profile created after community meetings in Dayton and discussions with the board, the firm narrowed the list of candidates to six semi-finalists.
Keeping the names private would guarantee that Dayton got the highest-quality candidates, Mikaelian said at the time. He said that almost all who applied would drop out if their names became public.
In Ohio, reports submitted to a public body are public record, so Mikaelian provided no resumes or other documents to board members, to keep the names hidden.
Instead, he read aloud the resumes and other information about the candidates to the board. The appeals court ruled the resumes were public record even if they are handled by a search firm.
But some board members now wonder how some of the applicants who seemed to fit what they were looking for were eliminated.
Like Tillman, Jones never heard from the search firm after responding to an ad in Education Week. Two board members said they recognized Jones’ name from news stories they had read about improvements in Seattle’s schools and were surprised he did not make the cut.
Jones also wondered.
“I was very interested,” Jones said. “The only response I ever got was a letter to inform me the (Dayton Daily News’) lawsuit was under way. That surprised me because typically on these kinds of things the process is public.”
Jones said he talked to all his references to see if anyone from Dayton had called.
“No one from Dayton ever checked on me,” he said.
A few weeks after Dayton chose McGill, Jones was named a semi-finalist in Toledo, a district that conducted its own search. He didn’t get the job but continues to pursue a superintendent’s position.
Tillman decided to seek the superintendent job while working on a district advisory committee. Before serving on the committee, Tillman had followed the district’s woes in the news and last summer even offered to some school board members to fill in as interim superintendent after James Williams’ departure.
“I wanted to give them an opportunity to look at me and offer up my services if they were needed,” he said.
But while the search firm never contacted Tillman or Jones, it recruited others including Thompson, who said he never actually applied for Dayton’s superintendent job.
Thompson said the firm called him and asked if he would be interested in the Dayton job. He declined, but sent a resume to be considered for future job openings the firm might handle. He only discovered he was on Dayton’s list when the firm sent a letter to warn that a lawsuit might make his name public.
Since April, several board members have called the hiring of the search firm a mistake. Learning who else applied reinforced that feeling for some, even while none said they regretted choosing McGill.
“I’m very unsatisfied with the way the process went,” board member Joey Williams said. “But it’s too late to dwell on it. We have to make the best of it, and I think it will turn out for the best.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Comments