mmilliken@heraldsun.com; 419-6684
DURHAM -- The Durham school board could make some decisions on how to go about hiring its next superintendent when it holds its monthly meeting on Nov. 19.
Minnie Forte-Brown, the board's chairwoman, said Wednesday that the board has solicited proposals from a number of educational firms that do searches "specifically for districts that have the demographics, the challenges and the mission that we have -- urban districts."
Those proposals will be considered alongside ones from the North Carolina School Boards Association, which routinely handles superintendent searches, and the Center for Reform of School Systems, a Houston, Texas, organization that advises districts on superintendent searches and contracts but does not conduct searches.
Forte-Brown was part of the then sharply divided school board that in October 2005 unanimously named Carl Harris superintendent-in-waiting. She said she was "not nervous at all" about the upcoming search for Harris' successor.
"In fact, I'm looking forward to see what candidates come forward," the chairwoman said.
Harris announced Monday that he is taking a deputy assistant secretary job with the U.S. Department of Education.
When Forte-Brown attended the 42nd annual conference of the Council of Urban Boards of Education in Austin, Texas, early in October, she happened to see a session that dealt with superintendent searches. "One of the major issues was privacy and the fact that [a district] lost one of the candidates that they had, one of the finalists that they had, because the name was leaked," Forte-Brown said.
Greg West, the chairman of the Cumberland County school board, hired a new superintendent in June. "A lot of candidates don't want their name known," he said. "They won't put their name in the hat if it's not kept confidential. So your pool shrinks ... because a sitting superintendent somewhere else isn't going to risk losing his job or ruining his relationship with his board if it's known he applied to Durham."
Alison Schafer, the N.C. School Boards Associations' general counsel and policy director, noted that state law protects the confidentiality of applicants for school jobs.
When asked about naming finalists for the Durham superintendency, Forte-Brown said she would follow the recommendation of the search firm.
That doesn't mean that the public will be entirely shut out of the selection process, however.
"We want all members of our community to [have] their voices ... heard in terms of creating a candidate profile for the superintendent that we desire for Durham Public Schools," Forte-Brown said.
The public engagement process used by the School Boards Association involves two anonymous Web-based surveys -- one for the general public, one for staff. West said that Cumberland's survey results were compiled while superintendent applications were being solicited.
The surveys were done "to make sure we would have [stakeholder] buy-in and take into consideration their concerns," West said. "Fortunately they were very similar to our own as a board, so there wasn't a big disconnect there, but it's good to validate it."
The lead organizer for Durham Congregations Associations and Neighborhoods said he would like to see even more civic involvement. Ivan Parra called for a public question-and-answer session with superintendent candidates.
"I think the two or three best should be introduced to the community and the community should be able to give feedback," he said.
