I noticed this letter from Andy Davis in the Commons. He makes interesting points about a town appointment that may not be very transparent, which of course raises questions.
Comments | 1
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Education or Politics?
Have you seen Andy Davis’s recent article in the Commons?,
http://www.commonsnews.org/site/site05/story.php?articleno=15704&page=1#.V_qYVIWcHIV
I find this quite surprising, and given the secretive atmosphere Andy describes, it’s disturbing. Why wouldn’t the School Board want a process that on some level included public input for appointing a new superintendent? Isn’t the school district budget a substantial part of our taxes, and aren’t the qualifications of the new superintendent directly linked to our town’s fiscal outlook for many years?
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Superintendent
The position Andy wrote about was not a town appointment, rather the position of Superintendent of the 5-town Windham Southeast Supervisory Union. That’s the sort-of CEO of the overall school district, covering the elementary schools in Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, Putney & Vernon, as well as BUHS District #6 which is the Brattleboro Union High School, B.A. Middle School & Career Center– BUHS #6 is also a 5-town operation. The WSESU itself (aka the “Central Office”) additionally has a support & administrative staff, also under the purview of the Superintendent.
The WSESU is governed by a “super board” consisting of representatives from each of the 5 town school boards + the BUHS board, itself a collection of reps from the 5 towns. It is this board which would advertise the position of Superintendent, conduct an interview and review process, and eventually appoint the person to the position. Last time there was a Search Committee of — you guessed it — reps from the 5 towns. The Committee ultimately made a recommendation to the full WSESU Board, which then acted to fill the appointment.
I haven’t been following the process this time, so cannot comment on the substance of Andy Davis’s concern, but if the process has been as narrow as he suggests, it should indeed be scrutinized.