A Slow Walk To Nowhere

Ken O’Brien

Video Below

Last night the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC), Glenn Koocher, appeared before the Southbridge School Committee.

Mr. Koocher appeared in the context of presenting the MASC’s potential role in running the town’s search for a new superintendent of schools.

You will recall that the School Committee appeared to bow to public pressure back on February 10^th by voting to conduct such a search.

Now, only two months later, Mr. Koocher appeared as the representative of the only organization that has expressed a firm willingness to undertake such a task.

However, his ardor for pursuing such a task was distinctly lukewarm. At least it was in terms of pursuing it now. 

He pointed out to the committee that their timing was inopportune. Most school committees, he maintained, undertake such searches beginning around Thanksgiving. By so doing they have a better chance of enticing the most attractive candidates for such a position.

Far be it from me to seem overly skeptical. I may have my doubts about the degree to which the leadership of the school committee is committed to this task. I may even suspect that they would like to find a way to postpone the whole exercise indefinitely.

But I will say that it is a good thing that Mr. Koocher is not running for a high-profile public office. If he were he might have to explain how his thinking, in fact his whole position, on the subject of timing such a search has changed drastically in three-and-a-half months.

You see, back at the end of last December, December 28^th to be exact, he was quoted extensively in an article in the Boston Globe titled “A rush to pick new school superintendents”. These were among his remarks at that time:

Winchester, Waltham, and Mansfield started looking in the fall and have already selected new superintendents, said Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.
“It’s unusual they would all get started so early,’’ said Koocher, whose group is conducting several searches around the state.

Koocher said districts usually start looking in January and February with hiring in March so the new superintendents can give 90 days’ notice before starting in the summer.

“Things have not slowed down for us on the superintendent searching front,’’ Koocher said.
“You just never know who will announce their retirement later, rather than sooner. If you are a superintendent, you don’t want to be a lame duck for any longer than you have to be.’’

Koocher said retirements are the biggest reason for superintendent vacancies in the state. He said the state’s early retirement system is an incentive for people to leave when they still have 10 years or more of productive service to give.

The last observation was elaborated upon by Danielle Black, chairwoman of the Weston School Committee. “I’m not sure a superintendent wants to start the year saying they are looking for a new job.’’

Then there’s the matter of school districts for which the MASC is currently conducting superintendent searches. Again, from the Globe article:

Even though several districts are already done, others including Marshfield, Salem, Weston, and Braintree are just getting started. And even more will be forced to look when sitting superintendents create openings by retiring or moving to new districts, Koocher said.

In addition to these, the MASC website lists Lowell, Middleborough and Gosnold as communities for whom they are currently conducting searches. Palmer and Granby are listed as districts in which it has upcoming searches scheduled.

One could hardly suspect that Mr. Koocher’s remarks had been tailored to suit the predilections of a constituent school committee’s leadership. However, I am hard-pressed to explain in any other way his departure from his earlier remarks as well his organizations current practices.

I am sure that it is merely a reflection of the difficulties encountered by this school committee in retaining any other firms to vie for the opportunity to manager the search process. As Mr. Koocher himself noted, the last three years have been marked by a good deal of "turbulence" on the superintendent front. 

Perhaps progress in amending that difficulty will be resolved this June. A change resulting from the upcoming election might be just what is needed and allow an “early” start to an otherwise long-delayed quest.