Maya McFadden photo
Career High's Jonathan Berryman with Board of Ed VP Matt Wilcox Wednesday.
The Board of Education has hired a national search firm to try to find the next city schools superintendent by March — raising public concerns that the process to find Iline Tracey’s replacement needs to be longer and more community-focused.
That update and debate played out Wednesday night during a workshop hosted by the Board of Alders Education Committee in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.
The workshop focused on the district’s hiring process for a new superintendent for the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) district.
Board of Education Vice President Matt Wilcox told the committee alders that the Board of Education has hired the search firm McPherson and Jacobson to help NHPS look across the nation for a new schools superintendent before the end of the 2022 – 2023 school year. (Click here to read a 2014 article in The Day raising concerns about that same search firm after it recommended New London hire a superintendent who allegedly falsified his credentials.)
The ed board voted 6 – 0 on Monday to hire the search firm, with Board of Education member Darnell Goldson recusing himself from the vote.
Wilcox described the superintendent search process on Wednesday as still in its beginning stages with a search committee including all Board of Education members and, possibly, more public school stakeholders.
He added that the Board of Education has a set goal to to complete the superintendent search in four months, by March 2023. He described that timeline as “aggressive but reasonable.” He also said that timeline is not written in stone.
The district will host at least one public hearing during the search process to gain feedback from New Haven residents, Wilcox said. He invited community members to testify about the superintendent search during the Board of Education’s upcoming meetings during the public comment portion.
The McPherson and Jacobson firm will be tasked with interviewing the candidates and doing reference checks and evaluations for the Board to review when making a final decision on whom to hire.
He said a key step in the process will include creating stakeholder groups made up of teacher union members, teachers, administrators, and community members to “get a sense of what New Haven wants for their next superintendent.”
A city-wide survey will also be sent out to supplement those stakeholder meetings.
West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith asked Wilcox if the public hearing, interviews, and stakeholder meetings will be hosted in-person or via Zoom with the Board of Education. Wilcox said the firm has recommended the Board do a combination of the two throughout the process.
East Rock Alder Claudia Herrera emphasized how important the upcoming superintendent hire is and asked Wilcox how likely it is that the process will be completed by March. She cautioned the board member about a potentially “rushed” timeline and advised that it be extended.
Wilcox said the deadline can be extended if the Board of Education decides to do so. He said he thinks the timeline is considerate of Tracey’s planned departure at the end of this school year. He added that an earlier decision would allow for the selected individual to get better acquainted with the role and officially move into the job immediately after Tracey leaves.
Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller cautioned the Board of Education to not repeat the same mistakes as the district made during its 2017 hiring of former superintendent Carol Birks. She said she’s concerned that the hiring plan so far seems similar to the process that was used to select Birks as the district’s superintendent.
“I don’t think anybody is taking lessons form the last search and saying let’s do that again,” Wilcox said.
When asked what lessons the Board of Education has gained since Birks was hired and later resigned, Wilcox responded that the Board has learned to avoid going against the community’s concerns.
Wilcox suggested community members reach out to the Board of Education over the next two weeks with suggestions for the search process, including who to include in stakeholder meetings.
Search Tip: Look Local, If Possible
Watch the full Education Committee meeting above.
Wednesday’s workshop also saw presentations by Stamford Board of Education President Jackie Heftman, former New London Board of Education member Mirna Martínez and former Connecticut College Professor Lauren Anderson, all of whom provided the Education Committee with tips on how best to hold a successful, intentional, and inclusive process for finding a new superintendent.
During Heftman’s presentation she highlighted that Stamford’s superintendent of public school’s, Tamu Lucero, has remained in the leadership role since she was hired in 2019. Lucero was an internal candidate that has worked in the district since 2013 and previously worked as an assistant superintendent.
Heftman added that she has been on the board for 14 years and has been a part of several superintendent searches for the district.
“I think the first question you should probably ask yourselves is whether there’s an internal candidate who you can promote to your superintendent. Because if you can answer that question in the affirmative you’re going to save yourself a lot of money,” Heftman said.
She said an internal candidate is also likely to stay within the district for a longer period of time.
“The average superintendent tenure across the country is about three and a half years, and that’s just not enough time to be successful in implementing any kind of a system where you’re going to get positive results and move your district forward,” she said. “It is a tremendously negative impact on districts when superintendents come and go.”
Heftman detailed the differences between hiring a search firm to do a national or regional search. She suggested looking into partnering with the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE).
She recalled Stamford Public Schools hiring a national search firm that helped to hire the leader before the current superintendent. “You have to be really mindful of the fact that people may not be too familiar with how Connecticut does things and so sometimes it’s better to do a regional search for familiarity with Connecticut law,” she said.
She said while there are some pluses to hiring a search firm, including that such a firm often leads to an unbiased process in which stakeholders can share honest feedback. On the other hand, it can be quite costly. She said the Stamford school district paid roughly $50,000 to its search firm.
She added that New Haven’s public schools district should factor into its national search process that the state’s cost of living could impact the selection of candidates.
“It’s not a long process but it’s a comprehensive process,” she said.
Mirna Martínez and Lauren Anderson present to Education Committee.
The next joint presentation was by Martínez, who served on New London’s Board of Education for six years, and Anderson, a longtime New Havener who was an educator and community advocate in New London. They recalled their experience working together on the superintendent search committee for New London Public Schools. That process resulted in the hiring of current superintendent Cynthia Ritchie in 2018.
At the time, Martínez noted, the New London school district was under state supervision.
The hiring of Ritchie was done without assistance from a search firm as the district had previously done in 2014. The 2014 superintendent search had poor results for the district, Martínez and Anderson said. For that search, the district used the McPherson and Jacobson search firm.
Martínez described the morale of the school district when going into the 2017 search process as “cautious” due to the previous search firm-induced hiccups.
During the 2017 search, Martínez said the district first intentionally composed a diverse search committee of nine that included teachers, parents, and community members.
To narrow the candidate pool, Martínez recalled, the committee’s process required candidates to include in their submitted applications a response to the district’s diversity, equity, and inclusion statement. This allowed the committee to learn about the candidates’ interest in serving New London’s diverse student, staff, and family populations.
During the interview process, the committee gave the applicants performance tasks that required them to develop presentations for the committee around the district’s needs locally and at a state level.
Once the committee decided on the two finalists, the committee split into a smaller group of five members who performed site visits to the candidates’ work places to gain feedback from staff about the candidates and how they thought the district would react to New London-specific challenges.
After selecting a finalist, the committee then hosted a meet and greet with the selected candidate before the Board of Education took a final vote.
Anderson suggested the district conduct behavioral interviews for its process to gain a better understanding of candidates based on their past related experiences.
“I think good search firms are very much worth the money that you invest in them because they can help you build the kind of pool you need and want for your search, ” Anderson said. “In some ways I think it would be a challenge for New Haven to do a superintendent search without the support of a consultancy.”
Anderson said the application’s diversity statement requirement and behavioral interviewing allowed for the New London district to “trim your own work as a committee by establishing a process that weeds out candidates who are not going to be the absolute most serious candidates for you, as a community.”
Education Committee Chair and East Rock/Downtown Alder Eli Sabin asked Anderson and Martínez how the committee at the time balanced speaking with the candidates about their abilities and goals for the district with relying on their track records and experiences.
“The best predictor of future action is the past,” Anderson said.
She added that the committee’s use of behavioral interviews allowed for the candidates to inform them of how they may have handled specific scenarios in the past and share about their personal learning curves to balance the two perspectives.
Four Months "Not Enough Time"
During the workshop’s public testimony portion, nine community members spoke up expressing concerns about the planned process so far.
The testimonies by educators, parents, and community members raised two main concerns: that the search committee is not inclusive enough of key voices like teachers and NHPS parents, and that the four-month timeline for the search is not long enough.
Career High Schooladministrator Jonathan Q. Berryman (pictured above) testified Wednesday to share his perspective of the process as a NHPS educator.
While Berryman said he is elated to hear the superintendent search will be national, he implored that it be a “real search.”
Berryman said he has been involved in each district superintendent search since the retirement of Reginald Mayo.
“I’ve had great expectations and had two buyouts,” he said. “I’m really concerned about the four-month timeline. That’s not enough time.”
“Student achievement data, chronic absenteeism rates, and the mass exit of some talented educators from our district serves as evidence of the ill health of the NHPS,” he said. “If this district were a medical patient based on its condition there is no doubt that we would quickly be admitted and held for observation in a room in the ICU and life support equipment would be needed for our stay.”
Berryman continued that the many issues in the district are fixable with the right leader with a strong vision.
“We need a superintendent who has the calling, not just the qualifications to lead us,” he said. “As a resident of New Haven and a vetted educator in NHPS, I’m actually tired. I’m tired of struggling everyday to make a great system out of something that could be great with the right leadership.”
After the meeting five attendees told this reporter they were left with a lack of confidence in the upcoming hiring process.
Am I wrong or didn’t Supt. Tracey give her notice of intention to retire months ago? Why is the BOE starting the process now ? Have they been asleep?