The chief of NAACP Boston is placing the Boston School Committee on blast for its superintendent search, elevating issues over the “lack of representation” within the finalist pool and including that presenting solely two candidates “should raise an automatic caution flag.”
Tanisha Sullivan, who’s additionally working for secretary of state in opposition to Bill Galvin, wrote a letter to Boston School Committee Chair Jeri Robinson following the announcement of two superintendent finalists. While nearly all of college students in Boston Public Schools are Black or Latino, neither of the 2 finalists are Black or Latino.
“The lack of representation in the finalist pool should have immediately caused the process to pause, review, and reopen (if necessary),” Sullivan wrote to Robinson on Friday. “How can we hold school leaders accountable for representative candidate slates, if we are not leading by example at the top?”
“The city deserves a representative slate of finalists,” she later added.
Sullivan famous that her concern is just not concerning the two people who’re within the finalist pool. They are Somerville Superintendent Mary Skipper, who beforehand labored for BPS overseeing excessive faculties; and Tommy Welch, BPS Region 1 college superintendent.
The NAACP Boston prez mentioned having solely two finalists for a “nationally respected district like Boston should raise an automatic caution flag in the process.”
“The lack of interest should serve as an indicator that we need to rethink our process AND timing,” Sullivan wrote. “The process timeline was always too rushed for a district of this caliber.”
BPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius is departing the district on Thursday.
Meanwhile, state schooling officers might vote on Tuesday to declare Boston an “underperforming” district, the newest in a protracted negotiation over the efficiency of the town’s faculties. The phrases with the state must be settled earlier than transferring ahead with the superintendent course of, Sullivan mentioned.
“We urge the school committee to halt this process and review what can be done to expand the finalist pool and adjust the decision timeline to follow negotiations with (Education) Commissioner (Jeffrey) Riley,” she wrote.
But the School Committee chair, in a letter responding to Sullivan, defended the method and mentioned the board has an “obligation to our students and families to appoint a qualified, permanent superintendent without delay.”
The search produced 34 candidates. The Search Committee voted to pick 4 finalists: one was Black; one was Latinx; one was Asian American; and one was white. The candidates who had been Black and Latinx withdrew shortly earlier than the beginning of public interviews.
“While I share your disappointment that our search did not result in a more racially diverse group of public interviews, I stand by this process,” Robinson responded to Sullivan. “I am confident both candidates have the necessary qualifications and are uniquely positioned to lead our District forward.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”