The Lincoln School Board is going to hire a firm to conduct a nationwide search for superintendent candidates. Fair enough. It's what we did last time, and it's a reasonable way to ensure we get a broad range of candidates.
But allow me to pose this question: Is the cost of hiring a search firm worth the value that we receive? Or to put it more bluntly, did we get the "bang for the buck" that we were promised out of the search that resulted in Dr. Susan Gourley's hiring?
I don't have anything specific against Dr. Gourley, yet neither can I say much of anything about her. She all but flew under the radar in her six years in Lincoln. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Yet surely a strong leader should be known well by educators and the public alike. I have spoken with a couple LPS teachers about Dr. Gourley and the average response so far seems to be "She's ok I guess". Not negative, but far from a ringing endorsement.
Does Lincoln need a "national caliber" superintendent? Scratch that, it's a bad question. Of course we do, our students must be competitive, blah blah blah. Instead, let's ask ourselves what a candidate derived from a nationwide search will have that a less glamorous local or regional candidate will not.
Hang on, I'm thinking...
I'm stumped, how 'bout you? The only difference I can come up with is street cred. Meh. Personally I prefer to have a strong leader who knows LPS and who understands the community of Lincoln. Anybody could gain that knowledge from a little study, but typically local knowledge isn't among the qualities a national search firm is going to look for.
Is a national search for a new superintendent worth our while? What do we gain from it, and what do we lose by not doing it? Are there any excellent nearby superintendent candidates we should consider?
Comments
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I think it will just lead to a higher price tag.
If Lincoln’s public school system was a national beacon of excellence, then it would be worth it to search nationwide for someone to maintain that excellence. However, it’s not, and we have proof that a person expected to make it so does not do so.
I see that the School Board will also be creating little community committees, whose main purpose will be to make everyone feel better about the School Board. They should just do the Beutler-esque thing and put out a heavily biased survey, which with the Journal Star’s help, would serve the same purpose.
Hiring from within can be good, but my thought is you never get new ideas if you constantly stay with existing staff. The thought process usually turns out to be “well that’s the way it’s always been done.”
We need innovative ideas for our students. We need them ready for what’s happening in places other than Lincoln NE. There is a whole world beyone here.
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