In this competitive environment it is hard to understand the Jackson Board of Education’s decision not to pursue outside talent for the superintendent’s position. The school district is rapidly growing, embarking on a major building project, and is losing ground in the field of academics. The district needs and deserves the best leadership available and the only way to guarantee that is to have an open search to interview in-district and out-of-district candidates.
The board seemed to want the best when an opening for a coach or a high school principal is available. Why change that now when the most important position in the district is available? The last answer I heard was there weren’t enough superintendent candidates available to warrant a search outside the district. Is that the kind of logic some board members are using to vote? If we don’t post the opening, how will we know?
This district has many talented students, inspired staff and quality administrators. We need a strong leader with vision for us to grow. We need strong leadership to guide the Jackson school district so we can meet our potential. Is anyone in the district satisfied with a No. 1 football team and a 987 SAT?
We’re No. 1 in football and No. 12 in the county for SAT scores. Only Lake-wood and Central Region scored lower on the SAT. I’m not against athletics, but if we are preparing our children for success, they need the academic focus as well. Is the job of our schools to produce winning football teams or to educate our students?
I’d like to see some new ideas come into the district. Keeping the status quo is depriving our students of the education they deserve, the education we are paying for, the education they should be working for. I’ve heard many reasons for our low test scores. Each seems to me more of an excuse than an explanation. Worse, there seems to be no remedy offered by the current leadership to address this and put in place corrective actions.
We need to pick the right leadership to move the Jackson school district forward. Too many 4-3 votes on important issues like this do not bode well for the future of Jackson students.
Just because someone has been with the district for many years is no reason to exclude outside candidates. The right candidate will always come out on top if the playing field is level. I implore the members of the school board to change their position on this critical subject and to open the search for superintendent to include outside candidates.
Dan Gross
Jackson