Assistant superintendent search continues.
By: Lea Kahn
School district officials have launched a second campaign to find a new assistant superintendent of curriculum and while they are about it, to find a new supervisor of special education.
The two jobs have been vacant since Jan. 1, when former Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Bruce McGraw and Supervisor of Special Education Jane Bilik retired.
Two finalists for the assistant superintendent’s post were rejected by school district officials last year. The job of supervisor of special education has not been posted.
In the meantime, Lawrence High School Principal Donald Proffit has been named interim assistant superintendent of curriculum and Janina Zak-Krasucki has been appointed as the interim supervisor of special education.
A key approach this time around is the formation of focus groups, which Schools Superintendent Max Riley hopes may be able to get out the word that Lawrence is a good place to work despite some perceived turmoil in the school district.
The plan also calls for a nationwide search literally reaching from the East Coast to the West Coast to replace Dr. McGraw, Dr. Riley said. At the same time, it is hoped that a replacement for Ms. Bilik may be found.
This may be a chance to tweak the position of supervisor of special education because much has changed in the last four years, Dr. Riley said. The job may need a different focus, he said, adding that it is important to staff for the future not the past.
In addition to advertising the openings in newspapers and professional journals and the Internet, the superintendent plans to contact university staff and professional educational organizations such as the state principals and supervisors union for help in finding suitable candidates.
Dr. Riley has already met with officials at Rider University, The College of New Jersey and Rutgers, The State University. He wants to reach out to California schools such as the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of California at Berkeley, as well as Stanford University.
The focus groups, meanwhile, consist of staff and community members, Dr. Riley said. Some staff members have already volunteered, but community members are needed, he said.
"What strategies will we use to list the advances here to attract leaders of high quality that is one issue I will discuss with the focus groups," the superintendent said, adding that other issues include the need to update the 10-year-old computer technology.
The changing expectations for student learning in the wake of the federal No Child Left Behind law, the changing role of the school principal and changes in the student population are among the issues facing the school district and the assistant superintendent for curriculum, he said.
NCLB has raised the bar for student learning, Dr. Riley said. The new standards are being enforced by the state. It will be up to the new assistant superintendent for curriculum to help accomplish the new level of expectation for performance.
In the past couple of years, principals have assumed added responsibilities, Dr. Riley said. They must evaluate special education staff, interpret and track student assessment data, and develop and implement the district’s strategic plan goals.
The student population has changed, as well, Dr. Riley said. There are more Hispanic, Asian, black and American Indian students than in the past 10 years. There are fewer special education students, however.
And in 22 years, the number of economically disadvantaged students has increased from 70 students in 1983, or 3 percent of the enrollment, to 543 in 2004. That is 12.3 percent of the student population. These children qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
In seeking a suitable person for the assistant superintendent position, the school district is looking for someone who can handle those issues, Dr. Riley said. That person may not be found quickly, he said.
"I am prepared to conduct the search until I am satisfied that we have found the right person," he said. "Finding the right person is better than finding someone fast. This is about deep planning and leadership for the future. I want someone who will shape the future of the school district. That’s a pretty special person."
Dr. Riley said he also hopes the focus groups will be helpful in devising strategies to get across the message that Lawrence is a good school district despite perceived problems. The focus groups also may be able to communicate that what occurs in the classroom is separate from that which occurs at the monthly school board meetings.
Dr. Riley said he is aware of at least two potential candidates for the assistant superintendent’s job who decided not to pursue it because of reports of conflict on the school board. These are candidates that he said he reached out to between January and July last year, soon after Dr. McGraw decided he would be retiring.
"It is easy to be ‘Googled’ by a candidate," he said, referring to the Internet Web site. "They are very savvy. It makes your job a little harder. No doubt it hinders our recruitment efforts, especially for top-notch jobs. It may be necessary to travel to the candidates."
Dr. Riley said the story that he wants to tell candidates is one of the school district’s successes, such as the emphasis on early literacy and the effort to close the academic achievement gap between minority students and the rest of the students in the district.
In fact, Dr. Riley said, the school district has made such presentations to groups nationwide and it is preparing for another round of presentations at the American Association of School Administrators conference next month and at the national School Boards Association conference in April.
Attendance at those conferences also will allow him to make contacts and get the word out that Lawrence is looking for an assistant superintendent, Dr. Riley said. He added that he and Board of Education President Philip Benson will actively seek prospective candidates for the openings at the conferences.
Dr. Riley said he had been told by the school board to devise a multiyear plan to substantially raise the educational standards of the school district and that is the leader that he is looking for in the assistant superintendent’s post.
"Much of what we hope to do with the students centers around that person," Dr. Riley said. "If people shy away because of what they read in the newspapers that’s the challenge.
"People of that caliber have a lot of choices. They have to look behind the stuff you find on Google to see what the professionals are creating here for children, to see the steps the school board has taken that are out of the ordinary."

