Payzant in Running for Miami Post

San Diego city schools Supt. Tom Payzant is considering the top school position in Miami-Dade County, Fla., the nation’s fourth-largest school district and one of the most innovative, Payzant confirmed Monday.

Payzant is one of 12 candidates for the post. The candidates will be revealed publicly at the Miami school board today. Payzant said he was strongly urged to apply by a consultant hired by Miami to suggest a replacement for the previous superintendent, who now heads New York City’s schools.

“They contacted me, and, after a lot of conversation with the consultant, I said yes” to applying, Payzant said Monday. “The consultant really encouraged me to throw my hat into the ring.”

Payzant said that Miami-Dade County interests him because “it is the only other big-city job that perhaps would be a real challenge to me. . . . It is doing a lot of the same things” as San Diego, including school-based management where teachers receive more autonomy for decision making.

Payzant told his top administrators of the possible Miami job Monday. But he said he has made no final decision on whether he would leave if the position is offered.

San Diego city schools board President Kay Davis said Monday that trustees have been aware of Payzant’s application for about three weeks. She said several members of the Miami board told San Diego trustees Ann Armstrong and Susan Davis that “we want your superintendent” at a National School Boards Assn. meeting in Miami last month, but Kay Davis emphasized that Payzant has openly shared his application with the board.

“We’re nervous because the Miami job interests him intellectually,” Kay Davis said. “It’s unanimous that we would like him to stay. We are working on an improvement to his existing contract, to see what we can do to entice him to stay.”

Payzant has been superintendent in San Diego since Nov. 1, 1982, when he arrived from Oklahoma City. His current four-year contract earns him $110,000 annually and expires Nov. 1, 1992.

Payzant’s only other serious thought about leaving came two years ago when he was a finalist for the Los Angeles city school’s post, but he took himself out of the running, saying he did not want to move at the time. Another former Miami superintendent subsequently took the Los Angeles post.

Miami-Dade County has 280,000 students, contrasted with 120,000 in San Diego, the nation’s eighth-largest district. It is nationally known for pioneering many school reforms now being tried in San Diego.

“I’d be disappointed if he left,” Hugh Boyle, president of the San Diego Teachers Assn. said Monday. “I’d have real concerns about getting things done if he left.”