Picking a Superintendent: The Process Has to Be Open

The Los Angeles Board of Education, prodded by a coalition of reformers, has tentatively agreed that the people who want one of the most important jobs here--that of school superintendent--ought to participate in public forums to discuss their vision. Now, at its meeting today, all the board has to do is decide the details of how such an open-forum process would work. The board should focus on creating forums that would allow interested parents, teachers and others to ask finalists for the job how they plan to lead and improve the city’s public schools.

A broad community debate would build additional support for the new schools chief, who will need plenty of help.

The finalists, whose names are expected to be released soon by a selection committee, need to measure up in public to avoid any appearance of a back-room deal for the promotion of one insider now in exchange for support for another later. Personnel matters require some privacy, but too much secrecy would heighten distrust in a district where many students, parents and teachers have already voted with their feet.

Many supporters of Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias have opposed public forums and asked why this selection process should be any different from those of the past. The answer is simple: The selection of the superintendent is more crucial than ever before. The crisis is worse, the public schools are in more desperate shape and each new test result further demonstrates that overall student achievement is sagging. This district probably won’t have any more chances to get it right.

Competing constituencies are already gearing up to grill the top contenders. The trial by fire will give the next superintendent a taste of what awaits in a school district as large and diverse and--unfortunately--contentious as Los Angeles Unified, which routinely lurches from one crisis to another and in which divisiveness is too often the order of the day.

Ultimately, the final decision on who will guide the school district rests with the members of the board. They will make one of their most important decisions ever by selecting the person who must lead the charge in transforming the public schools. Only the strongest of leaders can deal with all the competing concerns while keeping in mind that the education of children--not the pacification of various adult constituencies--is the mission of the Los Angeles school district.