Let’s hope the Charleston County School Board of Trustees listened this week at meetings where they heard from parents and stakeholders about their views on the kind of person who should be the county’s new school superintendent.
And more importantly, let’s hope trustees can differentiate between what that new leader must possess and a wish list of qualities he or she should have. A few things are clear. Charleston County’s next superintendent must:
Have broad experience of running a large business. The school chief doesn’t need his or her fingers in the details of every single bit of the daily operations of the district’s 6,500 employees and 50,000 students. That’s what a chief executive officer is for. But the superintendent has to have the budgeting experience and savvy to make sure the business of our schools is run fairly, economically and with structural integrity for the benefit of all.
As one former school leader told us, “This isn’t where you cut your teeth. Somebody’s got to have a track record before this that shows demonstrable progress in a leadership role.”
Have an education background to move the county forward. Many people think a new superintendent should have spent years in a classroom. Not necessarily. But the superintendent must have the leading-edge academic background to be able to juggle educational needs of students and teachers as well as the ability to take proactive steps to enhance educational outcomes and eliminate decades of dysfunction.
A new superintendent must have a common-sense approach to education to know that churning out kids who test well doesn’t mean they’ll be ready for life. Helping to develop successful students who can take advantage of opportunities is much more important than test scores.
Be a collaborative and visionary healer. Perhaps the most important requirement for the new superintendent is to be a collaborative visionary who listens and acts for all students, not just a segment or two of the community. Charleston County has far too many squeaky wheels on education. But most earnest parents who truly want a fair school system that excels don’t have the time to attend every meeting or fill out every survey. The new superintendent must listen and act for these members of the community, too. He or she also must clearly and insistently communicate a compelling vision to bring businesses, politicians, parents, teachers and others together to help our students.
The next superintendent has an almost impossible job — but the right person is out there to help balance Charleston’s splintered educational system so it can heal and excel. The next superintendent must be an innovative listener who acts and insists on academic excellence for all, boosts educational outcomes, balances local politics with an eye to helping teachers and students, and offers structural improvements to make local education work better.
Let’s hope trustees have a broad search for a seasoned innovator and change agent, not somebody who will push a narrow political agenda. The latter would be a disaster.
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