Board may try to pick interim chief
A sharply divided East Baton Rouge Parish School Board likely will pick an interim superintendent Thursday night to replace departing Superintendent John Dilworth, but the board’s president won’t say who it would be.
“I would say that there is a high probability that we will have an interim voted on and approved tomorrow night,” Board President Barbara Freiberg said Wednesday.
Freiberg, however, declined to name that person because it’s not “definite” that the candidate has the necessary support among board members to claim the job.
Board member Craig Freemen agreed that he expects the board to pick an interim superintendent Thursday night, but said he and Freiberg differ on who that person will turn out to be.
“We’re not there,” Freeman said.
Freeman said four candidates are in consideration. He said one is Carlos Sam, director of magnet programs in the system, but wouldn’t name the other three.
The small group, he added, includes some “amazing, amazing people” and all have agreed to take the job if it is offered.
He said two possible interim superintendent candidates he mentioned last week — retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré and LSU Chancellor Emeritus Bill Jenkins — have turned down the offer.
The next interim superintendent would require votes of at least six of 11 School Board members to take office.
On Feb. 8, six board members stood firm against promoting Chief Academic Officer Herman Brister Sr. to take over as Dilworth’s temporary replacement.
Dilworth has said his last day at work will be Feb. 24. Although Dilworth’s three-year employment contract expires June 30, he said he plans to leave before that day arrives.
Brister sought to become superintendent in 2009, when Dilworth landed the job, and became a semifinalist for the job last month only to fail to advance to the level of finalist on Jan. 25.
That night, just as on Feb. 8, the same six board members blocked his advance.
Brister’s support, coming from many black political leaders and educators, has grown increasingly angry over the situation.
That anger exploded at the board’s Feb. 8 meeting, with frequent interjections from audience members, criticism of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber for allegedly blocking Brister and demands for the recall of the entire board.
News reports from that night have prompted lots of public debate and criticism of the division among School Board members.
Thursday night’s meeting could be a replay of the Feb. 8 meeting, though Freiberg and School Board Vice President Tarvald Smith said they hope for a calmer meeting, with, at a minimum, more decorum among board members.
Freiberg said more security personnel will be on hand Thursday, but she’s hoping they won’t have to intervene.
“I definitely will try to keep more order in the room,” Freiberg said.
Brister backers will have another opportunity to try to persuade the board to promote him, though it’s unlikely they’ll find the sixth vote necessary to put him over the top.
Smith, who supports Brister, said blocking Brister from moving up from chief academic officer, the No. 2 job in the system, makes no sense. Smith would not say if Brister’s name would be put before the board again as yet another test of strength.
“I can’t say that I’m going to do it,” Smith said. “I will support that motion if it’s made.”
Freiberg and other Brister opponents have gone further, saying they’d first like to find an outsider to run the system. The rationale is that it would be hard for an insider to make the tough decisions, including likely controversial budget cuts, and that current school administrators, including Brister, are needed most in their present assignments.
Smith doesn’t buy it, saying an outsider ultimately would rely on insiders anyway.
“You need an insider if you’re going to be dealing with the budget,” Smith said. “I don’t want a figurehead who is just sitting up there. I want someone who is willing to work.”
Even if the board picks an interim superintendent Thursday, it still needs to find a top administrator to fill the job permanently.
The lone finalist, Samuel King, superintendent of Rockdale County, Ga., public schools, withdrew hours before the Feb. 8 School Board meeting. He was tentatively scheduled to come for an interview Tuesday.
Freiberg and Smith said they had a conference call Wednesday afternoon with Gary Solomon, the head of the search firm PROACT, and that Solomon plans to send the board on Thursday a proposal of how to move forward.
Freiberg and Smith said Solomon is determining how much time he’ll need to re-advertise the job to get new applicants.
They also said that the consensus was that PROACT will return with no more than three finalists. In January, PROACT first came with 15 leading candidates that it pared down to six semifinalists with input from board members.
“I would strongly suggest having three finalists,” Smith said, “because we wouldn’t find ourselves in this predicament if we had done that before.”