School Board explores options
Board member Craig Freeman said retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré and LSU Chancellor Emeritus Bill Jenkins are two people who have been approached.
With Herman Brister Sr. apparently out of the running, East Baton Rouge Parish School Board members are floating the names of other candidates to serve as interim superintendent and run the system for the next few months.
Brister, chief academic officer for the school district since 2008, lost a 6-5 vote Wednesday night to take over as the temporary head of the school district when Superintendent John Dilworth leaves the position Feb. 24.
The School Board is also figuring out how to recover from the failure thus far in its search for a permanent replacement to Dilworth.
Forty-four applicants were narrowed to 15 names, then narrowed to six semifinalists, then to one finalist and on Wednesday was narrowed again to zero. That’s because the lone finalist, Samuel King, superintendent of Rockdale County, Ga., schools, withdrew that afternoon, via email, citing discussions with his family.
The School Board is meeting Thursday to figure out how to move forward with both finding an interim and a permanent superintendent.
On Wednesday night, board member Jerry Arbour suggested naming Carlos Sam, director of magnet and gifted programs, as interim superintendent. Sam is already certified as a superintendent.
“There is not one person I’m aware of that has said anything bad about those two programs,” Arbour said. “If anything, the only thing bad people say is they can’t get into one of those programs.”
And almost immediately after Arbour spoke, a woman in the audience complained about the difficulty of getting students into magnet programs and suggested the next superintendent needs experience with the majority of students who are not eligible for those programs. Previously, Sam was the longtime principal of Park Forest Middle School, which does not have a magnet program.
Most of the other names being mentioned, however, are outsiders.
Board member Craig Freeman said retired Army Lt. General Russel Honoré and LSU Chancellor Emeritus Bill Jenkins are two people who have been approached, but neither has said yes as yet.
Freiberg wouldn’t name names, but said she too is looking first at outsiders. She said it could be difficult for someone employed with the district to lead it temporarily, making some of the painful decisions, including extensive budget cuts, and then return to that person’s job.
Freiberg said she has approached a former school system administrator, whom she didn’t name, about becoming interim superintendent, but wouldn’t say who it was.
Freeman said former Superintendent Charlotte Placide, who ran the school system from 2004 to 2009, has been approached.
But School Board Vice President Tarvald Smith said he spoke to Placide on Thursday, and Placide told him that after careful consideration, she won’t come back.
As far as the search for a permanent replacement to Dilworth, Freiberg said she is hoping to get some direction soon from Gary Solomon, head of PROACT, the Chicago-area search firm the board hired in September.
“I have asked Gary to send us a draft of what the next steps in the process should be,” Freiberg said.
Freiberg said she wants to look at the remaining applicants for the job who are still interested. She said she is also open to advertising again.
Smith, the board’s vice president, raised suspicions that Freiberg may have helped King decide to withdraw. Freiberg denied she had anything to do with it. However, Smith is now insisting on being more involved in the search.
“I told Barbara that I wanted to be included on every conference call, in every discussion related to this search,” Smith said. “I want to know exactly what’s going on.”
Smith said King’s claim that his family changed his mind doesn’t add up to him. He said he talked to King a week ago and King had planned to bring his wife to Baton Rouge to accompany him for a planned second interview with the School Board on Tuesday. Smith said he liked King.
“He and I had a good rapport,” Smith said.
King looked like he was in the driver’s seat, earning the vote of 10 of 11 board members, but that support was eroding as his second interview loomed.
Freeman, the only board member to vote for none of the finalists, has been pushing for weeks to reopen the search.
Now, he said he wants to go further by dumping PROACT and have the board figure out a new way to conduct a better search.
“I think the beauty contest didn’t work very well, and I think a cattle call didn’t work very well,” Freeman said.
Instead, he suggested seeking new applicants, and having Freiberg and Smith pick one name each week as a finalist for further consideration. Freeman said he knows of at least five top educators interested in Baton Rouge, but who won’t compete unless they are the lone finalist.
Freiberg said the board may need to pick one name rather than multiple people as leading candidates to ensure more interest from top people.
Smith said he is opposed to picking a lone finalist, instead preferring to have three finalists. He said if the School Board on Jan. 25 had picked three finalists, rather just King, “we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in now.”