Dispute arises in search method
Freeman said Friday that he is concerned that top candidates will shy away from the process Freiberg and Smith laid out Thursday night.
The unity the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board mustered Thursday in finally settling on an interim superintendent could prove short-lived as board members with divided opinions try to decide the best way to find a permanent replacement for School Superintendent John Dilworth.
School Board President Barbara Freiberg and Vice President Tarvald Smith have sketched out a process similar to the initial search that began in September and ended Feb. 8, when the lone finalist withdrew amid acrimonious debate by the board.
A second search would be shorter; involve a shorter, more focused job description; and produce no more than three finalists, Freiberg and Smith said.
Board members Craig Freeman and David Tatman, however, are proposing a different process.
They say they want all applications for the superintendent’s position to go directly to the board president and vice president, bypassing the search firm PROACT that the School Board hired in September.
Friday is Dilworth’s last day on the job. After that, and until the board settles on a permanent superintendent, Carlos Sam will run the school system, which is the second-largest in the state.
The board chose Sam, director of magnet programs, on Thursday in a 10-0 vote with only Board President Barbara Freiberg abstaining. The motion forbids Sam from seeking the job permanently while serving as interim superintendent.
Sam’s position as director of magnet programs placed him over gifted and talented, foreign language and other magnet programs. For the past few months, he also worked with middle schools.
Sam served as principal of Park Forest Middle School from 1997 to 2003 and worked as an assistant principal at that school two years before then. He was principal of the year for the district in 2002 and went on to win at the regional level as well.
Before he became an administrator, he worked as a physical education and social studies teacher in both elementary and middle schools. He said he’s worked in the school system for the past 23 years.
In his position as interim superintendent, Sam temporarily leapfrogs over Herman Brister Sr., chief academic officer since 2008, which is the No. 2 position in the school system.
Brister failed to capture enough votes on Feb. 8 to earn promotion to interim superintendent.
Supporters of Brister, who barely missed becoming a finalist for the permanent job last month, have packed board meetings and some have called for the recall or ouster at the next election of the board members who opposed his advance.
Board members who opposed Brister’s rise sought unsuccessfully to find an outsider to take the job of interim superintendent.
Freeman, who favored hiring an outsider to serve as interim superintendent, said in an interview Friday that he is concerned that top candidates will shy away from the process Freiberg and Smith laid out Thursday night.
“It sounds like we’re on our way to another beauty show, and I don’t know how it helps us,” Freeman said.
Freiberg and Smith said PROACT’s head, Gary Solomon, said in a conference call on Wednesday that the firm wouldn’t continue searching for the school system unless board members agreed to the process that it’s proposing, including funneling any suggested candidates for the firm to review.
“No individual board members will be contacting specific candidates,” Smith explained.
Tatman said that’s unacceptable.
“That to me inhibits our ability to get to know candidates and to get to talk to them. I have a huge issue with that,” he said.
“I actually think I made much more progress getting on the Internet and Googling candidates than I did with PROACT,” Tatman said.
Tatman suggested the board change direction.
“I think this process ought to be open,” he said. “It ought to be transparent, and we ought to be able to talk to people.”
Board member Vereta Lee objected to reopening the search.
“Why can’t we look at the applicants who already applied before for the job?” she asked.