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February 10, 2006
School superintendent search firms: Do they get the scrutiny they deserve?Intriguing case study from Minnesota here about two superintendent-school board relationships gone bad, resulting in buyout payments. The article from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune points to one corner of the process that seems to avoid scrutiny: the search firms advising boards during the hiring process.
These firms get paid regardless of whether the candidate they find sticks around and is effective, or heads out the door in seven months, as one of the superintendents profiled did. Boards rely on good information from these firms. They need to start getting it. Note to education news media: Take a look at this process. When boards themselves are guilty of avoiding their own due diligence responsibilities in hiring superintendents, they deserve to be outed. But somehow these search firms, which take big checks from school districts only to regularly have their recommended superintendent candidates quickly bomb, seem to avoid scrutiny. Why is that?
Posted February 10, 2006 12:23 PM
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Comments(2)
Posted by: John Thompson on February 14, 2006 11:28 AM
Would NSBA want to sponsor a study that would analyze search firms' success (i.e., hired superintendents who "stick" with school districts)? The objective of the study would be to produce a report card on search firms.
Posted by: JimMc on February 15, 2006 9:50 AM
Mr. Thompson's idea is intriguing, especially because my own board's last superintendent search was conducted thru our state board association's service and it was, shall we say, a very unsatisfying experience. Or so they tell me.
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