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EDITORIAL: Seek Solid Credentials: School Board Should Pick Operations Chief With Record of Business Competence

Posted on: Wednesday, 14 June 2006, 15:00 CDT

By The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

Jun. 14--Aschool district's chief operating officer should bring hardnosed business acumen to the job, improving the bottom line and the return on taxpayers' investment.

With its COO position open for the fourth time in 10 years, the Columbus Board of Education has another chance to realize the potential in this hiring. Members should seize the opportunity by asking for help with the selection.

Columbus Public Schools created this position in 1996, in part to relieve the superintendent of having to spend time worrying about bus schedules, school lunches and all the other management issues that don't directly relate to improving students' academic performance.

So far, the district's COOs haven't brought the significant improvements in efficiency that have been needed, at least partly because the school board hasn't sought out the ideal candidate for the job.

Board members should correct that mistake this time by turning to central Ohio's business leaders to help with the choice.

The city's best business managers could start by writing a proper job description. Then, they could help identify candidates with track records of reducing expenses and improving productivity.

The Central Ohio Transit Authority is reaping the benefits of an outsider executive.

William Lhota had a sterling, 37- year career with American Electric Power but knew little of the transit business before 2004, when he stepped in to take the reins of the foundering COTA. Since then, his commitment to sound business and ethical practices has guided a steady turnaround at the agency.

The school district desperately needs the credibility of a business manager with sound credentials. Poor forecasting of insurance costs and of how many students would leave the district for charter schools have contributed to gaping budget deficits that require disruptive cuts year after year.

A business-driven selection committee could increase the district's chances of meaningful change by specifying that the next COO should not come from any school's administrative ranks but should be someone who has helped lead another enterprise to greater productivity and efficiency.

Superintendent Gene Harris has a long and distinguished career in Columbus Public Schools, improving the academic performance first in schools she led as a principal and now throughout the district as its chief executive.

But like many professional educators, she has had much less success taming the bureaucratic bloat that wastes taxpayers' money and saps resources that otherwise could be directed toward teaching.

She needs the help of a business professional to manage the day-to-day operations outside the classroom.

The school board is likely to put an operating levy on the 2008 ballot. Putting in place a chief operating officer with respected business credentials would help sell it.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

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