Educator Has Hiring Advice / Head of State Board
By OLYMPIA MEOLA
The Richmond and Henrico County school boards, hiring their next superintendents, should require performance-based contracts. Then board members should sign it themselves.
"The superintendent shouldn’t be responsible for one thing and the board not responsible," said Mark E. Emblidge, president of the state Board of Education and a former Richmond School Board member, who dispensed advice yesterday on what the school systems should seek in new leaders.
Emblidge talked about what he would look for in a new superintendent during a wide-ranging interview in the office of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Deborah Jewell-Sherman, Richmond’s school superintendent, leaves in July. Henrico’s superintendent, Fred Morton IV, has said he will retire in 2009.
Emblidge said he wrote the performance-based contract to which Jewell-Sherman was hired, and he still believes that’s the best approach. The school boards also deserves performance scrutiny, he said.
"I think the board needs to be clear what the top priorities are, and I have seen boards over the years, depending on what constituents call, nickel-and-diming the superintendent throughout the year. It takes their focus off of the main issues."
Yesterday, the Henrico School Board began the first of several work sessions to determine the duties, responsibilities and qualifications of the superintendent – for the last year of Morton’s term and for the future superintendent.
Richmond School Board Chairman George P. Braxton II, who is not running for re-election, said the board has not yet discussed what form the next superintendent’s contract will take.
"I think there are some huge positives there," he said, referring to Emblidge’s suggestion. "Any superintendent would want to walk into a position having an understanding and a series of expectations when it comes to a school board.
"The reality of elected school boards means you’re going to have people who are more activist and more political in nature, and if that is your nature, you’re not always willing to sing with the chorus because you’ll never be heard."
Ideal superintendents would understand instruction above all, Emblidge said.
"You can’t have someone coming in this day and time who is just a business person who can keep the buses running on time and toilet paper in the bathrooms," he said. "You have to have somebody who has got tremendous energy. This is one of the toughest jobs in America."
The new person should also be willing to build on the successes of the former superintendent, he said.
"I’ve seen too many superintendents who come into a school division, pull the tree up by the roots to see why its growing, kill the tree in the process, and you start from scratch."
And the superintendent has to work well with the board.
"I have seen more superintendents fail and leave prematurely because … and all it takes it one – one board member – to suck the life out them," he said.
Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or omeola@timesdispatch.com.
Staff writer Lisa Crutchfield contributed to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO
MEMO: NEWSMAKERS Mark E. Emblidge
Originally published by Times-Dispatch Staff Writer.
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