Seattle School Board to Offer Superintendent Job to S.C.’s Goodloe-Johnson
By Alex Fryer, Seattle Times
Apr. 12–The Seattle School Board today voted to offer the superintendent’s job to Maria Goodloe-Johnson, a longtime educator who currently leads the Charleston County School District in South Carolina.
Goodloe-Johnson, 49, would replace outgoing Superintendent Raj Manhas, who is scheduled to leave in August.
The School Board voted 6-0 (member Brita Butler-Wall was absent) to proceed with contract negotiations.
Today’s announcement capped a week of interviews and community meetings with the two superintendent finalists, Goodloe-Johnson and Gregory Thornton, chief academic officer at the School District of Philadelphia.
Discussing her leadership approach at a community forum last week, Goodloe-Johnson said a superintendent must share information with the elected board and follow its policy and budget decisions.
“We have to work collaboratively as a team,” she said.
The Seattle School Board had said it wanted the next superintendent to have a background in education, something the pastlast three superintendents in the 46,000-student district have not had.
The board also had agreed to offer a salary of up to $240,000 for the next superintendent; Manhas makes about $178,000 annually.
Seattle School Board President Cheryl Chow and member Michael DeBell traveled to Charleston and Philadelphia this week to interview people who knew the candidates.
Goodloe-Johnson has run the 43,000-student Charleston district since 2003 and is known for her sometimes controversial efforts to turn around failing schools. She is installing a districtwide curriculum and has implemented thrice-yearly student testing to gauge principals’ progress.
Her turn-around record is mixed: A quarter of Charleston County School District’s 80 schools were recently commended for closing the “achievement gap” between black and white students, but another quarter are still deemed failing, partly because the standards for assessing schools keep changing.
She would be the second female superintendent in the Seattle district’s history; Julia Kennedy, served from 1887 to 1890.
On Wednesday, Philadelphia schools chief Paul Vallas said he was resigning after five years, leading to a leadership shuffle in the nation’s eighth largest school district. Thornton’s role in Philadelphia’s future is uncertain.
Despite naming Goodloe-Johnson as a finalist last week, the board apparently had prepared to present Thornton and an educator from Topeka, Kan., as the top two choices. A Seattle School District spokeswoman said W.L. Sawyer, superintendent of Topeka Public Schools, was inadvertently mentioned in a press release before he withdrew from consideration.
Alex Fryer: 206-464-8124 or afryer@seattletimes.com
Maria Goodloe-Johnson
ONE OF TWO FINALISTS FOR SEATTLE SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT, Goodloe-Johnson is superintendent of the Charleston County (S.C.) School District
Age: 49
Education: Bachelor’s degree in special education, University of Lincoln (Neb.); master’s degree in “educationally handicapped K-12,” University of Northern Colorado; doctorate in educational administration, University of Colorado, Denver
Experience: Charleston County superintendent, 2003 to present; assistant superintendent for instruction and school services, Corpus Christi (Texas) Independent School District, 1999-2003; director of secondary instruction, 1994-99, and high-school principal, 1988-1994, St. Vrain School District, Longmont, Colo.; special-education teacher.
Family: Married, one daughter.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Seattle Times
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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