Discussed equity versus excellence and whether to soften community feedback
Following the collection of data from surveys and focus groups, the recruiting firm hired by Newton — Hazard, Young, and Attelier (HYA) — authored 1) a six-page Leadership Profile Report that condensed the survey and focus group into a summary of strengths and challenges for the school district, and 2) a one-page Desired Superintendent Characteristics to serve as a job description. These documents are intended to be shared with potential candidates and used as initial screens for applicants.
These draft documents were first shown to the appointed Search Committee on November 28 for its approval. Both the original draft documents with tracked changes, as well as the clean versions approved by the Search Committee (marked REVISED) were then sent to the elected School Committee on December 1 for further editing and approval. Search Committee Co-Chair and School Committee Chair Tamika Olszewski (Ward 4) began both meetings by requesting that committee members address substantive issues in the documents text, as opposed to “wordsmithing” their style. The discussions that followed indicated a wide spectrum of gray between those two notions.
The predominant debate in both meetings centered on the related issues of 1) whether the Leadership Profile Report and Desired Superintendent Characteristics should contain relatively unfiltered comments from the community surveys, and 2) how to accurately describe challenges the district is facing while not making documents that are meant to attract candidates sound too negative. An example of this debate was the School Committee striking the phrase “lowest common denominator” from the Leadership Profile that the Search Committee had approved a few days earlier. HYA had stated that multiple survey respondents and focus group participants specifically used that phrase when discussing their perception of reduced academic standards in NPS. School Committee member Paul Levy (Ward 6) summarized HYA’s Leadership Profile by saying: “They paint a picture of a divide between school administrators, on the one hand, and parents, on the other hand, about values and vision and overall direction for our schools.”
After discussion and revisions, the School Committee voted unanimously to approve the Desired Superintendent Characteristics document (not yet posted). Video of the December 1 School Committee is available for replay on NewTV. The November 28 Search Committee meeting was available for live public viewing and was recorded, but that recording is not yet available online.
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