A day late, the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board will finally begin promoting a new leader for Louisiana's second-largest school district in a hastily called special meeting as locals begin the weekend. The necessary measures were taken to achieve this goal.
The move comes more than three months after former Superintendent Cito Narcisse accepted a voluntary buyout. The last-minute meeting was the 12th this week the board has hosted and the ninth related to the superintendent search.
Baton Rouge-based SSA Consultants beat out two other firms, one in Baton Rouge and one in New Orleans, to lead the search. SSA Consultants has worked with school systems on a variety of projects over the years, but not when it came to the superintendent search.
Adonica Duggan, CEO of the nonprofit Baton Rouge Student Alliance, admonishes the board for taking too long to hire search firms and urges board members to take action. did.
“We don't want this state of indecision to continue,” Duggan said.
SSA allows school systems to create and post official advertisements for vacant positions. State law requires public school districts to advertise vacant superintendent positions in the Federal Register (in this case, The Advocate) for at least 30 days before filling the position.
School officials hope to place an ad in Wednesday's Advocate. If the ad is posted that day, the deadline for applications for superintendent candidates would be June 9, and the board would have until June 15 to review applications. The goal is to select a new superintendent by the end of June.
The next leader of the East Baton Rouge Parish School District, which serves more than 40,000 students, will face a number of challenges.
Academically, the school system, which fell behind during the pandemic, has made some recovery, but its growth has been slower than the state as a whole, and two middle schools are at risk of state takeover.
Financially, the school system is in good shape at the moment thanks to a strong local economy and tens of millions of dollars in coronavirus relief funds. But these coronavirus funds expire this summer. And on top of the still-unresolved school transportation crisis that started this school year, the district's ongoing efforts to significantly raise salaries across the board for the district's approximately 6,000 employees to keep pace with the job market. It is continuing.
Friday's meeting was not a full board meeting, and a five-member ad hoc committee was formed to focus on the superintendent search. Board members Mark Bellew, Patrick Martin V. and Carla Powell-Lewis voted in favor of SSA Consultants' proposal, while board member Shashonie Steward voted against it. Director Emily Soule was absent.
SSA's revised proposal is $32,500, $11,000 less than the original proposal. SSA's proposed amendments specify that the cost of additional services, such as background checks and travel expenses, associated with interviewing final candidates has not yet been determined.
Other companies handed over are W Consulting Group in Baton Rouge and K. Allen Consulting in New Orleans. His CEO and president of the former is Tara Wicker, who served on the Metro Council for 12 years. The latter's founder and CEO is Crystal Hardy Allen, an elementary school teacher who later became an education consultant.
Steward noted that K. Allen Consulting is the only firm of the three that specializes in public education, with many school clients including New Orleans Public Schools.
But Martin said SSA was better suited to take on the job, given the short time and the company's familiarity with the school system. Although SSA is not specialized in education, we have worked with many prominent local agencies, including recruiting top leaders for BREC and the Baton Rouge Regional Chamber.
“They are employed by many public agencies, not only in this state but in this city,” Martin said.
Bellue echoed Martin's words.
“We're not leaving ourselves a big window,” Bellu said. “This is an important mission and there is not much room for error.”
The board made other important search-related decisions this week.
One was to have a search firm apply electronically, rather than requiring applicants to mail a printed application to a post office box in the United States. The PO Box approach was rejected as it could hinder last minute applicants. By hiring a search firm to process electronic applicants, similar to post office boxes, the board can delay the release of applications until the deadline has passed.
Another notable decision was to clearly state in job advertisements that “5 years of teaching experience preferred.'' Board President Powell Lewis, himself a veteran teacher, pushed for the addition of that language.
When the board hired Narcisse over Smith in 2021, his years of teaching experience were a big issue. Narcisse had only three years of classroom experience. In some states, this is enough to qualify as a superintendent, but in Louisiana at the time it was not. To get around this obstacle, Narcisse hired a chief academic officer with superintendent qualifications. In late 2021, Louisiana lowered the minimum number of years in the classroom for superintendents from five to three years.
Following Mr. Narcisse's departure, the board intentionally delayed the formal start of the search for his replacement until May. The plan was to first develop strategic goals along with a new vision for the school system that could be presented to future superintendent candidates. But that timeline has shifted. Therefore, setting priorities coincides with the search for a new supervisor.
Much of the delay came after the board in early March put on hold a $35,000 proposal from a Baton Rouge consulting firm to organize a public outreach effort to help set priorities. The debate pitted board members who wanted a quick response and colleagues who worried that a hasty search process would undermine public trust.
Cognia plans to complete a report on its findings for the board of directors by May 17th. The board plans to use the survey results to decide on top priorities as early as its regular meeting on May 23rd.