Berg Objects to Superintendent Search Process at BOE Meeting

Robert Berg, the incoming President of the Scarsdale Forum and a watchdog on school budgets, aired his concerns about the Superintendent search process at the Board of Education meeting on March 10. Specifically, his comment concerned the selection of community members for a committee to review candidates for the district's top job. He criticized the Board for delegating the selection of five members of the community to PT Council President Pam Rubin, rather than choosing the members themselves.

He turned heads at the Board meeting when he said that Rubin's selection of representatives would have been more appropriate for a search for a "district rabbi" than a superintendent, arguing that the candidates lacked a diversity of views, concerns or backgrounds. He said the group was all "cut from the same cloth" and that none represented "the views of many residents who seek greater fiscal rigor in the operation of the school district."

Here are excerpts from his comments at the meeting and the text from an email Board President Suzanne Seiden previously sent to Berg on the subject:

Discussing the search process at the meeting, Berg said, ".... We were supposed to have an announcement (from the Board) in February for the formation of a committee to review the superintendent candidates and meet the finalists before the decision was made since community buy-in is so critical. I would have expected some announcement in February that a committee was being formed and some solicitation of community members. I would have expected that the Board would have selected a committee that reflected the diverse make up of our community with residents from more than 50 nations, from many religions and ethnicities with disparate beliefs on what the role of public education should be and how it should be funded."

He continued, "Instead there was radio silence... I sent an email to Suzanne Seiden and when I did not receive a response I started digging around. I learned that a month ago you appointed Pam Rubin (PT Council President) to pick whomever she wanted for five slots on the committee; so no surprise she picked the usual suspects – herself, and her friends, Pam Fuehrer, Irene Sternberg, David Brodsky and Suzanne Glazer."

"Not to denigrate any of these long standing volunteers, but in light of the first school budget defeat in 43 years and the community's sensitivities and interest in the extraordinary opportunity to hire a superintendent, how could you have possibly abdicated your and the boards' responsibilities for selecting community member participants to Pam Rubin? What were you thinking? We are conducting a superintendent search – Pam's selection would have been more appropriate if we were searching for a district rabbi. Pam's selections, while all valued community members, are all cut from the same cloth. They have all been vocal supporters of past budgets and the administration's education philosophy and priorities. While 53% voted against the budget last year, I can assure you that Pam's selection were not among them. None of the committee members has been the parent of a special education child, none of the committee members represent the views of many residents who seek greater fiscal rigor in the operation of the school district, none of the members represents our large international community. The lack of the diversity of backgrounds and views is striking, yet you allowed it. It appears too late in the process to correct this, but it is very unfortunate that this very avoidable scenario now taints the community's limited input into the selection of the next superintendent. Nevertheless I trust and hope that the Board's selection will be an extraordinary superintendent and I look forward to the announcement of who that will be."

Berg's comments were met by a moment of complete silence at the meeting. Addressing Berg, Seiden said, "I really tried this year to ask for the community to have a respectful tone, but I think you crossed this line. Happy to hear your views, but when you personalize things about other people, that is not appropriate.

Here is the text of an email Seiden previously sent to Berg regarding the Superintendent search process:

Dear Mr. Berg,

Thank you for your email of March 5, 2014 and for your offer of help. You are correct in noting that we planned to interview candidates in the latter part of February with a goal of choosing our next superintendent in March. It is also true that we expressed anintent to involve community members in this process.

We have completed that portion of the process. Our search consultant strongly advised that we conduct the entire search in confidence in order to attract the largest and highest quality pool of applicants. The Board nonetheless insisted on at least limited community involvement. We agreed to have a small advisory group sign confidentiality agreements, meet the finalists and share feedback. This group of 13 people included teachers, principals, parents, other community members, and a high school student. Several district office administrators also had separate meetings.

Within the legal boundaries of confidentiality, the Board has conducted a very transparent superintendent search process and sought the community's input in the fall through focus groups and surveys. Our job specifications were developed directly from the responses to the focus groups and survey, and these specifications have framed the search. The advisory group's mandate was to offer the Board its collective perceptions of candidates' strengths and areas for growth relative to those specifications. We specifically did not want, nor did we receive, a recommendation or vote on what action we should take with regard to an appointment.

As you know, the Board is responsible for selecting the superintendent of schools. In fact, along with developing an annual budget to place before the public, this is one of our most significant responsibilities, and one we should not and cannot delegate. However, given our district's traditions and history, we wanted to obtain perspectives from the broader educational community before we made our decision.

Please know that we appreciate that you have shared your views with us. We have weighed them carefully in the context of the range of views we have heard throughout the search process.

Before the school year is over, there will be a number of opportunities for community members to meet our next superintendent. We hope you can attend one or more of these events and look forward to your engagement with our new superintendent. Please feel free to let me know if I can be of further help in this or any other regard.
Thank you.

Suzanne Seiden
President
Scarsdale Board of Education