‘Back-room deal’: Rush to fill Miami-Dade superintendent’s job angers constituents
The effort to find the next superintendent of Miami-Dade Public Schools has been underway for about one week, but the process already has sparked rumors that the board has a top candidate in mind and has prompted sharp criticism about the district’s tight timeline.
T. Willard Fair, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Miami, for one, raised an issue of lack of transparency and the board’s decision to forgo a robust national search. (Vice Chair Steve Gallon III argued against a national search because there’s enough talent within the district, he said at a recent School Board meeting.)
“We can’t have a national search because it takes too long?” Fair asked. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho was successful, in part, because of his “first-rate backup team”; someone in his cabinet should be qualified to take over for a few months, he argued.
The board’s plan is the “greatest miscarriage of responsibility I’ve seen in a long time,” Fair told the Herald.
The School Board on Wednesday agreed it would advertise and accept applications for the role of superintendent for just seven days and would aim to fill the position before Carvalho’s final day, Feb. 3. The board can, however, extend or reopen the application window if members fail to agree on a candidate.
Candidates have until 5 p.m. Wednesday to submit their applications.
School board searches typically take months
Two other Florida school districts — Lee and Broward counties — are also searching for a new superintendent, according to the Florida School Boards Association, which represents school boards across the state.
In Lee County, an interim superintendent was appointed in June after the former superintendent retired in May, according to the Fort Myers News-Press. In October, more than three months later, the board finalized the job description. Candidates had until mid-December to submit their applications.
A similar scenario played out in the Broward County school district. The Broward School Board hired Vickie Cartwright as interim superintendent in July to replace Robert Runcie, who stepped down last year after being indicted and charged with lying to a statewide grand jury. (Runcie has pleaded not guilty.)
While the School Board in October could have named her as the permanent leader, it declined to do so because the process felt rushed. Moreover, board members at the time said they wanted to ensure community input.
And in Los Angeles, where Carvalho is expected to officially take over in March, the school district began its search in June, approving a three-part timeline that included a community engagement plan, multiple opportunities for stakeholders to provide input and a recruitment period.
Carvalho, 57, announced in December he was leaving Miami to head the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest district. Miami-Dade is the fourth-largest district in the country and the largest in Florida. He is the district’s second-longest serving superintendent, named to the post in 2008. He started his career as a 25-year-old science teacher at Miami Jackson High in 1990.
When it comes to replacing an organization’s leader, whether in education or a big corporation, it’s typical to appoint an interim leader, opposed to rushing to hire a replacement, said Christopher Gentile, managing partner at Cognizeo, an education tech consulting firm, and a pioneer in e-learning. And that’s especially true of someone like Carvalho, who’s been a steady guide in the district for more than a decade.
“Any good leader will leave a void, but if [Carvalho] has done a good job, there’s a group of individuals who can steer the ship, and those people should be put in place,” said Gentile, a former teacher at Miami Jackson Senior High. If the board rushes the process, it could make a mistake and end up like other districts who cycle through leaders, he added.
“A window this short sounds like a back-room deal,” he said. “It just doesn’t look good.”
Community members upset over timeline, lack of engagement
Since Wednesday, constituents from across the district have been voicing their opposition to the quick timeline.
Russ Rywell, a district teacher and former District 3 School Board candidate, in an op-ed published in the Herald Tuesday called the process “madness.” He also pointed to the district’s ongoing struggle to fill teacher vacancies.
“We are still trying to find qualified teachers five months into the school year,” he wrote, “but a seven-day search is good enough to find the next superintendent of the nation’s fourth-largest school district?”
Others, such as Fair, of Urban League, said the “whole process is convoluted,” including the qualifications the board agreed to in the job description.
The next superintendent, the board determined, should have experience as a classroom teacher, principal and administrator, a master’s degree, although a doctorate is preferred, and an understanding of the district’s diverse community.
“They blocked out candidates who should be considered,” Fair said. “There are issues that need to be addressed moving forward [and] just because [you’ve been] a principal or school teacher doesn’t qualify you to answer those questions unless we have a conversation about it.” Carvalho himself wouldn’t have qualified for the role under the new parameters.
But that’s not how Karla Hernandez-Mats, United Teachers of Dade president, sees it.
Requiring an educator background automatically eliminates many interested, yet unqualified candidates, particularly politicians, she said. When Carvalho announced he was leaving, the union published a survey for its members and community stakeholders to gauge what they wanted in a new leader, she said.
“We know they didn’t want a politician, but an educator,” she said. In that regard, “the board listened and acted correctly. I’m comfortable with [the timeline] because I know it will be an educator and someone who has experience in Miami-Dade Schools.”
Still, Fair said there’s much more that goes into the role than simply educating.
“It’s obvious they have someone already,” Fair said.
This story was originally published January 11, 2022 at 4:46 PM.
