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Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > June > 03
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Debra Brathwaite and the superintendent search
What’s going on with Debra Brathwaite?
That is the question I’ve been getting a lot since this story broke Saturday with Brathwaite saying she had refused an offer to become interim superintendent.
Brathwaite’s friends don’t understand why the board won’t simply make her superintendent. She’s been groomed for the job, they say, and now that the job is open why not give it to her? Her critics believe she is placing unreasonable demands by trying to force the board’s hand to pick her now rather than conduct the wider search board members want.
Who’s right? That’s a tricky question. How has it come to this? That’s one I will take a crack at. The answer comes down to a simple truism — things change.
I remember the first time I met Percy Mack. He was introduced at a school board meeting as Jerrie Bascome McGill’s deputy superintendent after a troubled search that lasted more than a year and had a couple of false starts. A high level school official tapped me on the shoulder soon after that night and said “Keep an eye on Percy Mack. He looks like our next superintendent to me.”
The Gail Littlejohn-run Kids First team, which took control of the school board in 2001, took an immediate liking to Mack. It was also clear from the beginning that McGill’s days were numbered. With a pretty big nudge from the board, McGill decided to retire less than a year after the 2001 sea-change election and very quickly Mack was introduced as her replacement.
Take note that there was no search at all.
Mack had taught the district the value of having a strong No. 2 — someone who could be depended on to get things done and who could step up and take over if needed. So the district went searching for the next Percy Mack and found Debra Brathwaite.
Brathwaite was well regarded when she arrived. At the time her mentor, Cleveland Superintendent Barbara Byrd Bennett, was something of a hot shot among big city superintendents. It seemed very clear that Brathwaite was brought in with the idea that she could potentially be developed as a future superintendent much as Mack had been.
And, in fact, Brathwaite worked hard to make her case that she was superintendent material. She began working toward a doctorate while managing the day-to-day academic operations of the district. Her work was noticed by several large districts — Akron and Toledo most prominently — which brought her in to interview for their open superintendent jobs.
So what happened? If the board hired her with the idea that she could potentially be groomed for superintendent, she had bolstered her resume for that role and the job is now open, why not just hire her?
Well, again, things change.
Littlejohn and the Kids First team are gone with the exception of school board President Yvonne Isaacs. Littlejohn resigned and moved to Houston. Last fall, two Kids First allied board members — Mario Gallin and Lee Massoud — were defeated. Six of the seven board members have joined the board since 2005.
The new board wants a chance to pick its own superintendent.
So you can see how both sides’ feelings can get bruised here. Brathwaite can fairly ask why she has not been promoted, since it was — at a minimum — hinted to her through the years that job would be hers if it ever came open. This board, on the other hand, never made those promises and even Brathwaite acknowledged when I spoke to her that the board has every right to conduct the search any way it wants.
Will a national search yield a better candidate? That’s hard to say. Maybe we should ask the folks in Memphis.
The last national search here was a fiasco. For a recap, go here. It is hard to get someone good in a consultant-run national search. Many of the names on those consultant lists are folks who are looking to make a quick mark and move on. The board has unanimously said they want someone who will care about the community.
But you never know. A consultant found Mack and the board was pleased with his work and his commitment to the community over six years.
If board members go forward with the search, where does that leave Brathwaite? Unless she reconsiders her position on being interim superintendent, it is hard to see how things wouldn’t be awkward for her.
Perhaps the board finds a retired local CEO to fill in during the search. Brathwaite would be reporting to that person. Or, even worse for her, the board could appoint someone who now works for her as her new boss. If the board goes one of those routes you’d have to expect Brathwaite’s job search to kick into overdrive.
That’s where things appear to be going, though, unless she or the board has a change of heart.
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