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Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > June > 09 > Entry
Is a national search worth the cost for Dayton?
Kay Royster and Greg Thornton
A couple years ago, I read a fascinating book called Good to Great, a study of companies that made extraordinary growth and emerged as worldwide leaders in their industries.
It’s an interesting book on many fronts. The routes to success these companies took were sometimes unorthodox and counterintuitive. One chapter discusses the position of CEO. Here’s what author Jim Collins and his team of Stanford University researchers found — the companies they studied were often run by people who were promoted internally from jobs like chief operating officer or finance manager and often had long tenures with the company.
They were not usually hot shots hired away from other companies (in fact, there was some evidence in the book that those sorts of CEOs had a negative effect on company performance).
Not long after I read the book, I heard Dayton Deputy Superintendent Debra Brathwaite mention it during a presentation to the school board. I asked her about it afterward and she raved about the book, saying she had given a copy to Superintendent Percy Mack.
Coincidentally, Brathwaite now stand in the position of candidate for the school district equivalent of CEO as an internal candidate with a COO-type job. So perhaps it is no surprise that she is somewhat irked that the school board wants to conduct a national search for Mack’s replacement.
But getting beyond the personalities and the politics there are bigger questions here. Among them:
—Can Dayton afford a superintendent search?
—More importantly, can the district afford a national candidate for superintendent?
—Can the board expect a better candidate from a national search?
Dayton has had some success using consultants to search for talent. Mack, in fact, was brought in as deputy superintendent by a consultant, as was Brathwaite. But there have been less successful consultant-led searches, too, like the one that nearly put a convicted criminal in the deputy superintendent’s chair.
But let’s go back to the last national search Dayton conducted for a superintendent. This was in 2000. Back then the district brought in a well-known national firm called Hazard, Young and Attea out of Chicago, which proceeded to persuade the board to violate Ohio’s open records law, among other missteps.
While ignoring potentially good candidates, esepcially local ones, the firm trotted out two finalists for Dayton — Kay Royster, then superintendent in Kalamzoo, Mich., and Greg Thornton then an assistant superintendent in Winston Salem, N.C.
The lack of a local candidate outraged Daytonians, turning the next board meeting into a circus as speakers lined up to rip the board until it finally relented and promoted interim superintendent Jerrie Bascome McGill.
But whatever happened to those other candidates the consultant brought in?
We reported at the time that the Kalamazoo board was desperate to get rid of Royster after her relationship with the community soured. She eventually landed in Peoria, Ill., where she made more enemies and was again forced out. Now it looks like she has just lost her job again, this time in Missouri.
Thornton has had more success, but not as a superintendent. He struck out not long after Dayton for a superintendent job in Connecticut. I can’t find the story, but at the time a newspaper reported Thornton’s strange behavior at an interview led the board to question his honesty and they ultimately picked someone else. Still, he went on to success as an administrator in Maryland and now has ascended to chief academic officer in Philadelphia. In fact, last year he was a finalist for superintendent in Seattle.
Now imagine one of those two had gotten the job here. How would that have turned out?
I’ve been told Royster had the inside track during Dayton’s 2000 search. Based on her troubled history in Michigan, Illinois and Missouri, it’s hard to see how she would have been a success here. Dayton was the fifth or sixth district to make Royster a finalist but none picked her after researching her work in Kalamazoo. However, I was told she put on an impressive show during interviews when talking about how to raise test scores.
Thornton might have been a different story. He is not much different from Mack — a southern administrator who had never been a superintendent before. Like Mack, he was mild mannered and hard working. But his resume today suggest something else — the Philadelphia native likely was not looking to settle down here and has often had his eye on the next opportunity.
And then there is the matter of cost. The 2000 search run by Hazard, Young & Attea cost Dayton about $30,000 plus the expense of flying the candidates in to interview. Today, I think a national search firm could cost as much as $50,000. Consider Memphis, where the recent superintendent search run by Ray and Associates cost $42,000 and yielded a field with James Williams in it. Not much return on investment there.
After funding the search, the next problem for the Dayton school board is paying the new superintendent. The attributes the board is looking for — a good leader with a proven track record of success in urban school reform — are rare. Getting a sitting superintendent with that resume would likely cost more than the $140,000 the board was paying Percy Mack.
Mack, in fact, is a good case in point. He went to Columbia, S.C., where the school district is slightly larger but the cost of living also is only slightly higher than Dayton. Mack’s new contract will pay him $195,000 annually.
I don’t know if Dayton, in the midst of a financial crisis, can justify to the public spending almost $200,000 for a superintendent and maybe as much as $50,000 to conduct a search.
The board could perhaps get cheaper candidates by asking its search consultant to aim for someone with a resume like Mack and Thornton had in 2000 — up and comers with potential and track records of success in a responsible supporting roles who are shooting for their first superintendent jobs.
Wait, that sounds a lot like Debra Brathwaite …
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
Comments
By Diane
June 21, 2008 3:49 PM | Link to this
I think Dayton public could just go down the road to Middletown and interview Dr.Steve Price. Middletown City Schools would miss his leadership but he has really done things to Middletown City Schools that has the town talking. He would be a WONDERFUL asset to DPS. His interest in equity and closing the achievement gap is unprecedented. His goal to have Middletown City Schools the first excellent urban district is progressing. Hey Dayton, check him out. He is just what you are looking for!By Avoice
June 12, 2008 8:32 PM | Link to this
Well put Dayton Teacher. Too bad very few people will listen. The system of checks and balances at DPS does not exist. It has been a bamboozelfest for far too long.By Oldprof
June 12, 2008 6:17 PM | Link to this
Dayton Teacher wants a super “who owes nothing to anyone at DPS. Someone who will clean house at the TOP where it needs it. Someone who doesn�t give a damn about the political fallout, because they are here to do a job, not form a coalition to take them to the next level. We need a person who is bright, innovative, sincere, committed, independent, and a leader by example.” GOOD LUCK finding such an individual, especially since the superintendent serves at the pleasure of the Board of Education, an institution that by nature attracts those who think it’s an entry-level spot for higher elected office.By Dayton teacher
June 12, 2008 12:55 AM | Link to this
Scott, I find it a bit ironic that single out for mention the Good to Great Book. THREE YEARS AGO, the same book was the subject of a faculty book study in several DPS schools! It would not surprise me in the least had Brathwaite been campaigning for the “promote from within” idea even then. Somehow, DPS manages to attract a motley group of manipulative, self-serving board & administration members. DO NOT, DO NOT ACCEPT D. BRATHWAITE AS SUPT. Let her go…… We need someone who owes nothing to anyone at DPS. Someone who will clean house at the TOP where it needs it. Someone who doesn’t give a damn about the political fallout, because they are here to do a job, not form a coalition to take them to the next level. We need a person who is bright, innovative, sincere, committed, independent, and a leader by example. Someone who will view DPS teachers, kids, staff, parents & taxpayers as valuable assets and allies,not as stooges, enemies, pawns, or servants. D. Brathwaite does not and will never have the respect or cooperation of the majority of teachers at DPS. She has proven in the years she has been here that she has her own agenda. My views about Jane Rafal are mixed. She has towed the Mack Line and thus I am not wowed by her. At least she has not used DPS as her steppping stone and guinea pig as Brathwaite did with the Boys and Girls Academies. On her own, with the power of the superintendency, Rafal might have the moxie to do what needs to be done. I am skeptical.By J
June 10, 2008 10:50 AM | Link to this
I agree with Old Prof - a do-it-yourself posting may be Dayton’s best bet. How in depth a search do you truly believe any consulting firm will do who isn’t truly invested in the Dayton system or area? They are going to do as little work as possible and try to get the most money out of the system as they can.By Oldprof
June 10, 2008 9:53 AM | Link to this
I’d prefer to have a do-it-yourself search. Just put a couple of ads in “Education Week”, let the resumes come in, have HR screen the applicants, and then put together a short list of candidates. Note: this presumes that the current board has sufficient savvy to make a decision (and how sad for all of us if we elected people who don’t—this is supposed to be their JOB). I’d bet that the district would end up with candidates who were just as capable as the $30K headhunters would deliver. (Note: as for grooming executives from within—nothing wrong with promoting in-house, but there’s an established standard in public education that open positions in faculty and administration are filled competitively.)By plaintalker
June 10, 2008 8:54 AM | Link to this
Dayton definitely needs to look outside the district for its next super. The culture of DPS is more about promoting ineffective leaders than developing/mentoring leaders to move up in the ranks. Once test scores for this year come out (I believe everyone is jumping ship because they know the district will go back into academic emergency) the current administration will not be able to say they’ve made improvements. I don’t really think you can blame this too much on Mack (other than he put too much faith in those working for him) as he is more of a PR/community liason. Ms. Brathwaite is the Chief ACADEMIC officer so ultimitely she is in charge of overseeing academic growth. If the district does fall back she is responsible.By Mary
June 9, 2008 9:56 PM | Link to this
Growing candidates within the company is not by accident, but leadership in itself. Why are superintendents retired then rehired in so many districts? They should have been grooming their potential replacements. I guess hiring from outside is sometimes an attempt to break up the status quo and cliques. However, the consulting firms searching for candidates sound a little like snake oil salesmen.By charterschoolhater
June 9, 2008 3:58 PM | Link to this
I would encourage anyone to take a look at a local company Procter and Gamble and the backgrounds of their executive staff. P&G is one of the most successful companies in the world. Without exception nearly all of their executives started with P&G out of college or grad school and grew with the company. There is a lot to be said to being successful by promoting from within. In the case of Dayton, where the corporate culture culture has been one of really poor performance, we really need to go outside the district, though. The executive staff here has been part of that poor performance though. A house cleaning is really what we need. Fresh faces and fresh ideas. And please do not get us anymore people who think that neighborhood schools will make better educated kids. But whoever said Dayton has or will ever en have neighborhood schools.