Soon voters will decide: Do Escambia County students and staff keep moving forward or do we take a giant step backward to an elected school superintendent versus the current appointed superintendent model.
Politics do not belong in the school district. Changing to an elected superintendent will create a political mess. When the referendum to move to an appointed superintendent was passed, the first calls I received were from school district employees. They shared how relieved they were that they would not be pressured into campaigning for the superintendent and worry about the politics in the school district.
It’s common sense. The school district has thousands of employees, thousands of students, and a budget in hundreds of millions of dollars. All indications are, that with declining enrollment and financial pressure, school leadership will require an experienced person. Would you prefer this choice be one in which the search is limited to a current resident of Escambia County whose only requirements are that they be over 21 and not a convicted felon, or it is better to be able to consider experienced people from the entire country, including Escambia County.
This does not mean a current resident cannot be selected. The current appointed superintendent was a county resident long before he was appointed superintendent. What it does mean is that the school board is able to keep the option to enlarge the candidate pool.
I want to commend the two school board members who voted to keep the current system intact. To the school board members who want to go backward, it is sad situation. The main job of the school board is to select the top leader. If we go to an elected superintendent, it makes sense to change the name from school board to an advisory committee.
Since the selection option went into place the school district has made excellent progress. For the first time in Escambia County, our school district earned an A this school year from the Florida Department of Education. Escambia County schools earned 19 “A” grades, 16 “B” grades and 18 “C” grades.
No ECPS schools earned a grade of D or F.
This also marks a third year of increases in the number of A and B schools in the district—years under which our district had an appointed superintendent. The results speak volumes.
Thank you to the teachers and all the staff for the progress.
Let us not go backward.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: To continue progress, we must keep appointed school superintendent | Opinion
Reporting by Quint Studer, Guest columnist / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Quint Studer, Guest columnist | USA TODAY Network
