The process began in earnest with the hiring of a national search firm in March, and the effort to identify a new superintendent for Denver Public Schools has been moving judiciously ever since.
Community members, parents and school staff last month painted for the talent scouts a picture of the type of person they’d like to see in the hot seat. They want a politically astute reformer who can manage the budget while inspiring disparate groups on behalf of educating Denver’s children. They want someone who sees diversity as a strength, and can communicate effectively with staff and parents. They want a leader who will build an internal esprit de corps.
Judging from this wish list, Denver’s next school superintendent will look an awful lot like the incumbent, Jerry Wartgow.
The search seems to be moving smoothly, and it seems likely that a replacement will have been hired before Wartgow steps down June 30. It has been a nationwide search, but the winner is likely to be from a handful of local candidates.
Wartgow’s possible replacements will start filing in for interviews with the school board beginning next Wednesday. Board president Les Woodward said the panel expects to interview five or six candidates next week and could whittle its list to two or three finalists by next Friday night or early Saturday morning.
The names of the candidates coming in next week are, by law, kept secret. But two names already have been floated publicly – Michael Bennet, Mayor John Hickenlooper’s chief of staff, and Christine Johnson, president of the Community College of Denver and a former Denver public school teacher and principal. They are said to be among those to be interviewed.
Bennet doesn’t have an educator’s resume, but he has strong supporters who admire his business pedigree and his Midas touch in politics. His father is president of Wesleyan University in Connecticut, the mayor’s alma mater. Johnson, the first Hispanic female college president in Colorado, comes from a more traditional education background. Her hiring would be a rallying point for some Latinos in a district where the graduation rate for Hispanics is dismal.
Once the finalists are named, they will be paraded through a very public process that will include visits to schools and quizzing by community members. It’s the right approach to take since DPS wants to press ahead with Wartgow’s ambitious reform agenda. To succeed, the next superintendent will need support from teachers and staff, but also the community. An open process can only help that by giving the next superintendent a sense of community buy-in.
