Superintendent search gets more opposition
A third Pittsburgh Public Schools board member stopped participating in the superintendent search, saying Sunday the finalists are not qualified and the process is flawed and should be started again.
However, the first board member to withdraw from the process, Alex Matthews, said the reason he dropped out -- a conflict of interest between one of the candidates and a search committee member -- no longer exists, so he again is part of the search.
"It's always a problem when you don't have the board unified," said board vice president Randall Taylor, who did not wish to participate when the four finalists were interviewed yesterday. He said he does not believe any of the four, whom he did not help select because his brother was a semifinalist for the position, have experience leading a large, urban district and, therefore, are not qualified to run Pittsburgh's schools.
The finalists are: Gerald Dawkins, superintendent at Saginaw, Mich.; William Harner, a former superintendent in Greenville, S.C., who now is a middle school principal in Gainesville, Ga.; Christine Johns, a deputy superintendent with Baltimore County public schools; and Mark Roosevelt, former director of a Massachusetts education group and former legislator in that state.
"I think all four candidates are qualified," said board member Jean Fink.
When the board votes on the next superintendent, Taylor said he will propose that Interim Superintendent Andy King's term be extended.
He and a majority of board members were upset that the search committee, comprised of two former superintendents, did not include King among the 10 semifinalists for the position. Taylor's brother, Bernard Taylor, superintendent of Kansas City, Mo., schools, was among the semifinalists but was not chosen as a finalist. Randall Taylor said his opposition to the selected candidates is not "sour grapes."
He said he had suggested an advisory committee be appointed to watch over the search process before it began.
Board members Alex Matthews and Mark Brentley Sr. dropped out of the process June 24 in response to a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article about connections between Bernard Taylor and search committee member Richard Wallace Jr., who has been a paid consultant to Taylor's district for four years. Brentley said that tainted the search process, while Matthews said it at least appeared to do so.
Brentley said he unsuccessfully urged the board Friday to start the process again. "Not too much changed for me. I'd love to participate, wanted to participate, but you can't continue to smear over this like nothing happened," he said. He did not attend yesterday's interviews.
