Lee County schools superintendent candidates heading to Fort Myers ahead of possible vote

Three educators picked by Lee County School Board members this week as finalists in the search for a new schools superintendent head to Fort Myers this weekend to be studied and interviewed to see whether any of them are the best fit for the job.

Topping the list of contenders who advanced to what could be the final stage in selection of a new superintendent was Christopher Bernier, superintendent of schools in Clark County, Nevada, a county that includes Las Vegas.

The other finalists are Randy Mahlerwein, assistant superintendent in Mesa, Arizona, and Michael Ramirez, a former Broward County teacher and administrator who is deputy superintendent of schools in Denver.

The three finalists are being invited to come Sunday to Fort Myers for two days of interviews with individual board members and interactions with members of the community.

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Finalists were chosen using workshop-style meetings of the school board, and were formally advanced to the final selection round at Tuesday night's regular board meeting, which board members refer to as an "action meeting."

There was no public discussion of respective qualifications of the candidates.

Consideration of which candidates to move forward was handled at Tuesday night's "action meeting" as part of its "consent agenda" used to pass a variety of matters on which there is little, if any, debate in a single vote.

The final field of candidates was trimmed on Monday to three finalists from the five who had been on the semi-final list. Semi-finalists were selected in a process in which board members rated candidates.

The board and its attorney have not released documents on which individual board members scored the candidates and rated candidates against each other. The board has also not released the names of 40 or more candidates who applied for the position.

In picking the field of three finalists, board members ranked the five-man field through a process in which each member divided 10 points among the five candidates, using a scale of zero to four points.

The field of candidates originally included about 25 women, according to statements made by school board members. None of the women advanced to even the board's semi-final round, and none have been identified publicly.

The final candidates mirror the rankings made anonymously by board members on Jan. 4. In that process Bernier received 22 points, Mahlerwein received 14 points and Ramirez had 13 votes.

Lee school board members weigh in on superintendent finalists

At workshop-style meetings Monday and Tuesday, board members appeared satisfied that further consideration of the three finalists could result in one of the three getting the votes to win the job.

The school board has the option of rejecting the finalists and starting all over if a majority of its members do not believe any of the candidates is a good fit to be superintendent.

"Responses to most of the questions were fairly similar, everybody pretty much struck the same chord. There were some great ideas in there from candidates," board member Cathleen Morgan said during Tuesday afternoon's workshop meeting.

"I wasn't looking for an academic chief. I was looking for someone who could build a team, who could look for key leadership," Morgan said. "I was looking for someone who could pick a great team, manage a great team and be able to engage the community."

Board member Gwynetta Gittens said she heard from constituents after internet presentation of candidate interviews that they wanted a leader who would not back away from what needs to be done.

"My first thing is a strong leader that is able to make the hard decisions and stand by them and stand up to whomever and be able to stand by what they decided," Gittens said. "There were others that individuals said they really liked as individuals, they were really good but would be touchy-feel but did not have the ability to say, 'No, sorry guys.'"

The ability of candidates to handle budgets was a big issue for member Chris Patricca, who said that something "big" would need to happen for her not to think the school board can't find its new superintendent from among the finalists.

"I am looking for a leader as opposed to an education expert," Patricca said. "Budget expertise to me is really, really, really, really important, and I believe the person who can run this district is in this pool."

Individual meetings between candidates for top positions in local governments and each member of the governing boards have become standard in Lee County. Similar approaches have been used to find city managers in Cape Coral, Fort Myers and Estero.

The school board, its counsel and the search company it employed, Ray and Associates of Iowa, have not responded to requests from The News-Press for disclosure of the ballots of board members in narrowing the field.

Individual rankings of the finalists have not been revealed.

Two of three finalists have education backgrounds in Florida

Two of the three candidates who will participate in selection activities this weekend have backgrounds in school administration in Florida. Bernier and Ramirez each have experience in high ranking positions in large school districts in the state.

Bernier was associate superintendent of schools in Orange County after serving as director of professional development and as a high school principal in that district. He also spent a dozen years as a middle school teacher.

Ramirez moved to Florida with his family as a youth and had multiple teaching and administrative positions in Broward County before taking his position in Denver.

Mahlerwein has served in Arizona schools as an assistant superintendent since 2017 and began his career as a 7th- and 8th-grade math teacher in Phoenix.

A vote on a new superintendent could happen in the middle of next week.

The school board will be conducting interviews and getting a chance to see how the candidates interact with school staff and community members at meetings. The candidates were expected to come to Fort Myers to begin the final process on Sunday.

One was Jeff Perry, superintendent of schools in Hamblen County, Tennessee, who noted in his resume that he was the "primary spokesperson for the entire county," and the "public face for the school district." His total in that stage of the selection process was 11 points.

Also passed over was Michael Gaal, a former deputy chancellor of Washington, D.C., public schools and former chief of staff of the Oakland, California, school district. He more recently has worked in sales for a company that has developed a program intended to close the "literacy and opportunity gap" for students. Gall received 10 points.

Board members had the option of giving candidates zero points in categories used to rank them. Only Bernier and Mahlerwein did not receive a zero from any board member.

The selection of a superintendent comes as political campaigns for the school board election gear up. Two of four incumbents up for election this year have filed to run for another term. Incumbents Debbie Jordan, District 4, and Gittens, District 5 face opposition.

There are also large fields for the seats in District 1 and at-large District 6 where Mary Fisher and Betsy Vaughn have not filed for to run for reelection.

The primary election is Aug. 23 and the general election is Nov. 8

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Lee School District invites 3 superintendent finalists for interviews