Transparency, salary key concerns at community meeting on next Montgomery School Board leader

When community members attended sessions about the next superintendent of Montgomery County schools, two themes recurred throughout the day: the community wanted transparency in the process of finding the next superintendent, and they wanted the next superintendent to become a member of the community.

The Alabama Association of School Boards is working as a consulting agency to find the candidates for the next superintendent, and they wanted to have community input into what qualities the next superintendent should possess.

Dr. James Wright, from the Alabama Association of School Boards, held a series of sessions geared toward different community groups to better understand what the community wanted.

“What we do in these sessions is that we provide an opportunity for you to come and to voice your opinion and share with us some of your concerns, some of your expectations for what the next superintendent will be dealing with in Montgomery County,” said Wright.

Community members at the meetings expressed skepticism that the desires of the community would be reflected in the search for the next superintendent.

Throughout the day, recurring themes of not trusting the school board to be transparent came up.

Wright emphasized the role of the Alabama Association of School Boards as an outside entity of the process.

The day held six sessions with the goal of targeting different groups: the public, principals and MPS administrators, public officials, MPS employees and the general public again at the end.

The morning general public session was the best attended session. The session geared towards MPS employees only had one attendee.

Wright had a list of six questions that he asked the attendees throughout the day:

• What will be the biggest challenges for the superintendent?

• What experiences should the next superintendent possess?

• What other skills should they possess?

• Should the next superintendent have a doctorate degree?

• Should the next superintendent have superintendent experience?

• What else should the board have in mind during their selection?

While other sessions recommended looking at a more holistic view of the next superintendent’s resume, the attendees of the MPS administrators and principals' session emphasized that the next superintendent should have a doctorate. Wright said that, in the past, he has been told that a doctorate does not matter until the Alabama School Board Association brings a group of five candidates with a mix of masters and doctorates, and the doctorates pull ahead.

Wright wondered aloud about the salary range decided by the school board and said he was not sure it would be enough to the session geared towards MPS administrators and principles. The salary range that was discussed by the Jan. 8 school board session was $195,000 to $225,000. At the same school board session, the board discussed the superintendent salaries of other large school districts in Alabama, with Jefferson County and Birmingham making more than $220,000 and more than $230,000, respectively. The superintendent of Baldwin County makes in excess of $240,000.

The timeline provided by Wright at the session has the next superintendent’s start date as June 1.

On Feb. 3, the Alabama Association of School Boards will deliver the results of their community engagement surveys to the Montgomery County School Board.

At the final general public session, the community voiced concerns about the schoolboard’s willingness to keep the public informed about the search for the superintendent.

Wright encouraged community engagement throughout the process and said the interviews for the next superintendent, which will take place between Mar. 28 and Apr. 5, will be public. He told the crowd that the board would keep them informed and said that the Alabama Association of School Boards encouraged the schoolboard to hold receptions with the public and superintendent candidates.

Wright also emphasized the importance that the community work to be spokespeople for Montgomery Public Schools.

Jeanne Charbonneau, from the organization F.A.M.E. (Friends of Arts Magnet Education) discussed her concerns over small windows to apply for magnet schools as an issue that the superintendent should be thinking about — especially in the context of families, such as on the military base, not moving to Montgomery because of schools.

Michelle Summers, who stated that child attended traditional schools in Montgomery, said that while she appreciated many of Charbonneau’s points, wanted to emphasize that all schools should be considered in the search for the next superintendent.

She highlighted that she wanted a superintendent who is aware of the racial demographics of the city and did not want to gloss over the problems with traditional schools in the district.

“I just want the people that we are hiring for these positions to realize that Montgomery is holy ground,” said Summers.

The superintendent position was posted Wednesday and will close Mar. 1.

Community members can continue to submit their feedback through Friday through the online survey by the Alabama Association of School Boards.

Jemma Stephenson is the children and education reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser. She can be reached at jstephenson@gannett.com or 334-261-1569.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Superintendent of Montgomery search allowed community to raise concerns