By Adam Kramer
For the third time in two years School Board 29 will try to find the right person to lead the embattled school district.
The board has submitted the names of people on the C-37 superintendent search committee to Schools Chancellor Harold Levy, and if he gives his blessing, the committee can start the process.
The district, which stretches from Bellerose to St. Albans and Queens Village to Rosedale and also covers Cambria Heights, Laurelton and parts of Jamaica and Fresh Meadows, has been without a leader since Celestine Miller was fired as superintendent in February 1999. District Administrator Michael Johnson has led the district with 28 schools and 27,000 students since early last year.
“We want to get the process started by the beginning of December,” said Nathaniel Washington, president of SB29. “My hope is it will take less than 45 days to get the first round finished and 10 names submitted.”
He said he would like to have a permanent superintendent in place by mid-February so that the district’s new leader will have six months of experience on the job before the new school year starts. Washington said the board has received about 50 applications for the job.
“We have no problem remaining objective,” he said. “Everyone will be judged on their past and present performance.”
Johnson is Levy’s choice to run the district. Levy has called him one of the stars in the school system.
Levy has said he would not turn down all candidates but would only approve those whom he considers better than Johnson. The chancellor has rejected all five of the candidates chosen by the district’s previous C-37 superintendent search committees.
“My hope is that we can get it together this time,” said Charles Woods, a parent representative from IS 192. “I am looking for no less than Johnson. If it is not broke, don’t fix it. Nobody in the district wants to go backwards.”
He said Johnson has held people accountable for educating the district’s students and has demanded higher performance from the students and more involvement from the parents.
“Someone has to come with more than Johnson,” Woods said. “They need to have a proven record, not qualifications based on a promise or hope.”
Ronnie Rogers, the parent representative from PS 195, would like the third time to be the charm.
“I hope at this point we can get past the political games we have been playing over the past few years and be allowed to choose the best qualified person,” she said. “We are capable of choosing the best person for the job.”
Rogers said if that happens to be Johnson, “no problem,” but she does not want Levy to dictate the educational direction the district must travel. She said the one thing that frightens her is that people who want Johnson are not going into the process with an open mind and are not willing to choose the most qualified person to lead the district.
The board is mandated by law to follow the C-37 process, which calls for it to advertise the position for 20 days. Then the C-37 committee has 45 days to choose 10 candidates, four or five of whom will be submitted to the board. The board then has 30 days to review the candidates before submitting the names to the chancellor, and then Levy has 30 days to approve or reject the nominees.
The school district has been in limbo since Miller was fired in February 1999 by then-Chancellor Rudy Crew for delaying to report that an 8-year-old boy had brought a loaded gun into a Rosedale school. Miller was recently indicted on bid-rigging charges involving computer sales to schools under her control.
After Miller left, District 29 had an acting interim superintendent, but Levy suspended the school board, which was reinstated after Johnson arrived on the scene.
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
