Replacing Schools Chief A Challenge For City

February 17, 2006
By RACHEL GOTTLIEB, Courant Staff Writer

Back in November, on the eve of a charter change that would give the city's mayor increased power over the school system, state education officials made it clear that they were looking for "consistency and accountability."

Three months later, the city's mayor - who, because of that charter change, now doubles as school board chairman - is hustling to find a superintendent to take over for Robert Henry, whose resignation becomes effective in June.

State education officials are taking notice.

"We're monitoring this. We stand ready to assist them or help them in any we can as they move forward," state Education Commissioner Betty J. Sternberg said through her spokesman, Henry Garcia.

Mayor Eddie A. Perez is confident he will find a new superintendent by June 30.

But David Larson, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, is less optimistic. It will take months to hire a search consultant, identify finalists and interview them - at a cost of about $30,000, he said. Then, sitting superintendents generally give their own boards three months' notice before they leave, he said.

"I would be very surprised if they have somebody in place by next January," Larson said, unless the board promotes a candidate from within Hartford's school system.

Superintendents can be hard to find, Larson said, and 11 school districts in the state, in towns as diverse as Greenwich and South Windsor, are looking for superintendents. Most of those jobs are easier than Hartford's.

"Hartford school superintendency is one of the most difficult in Connecticut," Larson said. "Unless it's somebody coming up from the district, you need a veteran. This is not a district you cut your teeth on."

Perez said he and his board of primarily appointed members will create a vision and a set of expectations and look for a superintendent who can carry that out. Perez's priorities are to increase enrollment of city students in four-year colleges and increase the number of students attending preschool. Implicit in that is a priority to improve student achievement and lower the dropout rate.

Hartford also is carrying out the state's obligation to create new magnet schools each year to reduce the racial and economic isolation of the city's poor and minority students.

The pool of qualified superintendents around the nation is small, experts say. Still smaller is the number of leaders equipped to take on the complexities of large urban districts.

"There are distinctive features in urban environments that make it tough," said Steven Tozer, director of the urban education leadership program at the University of Illinois School of Education in Chicago. "Scale matters. The larger the scale, the more difficult it is to ensure quality leadership in each school. Leadership is key."

Hartford has six high schools, four middle schools, 27 elementary schools and two schools for grades 6 through 12 plus sundry academies for limited grades or learning disabilities and a large adult education program.

With so many components and constituencies, it takes considerable time for a superintendent to learn about the district and then create change.

"You cannot start new reform efforts every three to five years. Change takes time. You can't change a culture in 20 minutes," said Richard L. Schwab, dean of the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut.

Henry was named superintendent just over three years ago.

Perez is not alarmed by the prospect of losing a superintendent in three to five years. The key to a longer tenure, he said, is success. "Once the person's successful, they can stay as long as they want."