11/23/11: Searching for a superintendent – and answers

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

RICHARD BENTLEY couldn’t perform miracles in less than 16 months so the Norfolk School Board accepted his resignation. The board now finds itself looking for another superintendent in the middle of the school year.

Bentley came to Norfolk on the heels of a series of high-profile missteps by others. At the time of his hiring, School Board members gushed at his reputation for bringing people together. The community needed a healer, and Bentley vowed to “find ways to rebuild that trust.”

It seems that wasn’t really what board members wanted. What they wanted was someone who could quickly turn around the performance of the school system.

“We’re not saying the current condition of the Norfolk schools, or the scores … are Dr. Bentley’s fault,” current School Board chairman Kirk Houston was quoted as saying. “There’s a sense of urgency we have on the board for improving the scores.”

Was there not a sense of urgency at the time Bentley was hired? Or did it just come when 10 of the system’s schools missed full accreditation this fall?

The board also cited the lack of a clear vision as a reason for the separation.

In May, Bentley offered a vision for the schools, after inspecting all 45 and visiting 500 classrooms. He proposed several initiatives, some aimed at the too-high dropout rate. “We’re going to have to talk about what we do at middle school that makes kids go out the door,” he said at the time.

It took the board six months to say this vision wasn’t clear?

Or maybe it was just that the City Council, which appoints School Board members, took them and Bentley to task last month for lack of progress in accreditation. Houston says that wasn’t the case. The press release, though, cites the high number of schools not fully accredited.

One of the arguments in favor of an appointed school board is that it is free of political pressure, particularly partisan political pressure.

What that argument fails to recognize is that the pressure remains; it just comes from a smaller group. Rather than having to answer to Norfolk’s 118,000 registered voters, School Board members answer only to the eight members of the council.

A corollary to that political pressure argument is that appointed members can take the long view toward the school system. Looking at the long term does not mean ignoring short-term goals; rather, the review of short-term goals as compared to results is a way of measuring progress.

But focusing on the short term obscures the need for long-term change.

As Charles C. Noble said, “You must have long-term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures.” If the appointed Norfolk School Board cannot take a long-term view on our school system, it is time to replace it with an elected one that will.