Openness won’t chase away talent

As a famous suburban Chicago high school student mused, 'Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

So true. Same goes for superintendent searches.

If all goes according to plan, Cedar Rapids schools will name a new superintendent by early spring. In just a couple of weeks, the district will hold a pair of public forums and a series of stakeholder group meetings to find out what the community would like to see in the next superintendent.

In February, the district's search firm, Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, will compile all that feedback into a report for the board. By early March, three to five candidates recruited by the firm will be interviewed. Second interviews will come a week to 10 days later.

Soon after that, barring problems, the state's second-largest school district gets a new leader some board members hope will stay for 10 years. Exhale.

There's a lot of welcome talk about making this a transparent process. The public forums and stakeholder groups are great. I can think of few more worthwhile conversations than taking stock of what sort of leadership a public school district needs in 2015.

But after that, things get cloudy. Bill Attea, a former superintendent who is lead consultant on Cedar Rapids' search, advocates for a confidential process. In other words, after the community is asked what it wants, the next news it hears from the search process is a hiring announcement. Everything in between, interviews, the names of finalists, etc., is a secret.

'We do recommend that it be a confidential search,” Attea told the board, arguing that top administrative talent will not be interested in applying if they believe their names will be publicly disclosed.

'Confidentiality is the item of highest priority to candidates who are highly successful and well regarded in their current positions,” Attea wrote in a 2010 piece for 'The School Administrator” magazine. He argues open searches expose superintendents to 'potshots” back home.

But in the end, the school board, not Attea, runs the show. President Mary Meisterling says once the board settles on a top candidate, she favors presenting that candidate at a public forum. That's a swell idea, although I'd rather see multiple finalists face some measure of public scrutiny. By the time there's a top candidate, the process is pretty much over.

And does openness really chase away talent? Tom Jacobson, co-founder of Omaha-based McPherson and Jacobson Executive Recruitment, says that's not his experience in 25 years of conducting searches in 32 states.

Jacobson's firm recommends the public disclosure of finalists.

'Our philosophy is, at a point in time, candidates need to step up and say, ‘Yes I am a finalist for this position and I'm proud to be a finalist,'” Jacobson said. 'It's not inhibited our ability to recruit top candidates at all.”

Potshots can get nasty, I know. But this is a public school district, and its superintendent is paid with taxes. I hope board members consider that when they're being strongly encouraged to close doors and keep secrets.

' Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegezette.com