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Shahrazad Ali filed into the auditorium of South Philadelphia High School, 2101 Broad St., last Thursday and took a seat several rows back from where School Reform Commission members sat.
As she listened to the committee members asking her what she was looking for in the new school district CEO, thoughts began brewing in her head.
When Dr. Charles Taylor of the Hollins Group — a Chicago-based recruiting firm brought in to assist in the hiring — finished explaining about the nationwide search his firm is conducting and opened the floor, Ali grasped the microphone firmly and asked, "Why do we keep trying to go to some other city to find someone when we have such an intense set of problems here?"
Others at the meeting — one of 11 held throughout the city beginning Sept. 18 — seemed to be thinking the same thing. The group of no more than 20 looked to Taylor for the answer as the resident of Seventh Street and Snyder Avenue who is raising a grandson in the second grade continued: "Why don’t we get somebody who’s been raised in Philadelphia, who knows the Philadelphia people, who knows the behavior? Why do they keep going to another city? When we got a governor, we didn’t go get one from somewhere in Idaho and say come run for Pennsylvania."
Taylor listened to Ali’s concerns and repeated her proposed qualifications back, committing to take them into consideration during the search.
Throughout the night, descriptions — communication skills, leadership, prepared, open-minded — came from the audience and echoed off the auditorium walls, but there was no definitive consensus. The group, some parents but all concerned citizens, seemed to agree on one thing:
"We need somebody that’s going to be a stand-up black man," Robert Gray’s voice boomed, followed by affirmative nods from the crowd, adding he believes this would best represent the school district community. "That’s what I’m talking about for the CEO. You can’t find a black man to run the school district?"
"I’m responsible for bringing candidates to you," Taylor responded to Gray, a West Philly resident who plans on attending meetings regardless of location because of his concern. "And I can guarantee you the slate of candidates will include black men."
The promise was met with approval, but the audience had other issues during the hour-long meeting concerning the search to replace former CEO Paul Vallas, who stepped down July 1.
The commission that governs the School District of Philadelphia was established in December 2001, when oversight of the district shifted to the Commonwealth. The governor appoints three of the members, while the mayor appoints two.
Vallas left the position he held for five years for the superintendent’s job in New Orleans amidst disputes with the commission over the district’s $73 million budget deficit that came in fall ’06.
Currently, Tom Brady is interim CEO. Commission member Jim Gallagher said Brady will be on the list of candidates. Brady served the same position in the Washington, D.C., and Fairfax, Va., school districts until March when he joined Philadelphia’s district as chief operating officer.
In the search for a new CEO, the commission simply wants a person who can run the district’s financial, operational and academic entities, Gallagher said. "And at the same time provide a sense of hope and optimism," he added.
The commission’s goal is to educate children, Chairwoman Sandra Dungee Glenn said. The four committee members — a vacancy leaves them short a chair — have the responsibility of hiring for the "hugely important job" of orchestrating the eighth largest school district in the U.S., which includes more than 270 schools, 200,000 students and an annual operating budget of $2.4 billion, she said.
Taylor described the CEO position — also known as superintendent in many other districts — as comparable to a conductor. Both require leadership to ensure the material being produced flows well and is correct, but at the same time "when the French horn player is not playing the tune right, the orchestra director does not go out and pick up the French horn and start playing. The conductor has to look at that person right in the eye and say, ‘you are not playing correctly,’" Taylor said.
The group made use of this analogy throughout last week’s meeting, oftentimes to drive home their frustration with a district that’s suffered great amounts of crime, a high dropout rate and low standardized test scores, commission member Denise McGregor Armbrister said.
"The whole band should be fired," Gray said at the meeting. "They ain’t doin’ nothing but messin’ up and messin’ up on top of money. All of them — the tuba player, the violin player and the damn leader, too."
"Well we don’t have a leader," Taylor answered.
This is the first time the commission has reached out to the community during a CEO search, a move Dungee Glenn feels will be informative and beneficial.
"I think what’s important is to listen," she said, adding the decision to hold public meetings was in everyone’s best interest. "Really to get a sense of how people see it, how people feel, the level of engagement, disengagement, frustration, cynicism, optimism because that’s going to be real important in terms of how to measure that for the person who’s going to come in and have to sit in that seat. So I find it very helpful. Sometimes it’s not easy to listen. You’re working hard to make things better, you don’t know if it’s always getting through, but it’s important to listen. I always find it very valuable."
McGregor Armbrister — who also is pleased with the commission’s decision to hold these meetings — reiterated Dungee Glenn’s comments about the role people’s input will play in the decision-making process.
"We can’t do this without you," she said to the group. "Your input is very, very important to us."
Even though Vallas vacated the position during the summer, meetings are being held now because people are back from vacations and children are in school, making the issue a priority for community members, Dungee Glenn said. The commission hopes to fill the position by the year’s end.
Although the turnout wasn’t enough to leave the auditorium standing-room only, Dungee Glenn said feedback from those who came — the sole purpose of the meeting — is all they were looking for.
"I always like to see more, but it is what it is," she said. "We’re going to look at what people are saying and people are hearing and that will help to guide us. I think we have from our involvement as board members — most of us having been there for at least five years now — have a sense of kind of where we see the district as being, but we need to check that against what our public is seeing."
Those who wish to submit ideas and feedback on the search may e-mail ceosearch@phila.k12.pa.us or call 215-400-4000.
