Re “We Should Have a Role in the Super Search. Two Members Would Agree.”
When President David Mielke strongly complained here yesterday about the Teachers Union being denied any role in the current search for a superintendent for the School District, he attached a tempting, irresistible footnote:
“The sense I have is that two (School) Board members would welcome our involvement in the process while three are opposed.”
[img]1261|left|Laura Chardiet||no_popup[/img] That line instantly perked the attention of the only redheaded member of the Board, another way Mr. Mielke could have characterized Laura Chardiet.
She responded today:
“I don’t think his assumption that only two Board members would like to have the Teachers Union, the Classified Union and potentially even a member of the community interviewing the prospective superintendents is an accurate perception.
“Nobody has asked me,” Ms. Chardiet said, “if I would like to have them there.
“I have no problem having a panel interview candidates.
“But when we signed our contract this spring with the (headhunting) Education Leadership Services firm, part of the agreement was that this is a closed-interview process.
“Of the people who were bidding for the contract, all but one stipulated it must be a closed process.
“That,” said Ms. Chardiet, “is why it has been closed.”
If the headhunting company had urged the opposite, she said, that the search be open to District employee unions and perhaps others, “I think that would have been fine with us.”
To Ms. Chardiet, the common reason that all but one of the headhunters insisted on a closed search “seemed reasonable. They told us you don’t get as many quality applicants because some do not want it known that they are looking for another job.”
