I attended the School Committee’s “meet the candidates for superintendent” forum last night at CRLS. Their search process has narrowed the field to three prospects. Interestingly, none of them hail from beyond Route 128. This may be because of the large number of districts looking at the moment. The consulting firm of Ray and Associates was hired by the Committee to assist in their search. As of this morning their site listed eighteen openings for superintendent of schools. You can also download the application, although the selection process is closed.

This was the largest crowd I’ve seen at a School Committee function since the consolidation. The City Council, realizing that the mayor was supposed to preside over there, quickly adjourned, transferring all agenda items to next week’s meeting according to Councilor Seidel. All City Council members were in attendance for at least part of the meeting, and several stayed to the end. Also present were Rep. Alice Wolf, former School Committee members and representatives from the teachers union.

Here are the brief bios lifted directly from the Committee’s website.

They are:

Dr. Mary C. Nash, currently the Academic Superintendent for the Boston Public Schools, Dr. Carolyn L. Turk, currently Deputy Superintendent of the Cambridge Public Schools, and Dr. Jeffrey M. Young, currently Superintendent of the Newton Public Schools.

Dr. Nash holds a PhD in Curriculum, Instruction, and Administration from Boston College, a Master’s degree in Child Development, also from Boston College, and a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. Dr. Nash has spent her entire career in the Boston Public Schools, and served in a variety of roles, including teacher, program specialist, senior advisor, principal, cluster leader, assistant superintendent, and academic superintendent.

Dr. Turk holds an Ed. D. in Educational Administration from Seton Hall University, a Master’s degree in Educational Technology from Fitchburg State College, and a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Boston State College. Dr. Turk has spent her whole career in the Cambridge Public Schools, and served in a variety of roles, including teacher, assistant principal, acting assistant superintendent, interim superintendent, and deputy superintendent.

Dr. Young holds an Ed. D. in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education, a Master’s degree in Education from Tufts University, and a Bachelor’s degree in English and American Literature from Brandeis University. Prior to his time in Newton, he served as superintendent in Lexington and Lynnfield. He also has served as a teacher, English department chair, and curriculum coordinator in the Brookline Public Schools.

The meeting, run by R&A, was fairly informative. Question cards were collected from the audience, and each candidate was given an hour to answer a selection of these. The candidates were not allowed to hear their competitors answers, so there was a bit more originality than you would get at a candidates forum. For the most part the questions were the same for each candidate.

Dr. Nash had the floor first, and made some good points about having founded the Mary Lyons School in Boston that specializes in teaching special needs students. My overall impression of her performance was that she could have prepared better and seemed maybe a little underconfident and did not necessarily answer the questions as directly as could have been done.

Dr. Turk, the interim superintendent, was very comfortable and handled the room expertly. An easy task, I think, as many of her supporters came out and applauded often. Word on the street is that the job is hers to lose. She has a lot of local support on her side. Her answers demonstrated a deep knowledge of the Cambridge system and gave an impression of competence.

Dr. Young took questions last. He had a very different style from the other two candidates. He answered the questions asked fairly directly and then went on to discuss aspects of the topic at length. This way, he took fewer questions, but seemed to give more answers. By far the best speaker of the evening (at least I thought so), he emphasized a collaborative approach to problem solving along with his grasp of the educational process and management skills.

For more information I recommend taking a look at the piece in The Harvard Crimson, and Robert Winters’ Cambridge Civic Journal. (Take a look at what he has on City Council Committee report #1 too.)

If you are interested in this, do not miss tonight’s School Committee meeting, when the members will interview each of the candidates. I won't be able to make that one.

Added 4/1/2009. Link to The Crimson's article on the interview.