Meandering Through the School Board Field in District 9
I finally got around to listening to WPLN’s audio interviews (with an assist from WSMV’s video interviews) with school board candidates in the fighting Ninth District, where several contenders are waging a heated and expensive battle for the right to be shitcanned in a year or two when the gov gets around to giving hizzoner permission to throw the bums out and fill the board with biz pigs. (Perhaps I exaggerate.) (Perhaps not.) These candidates all deserve kudos just for putting themselves out there—running a race in the heat of summer playing to a largely disinterested electorate in pursuit of a frustrating and time-consuming gig trying to solve nearly intractable problems. You’re all winners in my book.
But only one can win next Thursday, so who should that be? Let’s jump to the candidates.
Paul Brenner, a retired teacher who has MNEA’s endorsement, says he’s running because students are “not achieving their potential and I think I can help them achieve their potential.” His answer to a question about how state officials are handling the district’s “corrective action” status is little more than a statement that he personally knows some of the principals who have been moved around and is “kind of confused” by some of these changes. His answer to a question about the controversial school rezoning plan displayed an underwhelming grasp of the real issues involved. He wants a new MNPS director who is “qualified” and has “integrity.” (Jeepers, me too.) Although reasonable people disagree about the merits of charter schools, Brenner’s reasons for opposing them are thin. An endorsement by teachers matters a lot to me, so I took up Brenner’s candidacy with genuine interest, but he turns out to be disappointingly superficial. Next.
Stephen Hicks says he’s running for the school board basically because he has time on his hands and because he’s worked a lot with kids. You the man, Steve, but weak answer. After that opening salvo of shallow self-aggrandizement, I decided it was pointless to dwell on his answers to other questions. Next.
Alan Coverstone, a private school educator and administrator who sends his own kids to both public and private schools, says he is running for school board because “education is my life.” He thinks “we have an opportunity and a challenge in rebuilding trust and credibility” in the school system. He praises actions by the state in its control of the system as “well thought out” and “based on pretty good knowledge of the district.” His thoughts on the school zoning plan are a bit disappointing because he seems to see the issue as mostly one of process—a failed “opportunity for both sides to come together.” He is right to worry about the system fulfilling its resource commitments in the wake of the rezoning plan, but it’s unfortunate that he doesn’t look beyond the process and the details to think creatively about the bigger picture of district-wide school assignment and choice. On the subject of system leadership, Coverstone sees the need for a new director who is collaborative and surrounds him or herself with good people. His thinking on charter schools is measured and sensible, grasping their potential but recognizing their risks and limits.
Lee Limbird, a scientist, educator, and administrator, critiques a “two-tier system” that creates different levels of expectations within the system and emphasizes a need to spread high standards and educational quality across the city. On the state’s control of the system, Limbird to her credit doesn’t offer kneejerk praise, instead making the important point that many key aspects of state intervention in public schools here and elsewhere occur largely out of public view, making it difficult to give an honest assessment. On the rezoning plan, she sensibly would have had the board go no further than make a recommendation for the new director, once hired, and the new board, once in place, to tackle. Like Coverstone, she doesn’t offer an alternative vision of school assignment and choice across the system. She does say she would would have encouraged the rezoning plan to include alternative proposals and counterarguments to allow the future board and director to weigh options with solid information from all sides. Her view of the qualifications needed in a new director projects a more sophisticated perspective on large system leadership than other candidates. Like Coverstone, she seems to understand that charter schools have legitimate but also finite value in a large system.
It’s a tough call between Coverstone and Limbird, who are both thoughtful, articulate, and well-qualified. What gives Limbird an edge over Coverstone for me is her answer to WPLN’s question #4 about qualifications in the area of education. Limbird used that question to indicate specifically how she sees the role of a city board of education and the qualifications and roles of board members. Her answer conveys a deep understanding of both the opportunities and the limits that board service presents. She also wins me over by describing herself as “a person who reacts to data,” one devoted to applying “evidence-based practices” to educating our kids. We desperately need a school system that does likewise. The board would clearly benefit from the presence of both Coverstone and Limbird, but alas, they have the misfortune of living in the same district.
Limbird.
Comments
Do you plan to do it for the other contested districts? Inquiring minds value your opinion.
Posted 08/01/2008 at 02:42:03 PMI hope to if time permits in next few days.
Posted 08/01/2008 at 02:55:27 PMI prefer Coverstone for his vision and his experiences which give him the ability to see the system from multiple points of view, but good analysis.
Posted 08/02/2008 at 12:28:33 PMTom, in addition to your reasons, I prefer Alan because he is currently a parent dealing with the system as it is now and he is also Academic Dean for 80 faculty at MBA which means he knows current curriculum for grades 5-12. Private university bureacracies are a unique challenge within themselves and probably the most cutthroat environment known in academia but are very different from public education K-12.
Posted 08/02/2008 at 03:07:18 PM