The Kosciusko School Board has taken a step in the right direction by appointing a community committee to help it vet the applicants for the superintendent post, but it still isn’t enough in our view.
I’ve never covered a community before in which the process to fill a position where community trust is very critical was kept hidden from public view and participation.
The School Board is charged with ensuring that the person it eventually hires is fully qualified to meet state requirements and local needs.
The community committee it created to give the first review of the eight candidates culled from an initial applicant pool of 21 has little to go on. It was not provided resumes or other key information, though it is expected to produce a list of finalists for the board. All it has to go on are the most basic facts and the ability to ask questions.
The Mississippi School Board Association recommendation that no names be released until the hiring is done is ill advised.
Both the committee and the school board are likely to contact folks within the candidates’ communities to garner as much about the candidates as possible. Therefore, the candidates who have clearly agreed to the process are not trying to maintain confidentiality about their applications.
By protecting candidate identities - even those of eventual finalists - and failing to hold a community forum where parents and teachers can raise questions, issues and concerns - the School Board is inviting suspicion, whether founded or not.
Everyone involved would likely feel a whole lot better about the eventual decision if they were given an opportunity to participate in the process.
