Mayor Marty Walsh spoke at the Josiah Quincy Elementary School in Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood to introduce attending media and a handful of eager, young students to the Superintendent Search Committee. The committee is charged with zeroing in on the best applicant to lead the Boston Public Schools system, and their search will be nationwide.
The mayor’s committee consists of ten members and two co-leads, all of whom have experience in the school system, administration, philanthropy and business, and will be able to respond to the immediate needs of Boston Public Schools children. Mayor Walsh admitted that he and the committee have yet to review any applicants, though he noted he hopes to find the right candidate by September. He also noted that current interim Superintendent John McDonough declined taking up the role full-time.
“The selection of a permanent school superintendent will be our community’s most important decision,” Mayor Walsh stated. Walsh continued:
We are glad to have the space to make the right choice, given that the District is in great hands with interim Superintendent John McDonough. This Search Committee represents every facet of our education, from elementary school to college, from parents to teachers to administrators. With their broad knowledge base and vast experience, I know they will work diligently to search every corner of the U.S. to help the Boston School Committee make the best possible choice for our students.
According to the mayor’s press office, the committee will undertake the following responsibilities:
- Recommend to the School Committee a national search firm to assist in the selection process;
- Host community meetings to solicit public input on the job description for the new superintendent;
- Vet and narrow the pool of possible candidates presented by the search firm; and
- Recommend three finalists for the new superintendent.
In a joking tone but with utter sincerity, Mayor Walsh happily reported that the number of volunteers and hopefuls who submitted their own candidacy to join the search committee was so large that to accommodate them all, they’d have to start hosting forums at Fenway Park.
“Don’t get mad,” Walsh said in speaking directly to those not chosen to the committee. “Get involved.”
Hammering home the fact that his top priority as mayor is to scrub the streets of Boston clean of any violence, Mayor Walsh reiterated the importance of the right candidate’s ability to connect with the diverse neighborhood identities of Boston in order to help keep Boston Public Schools’ dropout rates at a stark low.
After making his announcement and taking questions from media, Mayor Walsh entertained shrewd questions from the hard-nosed student body who asked him about what he’s looking for in a superintendent, what his responsibilities as mayor are, what he hopes to achieve in office and how long he hopes to be in office for.
Noticeably absent from media queries, though, were mentions of former mayoral contender John Connolly, the self-proclaimed “education candidate” and former Boston Public Schools teacher. In his transition time between being elected and taking office, Mayor Walsh noted that he would consider Connolly as a candidate but even then noted that the search would be nationwide and diversity would be a major factor in ultimately choosing a bidder.
