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DPS board might name new chief by end of week

By Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published January 6, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.

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A successor to Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet may be named by week's end.

Denver school board members have met daily on the topic since Saturday, when Gov. Bill Ritter named Bennet as his pick to fill the U.S. Senate seat of Ken Salazar, President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for Interior secretary.

Board members met in closed session for two hours Saturday and three hours Sunday. They started at 6 p.m. Monday and will meet again at 8 p.m. Wednesday.

"I can assure you we are very thoughtfully and analytically . . . deciding what to do," said school board President Theresa Pena.

State law allows board members to meet in private to discuss personnel matters. Any votes on hiring, however, must be made in public.

Pena said board members are trying to decide whether to appoint an interim leader while a search is launched for a permanent replacement or to go ahead and pick a successor.

"Those are the options we're still evaluating," she said. "It will be late this week before we announce anything."

The top contender continues to be Tom Boasberg, the district's chief operating officer since May 2007.

Boasberg, 44, has declined to comment on his interest in the job - or whether he would be willing to serve on more than a temporary basis.

"I'm very happy with the job I have," he said with a smile Saturday. He repeated the comment when asked the same question Monday.

Like Bennet, Boasberg's background is in law. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from Yale and graduated from Stanford Law School.

Unlike Bennet, he had some experience in K-12 education before joining DPS. That includes teaching junior high school English in Hong Kong, where he played semi-pro basketball. He also taught at an alternative secondary school in Washington, D.C., during summers in college.

"We've worked very well with Tom," said Kim Ursetta, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association.

But she also said academic leadership is key.

"We want someone who is willing to work with teachers to move student achievement; that is the most important thing to us," Ursetta said. "We want to make sure there is academic leadership at the top."

Boasberg is seen as a leader who would continue the district's ongoing reform efforts, which Ursetta would support.

Comments

  • January 6, 2009

    12:59 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    ChristopherScott writes:

    As a group of parent activists in the realm of public schools and education, Northwest Parents for Excellent Schools has been involved in public education issues for more than a decade. We have seen DPS superintendents come and go, with academic and school reform initiatives coming and going with each leadership team. Our mission is simple - we believe in creating a school environment and culture that promotes high expectations for students and collaboration between schools, families and the community. Excellence in public schools is the right of every student and thus should be available to every student.

    With the transition to a new leadership team in DPS, we believe that the Denver Public Schools Board of Education should take this opportunity to thoughtfully consider how it will recruit and retain a new superintendent who supports collaboration between schools, families, and the community and who has both a broad understanding of public education as well as a solid grounding in a number of best business practices. Simply put, we believe that business experience alone does not qualify a candidate for the job of DPS Superintendent. Instead, we believe that a qualified candidate will have:

    • Experience as a superintendent in an inner city school district where successful reform efforts have been implemented
    • Demonstrated a combination of business savvy and educational expertise
    • An understanding of demographics analysis, marketing, customer service and retention, as well as how these business practices can be applied in a public school district
    • Prior experience with enterprise planning, stakeholder outreach, and change management
    • An understanding of day-to-day operations at the district and school levels
    • A proven track record of growing a district, not downsizing one
    • A charismatic leader style founded on integrity and inclusion and who will be supported by the education, business, and school stakeholder communities, including teachers and union officials

    We believe that a candidate meeting these criteria cannot be found without a national search. While we recognize that such a search would be time consuming, it is critically important that DPS find an appropriately qualified candidate to create a school district that meets the needs of students and families, performs beyond expectation, and supports the growing requirements of the larger Denver community.

    Northwest Parents for Excellent Schools
    Board of Directors

  • January 6, 2009

    2:39 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    BetterEducated writes:

    I've pondered what bothers me so much about this, and finally reached a conclusion.
    The message Bennet's appointment as Senator sends to people who have spent their whole lives in public service and/or education, is that it's not What You Know, but Who.
    This person has lived a privileged life and just received another cherry on top of an already well-iced cake. There are so many people out here working, struggling and hoping someone will notice them, that the way the appointment was carried out was a slap in the face.
    The inescapable conclusion is that "some people" are so close to positions of power that they can move ahead, while others (like us) have no Dream to live for anymore. The deck is stacked against us and we're not going to survive out here, while pictures of this elated, grinning man show up on the first page.
    One would never know, from looking at them, how much turmoil, sorrow and pain has accompanied Bennet's time in Denver for older teachers, parents seeking a good education, and children whose schools closed during his time there. Yes, those were poor schools, but that was not the kids' fault, still they ended up crying at Board meetings while this gentleman apparently felt he had a "vision" so lofty that their tears were less important than his own life plan.
    It's his smile I will remember, while the rest of Denver is still struggling along. If he'd been committed to DPS he wouldn't have let his hat enter the ring in the first place.
    In short -- As a Denver native, I feel Used.
    Board members, if you can hear me: Please appoint someone from the ranks of Education. Public schools are not business enterprises, they are a public service. Some of the best qualified people are those you never even heard mentioned.

  • January 8, 2009

    10:28 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Truthiness writes:

    Ah, yes. Educators have done such a magnificent job running urban districts around the country. Why not perpetrate the fraud here as well?