Norwalk’s commitment to secrecy not shared by others

NORWALK, Conn. – After hiring Proact Search LLC to assist in finding a new superintendent of schools, Norwalk’s Board of Education voted to keep its candidates cloaked in secrecy. It was a move met with mixed reactions, and a simple Internet search shows many school districts go public with names at some point.

The board said it was advised by Proact, a private search firm that specializes in recruiting candidates for education openings, that many good prospects would decline to be interviewed if their names were made public during the process. The fear is that current employers might react poorly to finding out their administrators are shopping for a new gig.

The behind-closed- doors nature of the search is not sitting well with everyone, including Norwalk Federation of Teachers President Bruce Mellion and potential BOE candidate Shirley Mosby.

“Certainly when there are 80 or so applicants, then reduced to 20, then reduced to 11 and then reduced to or five or six, confidentially is understood,” Mellion said on May 21. “But when there are two, three or four finalists, they should – no, they must – be made public. In this way the Norwalk community has an opportunity to see, hear and engage – I want to say again, see, hear and engage – the finalist in a way different from the board.”

Former BOE member Shirley Mosby spoke against the secrecy at Tuesday evening’s BOE meeting.

“I think the public has a right to know who you are bringing into this district,” she said, “who you’re bringing in to be among our children. … Do not go in there behind closed doors and just vote on it.”’

BOE President Mike Lyons said there had been “quite a discussion” on the topic.

“Proact told us that, in about 70 percent of their searches, finalists are introduced publicly, while in about 30 percent, the process remains confidential to the end,” Lyons said Wednesday night in an email. “They said that the choice is always with the school board. They noted that in processes that stay public to the end, searches definitely lose candidates who wish to have their applications remain confidential, but that searches can still be successfully conducted. The choice to maintain confidentiality in Norwalk was made by the Board, not Proact. Our decision was in terms of the long-term best interest of the city. Getting the best candidate has to be the highest priority.”

Lyons said past Norwalk boards have differed on the approach.

“The board that appointed Sal Corda did so with finalists presented openly, while the board that appointed Susan Marks kept the process confidential to its conclusion.”

A look at how other communities have handled the process shows many opt to bring the top two or three candidates to the public for meet-and-greets or more formal sessions where anyone can ask questions. The school districts run the gamut from small and rural to major cities. A sample:

• 2011: Barnstable School District on Cape Cod identified three finalists and interviewed them in public session.

• 2011: Cleveland, Ohio, revealed nine semifinalists, including two who withdrew. Along with the names, the board released a bio and a pithy interviewer’s comment. The search was done with Proact, although, according to the district website, the board tossed three of the firm’s recommendations and brought in one who was not on the list. There were no public events.

• 2012: Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C.: Introduced three finalists at two public forums. The board then took feedback from the public to study before making decisions.

• 2013: Wake Co., N.C., introduced its final three to the public and held sessions for the public to meet them and ask questions.

• 2013: Vail, Colo., announced its three finalists to the public. They were to be interviewed by two citizen panels and the school board.

• 2013: Polk County, Fla.: Three finalists were each given two separate meet-and-greet dates with the public. All three were interviewed on separate dates in open meetings.

• 2013: Bellevue, Wash.: Announced three finalists, held morning and evening public forums with each, and posted the forums online.

• 2013: ConVal School District, NH: Proact narrowed the field to a final two candidates. The two candidates were to be interviewed by a group of parents and community/business leaders, then again by staff members from the district. Those sessions were to be followed by hour-long interviews with the school board.

• 2013: New Haven hired Proact to help with its search, and officials say the final three will be “brought to the community” for public vetting, according to the New Haven Independent.

• 2013: Manchester, N.H.: Proact gave the school board search committee a list of 12 candidates, which the panel narrowed to five for the board to consider. The board planned to reveal the names of the three finalists, who will appear at a community forum Friday, June 7. Said search committee head Ted Rokas in the New Hampshire Union Leader, “The community has to be involved. It’s not just my superintendent or the board’s superintendent, it’s the community’s superintendent.”

Proact has had plenty of successes, but the company has had a few glitches along the way. Two of the most recent:

• According to a story on the My SA website, trustees of the San Antonio Independent School District voted unanimously this spring to end its contract with Proact after the lone finalist for its superintendent opening withdrew his candidacy. Several school board members said the company did not properly vet the candidate, the story said.

After the finalist was announced, information emerged detailing improper credit card charges, a foreclosure on his $1.1 million home, a $150,000 debt to the IRS and a grand jury probe into a laptop incentive program he developed with his staff at a Tucson, Ariz., school district.

• The problem came just two years after Proact was hired by an Anchorage, Alaska, school district to help with its search. The district received more than 150 applications and winnowed then to two finalists, who were presented publicly in a meet-and-greet before the board settled on its choice.

That choice, a former Florida superintendent who left his position before the end of his contract, according to published reports, had withdrawn his name as a finalist at a Las Vegas district when he took a job with Edison College in Florida. That job did not go well, according to a report in the Naples Daily News, and the college voted to release him from his duties. In Anchorage, he was given a three-year contract, but retired after one year, citing family concerns.

In another instance, Lyons pointed out, Proact was called by the Omaha, Neb., school district to restart its process after another company sent them a candidate who was hired, then resigned after it was discovered she had sent sexually explicit emails to her significant other using her school district email.

Lyons said that, although Norwalk taxpayers will not have any input into the vetting and hiring of the next superintendent, they will eventually have the last word.

The board is a representative body, he said, elected to do the public’s bidding. “Bottom line is you don’t pick a superintendent by a show of hands in the audience,” he said. “… If we make a bad choice, those people in the audience can vote us out of office.”