Recently the Jefferson County Board of Education selected Ray and Associates, a national executive search film, to recruit applicants for the superintendent position. I envision eager superintendent-wannabes Googling Jefferson County Schools and after a brief read of the headlines about the board, mumbling "fat chance," and quickly moving on to catch-up on their emails.
In reality, there will probably be numerous candidates for the job. Until, November, the school district had an excellent reputation - strong student achievement, a nationally recognized superintendent, nationally recognized educational technology program, support of towns and the county.
When the board members interviewed the search firms, Ken Witt mentioned more than once his desire for a "non-traditional" interview with the superintendent candidates. He mentioned using scenarios. I heard snickers from the audience. Apparently, they know scenario-driven interviews are not non-traditional. However, it did make me think about what questions would be asked of applicants, and what answers could be given that could make the community happy and make Ken Witt want to hire them.
Question: As superintendent, what would be one of the most important things you could do?
Answer: Listen to the community
This answer wouldn't win you many points with Kenny. After 13,000 people recently submitted their feedback to the board through an online survey about budget priorities, he wasted no time disparaging the survey results, stating that he felt people took the survey "two or three times." He hates that the community does not agree with his agenda, so he wants to quiet their voices by discrediting the survey. Survey respondents, gave a thumbs down to more charter schools, reducing school fees and increase spending on gifted students - all supported by Witt, Newkirk and Williams.
Any applicants for the Jeffco superintendent job are going to have interesting interviews. Let's just hope the interviews are not behind closed doors. Oh yes, Kenny hates transparency too. He hired an attorney behind closed doors.
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