PENSACOLA–The Escambia County School Board is surveying the public for its thoughts about the appointed superintendent. The survey is very simple and can be completed in a few minutes.
The truth is the survey provides very little useful information. The board would only have to attend a few PTA meetings and school open houses to get the same information.
The purpose of the survey is to drag out the selection process as long as possible, past the filing period for 2020 school board elections.
An advisory committee, picked by the school board, will begin its review of the applicants in July–a month after the qualifying period. The committee will give the board its list of finalists for the board to make its selection in August. The contract will be negotiated in September, and the appointee will have about a month to work with Superintendent Thomas before taking over the school district
Why the rush at the end?
Why wait 10 months to review applications and then rush the selection? Good question. Maybe some board members and the superintendent already have someone in mind.
Delaying the deliberations until after the filing date for the District 4 and 5 school board seats might free up the incumbents to select the appointed superintendent without any political repercussions– if they don’t have opponents in the election.
If the deliberations are done before the June filing deadline, someone who questions the process might jump into the race.
If the board selects the appointed superintendent in May, the selection would have the summer to negotiate its contract. He or she would have three-four months to work with Thomas and evaluate the district administration.
Starting the selection sooner seems much more practical than the board’s current timetable.
Inweekly Proposal:
- Select advisory committee in October.
- Open application process in November with a Jan. 15, 2020 deadline.
- Advisory committees meets in February, delivers finalists to school board by March 15.
- School Board meets with finalists and allows them to meet with the public – during April.
- School Board selects appointed superintendent and begins contract negotiations in May
- Appointed superintendent comes on board in July or August and begins to learn district operations and evaluate district administration.
- Appointed superintendent takes over in November. Hires his/her administrative team.
Poll Results
Inweekly had The Political Matrix polled voters and asked them questions similar to the school board’s survey. We found that 70.6% would like to see more information in the public with regards to the activity and the motions, taken by the school board and administration, regarding the selection of the next superintendent of schools.
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Do you think the public has been provided with enough information by the school board and school system with regards to securing and choosing the next superintendent of schools? |
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Responses: 544 |
Total |
Overall % |
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1. Yes |
160 |
29.4% |
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2. No |
384 |
70.6% |
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In overwhelming fashion, at 92.8%, the responders thought the new superintendent should understand the values of and benefits of early child-hood education. This far outweighed the other questions in the study.
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 Do you think the new superintendent should understand the values and benefits of early child-hood education? |
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Responses: 544 |
Total |
Overall % |
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1. Yes |
505 |
92.8% |
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2. No |
39 |
7.2% |
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When looking at the importance of the new superintendent to meet with individuals and diverse community groups comfortably; we see just over 84.6% saying this is important, extremely important or very important.
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On the scale provided, how would you rank the importance of the new superintendent to meet with individuals and diverse community groups comfortably? |
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Responses: 544 |
Total |
Overall % |
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1. Extremely important |
241 |
44.3% |
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2. Very important |
135 |
24.8% |
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3. Important |
96 |
17.6% |
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4. Not very important |
34 |
6.2% |
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5. Extremely unimportant |
38 |
7.0% |
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We also wanted to see if the responder thought the importance level was of the superintendent viewing the School Board as a partner. Here we found 90.2% saying this was important, extremely important or very important.
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How would you rank the importance of the appointed superintendent to view the School Board as a partner with regards to meeting objectives and goals in the district? |
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Responses: 544 |
Total |
Overall % |
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1. Extremely important |
303 |
55.7% |
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2. Very important |
110 |
20.2% |
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3. Important |
78 |
14.3% |
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4. Not very important |
34 |
6.2% |
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5. Extremely unimportant |
19 |
3.5% |
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How important to you think it is for the superintendent to value and foster school-to-work business relationships with community partners? |
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Responses: 544 |
Total |
Overall % |
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1. Extremely important |
223 |
41.0% |
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2. Very important |
138 |
25.4% |
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3. Important |
106 |
19.5% |
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4. Not very important |
47 |
8.6% |
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5. Extremely unimportant |
30 |
5.5% |
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METHODOLOGY:
The persons sampled were likely Escambia County voters with a voting score of 100% for the general election cycles. The voters were called using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system during the hours of 1PM to 7PM between Sept. 17-19. The Margin of Error for this study is +/- 4.5% with a confidence level of 95%.