PERTZ

 Bourisaw makes about 200 thousand this new job currently pays just under 204 thousand.
Last Updated: 11:40 am | May 12, 2008
Most CPS applicants not local BY BEN FISCHER | BFISCHER@ENQUIRER.COM

At least 17 candidates have applied to be the next superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools as of May 3, though the job is attracting little apparent interest from local educators.

Only one candidate from Greater Cincinnati has applied - outgoing Princeton superintendent Aaron Mackey, who was ousted by that district's school board in January.

No internal candidates have come forward.

• What should CPS look for in new superintendent?

Just seven of the applicants are from school systems with more than 20,000 students.

Several school board members have said experience in a large, urban setting is a high priority for the roughly 34,000-student district.

CPS and its search firm will accept applications until at least early June, when the district's community advisory panel will meet to select semifinalists.

Tim Kraus, president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, speculated that most local candidates will hold their applications as long as possible to delay being publicly identified.

"I'm sure the local people would wait until the very last minute for the least amount of exposure," said Kraus.

The applicants and their submitted files were obtained by the Enquirer on Friday.

Among the candidates are 11 current superintendents, including Diana Bourisaw, the outgoing head of St. Louis schools, and Donnie Evans of Providence, R.I.

CPS school board president Eve Bolton said she hadn't yet seen the applications.

The school board delegated the early phases of the search to consultants Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates of suburban Chicago. CPS will pay about $40,000 plus expenses for its services. The current superintendent, Rosa Blackwell, is paid $203,820, and the board has said it will go higher if necessary.

Bolton said publicly identifying candidates this early in the search will discourage applicants. "It will compromise the search," she said. "It will reduce the pool."

Bolton unsuccessfully appealed to The Enquirer to not pursue the applications, which are public records under Ohio law.

The last two CPS superintendents were selected after highly secret searches with little public input and debate.

The Milford and Princeton school districts also are seeking new superintendents, and both recently made their lists public.

Two people whose files were included in the applications made available Friday said they're not active candidates, despite being included in the documents.

Yvonne Bullock, a superintendent of the Meridian school district in Mounds, Ill., and James Turbeville, superintendent of the Tattnall County district in Georgia, said they applied for other job openings through CPS's search firm in earlier years, but are not actively pursuing the Cincinnati job.

A representative from Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates did not return a phone call seeking an explanation.

"I'm not going to tell you I'm not interested, because I might be," said Turbeville. "But I've made no application."

Search consultants are developing a comprehensive district profile based on feedback from a series of community forums held last month, plus an online survey asking for search suggestions.

More than 1,450 people filled out the survey, according to the district, but attendance at the community forums was sparse.

Jim Berry, an Over-the-Rhine resident and a member of the panel empowered to pick semifinalists, estimated that fewer than 35 people attended four public meetings, not counting a forum that coincided with a regularly scheduled district event.

Blackwell said in August that she would retire at the end of her contract, which expires July 31.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?A
ID=/20080510/NEWS0102/805100354/1077/COL02&template=pri
ntpicart--> -->    Copyright 2008, Enquirer.com