Monday, January 09, 2006

Metro Nashville School Board and Superintendent Garcia

This opinion piece, this morning in the Tennessean. It would appear that Superintendent Pedro Garcia could be on his way out at the Metro Nashville school system. As the school board has voted not to extend his contract past the year 2007. It is interesting that the board members are not explaining their actions. I would agree with the Tennessean, the public has a right to an explanation for the board members votes. However, the board members do not have to use the newspaper to explain themselves. They should have explained their votes in a public school board meeting just prior to or just after the vote not to extend the contract.

This article brings up an interesting thought. In 1992, when the Tennessee General Assembly changed the manner in which to select the Superintendent of Schools from Elected to Appointed. One of the arguments was and continues to be that an elected superintendent spends so much time campaigning and catering to the constituents and that he or she can not effectively run the school system.

The question that came to mind in reading this article. How much time does it take away from effectively running the school system, when a superintendent is applying for jobs with other school districts located all over the country?

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