Clayton Wilcox, the superintendent of East Baton Rouge Parish schools in Louisiana, got a taste Monday of how a large, successful Florida school district operates. His potential Pinellas School Board bosses also got a chance to see him in action, engaging with employees and advocates, and some of them clearly liked what they saw.
That's a promising development in the search to replace retiring superintendent Howard Hinesley, but it does not mean the work is done. Pinellas is looking to hire a chief administrator from outside the organization for the first time in more than three decades, and the board owes the public and itself the time for careful consideration.
In truth, the search has been unduly rushed. The Chicago search firm, Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, may have vetted the candidates thoroughly, and board members themselves have been asking questions and conducting background research. But the reality is that the firm delivered only three names, not the five it originally promised, and those names were announced Thursday afternoon and reduced to one by Saturday. Board members have been so slavish to their consultant's script they even found themselves in the indelicate position of shunning an activist group that invited Wilcox to St. Petersburg to talk about education issues important to African-Americans.
Board members blame the state's open-government laws for some of the rush, and there is no doubt that public disclosure discourages some sitting superintendents who might otherwise choose to apply in Pinellas. But this is also a very public job, and candidates who insist on secrecy may not be best suited for it. In any event, the names are out now, and Wilcox's own board in East Baton Rouge is well aware of his interest. So the Pinellas board members don't have to decide overnight. They have time to learn more, to visit his Louisiana school district if necessary, and certainly to give other groups in the county the chance to become better acquainted with Wilcox.
Wilcox has much to commend him, including his willingness to take administrative risks, his focus on reducing an achievement gap that too often is defined along racial lines, and his record of rolling up his own sleeves to get jobs done. He may be precisely what Pinellas needs to challenge its schools, but a long weekend is hardly enough time to build that case. Pinellas, a school system with 112,000 students, 18,000 employees and a $1.2-billion budget, deserves a more thorough look.
