10 on list for schools chief
Private company is one contender
Saturday, May 2, 1998BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A for-profit educational consulting company and a high-ranking military officer are among the candidates the Cincinnati Board of Education is considering to replace retiring Superintendent J. Michael Brandt.
The Public Strategies Group, a St. Paul, Minn., firm that ran Minneapolis Public Schools for 3 1/2 years, and nine other candidates interviewed with school board members last weekend. They include Maj. Gen. Albert Genetti, deputy chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Enquirer obtained the names Friday after making repeated open-records requests since Monday with the district. Some school board members opposed revealing candidates' names to the public, citing confidentiality concerns.
Other records the Enquirer sought, such as the candidates' resumes and references, have not been provided.
The candidates were recruited by Sockwell & Associates, a Charlotte, N.C., firm that conducted a nationwide search for a person to head the 48,000-student district.
The candidates are:
Anthony Alvarado, superintendent of Community School District Two, New York City Public Schools. His tenure in New York schools isn't unblemished -- he resigned in 1984 as head of the district after he was accused of financial improprieties. Since then, he has climbed back to national prominence and is known as an expert at solving urban schools' problems. In 1995, he lost a bid for Boston's superintendent job.
Steven Adamowski, associate secretary of education, Delaware State Department of Education. Mr. Adamowski, an education reform specialist with teaching and administrative experience in St. Louis, Norwich, Conn., and Chatham, N.J., started at his Delaware post in 1996.
Michael Strembitsky, Rosa Blackwell and Kathleen Ware. Under this option, the three would work together to head the district. Ms. Blackwell and Ms. Ware are assistant superintendents at Cincinnati Public Schools. Mr. Strembitsky is a senior fellow at the National Center for Education and the Economy in Rochester, N.Y. He also was superintendent of Edmonton Public Schools in Edmonton, Alberta, for 22 years.
Peter Flynn, superintendent of Fayette County Public Schools in Lexington, Ky., and president of the Urban Superintendents of America Association. Before joining Fayette in 1994, Mr. Flynn was superintendent in Davenport, Iowa, for eight years. He lost a 1992 bid for superintendent in Madison, Wis.
Patricia Harvey, senior fellow at the National Center for Education and the Economy. She was a principal and accountability director in Chicago Public Schools.
Franklin Till, deputy superintendent, San Diego Unified School District. He has worked in the 127,000-student district since 1970, as a teacher, principal and administrator. He also has taught at San Diego State University.
The Public Strategies Group, a private firm that specializes in the management of public-sector organizations. The firm is credited with helping the financially troubled Minneapolis district recover. The president, Peter Hutchinson, is a former Minnesota commissioner of finance. He and Laurie Ohmann, company vice president, represented the company in the weekend talks in Cincinnati.
Maj. Gen. Genetti. Before moving to Washington, D.C., Maj. Gen. Genetti commanded the Army Corps' Ohio River Division, which covers 204,000 square miles in 14 states and oversees water resources development, navigation, flood control, hydropower, recreation and emergency management.
Board members say they haven't selected any finalists but expect to meet next week to narrow it down, member Lynwood Battle Jr. said. They aim to fill the job by the end of the month. Mr. Brandt will retire when his contract expires in July.
None of the candidates applied for the job; rather, they were solicited by Sockwell, Mr. Battle said. Some contacted Friday denied any interest in the position.
"Cincinnati is a fine school district, and I'd be proud to be a candidate, but I traveled to Cincinnati in my capacity as president of the Urban Superintendents of America Association to consult with them," Mr. Flynn said.
Some board members worried that disclosure of the candidates' names might cause some to withdraw.
"The public doesn't have the right to know something that might hurt them," board member Virginia Griffin said. "The candidates asked for confidentiality and expected confidentiality, and when their names get out, our best candidates may drop out. The public will lose, and that is an improper use of the Freedom of Information Act."
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