The Cincinnati School Board's plan to replace Steven Adamowski within 90 days may be too ambitious, national experts said Tuesday.

        Nevertheless, the seven-member board is launching a lightning-quick national search to find a replacement for the outgoing superintendent. Mr. Adamowski announced Monday that he's taken a teaching position at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

        Board members acknowledge it won't be easy to replace Mr. Adamowski, 51, praised as a nationally respected education reformer. But they are confident they can find the right person to head the 42,000-student district by the time Mr. Adamowski starts his new job in September.

        “Because of (Mr. Adamowski's) leadership, we are quite poised to find a successor,” board president Rick Williams said. “We won't rush it, but we will do what we need to do.”

        Search firm experts, however, said several factors could complicate the board's ambitious timeline:

        • June is a time when many superintendents have already committed to new districts or their current jobs. Contracts generally begin July 1.

        • Cincinnati is in the midst of many ambitious reforms, including reshaping high schools into smaller, program-focused schools and moving ahead on a $1 billion school reconstruction plan. That plan will likely require the superintendent to persuade taxpayers to approve a $500 million bond issue as early as November.

        • The district, though showing improvements, has a dismal graduation rate of 58 percent and poor state test scores.

        • Some board members and potential candidates have planned vacations, which could hinder their ability to meet.

        “They're optimistic, quite honestly,” said Richard Longabaugh, a consultant at Mequon, Wis.-based Overton Consulting.

        Overton Consulting aided recent superintendent searches in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C. Searches typically require four to six months, Mr. Longabaugh said.

        “To do it any faster presses and compresses the process, so you don't get as many good candidates as you want.”

        Still, Columbus (Ohio) City Schools, a 65,500-student district, completed its search for a superintendent in fiscal year 2000 in two months. Canton City Schools, a 13,200-student district, took three months a year ago.

        Nancy Noeske, president and CEO of Proact Search Inc. in Milwaukee, agreed four to six months is typical.

        “But if they are organized really well, they could get it done,” she added.
       

Starting this week

        The process is expected to begin this week with meetings with board members and a national consultant who works with the district. The board consults with Gloria Frazier, a partner in the Naples, Fla.-based International Center on Collaboration Inc.

        One of the first steps is to craft a profile of the candidate they want to hire. Advertising in national education journals and other publications will start soon, Mr. Williams said. Then come interviews, interviews and more interviews.

        One consultant said it's not unusual to conduct preliminary interviews with 25 people or more.

        Board members say they already have a plan of reform in place and a vision of who they want to continue that reform. They cite similar characteristics in an ideal superintendent:

        • Reform-minded.

        • Innovative.

        • Hard-working.

        • Creative.

        • Change-oriented.

        • Risk-taking.

        Mr. Adamowski beat 10 candidates for the job in 1998. Born in Connecticut, Mr. Adamowski came here from the Delaware Department of Education, where he was associate secretary of education.

        “We'll be looking for qualities very similar to those of Adamowski,” said board member John Gilligan. “His ideas were very different. We are in a new age, and the production-line model of schools doesn't fit anymore.

        “What we are into is an age of innovation and new kinds of knowledge, and we need someone who's got that broad vision and the practical day-to-day knowledge of how to put the pieces together and make the machine work.”

        Mr. Williams said the candidate, like Mr. Adamowski, does not have to be local and will not be expected to spend his career in Cincinnati.

        “We're looking for a great person to come here and make their mark,” Mr. Williams said. “We can't get caught up in the Cincinnati way of thinking that we're looking for a new family member.”
       Enquirer reporter Erica Solvig contributed.
       

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