Picking a superintendent: reaching beyond résumés

The Seattle School District has taken appropriate steps to forestall ruin but remains the weak link of a thriving city. The achievement gap between white and minority students persists. A third of the city's families with schoolchildren choose private schools.

Can either of two superintendent finalists chosen by the School Board lead us out of this educational desert? This editorial page would rather the choice were not this board's to make. Next fall's School Board elections should usher in fresh faces and perspective — a better moment to launch a search for the next leader.

Slapping ourselves back into reality, the two superintendent finalists are educational leaders with impressive and lengthy résumés. We do have some concerns, however, that may or may not be deal breakers but rise to the level of strong unease.

• Maria Goodloe-Johnson, 49, stands out as a no-nonsense change agent in her job as superintendent of the Charleston, S.C., schools. Yet, 39 of the 80 Charleston schools are performing below average. Not acceptable for Seattle.

Also, Goodloe-Johnson once charged the district for her husband's airplane ticket but later repaid the money. In and of itself, this means little. But lapses, particularly of the financial kind, reverberate after former Superintendent Joseph Olchefske lost the public's confidence when the district overshot its budget by $34 million.

The Charleston School Board appears as contentious as Seattle's board. Several incidents raise the question of whether Goodloe-Johnson would be coming to Seattle or running away from Charleston. The last Charleston board election featured candidates who lined up either for or against the superintendent.

• The other candidate, Gregory Thornton, has never held a superintendent's job. His current post, chief academic officer for Philadelphia's Public Schools, offers much-needed experience in a large urban setting. Academic improvement in Philadelphia has been steady, and Thornton takes credit. But we have a fine academic chief, Carla Santorno. What's needed now is a visionary who makes Seattle's 46,000 students, with their many ethnic and linguistic forms and academic abilities, feel they can flourish.

An ethical lapse by Thornton isn't a good sign. The 52-year-old was one of two district officials who approved a nearly million-dollar no-bid contract with an educational software company five months after the company subsidized their trip to Africa.

Trust in our educational leaders is strained enough; Seattle doesn't need anything to exacerbate the strain.

Goodloe-Johnson and Thornton have proved themselves adept at putting out fires, turning attention and resources toward problems and weathering financially rocky moments. Missing so far is articulation of a vision for the district's many high-achievers, including strategies for moving struggling students into those ranks.

Narrow viewpoints on the board have turned academics into an either-or issue: Either support struggling students or cater to high achievers. Seattle's next superintendent must do both.

In return, this city gives a lot — namely its kids, but also levy dollars and tremendous community support. Most Seattle households don't have school-age children, yet levies pass easily.

As the candidates parade before the public today and tomorrow, all should listen for perspectives on diversity. Are they narrow black-and-white views or are they ones that extend to the more than 80 languages spoken in the district?

As the records of the two finalists are examined, the board should avoid grading on a curve. They are either what we're looking for or they are not. We don't have to settle.