NAACP Boston President Tanisha Sullivan urges Boston School Committee to ‘halt’ superintendent search process

The chief of NAACP Boston is placing the Boston College Committee on blast for its superintendent search, elevating considerations over the “lack of illustration” within the finalist pool and including that presenting solely two candidates “ought to increase an automated warning flag.”

Tanisha Sullivan, who’s additionally operating for secretary of state in opposition to Invoice Galvin, wrote a letter to Boston College Committee Chair Jeri Robinson following the announcement of two superintendent finalists. Whereas the vast majority of college students in Boston Public Colleges are Black or Latino, neither of the 2 finalists are Black or Latino.

“The dearth of illustration within the finalist pool ought to have instantly brought on the method to pause, evaluate, and reopen (if vital),” Sullivan wrote to Robinson on Friday. “How can we maintain faculty leaders accountable for consultant candidate slates, if we aren’t main by instance on the high?”

“The town deserves a consultant slate of finalists,” she later added.

Sullivan famous that her concern isn’t concerning the two people who’re within the finalist pool. They’re Somerville Superintendent Mary Skipper, who beforehand labored for BPS overseeing excessive colleges; and Tommy Welch, BPS Area 1 faculty superintendent.

The NAACP Boston prez mentioned having solely two finalists for a “nationally revered district like Boston ought to increase an automated warning flag within the course of.”

“The dearth of curiosity ought to function an indicator that we have to rethink our course of AND timing,” Sullivan wrote. “The method timeline was all the time too rushed for a district of this caliber.”

BPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius is departing the district on Thursday.

In the meantime, state training officers may vote on Tuesday to declare Boston an “underperforming” district, the most recent in a protracted negotiation over the efficiency of town’s colleges. The phrases with the state must be settled earlier than shifting ahead with the superintendent course of, Sullivan mentioned.

“We urge the varsity committee to halt this course of and evaluate what might be carried out to broaden the finalist pool and regulate the choice timeline to comply with negotiations with (Schooling) Commissioner (Jeffrey) Riley,” she wrote.

However the College Committee chair, in a letter responding to Sullivan, defended the method and mentioned the board has an “obligation to our college students and households to nominate a professional, everlasting superintendent directly.”

The search produced 34 candidates. The Search Committee voted to pick 4 finalists: one was Black; one was Latinx; one was Asian American; and one was white. The candidates who had been Black and Latinx withdrew shortly earlier than the beginning of public interviews.

“Whereas I share your disappointment that our search didn’t end in a extra racially numerous group of public interviews, I stand by this course of,” Robinson responded to Sullivan. “I’m assured each candidates have the required {qualifications} and are uniquely positioned to steer our District ahead.”

— Matthew Medsger contributed