Richland 2 search nears an end

UPDATE: Richland 2 made its pick Saturday. An announcement is planned for Monday. Click here to read the story

For three days this week, Richland 2 school board members shepherded three superintendent finalists from school to school, evaluating their interactions with students and teachers and considering how their personal styles might fit with the district's culture.

Today, the seven-member board must decide who among the three - a cerebral Midwesterner, a thoughtful South Carolinian and an engaging Georgian - will be their top choice.

The decision, made behind closed doors, might come "with a few bruises," said board member Stephanie Burgess, but she added, "We are going to come out with one name."

The board won't make the selection public until next week, so contract terms can be finalized, said Mike Montgomery, counsel to the board.

All three - Attila Weninger, superintendent of the Oak Park and River Forest High School District in Oak Park, Ill.; Darrell Johnson, superintendent of Greenwood County schools; and Katie Brochu, superintendent of the Whitfield County School District in Dalton, Ga. - have said they will accept the $200,000 job if selected.

If board members have a personal favorite among the finalists, they aren't saying.

"I'm comfortable with all three," said board member Melinda Anderson, who acknowledged she was "amazed" at how thoroughly all had done their homework on Richland 2.

"They are all crackerjack," Dan Neal said.

But Anderson and Neal, like other board members, are watching for illuminating moments in the grueling interview marathon.

"You're looking for those connections, how easily they can work with people," Neal said.

The candidates toured seven schools and were introduced to teachers, staff and students, who tried to give them a hint of life inside the schools. At Dent, the steel-drum band welcomed two of the three with mini-concerts; the first day, students were taking PASS tests and could not entertain.

Neal was impressed when Brochu on Friday told teachers at Forest Lake Elementary and Dent Middle that she believed students and their families should be considered "customers" of education.

Schooling, she noted, should be customized to provide "joyous learning" beyond the standardized test-taking that defines so much of public education.

"I insist on having the joy of teaching and the joy of learning," Brochu said.

Burgess wants the next superintendent to take the district "to the next level" - a refrain echoed by her fellow board members.

"I'm looking for a track record that demonstrates academic achievement," she said.

But getting the district to that level comes at a time of incredible budget constraints, exploding growth and a widening achievement gap between affluent and low-income students.

Ridge View principal Marty Martin spoke to candidate Johnson of the growing transient population at his high school, with more teenagers transferring in who have not gone through Richland 2 schools and who are not scoring academically at grade level.

"Each year, we have about 30 percent of our kids come into Ridge View and about 30 percent who leave," Martin said Friday. Some students belong to military families; others move in from districts in and out of state.

"They have not come through the Richland 2 educational system," he said, and while some are strong students, others "are not where we hope they would be as compared to students who have had the opportunity of going through Richland 2."

Martin said he pours a lot of resources into bringing those students along and worries budget cuts will jeopardize that initiative.

As a South Carolina superintendent, Johnson is all too familiar with the alarming budget reductions among the state's districts. But he told Richland 2 teachers that preparing students for global competition "should be a top priority of the district."

Johnson, who was raised by his grandmother, a school custodian in Clover, put himself through school also working as a custodian some of the time and made it clear he would embrace students at all levels.

"We've got to start respecting each other across the board," he said.

At Wednesday's public forum, Weninger addressed a long-standing concern among Richland 2 personnel that an outsider would alter community and culture that already exist in the district.

Leaders, including retiring superintendent Steve Hefner, have bubbled up within the district, and this is the first time in decades that a board is looking to outside leadership.

For sure, Weninger is not a Southerner, noting his name, Attila, was given him by his Hungarian immigrant father.

But he said his parents' story of coming to America fueled in him the sense that he could live anyplace in the country and be comfortable.

"I think I can be comfortable in Columbia. I really feel as if I belong to this country," said Weninger, who described his leadership style as "situational."

"That leadership style has got to accommodate the culture," said Weninger, who said he was brought into his current post in Illinois to "make change." That ended in controversy with the board refusing to extend another three-year contract.

Weninger and Brochu said they had researched districts they would like to lead and found Richland 2 to be extremely appealing.

"My work is not done," Weninger said. "I want to leave my kids a legacy because as an immigrant's son, that is every important to me."

Brochu, who has supervised districts that ranged from low-income to affluent, noted that as well, saying, "I'm here because this is a district worth watching."

Nearly 100 candidates applied for the superintendent's position. A search firm, BWP and Associates, winnowed the candidates to a manageable group to bring before the board.