Studer Community Institute

PATS Center snafu opens door for appointed schools' leader debate

March 20, 2015
/ Reggie Dogan
/ government

Snowstorms always begin with a snowflake. For Escambia County schools superintendent Malcolm Thomas, the PATS Center controversy is snowballing into a storm of confusion. Thomas has been adamant about the School District’s plans to keep the Program for Academically Talented Students open, even though internal emails among school officials tell a different story. School board members complain of being blindsided when they first heard about the PATS Center brouhaha from reports on Pensacola Today’s website in January. The snowflakes are snowballing into an avalanche. Thomas insists that he never intended to close the PATS Center. He just hadn’t found the time to keep the School Board in the loop because the issue arose around the Christmas holidays. But you can’t walk in the snow without leaving footprints. For Thomas, Internal emails requested by Pensacola Today’s Mollye Barrows revealed that Thomas and staff began talking about changing the direction of the PATS center as early as July. School board member Jeff Bergosh felt like he got hit with a snowball. He had asked Thomas in February about reports swirling around the PATS Center. Bergosh believes Thomas wasn’t transparent about his plans for the PATS Center. Thomas now has, not only angry parents and anxious students wanting answers, but also upset board members and an inquiring public demanding explanations. I can hear echoes of Paul Newman in “Cool Hand Luke”: “What we got here, is a failure to communicate.” The School Board believes Thomas wields way too much power over the board and leaves them in the dark on important issues. Part of it is because the superintendent doesn’t have to answer to the School Board. It’s like the adage great running backs use in football: “You can’t stop me, you can only hope to contain me.” As an elected official, the superintendent is beholden to voters, not the board. Board members didn’t hire him, so they certainly can’t fire him. In the scope of things, the PATS predicament is a tempest in a teapot. The larger issue is about communication and power and control. In his complaints against Thomas’ handling of the PATS issue, Bergosh revealed the proverbial elephant in the room when he suggested that it is time for Escambia County to appoint superintendents instead of electing them. Besides Alabama and Mississippi, Florida is the only other U.S, state that elects superintendents. The issue has arisen before, and Escambia County voters in the past 50 years have consistently rejected a move to appoint superintendents. When I was in Charleston earlier this year, the principal I spent a few days with almost fell out of his chair when I mentioned that we still elect our school leader. Our school system is an anachronism. It’s frightening to consider who could end up in charge of more than 7,000 employees, 40,000 students and a $617 million budget, a district the size and scope of some Fortune 500 companies. Shouldn’t’ we have a seasoned professional CEO-type running it? The only state requirements to be an elected superintendent is that the candidate be 18 years old and a registered voter in the county. That means a kindergarten teacher with no business acumen or leadership skills could become superintendent if she — or he — garnered enough votes. Or even a high school dropout can run for the office. Of course, an appointed superintendent is no panacea. Having one won’t necessarily create harmony in place of acrimony. An appointed superintendent can’t magically increase graduation rates, school scores or teacher salaries. Job security for an appointed superintendent can be a tad tenuous because school board members hold the power to dismiss him or her with a majority vote at their whim. But there must be something right about hiring a school leader. An overwhelming 99 percent of 14,500 school districts across the country hire superintendents, much like 100 percent of companies, colleges and sports teams. Congress, of course, elect leaders, and look at what that has left us with. Go figure. Board members Bergosh and Patty Hightower are on record as staunch supporters of an appointed superintendent. The League of Women Voters of the Pensacola Bay Area says in its publication: “With the adoption of an appointed school superintendent, the voters of Escambia County would replace politics with professionalism, taking a giant step toward excellence in education.” Pensacola businessman Robert de Varona is working to get the issue on the ballot for the next election. Even though voters have consistently rejected the idea, in theory and practice appointing a superintendent makes sense. For one thing, it opens the door for a wide range of people with experience and expertise in running a large, complex organization. As it is, only county residents can run in county elections, so the pool of candidates is limited. Imagine the options for the School District if it held a nationwide search for a superintendent. It could open the door for a person with outstanding professional skills and exemplary educational training. Another and no less important reason to have an appointed superintendent is to remove politics from the process. Education, at its best, should remain nonpartisan. But candidates now run for the office as Republicans and Democrats, and in this heavily conservative part of Florida, the Republican candidate who wins the primary is virtually guaranteed to become superintendent. More, appointed superintendents don’t have spent time or a dime campaigning for the next election, which frees them to concentrate fully on school matters. In the end, the matter is likely moot. There’s no more than a snowball’s chance that voters will one day approve of appointing a superintendent to run local schools. Florida voters, especially those in Northwest Florida, like their superintendents elected. They find it especially hard to give up their right to vote for their leaders, even to their own peril. That brings us back to the PATS Center. Should it change or remain the same? Let’s take a vote.

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PATS Center snafu opens door for appointed schools' leader debate

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