who is diana lam as schools chief

Who is Diana Lam?

Finalist for Superintendent in Providence, R.I.

Compiled By

Tomás Alberto Avila

Lam is 1 of 2 finalists for job in Rhode Island............................................................................3

Keep Diana Lam as schools chief..................................................................................................4

Poll shows residents backed Lam...................................................................................................5

Trustees take Lam's resignation.....................................................................................................9

Lam champions to show support..................................................................................................11

Questions surround SASD future, Lam's successor...................................................................13

Area leaders say district needs changes, consensus....................................................................18

Lam's fate at issue tonight............................................................................................................21

SASD observers predict costly fight over Lam.............................................................................22

NAS Superintendents....................................................................................................................25

AN EFFECTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT......................................................................26

Providence search for school chief down to 2...............................................................................27

Who's Diana Lam? Tomás Alberto Avila2

Lam is 1 of 2 finalists for job in Rhode Island

By Jeanne RussellExpress-News Staff WriterWednesday, Jun 9,1999

Diana Lam, the former San Antonio School District superintendent whose reforms earned national acclaim but alienated many teachers, is one of two finalists for the superintendency in Providence, R.I.

Like San Antonio, Providence serves a working class, diverse community and regularly ranks as one of the poorest-performing school districts in its state.

There end the similarities. And that may bode well for Lam, who took criticism in San Antonio for moving too quickly, without building consensus first.

Lam led the SASD to make strides on student test scores, although it remains one of the poorest-performing large districts in the state. Though business and grass-roots leaders defended her against a divided school board in 1995, they failed to rally when trustees bought out Lam's contract for nearly $800,000 three years later.

If Lam gets the Providence job, she will walk into a radically different setting where a strong coalition of the most influential state and city leaders vowed to stand behind the next superintendent, who must overhaul the low-performing inner-city district.

"This town is ready for real change," said Chris Amirault, special assistant for educational affairs to Brown University President E. Gordon Gee. "Providence made a commitment to create a supportive constituency for the superintendent regardless of who it was." Gee headed a 14-member search committee appointed by Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci. It includes state and local lawmakers, a judge, a corporate vice president and CEO, a teacher's union leader, school board members and the state commissioner of education. Both Gee and Education Commissioner Peter McWalters were traveling Wednesday and couldn't be reached for comment.

Lam, who led school districts in Chelsea, Mass. and Dubuque, Iowa, before her four-year stint in San Antonio, said she remains thrilled at the challenge of bettering a school district failing to reach its potential.

"What speaks most to my heart is that children in urban schools miss opportunities," she said. Lam is competing for the job with June Collins Rimmer, chief academic officer in the Indianapolis public schools. Rimmer, an African-American, shares with Lam a reputation as an urban school reformer.


The Providence School District serves 25,600 students, fewer than half the 58,000 students in San Antonio and significantly fewer than the 42,000 in Indianapolis. About 43 percent of its students are Hispanic.

Lam expressed enthusiasm Wednesday for the Providence position, but acknowledged she is considering other options. Rimmer also is a finalist for the No. 2 job in the Seattle, public school system.

The Providence school board is expected to choose between the nominees, who were not ranked by the search committee, by the end of next week.


Keep Diana Lam as schools chief

TELEGRAPH HERALD EDITORIALMarch 13, 1994

It's been said that no good deed goes unpunished, and that maxim comes to mind as the Dubuque Community School Board considers Diana Lam's future as superintendent. Lam has performed many good deeds in less than two years here. And for that, some people want the school board to dismiss her. That would be a mistake.

That not to say that Lam's performance has been perfect. There are concerns: She could have avoided some controversy had she provided more effective and timely communication (especially with parents) on some proposals, including Expeditionary Learning, junior-high clustering, year-round calendar and the alliance of three elementary schools. Other concerns on management style and communication. Lam can be domineering, assumptive, goal-driven and impatient with performance below her high expectations. That isn't suprising: Critics said as much about her pervious superintendency in the Boston area.

Dubuque school board members should identify those performance needs and make her accountable, during her next contract, for improvement. However, on balance, her performance positives far outweigh the negatives.

But reports from Boston also foreshadowed other aspects of her performance here: She is creative, enthusiastic, intelligent and committed to academic excellence.

When Lam arrived, she walked into some difficulties and challenges: She was hired to lead and manage change. If the school board didn't want change, it could have - and should have - hired someone else. Lam's ideas for change - innovative but not unheard-of in educational circles - contrasted sharply with the style of her predecessor, whose time before retirement was spent in a caretaker mode. She has a foreign accent. She is a woman. She represents and promotes diversity. And she was hired from outside Dubuque. For some people in this community, that's four strikes. She believes that our students - not only in Dubuque but across the country - cannot wait for change. That belief is supported by education and industry around the world. If our schools are going to help produce the future leaders for a changing world, our schools must begin to change now. We simply cannot wait until all parents in Dubuque, a community with a reputation for resistance to change, warm up to those new and needed ideas.

Many of those changes have been positive. The most controversial one has been Expeditionary Learning. Lam, who literally helped write the book on Expeditionary Learning, secured hundreds of thousands of dollars of non-taxpayer money to implement it here. When some people drop the mistaken idea that expeditionary learning is a perpetual field trip, they will recognize how it requires hard work and innovation while fostering a higher level of learning.


Another positive development has been her leadership and drive in establishing "partnerships" between schools and local businesses.

While acknowledging that this point is not the sole determinant of student achievement, note that the public schools this year improved their ranking on standardized test scores. Even those on the school board who aren't Lam's biggest fans should consider the challenges of hiring their second superintendent in two years. To search so soon for another superintendant would raise questions about the community's reputation. It could give potiential applicants pause. What's wrong with Dubuque that they're looking already?

It has not been smooth sailing the past two years, some of it by her own doing. But Diana Lam has introduced change where it is needed but not necessarily welcome. That has been her good deed. For that she should be retained, not punished.

Poll shows residents backed Lam

By Cindy TumielExpress-News Staff Writer

Saturday, November 21, 1998

Most San Antonio School District residents did not want Superintendent Diana Lam to resign, and they believe she was forced out by a school board majority that opposed her policies, a San Antonio Express-News/UTSA poll shows.

The poll, taken Wednesday through Saturday, also found residents are very critical of the school board's $781,000 buyout of Lam's contract last week.

"That woman was doing the best job she could and then political motives took over," said poll respondent Simon Arcos, a 1986 Jefferson High School graduate who now has a daughter at Woodlawn Middle School.

But even Lam's supporters are divided over her decision to appoint a special monitor and reorganize Jefferson into four specialized academies. Many constituents based their judgment of Lam on her handling of the controversial decision.

Laurine Erben, who lives near Edison High, said she was glad to see Lam resign. Erben said she suspected Lam was involved in politics and mismanagement, and the school board and parents joined to get rid of her.

"Evidently they did what was right. The truth will come out," Erben said. Lam did not return phone calls Saturday seeking comment.

The Express-News poll was conducted by the University of Texas at San Antonio's Metropolitan Research and Policy Institute and the Survey Research Lab. Pollsters interviewed 421 registered


voters in the district. Results for the random phone survey are accurate to plus or minus 4.8 percent.

Overall, district residents gave Lam higher performance grades than the school board and credited the superintendent and classroom teachers — not school trustees — for the growing academic success of students.

Researchers said the results show public anger over the board's 4-3 vote last Monday to accept the superintendent's resignation and buy out her contract.

"They are unhappy," said Juanita Firestone, a UTSA sociology professor and staff member of the policy institute. "Across the board, they do not seem to approve of the school board."

But Firestone and Richard Harris, coordinator of the survey lab, said the current controversy may not have longstanding repercussions because people also indicated they felt positive about the district's future.

Among the poll's highlights: About 45 percent of the respondents said they disagreed with Lam's decision to resign, while 36 percent said they agreed with her resignation. A strong majority — 63 percent — said they thought the school board pressured Lam to quit.

Almost two-thirds criticized the buyout as too expensive. About 52 percent of respondents give Lam an A or B grade for her job performance, while only 13 percent graded her with a D or F. But the school trustees were treated more harshly — 25 percent graded their performance with an A or B; 33 percent gave the trustees a D or F. A third — 33 percent — credit teachers for rising student test scores; 28 percent credit Lam and 15 percent credit parents. Just 7 percent said the school board was responsible for the turnaround.

Firestone said the Jefferson reorganization was a significant factor in how residents evaluated Lam. Those who opposed the decision were more likely to give Lam a D or an F, while those who favored it were more inclined to give her an A or B.

"But that doesn't hold up for the school board," Firestone said. "For the school board, people gave them low marks anyway."

School board President Tom Lopez, who consistently opposed Lam's policies and negotiated the buyout, said the community might not understand why the board made the decision, in part, because he was unable to discuss the personnel issue.

"Out of respect to Ms. Lam, we couldn't (discuss it). I wish we could be given an opportunity to truly inform the community," Lopez said.

But he noted the mixed feelings about Jefferson High School are evidence of a divided community.


The poll found 38 percent agreed with the Jefferson reorganization; 42 percent disagreed. "The split at Jefferson tells it all," Lopez said. "You divide this community . . . you're going to have a problem."

Trustee Mary Esther Bernal, one of three who voted against accepting Lam's resignation, said the poll confirmed what she had been hearing all week.

"Well, I got that feeling from across the district, from the northwest to the southeast," Bernal said.

Bernal said she had received more than 150 calls and a stack of electronic mail, all praising her vehement opposition to the buyout.

Mary Ugalde, a church secretary who has lived in the district since 1971, said she is convinced Lam did not leave voluntarily.

"I don't think it was her decision," Ugalde said. "I think she was coerced or pressured to quit."

Some respondents who supported Lam's programs said they nonetheless agreed with her decision to leave.

"Those trustees gave her a lot of hell," said Louise Buttler, whose two children graduated from Jefferson in 1966 and 1974. "They fought her tooth and toenail for a long time." Retired college Professor Ton DeVos agreed: "Under the circumstances, working with this board majority, I don't blame her for walking away from it."

The ethnic breakdown among poll respondents shows Anglos were evenly divided over Lam's decision to resign, while a majority of Hispanics disagreed with her decision.

A majority of both ethnic groups thought the school board pressured her to leave.

The survey uncovered anger over the buyout, which will include $610,000 in payments to Lam, $40,000 for her attorney's fees and $131,000 in continuing benefits to her. The school board also faces a potential loss of $781,000 in state matching funds because of its buyout vote.

"That was outrageous, just a ridiculous decision," said Arcos, one of the 63 percent who said the buyout package was too steep.

Shelly Potter, president of the San Antonio Federation of Teachers, said the survey did not test public awareness of the previous school board's decision in 1997 to give Lam a five-year contract.

"The amount of the payout would have been much less if there hadn't been four years left on her contract," Potter said.


Board members James Howard and Paul Talamantez, who voted with Lopez to accept Lam's resignation, said people didn't understand the contract made it impossible for them to give her less money.

"For myself, I would never vote for a five-year contract for anyone, not even if they are the greatest superintendent in the world," Talamantez said.

Hope Andrade, chairwoman of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said the public saw the buyout as a loss for the schoolchildren.

"The ones that are suffering are the students and the schools, and the only people responsible for that are the board members," she said.

The poll found most residents are optimistic about the district's future, but community leaders said some rocky times may be on the horizon.

Andrade predicted the issue will linger until the May 2000 election, when Lam opponent Sylvia Ward and Lam's three supporters on the board all will face re-election.

"This will be an issue, absolutely," Andrade said. "The community won't forget." But Alan Shoho, a UTSA education professor, said time may ease the passions of the moment. "It's going to be very dependent on what happens during the next 18 months," Shoho said. "It's going to depend on who they hire to replace her and how this person is looked upon."

"Fiscal issues are going to come up in these next 18 months," he added, noting both the buyout controversy and the board's decision to tap the district's reserve fund for a teacher pay raise.

Business and civic leaders in the past supported Lam and actively promoted last year's $483 million bond issue for the district. A majority of registered voters said they hope the coalition stays involved in the school system.

Potter said the district will put the Lam controversy to rest.

"Yes, there's been a lot of division, but for the benefit of the students we serve, we need to pull back together and I hope, 18 months from now, we are not still looking backwards," Potter said.

Also unclear, observers said, is what will happen to the educational reforms that Lam's tenure brought to SASD, particularly at Jefferson.

"I wouldn't be surprised if that will stick," Shoho said. "The parents who opposed it in the beginning will probably come around. They just did not like the way in which it was done."

Staff Writer Jeanne Russell contributed to this report. ,


Trustees take Lam's resignation

Deal could cost the school district more than $1 million

By Jeanne Russell and Anastasia Cisneros-LunsfordExpress-News Staff WritersTuesday, November 17, 1998

Diana Lam picked up a red rose, a gift from a student, and walked out of a San Antonio School District board meeting Monday night before trustees voted 4-3 to accept her resignation in a deal that could cost the district more than $1 million.

As SASD superintendent, Lam had four years left on her $142,000- a-year contract. Under the agreement reached Monday night, the district will continue her benefits and pay $40,000 in attorney fees, while making payments of $169,780, $70,000 and $378,000 over two years. Of the $617,780 total, $200,000 was described as payment for damage to Lam's reputation and mental state.

Under state law, the district could see the amount of those payments subtracted from its state funding if the agreement is considered a buyout. The three trustees voting against the Lam deal railed against the possible expenditure of $1.2 million at a time the district's finances are shaky.

The vote prompted raucous cheers from her critics, who waved signs reading: "Bye." But the jubilant Lam antagonists appeared outnumbered by more somber supporters. Lam slipped out without a goodbye or a comment. Yet many of her backers stayed on to offer a more muted, but equally passionate tribute to her accomplishments.

Supporters of the noted reformer have argued that a new board majority came in with a mandate to oust Lam and undo a curricular overhaul of one of the state's largest and lowest performing urban school systems.

The majority faction denied those charges, saying Lam asked to leave.

"There was no conspiracy by any member of the school board" to buy her out, board President Tom Lopez said, adding he couldn't point to one reason why Lam chose to leave.

As a result of the vote, Lam was considered on leave and wasn't expected to return. Associate Superintendent David Splitek stepped in to fill the top post on an interim basis. Trustee Julian Treviño condemned the decision to let Lam go.

"I don't believe this is a performance issue," Treviño began, before clapping interrupted him.

"The other thing is if we're going to expend a significant amount of money, it has to be in the best interest of the children," he said.


Treviño was followed by trustees Connie Rocha and Mary Esther Bernal, who also spoke emotionally about Lam's achievements and what her resignation would cost the district.

The four trustees voting to approve the resignation made no public comment, but spoke during a brief recess. James Howard, a teachers' union representative elected to the board in May, said he saw no point encouraging the superintendent to stay if she believed her relationship with the board was unworkable.

"If she's not comfortable being here and taking some of the good with the bad, then it's in our best interest to move on," Howard said.

"It was something she brought to us. She felt she couldn't work with us anymore," he said. Lam has had a rocky relationship with the seven-member board since coming to SASD in 1994 from Dubuque, Iowa.

She faced a similar buyout proposal in 1995, but reconsidered after a massive show of support from grass-roots community groups, business leaders and parents.

In her four years at SASD, the district steadily achieved better scores on state tests. She led all but two of the district's 15 weakest schools off a state list of low-performers.

But a decisive and sometimes divisive leadership style created dissension among parents and teachers.

Those who spoke against her spoke bitterly, and a handful carried signs. One criticized the coalition that's supported Lam in the past: "Who knows best? Parents or businessmen-banker-grocer-rep- ex-mayor?"

Parent Rodney Seiler angrily described a superintendent who created conflict in her past jobs in Dubuque and Chelsea, Mass., as well.

"To the four of you who voted in favor, thank you," Seiler said. "I did a lot more research on her than some of you on the board and some of you who were on the board when she got here."

Lam supporters included teachers, parents and district staff. About 400 people sat in the audience at Burbank High School, with parents representing the largest contingent.

Terry Ybañez, an art teacher at Brewer Elementary School, said she'd come to speak about art, but changed her mind after listening to the board.

"I am very disheartened about the vote that was taken on Diana Lam, " Ybañez said. "I truly believe that art saves lives, but good leadership also saves lives . . . I hope that the change that is about to happen does not, as Ms. Rocha said, put us back to a place were we do not want to be."

The presence of business leaders was far smaller than in 1995, when well-known figures spoke on Lam's behalf.


San Antonio Bank One president Charles Lutz said in an interview that the board's action was disappointing because he believed Lam was the catalyst for the district's improvement.

"The constant belittling of process, the undermining of effort and obstruction of improvement have brought about her premature exit long before creating better educational outcomes and better prospects of success in life." a

Lam champions to show support

By Jeanne RussellExpress-News Staff WriterFriday, November 13, 1998

Diana Lam supporters plan to turn out en masse at Monday's San Antonio School District meeting but conceded they likely would pay tribute rather than prevent her expected departure.

The reformist superintendent has faced off with four trustees since she lost a board majority favoring her programs in a May election.

Rumors she was negotiating a buyout with board President Tom Lopez were buoyed when an addendum to Monday's board agenda appeared Friday: "Consultation with school attorney regarding superintendent's employment and potential claims related thereto."

If Lam leaves her post, she likely would get a settlement on her four- year contract that pays $140,000 annually.

Lam, who usually is the first person to dispel the wild stories that have dogged her since her 1994 arrival in San Antonio, hasn't returned calls since Tuesday. Lopez declined comment on what he called a personnel issue.

"The difference is that Diana (Lam) was talking before, amidst all the rumors," said Rachel Reynosa, a Lam backer who attends most board meetings. "This time she's not even talking to her closest friends. Nobody is talking to her."

The crisis is deja-vu with a twist. Three years ago, Lam submitted her resignation, only to renegotiate with a hostile board after business and community leaders rallied behind her in a historic show of support.

Charles Lutz, San Antonio president of Bank One, said he planned to try to reach Lam in Chicago, where she was attending a conference Friday, to urge her to hang on.


Business leaders hold Lam in high regard, praising her for upping student test scores on state exams and winning millions of dollars in grants.

Indeed, SASD's test scores have brought national acclaim, and researchers have singled out the urban school district for its improvement — from 15 low-performing schools to just two under Lam's stewardship.

"I personally think she's done an extraordinarily good job and would be very sad if she were to leave," Lutz said. Hope Andrade, chairman of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said she thought the business community should have intervened sooner.

"Maybe we should have given Diana Lam more support because she's certainly worthy of it," Andrade said.

Organizers from Metro Alliance and Communities Organized for Public Service spoke passionately on behalf of Lam's children-centered reform package when her job was in jeopardy in 1995.

Marcia Walsh, a member of the alliance's executive board, said the organizations are meeting today and probably would discuss whether to make a similar pitch Monday.

Lam, a Peruvian native who has spent much of her career on the East Coast, never had a Texas honeymoon. Some have called her abrasive and a poor communicator, and a board meeting seldom passes without an attack on her character.

Many agree her undoing has been an inability to marshal the support of the district's teachers. A teachers' union financed the two Lam critics elected for the first time in May. Lam's reform program involves schoolwide curricular changes. She's introduced popular reading and thematic programs and a less- well-received math program.

But teachers have argued the reforms came at them in a blur.

"People want to be successful, and when you're trying to do too much at once it's hard to get a handle on them, and you may end up feeling like you're not doing anything well," said Shelly Potter, president of the San Antonio Federation of Teachers, a powerful force in the election that sealed Lam's change of fortune.

If the board fires the superintendent without cause, the district must pay a penalty under Texas law.

Trustee Julian Treviño, a proponent of Lam's programs, said he was concerned Lam's leaving would cost the district financially and educationally.

He expressed his opposition more vehemently in a memo sent to trustees and obtained Friday evening by the San Antonio Express-News.


"Furthermore, a buyout of the superintendent's contract would serve as a strong indictment of my, or rather, our inability to be fiscally responsible," Treviño wrote. "The parents, teachers and most importantly the children of this district expect, require and deserve better from us."

Those close to Lam said they had watched the turmoil take its toll on Lam and her family. "All these things that have happened to her this past year would break any person," said Trustee Mary Esther Bernal. Nonetheless, she said she hoped to convince Lam to remain at least through the year's end.

Other supporters said they planned to attend Monday's meeting with a mix of gratitude and resignation.

"If nothing else, I want to get up and thank her for the years she's given us," Reynosa said.


Questions surround SASD future, Lam's successor

By Anastasia Cisneros-Lunsford and Jeanne RussellExpress-News Staff Writers

Saturday, November 21, 1998

Less than a week after signing off on a widely criticized contract buyout with Superintendent Diana Lam, the San Antonio School District board president predicted an end to recent rough-and-tumble politics.

"Let me assure you, when it comes to a (superintendent) search, this board is going to be very unified," board President Tom Lopez pledged.

Trustees have been divided since they chose Lam by a 4-3 vote in 1994 to lead this historically troubled, low-performing urban school system. The board shifted the next year and tried, but failed, to oust her. After the 1996 election, she regained support and started implementing reforms.

But the board majority swung again this year when Lam tried to do too much too soon, critics said, and ignored the community.

Lam's resignation, including cash and continued benefits totaling $781,000, has left many feeling confused and unsure of the future.

What about the reforms and programs she started? What sort of superintendent will the factionalized school board attract? What does Lam's departure mean for urban school reform? Will this give voucher supporters ammunition to pass a state-funded pilot program to send San Antonio students to private schools?

Few clear answers have emerged as the district moves forward to select a new leader. Lopez said he supported many of Lam's initiatives, but wanted to review each program and department to determine what is working. Supporters of Lam's reforms don't find his words reassuring.

Programs and reform… Lam's mantra was "all children can learn" and her method was new math and reading programs, lots of teacher training and smaller schools within schools.

The SASD long ranked as the lowest-performing large urban district in Texas. Test scores remain mediocre, but they ascended steadily during Lam's tenure.

Many parents said they love the reforms, but not the reformer.

Cindy Zimmerle, SASD Council of PTAs president, said she has heard from parents who feel insecure about the board's commitment to educational excellence.


"If you (the school board) have a plan, it had better be a doozy of a plan because we had a pretty good one in place," Zimmerle said, noting she was not speaking for the PTA council.

But for every parent who raves about innovations, another says Lam could never resist any package labeled "reform."

At the elementary schools, Lam pushed New American Schools, thematic designs that provided a framework linking subject areas. She reorganized high schools into smaller magnet schools or academies.

Tommy Gregory, whose children attend Davis Middle School and Edison High School, said he wouldn't mind if the magnet schools — with areas of specialization such as technology — follow Lam out the door.

"I think there's a way you could teach all of the subjects at all of the schools," he said. But parent Margaret Brown supports magnet schools and their focus on college preparation. She volunteers with the district's Parent and Community Partnership Network, formed in 1995 with a $1 million Rockefeller Foundation grant.

"(Lam) started the dialogue for what needs to happen for these children and that dialogue has to continue," she said.

One reform that steamed parents and teachers is Chicago Math. The curriculum is based on looping, or introducing and coming back to key concepts such as fractions, rather than staying on the topic until all students get it.

"It doesn't require mastery of a skill before you move on. It isn't worth a damn," said parent Lyndon Hightower, who derided Lam's shotgun approach of sticking the program in all grades at once.

"Her idea of total quality management is like the flavor of the month. She didn't see a program she wasn't enamored with." Lam's downfall probably began last year. She alienated parents, teachers and community members when she abruptly announced her plan to reorganize Jefferson High School, the district's historic gem, into four academies.

Augustin Ramirez, a member of Jefferson's site-based management team, said discipline works better at traditional, hierarchical high schools with a principal and assistant principals.

"I want them to go back — and Mr. Lopez (the board president) said they would — and look at Jefferson again and reconsider the uniform policy," said Ramirez, whose son is a sophomore.

Lopez said he wanted to give the Jefferson redesign a chance.

"At this point in time it would not be right for us to redesign the campus," he said. "But we need to stop and assess what's going on with this and any program."


Howard Fuller, a former Milwaukee superintendent who now heads the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University, said Lam's achievements could be documented by persuasive, clear data. But what wasn't clear, Fuller said, was whether the reform momentum could continue without Lam.

"While you can institutionalize some of it, it still requires a person at the top with the drive to continue," he said.

Lam's undoing likely was her failure to involve teachers so they felt like co-pilots rather than passengers.

Alan Shoho, a professor of educational leadership at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said the reforms would probably continue at some schools and languish at others, depending on the level of commitment at each campus. Urban school reform…

The Lam story fits a national urban school reform mold, with a San Antonio flavor: Idealist comes in with unfamiliar ideas, turns a system topsy-turvy, offends some key players and is removed.

The more politicized the school district, the more likely the reformer's tenure will be short. The average stay for a Texas urban superintendent is 2.8 years.

The key role played by the San Antonio Federation of Teachers in electing Lam's opponents could backfire for the organization, said Richard Elmore, an education professor who studies school restructuring at Harvard University.

"It is a common pattern and ultimately a very, very, very destructive pattern for teachers' organizations to respond to accountability- based reforms by opposing them and trying to make the messenger go away," Elmore said. "It fuels everybody's stereotypes about teachers. It's bad for teacher organizations. It's bad for reform. It takes a long time to recover."

Pressure to improve test scores came not just from Lam, but from state and national leaders.

"In a state like Texas where the hot breath of accountability is breathing down everyone's neck right now, this could be a real problem," Elmore said.

However, Shoho said, it may be fair to fault Lam for her style.

"She had a sense of urgency, almost like a religious conviction," the UTSA instructor said. "She probably moved a little too quickly. It was not bad, but it was too quick in a political sense."

Lam stirred tension as superintendent in Dubuque, Iowa, but kept a board majority before coming to San Antonio.


Few superintendents have overhauled large urban districts while winning over community and business leaders, parents and teachers, Elmore said. Noteworthy successes include Anthony Alvarado, who spent 11 years in New York's District 2 but is now struggling with teachers as chancellor for instruction in San Diego, and Boston Superintendent Tom Payzant.

Lam regularly makes a list of the nation's most innovative superintendents along with Gerry House, who also adopted the New American Schools designs in Memphis, Tenn.

In Texas, Lam was mentioned alongside Ysleta's Anthony Trujillo, who came out of retirement and led the El Paso district to become the state's top-performing large school system. The school board fired him in October. A state appeal is pending.

The educational establishment's tendency "to eat its young" raises troubling questions about school governance, Elmore said.

In Australia, school districts have been abolished, he said. In this country, privatization is more likely. "We are involved in an absolute orgy of self-destruction with local school governance. Pretty soon the public is just going to get tired of this," Elmore said. "The dollars will just migrate away from public education."

Search for a replacement… District observers agree the search for a new leader is critical, but they wonder who will want to take charge of the state's seventh- largest school system. They said whoever replaces Lam will have to brace for the ultimate challenge — to maneuver the SASD out of its history of political chaos and a financially murky future, and reaffirm its commitment to boosting student achievement.

The next superintendent should be a good communicator, a visionary, a reformer and should have plenty of courage, several interested parties said. The leader also should be someone who can unite the fragmented school district.

"I believe that good and qualified applicants for the superintendent's position will view working with the (SASD) community, staff and board as an opportunity to demonstrate his or her ability to lead and bring all stakeholders together," Lopez said.

Shoho predicted that person will have little in common with Lam. "You are probably not going to see someone on the cutting edge, like Diana Lam was, but someone who is sort of a status quo person," he said.

Trustee Julian Treviño said the board needs to go on a retreat to set goals for the district and the next superintendent.

But the players — parents, students, business and community leaders, taxpayers and SASD staff — also want a say.


Rob Easley, a vice president at H-E-B who sits on the Citizens Oversight Committee, said it is crucial the business community help find the right superintendent.

"We need . . . a clear criteria of expectations," he said. "People representing the community should oversee the . . . process of selecting a superintendent."

Trustees ultimately will pick the next superintendent. But in 1994, a Chicago-based search firm narrowed a field of 80 candidates to three, who were interviewed by a school board-selected committee.

"I hope they (the board) don't get influenced by a small group of parents," said Brown, the parent volunteer who was on that committee. "They should really ask the kids, especially when they evaluate programs. They should have an influence on the board's decisions."

But Hightower, the parent and Lam critic, said he would rather see someone who understands the San Antonio community take over, such as acting superintendent David Splitek.

"He is a very loyal employee. Maybe they should take him from interim to permanent superintendent," he said.

The voucher issue… Lam supporters said they believe the board has made the district vulnerable to attacks from advocates of vouchers, which would allow parents to use public funds to send their children to private school.

"Quality is going to go down, and when quality of education fails to go up and keep up with charter schools and parochial schools, vouchers will become more attractive," said Rachel Reynosa, a Citizens Oversight Committee member.

Jeff Judson, president of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a government watchdog group, said the SASD board's "circus atmosphere" doesn't help their case.

"It points out why we need vouchers," he said. "There's no way out except through the political process. But it shouldn't be about politics. It should be about kids." But Lopez doesn't feel pressured by the voucher movement.

The district "has always tried to provide quality education for its students and the results of that effort will not be diminished by the voucher debate," he said.

Voucher proponents believe they can get a pilot program approved in the 1999 legislative session. A pilot program failed by a tie vote in the House in 1997.

"If they (trustees) don't get on the train of reform, vouchers are going to do it for them," Reynosa said. "Vouchers are going to bring this district to its knees."


Area leaders say district needs changes, consensus

By David HendricksExpress-News Staff Writer

Tuesday, November 17, 1998

Diana Lam's departure as superintendent leaves the San Antonio School District in need of a consensus builder who can move forward with educational improvements.

So said business leaders, colleagues, elected officials and representatives of community organizations Tuesday after SASD trustees voted Monday night to accept Lam's resignation and buy out her contract.

"This turmoil has been brewing for months. At least it is over. I hope the losers were not the kids," said television executive Arthur Emerson, the incoming 1999 Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce chairman.

Trinity University Education Dean John Moore said Lam's departure was inevitable. The pace she set for reform was at odds with the board majority, and another board election will not be held for another 18 months.

Moore praised Lam's leadership and the reforms she put in place, but said the changes came too fast.

"The drumbeat that I've heard is that there have been so many new programs instituted that they (teachers and administrators) really haven't had time to master one until another comes into being," he said.

Fellow Superintendent Richard Middleton, who runs the North East School District, agreed that fast-paced change proved to be Lam's downfall.

"The lesson is almost an eternal one. Change is going to be difficult, and it's going to be risky," Middleton said. "Change is best done slowly where everyone is marching shoulder to shoulder."

Rosa Rosales, district director for San Antonio's League of United Latin American Citizens, said her membership opposed Lam because she failed to include parents and teachers in the decision-making process.

LULAC was contacted by the Jefferson High School area group Parents on Watch, Rosales said. Based on that group's contention that Lam was not including stakeholders in the decision to reorganize Jefferson High School, Rosales said, LULAC joined the Parents on Watch position.

Rosales also said she objected to Lam hiring well-paid administrators rather than rewarding the teaching rank-and-file.

Others, such as Bexar County Judge Cyndi Krier, were not happy to see Lam go.


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Krier said she experienced a feeling of "helplessness" as she watched Lam's controversial tenure over the district crumble despite her leading some well- publicized reforms.

"We're not focusing as a community that our bottom line is improving the educational opportunities of our children," Krier said. "I can only hope that the (school) board is intent on getting a new superintendent who is as committed to reform and improvement as Diana Lam, but also someone with the talents to build a consensus around it."

State Rep. Christine Hernandez, D-San Antonio, who sits on the House Committee on Public Education and is a former SASD board member, agreed.

"It's unfortunate that it happens this way with politics entering into the education of our children," she said. "But as long as you have an elected board making these decisions, I don't see how you can remove the politics." Dominick Pisano, the chamber's education vice president, called Lam's departure "a sad occasion for the students of SASD and the business community."

City business leaders have been actively involved in the district since Lam first came under fire three years ago. Banker Tom Frost, construction magnate Bartell Zachry and others at the time voiced support for Lam at board meetings.

"I am satisfied I did the right thing then," Zachry said. "What's done is done. We go on. We do need to follow through with a lot of things Lam put in place."

Frost headed a chamber fund- raising effort a year ago to spend $300,000 in business contributions to support a state-record $483 million bond issue for SASD.

The bonds were passed after campaigning by an unusual coalition of the chamber, Communities Organized for Public Service and Metro Alliance.

Emerson pointed to his own television station, KVDA-TV, as an example of a company that could benefit from a better-educated work force.

"We've been looking for technicians and have had openings all this year," Emerson said. "We don't have enough qualified labor in the work force."

Chamber President Joe Krier said his organization's priorities now are to help find a new superintendent with broad community support, maintain reforms that have shown progress and find a way for businesses, teachers and community groups to work better together.

"We will be asking to be part of the search committee along with other groups, COPS and Metro Alliance," Pisano said.

Will the board agree to outside participation?


"We'll find out," Pisano said. "If the trustees are looking for someone who will restore the status quo, the district could slip back. That is the greatest fear in the business community. The way the district was (before Lam) is not something to be proud of."

Metro Alliance said it will do whatever it can to ensure that Lam's reforms are not dismantled.

"We think if the school board is thinking about going back to the way it used to be run, the good-old- boys methods, they're going to have us to deal with," said Marcia Welch, an executive member of Metro Alliance, a proponent of Alliance Schools and after-school programs.

Zachry said choosing a new superintendent rests with district residents, but business leaders might be helpful.

"I have faith the board will look at what's best for students more than anything else," he said.

"We don't want to micromanage the decision" to select Lam's replacement, Emerson said. "We need to understand what they (trustees) want. What they need to understand is what we need. We have a vested interest. Kids that grow up here should have an opportunity to stay here because they got a good education."

Staff Writers Lucy Hood, Jeanne Russell and Jaime Castillo contributed to this report.


Lam's fate at issue tonight

By Jeanne RussellExpress-News Staff WriterSunday, November 15, 1998

The San Antonio School District board examines remodeling several schools, revamping its high schools and fixing its shaky finances tonight.

But one agenda item overshadows all else — the expected resignation of Diana Lam. Most observers believe the superintendent is negotiating with board President Tom Lopez to buy out the four years left on her $142,000-a-year contract.

The agenda item is vague. "Consultation with school attorney regarding superintendent's employment and potential claims related thereto," it reads.

Both Lopez and the school attorney have refused to comment on Lam's plans. Lam hasn't returned calls since Tuesday.

Some have a hard time believing the renowned fighter would quit. But friends say conflict with the school board has taken a toll on her health and her family.

Lam, 50, is a nationally renowned school reformer who enjoys broad support from San Antonio's business community and works well with grassroots organizations. During her time overseeing the urban district of 60,000 students, test scores have climbed steadily.

Yet she's alienated many, including teachers, with a style considered autocratic.

And her popularity in some quarters hasn't brought supporters to the polls.

Twice since coming to San Antonio in 1994, Lam has faced a hostile board majority. In 1995, news that she planned to leave mobilized both camps, and the superintendent and board forged a truce. A mix of business leaders, parents and other Lam backers said they planned to plead with the superintendent to finish out her contract during tonight's meeting at Burbank High School.

"Could she have done some things differently?" asked Trustee Mary Esther Bernal, a Lam supporter. "Yes, she could have communicated better. That's not her strong point. But that's not her style. She has this sense of urgency."

Bernal, who welcomed the innovative programs the superintendent has thrust on the district, said she'd have a dual message.

"I'm saying to Diana Lam, 'Your communication needs to improve.' But I'm also saying, 'You're the best superintendent we've ever had.' "


SASD observers predict costly fight over Lam

By Anastasia Cisneros-LunsfordExpress-News Staff Writer

Saturday, Jul 25, 1998

In the past three months, San Antonio School District Board President Tom Lopez tried to limit the authority of Superintendent Diana Lam, suggested she slash personnel and programs and even made her sit in the corner.

Some district observers fear these are only the first shots in a costly battle. The ultimate goal, they say, is to dismantle many of the controversial educational leader's innovative reforms and get her to leave the district.

Lopez denies the charge outright, and Lam said she has no plans to abandon her $143,000-a- year job.

Lopez, in his efforts to fund a 10 percent pay raise approved for the district's 8,100 employees and its anticipated $17.7 million shortfall, is lobbying for deep cuts in staff and programs.

The board unanimously approved the salary increases last week, and Lopez has rejected the idea of dipping into the district's $57 million reserve fund or raising taxes. "The district needs to determine the relationships that are effective and those that are not working," he said. "It is incumbent upon her to make these decisions."

But her supporters say the maneuver is part of an organized effort to get rid of Lam. "They are trying to force her out," said Lydia Lorenzi, immediate past president of the San Antonio Teachers Council, a teachers union. "They are forcing her to cut programs that have been effective" to fund the salary increases. Lam said the board has not collectively instructed her to reduce staff or programs, so she doesn't have to cut anything -- yet.

"The bsibilityirection," she said, adding that many employees are under contract. "Should I break contracts? If we're going to lay off personnel, would we want to explore that possibility? Would we want to explore that possibility for next school year?

"I know my role really well here. I have certain responsibilities," Lam said.

Lam is the chief executive officer of one of the state's largest school systems, serving more than 60,000 mostly inner-city students. Her job is to run the district. The board, by law, sets policy that she and her staff implement.

Introducing "hands-on" instruction for students and restructuring troubled campuses are among the sometimes unpopular initiatives the superintendent has put into place. But that was when a majority of the board supported her. That changed with the school board election in May.


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Two of her strongest supporters were knocked off the board when James Howard, a teachers union official, and Paul Talamantez, a local lawyer, were elected. After their election, Lam was back where she started four years ago. She came to the district on a bare majority, and quickly lost it when one of the trustees who voted to hire her switched sides.

Lopez and Board Vice President Sylvia Ward voted against hiring her. They and two other former school board members opposed funding or approving almost every proposal she brought before them to reform the district.

A frustrated Lam almost agreed to a contract buyout in November 1995. But an unprecedented show of support from city, business and community leaders at a marathon school board meeting convinced her to stay.

The May 1996 election brought in new trustees sympathetic to her ideas.

She positioned the district to successfully prepare for a $483 million bond election in September with her relentless call of "excellence for all children," a status she said could not be reached in the district's crumbling, outdated facilities.

Part of what sold the bond to voters was a promise to form a citizen's committee that would report to the public on every phase of every project.

Phil Benson, chairman of the Bond Oversight Committee, said it's apparent the "conflicts and agendas on the board will affect" the committee.

"I'm talking about the conflicts between the board and Lam, between the board and the board, the board and teachers and parents and Lam," said Benson, a lawyer and business owner. "It's easy to sit there at these board meetings and turn into a paranoid gossip monger."

There may be reason for paranoia.

Before SASD employees received their salary increase last week, trustees selected a new law firm, Escamilla & Poneck, to replace lawyers with whom the district had a 14-year relationship.

The new firm will be involved in Lam's upcoming annual evaluation. "I believe it was a process to isolate the superintendent," Lorenzi said, adding that former SASD attorney Donald J. Walheim was seen as a Lam ally.

At a meeting earlier this month in which district staff presented an update on bond projects, Lopez asked the superintendent to move from the board platform, where she normally sits next to the board president, to the audience.

In protest of the apparent attempt to humiliate her, Trustees Mary Esther Bernal and Connie Rocha walked out.


"My heart was so sad to see her sitting in the audience," Bernal said. "It smacked of gender bias." In May, the board tabled a resolution to limit Lam's authority over districtwide reforms. Board members, including Lopez, said the community and trustees should be in on any plans she has to drastically restructure schools, as she did in January with Jefferson High School.

That highly unpopular decision angered segments of the Jefferson community, who organized and campaigned against her supporters running for re-election to the board. Lam has said her contract gives her the authority to make personnel and instructional changes in the district.

The board has not reconsidered the resolution attempting to limit her powers. At the same meeting, the board also stalled on approving a $300,000 extra-pay supplement for teachers at the newly restructured Jefferson High School. That item hasn't been brought back for a vote.

Rodolfo Rosales, a UTSA assistant professor of urban politics, said a power struggle clearly has emerged since the new board majority took over in May.

The standoff over cutting costs to pay for raises is just another part of that struggle. "The bottom line is (Lam) is trying to call his hand," Rosales said. "But Tom Lopez is very sophisticated, and I don't think he is going to fall for a trap."

Lam said she wants to be thoughtful about assessing and evaluating her programs and personnel, and she couldn't say how she will approach Lopez's suggestion. She said, however, she needs some direction.

"We have had substantial improvement, and I'm not sure why we would want to dismantle that," Lam said. "The 1998-99 school year is about to start. It's going to be a great year. I'm not deviating from moving forward."

Dismantling programs and ridding the district of people who helped bring academic gains to SASD could hurt the successes, said Charles Lutz, president of Bank One and chairman of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce's education committee.

"It's going to be extremely difficult to dismantle the programs," Lutz said. "It's also going to be extremely difficult to do that without undermining the work she's already accomplished -- to undo what she has done.

"The results are clear. She has improved student performance." Lopez, a 47-year-old Kelly AFB employee, said he's not out to get rid of the superintendent.

"I don't believe there is a struggle," the 1969 Lanier High School graduate said. "Philosophical differences may exist, but we are both moving in the same direction, and that is to help children." o


NAS SuperintendentsAs the CEO of a large school district, a superintendent is in the hot seat. He or she must lead dramatic, across-the-board, lasting change — despite budget cuts, resistance to new ideas, and political squabbles.

And public education has to improve its ability and capacity to successfully teach the growing numbers of students in our country: by the year 2006, American schools will have to educate 54.6 million children — almost 3 million more than today.

Superintendents in districts working with New American Schools are weathering the storms while leveraging their authority to make comprehensive school designs a success. They believe that New American Schools offers their districts a means to a crucial end: achievement of high standards on a large scale.

But where to start? Superintendents in Memphis, Cincinnati, and Northshore, Washington have required their schools to adopt a standards-oriented, research-based design for school improvement.

"Every school in our district is expected to select a school improvement design," says Superintendent Karen Forys in Northshore. "The purpose is to provide schools a framework so that staff, as well as parents and students and community leaders, can share ideas about how best to help students meet rigorous academic standards. That actually is happening, and it's really exciting to see. People throughout our district are determined that all students will meet academic standards and are fully engaged in improving student achievement."

Once superintendents establish the mandate to adopt a comprehensive school design, they must give schools the support needed to implement it. An immediate priority is generating the start-up money to pay for the early investment in professional development, curriculum materials, and new technologies provided by the designs.

In Cincinnati, former Superintendent Michael Brandt worked with the Council of Chief State School Officers and other policymakers to create a multi-year "venture capital" fund that schools can use to pay for the designs. In Memphis, Superintendent Gerry House taps money she raised from the business community to support professional development, a key component in preparing teachers for success using NAS designs. In San Antonio, Superintendent Diana Lam carved money for a start-up fund out of her budget by cutting some 20 programs that were not contributing directly to student achievement.

NAS superintendents are giving principals and teachers the autonomy to change their yearly calendar and daily schedules, and to assume more budget and personnel management than ever before. Teachers who are beginning to manage school budgets are grappling with new and painful decisions. For example, is it better to hire two teaching assistants or use the money to hire a fully certified reading teacher as required by a NAS design (based on research about which option is more likely to contribute to student achievement)? Superintendents, with assistance from NAS, are helping their school staffs make these kinds of resource management choices.


"Last year our finance director sat down with principals and worked with them individually and in workshops," Memphis' House says. "We said, 'If you have an objective, what resources will you need to achieve it? This is how you do your budget.'" In return for providing school staffs new resources and the flexibility to make comprehensive school designs a success, superintendents are holding their schools to a higher standard. They believe NAS designs can provide the vision and research-tested practices to help their schools make the transformation to excellence.

AN EFFECTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

"Improving the school learning environment requires more than the implementation of get-tough disciplinary measures," maintains the report. It also requires a focused curriculum.

San Antonio, Texas, high schools offered about 2,600 courses when Superintendent Diana Lam tackled the reorganization of high schools in her district. Lam reduced central office staff so she could devote more resources to creating an instructional guide for each high school. The guides concentrated on curriculum and instruction rather than administration. Now she focuses on instituting smaller learning communities, called academies, with rigorous curricula and standards.


Providence search for school chief down to 2

The search committee narrows its recommendation to two women, both minorities.

By GINA MACRIS Journal Staff Writer

6.9.99 00:02:18

PROVIDENCE -- Two women educators with decades of experience in urban schools, both from minority backgrounds, are finalists for the superintendent's job in Providence.

They are Diana Lam, superintendent in San Antonio from 1994 to 1998, and June Collins Rimmer, the chief academic officer in Indianapolis for the last four years.

Brown University President E. Gordon Gee, chairman of a 14-member search panel appointed last fall by Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., said the finalists are ``two of the very strong public school leaders in the country.''

``Diana Lam has been characterized as one of the top five superintendents in America,'' Gee said, and ``June Rimmer has shown great leadership in Indianapolis.''

Peter McWalters, commissioner of education, who also served on the search panel, said he ``would be very excited to work with either one of these'' candidates.

Both are credited with improving achievement among urban students in districts much larger than Providence, but Lam's aggressive methods in San Antonio drew critics as well.

The critics, which included the teachers' union, maintained she made too many changes too fast, without listening to others.

Politics on the elected School Board shadowed her throughout her tenure. She was hired on a 4-3 vote, and four years later, shortly after the majority shifted to the opposition, the newly elected School Board bought out her contract for $781,000, a huge amount even by Texan standards.

Gee said the buyout did not dampen the enthusiasm of search committee members for Lam.

The search committee, as well as five members of the School Board, interviewed Lam, Rimmer, and a third candidate last Saturday.

``We have carefully reviewed all the issues surrounding these candidates,'' Gee said.

``We believe the characteristics [Lam] exhibited in San Antonio are precisely the type of qualities the school district needs -- aggressive, positive leadership,'' Gee said.


``She moves carefully to develop strategies for change. Some people have not liked what she has done,'' Gee said, but ``the totality of the press down there has been overwhelmingly positive.''

The bumps Lam encountered in San Antonio do not mean she did not do a good job, McWalters said.

``Having been a superintendent and having lots of experience in networks of superintendents,'' McWalters said, he knows that when ``politics are switched on you, it's nothing you did.''

``Even the people who finally asked her to go said, `She was great but she was not going where we wanted to go,' '' McWalters said.

With 60,000 students, San Antonio is more than twice the size of the Providence school district.

Lam, the daughter of a Chinese truck driver and a Peruvian seamstress, was born in Lima and was the first member of her family to attend college, wangling her parents' permission to leave home for the United States, according to published reports.

After graduating from the College of St. Benedict in Minnesota, she began her career as a classroom teacher in the Midwest and then moved east, settling in Boston.

In the next two decades, she rose through the administration of the Boston city school system until Boston University took over the neighboring district of Chelsea and tapped her as superintendent.

Lam resigned after two years, in 1991, and declared herself a candidate for mayor of Boston against Raymond Flynn.

But the disclosure that she and her husband had filed their state income tax returns late dashed her political prospects, and she pulled out only days after her announcement.

Lam worked as superintendent in Dubuque, Iowa, a city of about 57,500 people, before going to San Antonio in 1994.

RIMMER, an African-American, has spent her entire professional career -- 29 years -- in Indianapolis, but the search committee did not regard her lack of experience in other systems as a drawback in any way, Gee said.

``She is beloved in Indianapolis. That's why she's been there,'' as a teacher, principal, and administrator, Gee said.

``They desperately want to keep her there,'' he said, and that kind of loyalty and stability ``is a plus.''

McWalters said that in three rounds of interviews, Rimmer shone through with her ``consistency as an outstanding educator.''


``We've checked out everything,'' he said, and ``she's done it all,'' from direct instruction to the budget process.

Gee was asked whether the candidates at Saturday's session were adversely affected by the news last Friday that the House Finance Committee sent to the floor a budget that would give Providence only $14 million of the $28 million in extra aid it said it needed to finance school spending.

While the budget problem was discussed, the candidates are `àmong the very best people to handle budgetary challenges'' and are not the type to run at the first sign of ``smoke on the horizon,'' Gee said.

AT LAST Saturday's meetings, McWalters said, School Board members who met Rimmer and Lam for the first time appeared obviously pleased.

``There was a real sense of relief that what we were handing them was worth the handoff,'' McWalters said.

But he also said that there is now a sense of `àpprehension,'' because ``the longer it sits, the more likely it is we might lose one.''

Rimmer is also a finalist for chief academic officer, the number-two spot, in the Seattle public schools. City officials consider the post critically important because the superintendent is a former investment banker with no background in education.

In a brief telephone conversation Monday before catching a plane for interviews in Seattle, Rimmer said she has had success improving achievement at a number of levels in Indianapolis, which has about 42,000 students, about 11/2 times as many as the 26,000 in Providence.

She said she is confident she could work with educators and the community to do the same in Providence.

Gee said Lam also is having ``conversations . . . with others.''

`Ì think this is a matter that needs to be moved quickly,'' Gee said, ``with respect to the availability of the candidates.''

Gee, McWalters, and other members of the search panel expressed the desire early yesterday afternoon that there might be a special meeting of the School Board later this week to consider the finalists. But the School Board's executive secretary said it is her understanding there will be no session before Monday's regularly scheduled meeting.

Gertrude Blakey, the School Board chairwoman and a member of the search panel, was reached moments before Gee announced the finalists.


She maintained she did not know their names, and she was short on detail in describing how the School Board might proceed.

Blakey said the topic of the search might be put on the agenda for Monday's School Board meeting.

``We'll have to schedule a meeting with the School Board to set up interviews,'' Blakey said. She said it is important that the entire board meet with the candidates.

Asked whether the finalists might meet the community in a public forum, she said, ``I haven't gotten that far yet.''

The 14-member search panel received more than 40 applications from candidates who were recruited by a professional headhunter hired with private funds.

While the national search was under way, the panel tried to build local support, succeeding in many quarters but raising the ire of parents who considered themselves grass-roots advocates for improved education. The latter group once told Gee they felt rebuffed by the search.

And there apparently was resentment among local educators that they were not given the consideration they deserved, according to sources, although little of it was expressed in public.

During the process, there were as many as three local candidates, but sources said none of them were granted interviews.

Copyright © 1999 The Providence Journal CompanyProduced by www.projo.com


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