The Montgomery County Board of Education may be out of options for finding a new superintendent by July 1, leaving some questioning its secretive search process and next steps.
“There just wasn’t enough openness about the entire process,” said Odessa Shannon, a former board member. “If there had been, maybe we wouldn’t be in this position that we’re in now.”
Shannon, who's not on a community panel helping the board find a superintendent, said she opposed the board’s selection last week of Houston administrator Andrew Houlihan as its “preferred choice.” She cited his lack of experience as a superintendent and concerns about how his school district handled the achievement gap.
Houlihan, the 36-year-old chief academic officer of the Houston Independent School District, withdrew his name from consideration for the post Sunday.
Representatives from 17 groups, including the local chapter of the NAACP, the Montgomery County Education Association and the Montgomery County Council of PTAs, were members of the community panel that interviewed Houlihan on Thursday.
Those with knowledge of the meeting said the representatives expressed concern that Houlihan had never served as a superintendent and that he had only recently been promoted to his position within the Houston school system.
“He didn’t satisfy the people on the panel that he could do the job,” said a source who’s part of the search process. “We don’t know what caused him to withdraw his candidacy.”
Board President Patricia O’Neill originally said the board hoped to have a new permanent superintendent in place by July 1.
With interim Superintendent Larry Bowers retiring in June, it might force the board to name another interim leader in order to have a superintendent in place for the 2015-2016 school year.
High school principals in the county are urging the board to ask Bowers to remain as the interim superintendent, according to the Washington Post. Walt Whitman High School Principal Alan Goodwin said he drew unanimous support from 29 principals for the idea.
County Council President George Leventhal said Monday that it appears the board might decide to go with an interim superintendent for the next school year.
"What I think the school board now has to decide is, given where they're at in the calendar and given that some of the hottest superintendent candidates have already signed up for the coming year, whether they'll persist with the search or whether they'll name a one-year interim superintendent and reconvene the search,” Leventhal said.
A spokesperson for the school system didn’t return a request for comment.
The Board of Education declined to renew previous superintendent Joshua Starr’s contract in February, and Starr officially resigned from the post Feb. 16. Starr had served as the school system’s chief since 2011.
“It makes sense that the school board made their job more difficult replacing Josh in the way they handled his non-renewal,” said the source who’s part of the search process. “There obviously is a question about how the people who are leading the school system are making decisions.”
