Debra Goldman's efforts on the Wake County school board policy committee to narrow the superintendent's ability to maneuver in advance of his/her arrival should send a clear signal to a community holding its breath over the future of its schools as well as to prospective candidates for the job.
The Wake school system is the Triangle's third largest employer. Unlike a business that controls its inventory and selects for the most promising product streams, public school systems are take-all-comers operations. Their success is determined by resourcefulness and passion as well as rigorous, intelligent management. Goldman is wrong if she thinks her lay majority can get the person they need while continuing to call all the shots.
I streamed the committee proceedings and watched a handful of people literally drag and drop snippets from the only other two examples of policy they'd managed to assemble in their effort to hamstring any new administrator whose efforts at creativity fall outside their narrow, partisan definition. The N.C. School Boards Association could undoubtedly have provided an overview of how superintendents' roles are defined in North Carolina's 100-plus districts - if only the new board hadn't just cancelled our membership.
