This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.
by Samantha Coggin
Meetings to gather community feedback on the District’s superintendent search wrapped up this week.
In early February, the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, in partnership with the Penn Project for Civic Engagement, launched a series of public forums to gather community feedback to present to the School Reform Commission about the leadership characteristics the SRC proposed to guide its superintendent search.
And though the District continues to push forward with its Renaissance Schools initiative and is working to eliminate its budget decifit, the search for a superintendent with many skills continues to move full speed ahead.
Last month, commenters on the Notebook blog offered suggestions on who they think should be superintendent. Names mentioned included:
- Heidi Ramirez, chief academic officer for the Milwaukee Public Schools, and former School Reform Commission member
- Salome Thomas-El, former District principal
- Linda Carroll, Northeast High School principal
- Frank Murphy, former District principal and Notebook blogger
- Helen Gym, Notebook blogger and board member, and parent activist
In addition to names, commenters discussed expectations and qualities for a superintendent. Political activist and Notebook blogger Ron Whitehorne developed his own petition with the 10 essentials of a new superintendent.
SRC Commissioner Wendell Pritchett, who is charing the search committee, said “We’re going to be engaging deeply with parents” in the search process.
Notes of community feedback from the search meetings will be released next week. A summary report of the meetings is expected March 1. The committee hopes to complete the hiring process and have a new superintendent in place by July to take over from recently appointed Chief Recovery Officer Thomas Knudsen.