Memphis community panel says superintendent search may be moving too quickly

The Memphis-Shelby County School Board isn’t planning to name a new superintendent until April but some members of the community advisory committee that’s providing guidance believe the search is moving too fast to involve everyone.That was the key point addressed in Friday’s advisory committee meeting to discuss the application, interview process, and what can be improved in the superintendent search process.Several members of the advisory committee expressed concern that some members of the community feel the process has been rushed. Those concerns are especially important for Shelby County business owners who may have been misidentified in the recent community survey and senior members of the community who haven’t taken part.Advisory committee member Rebecca Matlock Hutchinson of South City Community Development Corporation, suggested creating another survey to specifically target residents who haven’t participated in the initial one.“We also need to understand that there is a demographic [of seniors] out there that wants to have some input in this, but they feel that they’re not able to—they’re not understanding the process, they’re not understanding the technology—and maybe there needs to be a level of sensitivity to that as well,” said Hutchinson.Though there are those who think the process is being rushed, others, including Memphis LIFT director Sarah Carpenter feel it’s being dragged out so long that the district may not get its first choice.“Ya’ll have to realize that people are looking for superintendents all over the country. And people are not gonna sit around and wait for Memphis if we’re trying to get the best too,” said Carpenter.The committee decided on a compromise solution of sticking with the current timeline, while providing more opportunity for input by supplementing requiring the search firm to do additional surveys that target populations that may have been missed.Choosing a Search FirmFour firms have applied to lead the district’s search. MSCS board of education is expected to pick one of them later this month.MSCS Board Chair Aletha Greene says one important reason why the district created the initial community survey was to ensure the search firm that’s picked can move more quickly.“We wanted to be able to move this process along and that’s why we decided to have the input sessions and allow someone to compile that and provide that. [That way] when we get ready to identify the search firm and we have to write the description of the superintendent, we are already able to have that information to give so to not slow them down,” said MSCS Board Chair Aletha Greene.MSCS plans to pick a search firm for the new superintendent on January 31.