During a recent WXXI conversation with Interim Superintendent Vargas the question was asked, “Opening and closing schools has been done here and all over the country and there has not been significant progress due to what critics describe as the “shell game” where schools are disrupted and students shuffled around. How can you execute such a plan to avoid making these criticisms a reality?”
The answer by Dr. Vargas is interesting, “I am looking to accelerate the closure of the phase out schools and am not looking to continue this approach in the future.” It suggests that in the next five months or by the end of the school year, several schools will be closed. It also suggests that Dr. Vargas has or is planning to apply for the position of permanent superintendent and that he fully intends to be hired for that position.
There is a great deal of question and controversy over the superintendent search process that has all but disappeared from the public eye. No more meetings have been held, no more information as to where we are in the process, no mention of how many candidates there are, what the pool of candidates looks like, nothing.
The district generated and garnered a great deal of public interest and engagement in the process of selecting our next superintendent only to come to a dead halt leaving the public in the wilderness wondering what, if anything, is happening now.
Has the decision already been made? Has Dr. Vargas tipped the district’s hand and let us know that he will be the next superintendent? If this is the case, why continue the ruse? President Evans has already stood firm on the premise that it is the Board who will determine the outcome of the search. And, if that decision has already been made then stop the subterfuge, pay the search firm, and let’s get on with the struggle.
Lest any man or woman be fooled, this process is far from transparent and even farther from publicly driven.
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