Education •
Some members argue for transparency; others say they want to protect privacy of candidates.
Some members argue for transparency; others say they want to protect privacy of candidates.
A state school board committee chose four finalists for
Utah’s top education spot Monday night — but they’re keeping their names a
secret for a little longer.
The board’s superintendent selection committee went into
closed session twice Monday before taking a public vote on their top candidates
for the job of state superintendent. But
they assigned the candidates numbers and voted on those numbers rather than
revealing their names.
Committee members then voted to publicly release the
names three days before interviews are conducted, possibly in October, giving
candidates who don’t want their names released time to drop out of the running
if they wish.
“If they don’t want their names released, they should be
able to exit this process privately without their name being released,” said
board and committee member Leslie Castle.
The last time the
board chose a superintendent, it revealed the finalists’ names, and interviews
with the finalists were public.
Nothing in Utah law
prohibits the board from keeping the finalists’ names private, said Austin J.
Riter, a First Amendment attorney with Parr, Brown, Gee, and Loveless, which
does some work for The Salt Lake Tribune. But he said he believes voting on the
finalists in public, yet keeping their names confidential, violates the spirit
of the law.
“Under [The Open
and Public Meetings Act] the public has a right to attend, but government
officials are speaking in a way they all understand but in a way that keeps
that key information from the public,” Riter said, “and that defeats the
purposes of the act, which is to make those processes transparent and keep
those officials accountable.”
Riter said if the
committee is going to release names later, there’s no reason not to do it
immediately.
“If it’s public
information, it’s public information,” he said.
Committee chairman Jefferson Moss said it’s not yet been
decided whether the interviews will be public.
The committee’s decision Monday night followed a
discussion about the merits of revealing versus concealing the names.
Board and committee member Jennifer Johnson said she
worried that releasing names will discourage applicants — who might not want
their employers to know they’re looking for another job — from applying in the
future.
“I think we should keep it closed, not because I don’t
want to be transparent, but because I really want the very, very best possible
candidates and as many of the best candidates as possible,” Johnson said.
Castle also said she believes the board’s primary
obligation to the public isn’t transparency but rather choosing the best
possible superintendent. She did, however, vote to publicly release the names
this year three days before the interviews.
Board and committee member Kim Burningham, however,
favored releasing candidates’ names without necessarily seeking permission from
them first.
“This, after all, is not our personal decision,”
Burningham said. “It really is the public’s decision, No. 1, and because it is
the public’s, they need to be involved in it.”
And board and committee member Dave Thomas said he might
not want a candidate who is afraid of his employer finding out.
“If you’re scared of your employer knowing you applied
for this, maybe I don’t want you because that doesn’t show any kind of
political courage at all,” Thomas said.
It’s not known exactly who or how many candidates have
applied for the position of superintendent. But at least one candidate, House
Speaker Becky Lockhart, has confirmed that she applied for the job. Lockhart
has declined to give detailed comments about her reasons for seeking the job,
saying she wants to respect the board’s hiring process.
Her candidacy has already proved somewhat controversial
with some, such as Utah Education Association President Sharon
Gallagher-Fishbaugh, who said she’d rather see an educator take the post;
Lockhart is a nurse by profession. Others, such as Rep. Francis Gibson,
R-Mapleton, say she’d bring important knowledge about the inner workings of the
Legislature to the job.
Gibson worked with Lockhart on an initiative to put a
digital device in the hands of every Utah student this past legislative
session. That push ultimately failed, with many lawmakers saying it was too
expensive.
A recent UtahPolicy.com poll conducted by Dan Jones
& Associates also showed that about 52 percent of those surveyed either
somewhat or strongly opposed the idea of Lockhart becoming the next state
superintendent. The margin of error on that poll was 4.9 percent.
The state superintendent spot is open after former State
Superintendent Martell Menlove retired in recent weeks.
The board’s decision on a new superintendent comes amid
allegations of dysfunction among board members and the departures of both
Menlove and Deputy Superintendent Brenda Hales. Last month, Hales stopped
working, saying she would use vacation and other leave until her retirement
becomes official at the end of the year.
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