Hazleton Area School Board Member Elaine Curry adopted the Don Quixote approach to teacher hiring reform with a push to change state law. She wants Harrisburg to bar school boards from any “direct role in hiring teachers.”

This is the same legislature now in its fourth week of failing to pass a state budget. It’s the same legislature that has failed to pass a budget on time for seven consecutive years. In short, this is a group that can’t accomplish the most fundamental task it is required to perform.

Curry and her school board decided to tilt at this windmill via the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. They launched a petition drive seeking to convince the PSBA to make the change in state law part of the association’s legislative agenda.

It’s a smart strategy. An individual school board will have about as much impact on Harrisburg as a flea trying to smash a window. If the PSBA picks up the cause, it could gain traction.

Curry and co. specifically want the state to mandate that “school board members will not interfere in any part of the hiring process, advocate for any candidate, or conduct any interviews of teachers. The superintendent will recommend candidates for hiring and the school board members can vote yes or no to hire.”

Sounds like straightforward common sense. It’s broad enough to give school board members leeway in designing local hiring policy, yet definitive enough to prevent them from manipulating the system to hire friends.

If only it were that simple.

Still a chance for problems

Hazleton Area has been a test bed of hiring policies for more than a decade. The late Gloria Pesock won election to the board and rose to presidency as a reformist determined to destroy the old-boy mentality. The district tried public candidate interviews and revised candidate evaluations to a complicated point system in an effort to excise subjective judgment. Hazleton Area policy became common reading among reform-minded school boards.

But there are too many ways to game the system. For starters, district administrators – always part of any team evaluating candidates -- are beholden to school boards. It’s not hard for a board majority to start exerting pressure on them. Recommend this person or your job will be in jeopardy. Suddenly the objective system gets skewed.

Then there’s the obvious fact that administrators are susceptible to the same greed as board members. In theory, high pay should make them immune, but we’ve seen how well that theory worked with disgraced Pittston Area Superintendent Ross Scarantino, a man who found $117,000 a year just didn’t cut it.

And there’s always the possibility of an error of honest omission, the chance that administrators will simply overlook a candidate, misplace a resume, unwittingly undervalue a person’s experience. In 2007, on the belief that a worthy candidate had been bypassed through such an error, Northwest Area School Board debated a policy change giving board members the right to review applications and make limited recommendations for interviews. It was touted as a safety net, not an attempt to subvert the system.

Curry and Hazleton Area merit praise for spearheading this push for statewide school district hiring reform. But as Robert Burns wisely noted long ago (in a more Scottish tongue than I’ll use here): The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.

Sadly, there’s always somebody eager and willing to scheme their way around even best-laid plans.

About the Author

Mark Guydish covers education for the Times Leader. Reach him at (570) 970-7161 or mguydish@timesleader.com.

A West Hazleton native, I worked as a service technician repairing electronic mailing and shipping systems, a bike shop owner and an Emergency Medical Technician (among other jobs) before landing a reporter job at the Times Leader Hazleton Bureau in 1995. I started by covering primarily politics in Hazleton City and outlying municipalities, eventually became "social issues" team leader in the Wilkes-Barre office with the accent on education, and headed the Hazleton Bureau for a spell before returning to full-time reporting, my preferred position. I'm an avid cyclist and rode across the country in 1990, a trip of more than 5,000 miles from New Jersey to Seattle and down the coast to San Francisco. Years in the Boy Scouts made me a life long backpacker and camper, and I've yet to find a better way to enjoy the quiet lure of winter snow than cross country skiing.

Mark also writes a regular blog for timesleader.com.

Archives

Taxpayers deserve transparent superintendent contracts

Computer glitch hits LCCC students

Market St. project: Let’s hope this train leaves the station MARK GUYDISH Commentary

NEWS BRIEFS

Science should be bedrock of Marcellus Shale debate Mark Guydish Commentary

Yet another sad lesson on how to milk the taxpayers Mark Guydish Commentary

NEWS BRIEFS

WBA School Board Meeting wasn't advertised, is reset for 8:30 a.m. Friday

Drop the juggling acts and really balance those budgets Mark Guydish Commentary

Endless denial sends judge to near eternity in prison Mark Guydish Commentary