The search to replace outgoing Fayette County School System Superintendent Jody Barrow is underway. The vacancy was posted April 27 by the Ga. School Boards Association (GSBA), with a May 24 closing date.
Barrow previously announced his retirement set for June 30. He was hired as superintendent in 2013, and retires after 40 years as an educator.
Beyond the standard requirements for the job, the GSBA website citing local preferences said:
– Documented history of outstanding experience as a superintendent.
– Possession of a doctorate.
– Ensures effective management of the district’s core functions; develops and oversees a comprehensive approach to facilities, transportation, resource allocation and budget management; know and can describe what efficient operation systems look like.
– Ability to provide leadership for the Board of Education to aid their understanding of the “team governance model” and the separation of authority of the board and the superintendent.
– Evidence of a high level of effectiveness in the following personal qualities: a fit for the position/community, judgment, values, creativity, emotional intelligence, awareness of future/global perspective.
Salary and benefits will be negotiated.
The announcement noted that the school system has an enrollment of 20,590 students and employees 1,722 certified and 1,153 classified staff.
As he enters his retirement, Barrow in 2019 at $371,864 was the sixth highest paid superintendent in the state, according to open.georgia.gov
$371,864!!! This is outrageous. The previous superintendent of Coweta made $218,421. Coweta has more students and schools. Once again – we need some leadership at the Fayette County Board of Education. Time for change!
I maintain the “team governance model” is rarely the most appropriate methodology for public oriented governance. Any validity is the result from accurate stakeholder identification and input. I also maintain the stakeholders are not the parents, employees or board members of the FCBOE.
Doug Tucker, who, from your perspective, are the stakeholders? Thank you.
The stakeholders should be the general population (it’s why we have public education). It cannot be the students, because they are the objects of the public’s needs. They are the raw materials to be refined. I might add teachers, because they should have a clue as to what the students need and most work very hard to fill those needs. However, teachers have a vested interest in their own careers and many are afraid to promote (read fight) their administrators and subsequently the boards when in their students’ best interests. Therefore, and only naturally, career teachers have conflicts of interests. Tenure should deconflict some of those career self-interests, but history shows boards and administrators will move teachers into different jobs, as paths of least resistance, to ultimately satisfy complaining parents. Many leave the teaching profession because they are frustrated by the lack of support from their administrators when dealing with parents. Many administrators suffer the same frustrations. Parents should always act on behalf of their students, but they normally promote their interests in their offsprings over and above the general student populations’ interests.
After several years observing public school governance, several concerns surface. First of all, administrators who are purposed to enforce Board policy, will yield to parental challenges to policy, to stay out of the Boards’ attention. They could possibly also use tenure.
Ultimately, Boards of Education are elected by the general voting population, meaning they work for the general population and not the parents of students or superintendents.
I hope this helped. There are those who believe by electing a governing body our public education needs are met. However, as in nearly every public organization, the tendency is to become a self-licking ice cream cone at the expense of integrity and organizational competency.
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