FALLS SCHOOLS: Don King comments on superintendent hiring

Local News

June 25, 2009

By Don King The Niagara Gazette Thu Jun 25, 2009, 09:19 PM EDT

The following is the statement made by Niagara Falls Board of Education member Don King on Thursday regarding the process to hire new permanent Superintednent Cynthia Bianco:

Having served with the past five Niagara Falls City School superintendents, it is my personal opinion that the school superintendent selection decision is the most important and far-reaching decision a school board member encounters in their school board term.

I repeat, the most important and far-reaching decision we ever have to address. Because of this feeling, I am personally disappointed in that I would preferred to have a comprehensive superintendent search that would have included personal interviews for this most important decision. This might have necessitated a thorough and exhaustive means for obtaining candidates for this most important responsibility.

I believe this to be true for a few reasons:

n Accountability, responsibility and media transparency have changed during my 31 years on the school board.

n Because of our unique school leadership family ties, it would have been in the best interest of the new superintendent to be leaving no speculation that she could compete with nationwide aspiring superintendents, successfully, I might add.

n I have no reason to believe that Mrs. Bianco would not have survived any search process that should have occurred during these past few months and our decision before us tonight would have been no different than it is at the moment.

n I also believe it would have been in the best interest of our Board of Education to have taken every opportunity possible to showcase our nominee (our grow our own candidate) with new aspiring superintendents-to-be or other experienced superintendents from other school districts in our country desiring to serve the Niagara Falls City School District.

However, in spite of all my personal process and procedure reservations, I believe all of our students, our staff, our Board of Education, our taxpayers and our community will continue to be served effectively, sensibly, and efficiently during her tenure as the superintendent of the Niagara Falls School District.

I vote yes.

Don King is a member of the Niagara Falls Board of Education.

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