It is arguably the most important job of any school committee anywhere: the power to hire and fire the superintendent.
Yet in Boston last summer, it was not the School Committee that decided the fate of then-Superintendent Tommy Chang. It was Mayor Martin J. Walsh. He was the one who had a tough conversation with Chang about his future, prompting Chang to resign and catching the School Committee off guard.
Then, before the School Committee had a chance to meet to discuss Chang’s departure, Walsh publicly introduced his pick for interim superintendent, Laura Perille, giving the impression it was a done deal. (The committee approved Walsh’s pick a week later.)