THE THREE FINALISTS for the Boston school superintendent position each faced six-and-half hours of public questioning this week. Each candidate spent a long day going before panels made up of community leaders, teachers and principals, students, and the seven-member School Committee, which will make the pick in a vote expected to come next week.
It was all part of a process aimed at giving the community wide exposure to the finalists – and at allowing a range of voices to question those hoping to lead the district’s 125 schools.
But the Boston resident whose voice will matter most in the selection – Mayor Marty Walsh — was not involved in any of the public interviews.
Under reforms adopted in the early 1990s, Boston scrapped its elected school committee in favor of a board appointed by the mayor. While the school committee has the formal authority by statute to hire the district’s superintendent, the real power over the schools ultimately rests with the mayor.
The mayor’s office confirmed on Friday that Walsh met this week with each of the three finalists – Marie Izquierdo, chief academic officer for the Miami-Dade schools, former Minnesota state education commissioner Brenda Cassellius, and Oscar Santos, the head of Cathedral High School in Boston and a former superintendent in Randolph.