Community members challenging the process to select a new superintendent for the Caddo Parish School District are awaiting a First Judicial District Court judge’s decision next week on whether to enjoin the school board’s actions.
On Sept. 10, Judge Brady O'Callaghan denied the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order, concluding that the school board’s planned interview with a single finalist for the superintendent post would not cause “immediate and irreparable injury to the plaintiffs,” who consist of parish resident Roy Cary, the People’s Promise Youth Division Inc. and All Streets All People Inc.
But this past week, O’Callaghan did hold a hearing involving testimony from the parties in the litigation about whether the court should impose a preliminary or permanent injunction against the school district.
The plaintiffs argue that the process the board has used to select a new superintendent, which involved the hiring of the firm McPherson & Jacobson LLC (M&J) to conduct the candidate search, shortchanged community members. The process led the school board to schedule only one candidate interview in executive session, despite having six finalists, according to the lawsuit.
“Phase IV is where M&J is to assist the board members in selecting the final candidates to be interviewed, prepare the board for the interview process, schedule and coordinate interviews, and keep all candidates informed of their status in the selection process,” the lawsuit states. “This has not happened. …”
The consulting firm did not assist the school board in selecting finalists to be interviewed since M&J’s statements about the process indicated multiple candidates would be interviewed, the complaint states.
“Presenting one candidate for the interview process is inconsistent with the rules of the selection process outlined throughout the (request for proposal),” the lawsuit says.
The petitioners have indicated that they are not opposed to the single finalist, chief academic officer Keith Burton, but contend that the process has been truncated in a way that didn’t provide enough community input.
“The petitioners argue that the decision by the (school board) to skip vitally important steps in the voted-on and approved process while only interviewing one finalist is arbitrary and capricious as they did not offer any reason for this decision,” the lawsuit says.
The defendants in the litigation are Leisa Woolfolk, the interim superintendent, and the Caddo Parish school board.
“The grading system used (in the selection process) was confusing to everyone except the six other school board members,” a recent post on the People’s Promise Youth Division’s Facebook page states. “We cannot allow them to bypass established processes. What message does this send to our children aspiring to earn a doctorate in education? It’s crucial that we uphold these standards and ensure accountability.”
In a letter to the district about the hiring process, M&J officials said they “understand that students have diverse needs, thus we focus on the intentional recruitment of a diverse candidate pool that includes ethnic and cultural identity as well as experience in culturally proficient practices that have proven successful in addressing educational equity gaps.”
At a Sept. 11 meeting, the school board voted against going into executive session to interview Burton for the superintendent post. Neither the Caddo Parish Public Schools nor M&J responded to requests for comment.