I must admit I didn't get it at first.
There's nothing wrong with the board valuing national experience, so long as that's what they get in the end. ...a debatable point. You apply. Take your chances. Somebody wins. Somebody loses.
But apparently, some of our own Kentucky folks felt like they were being recruited by the board in the first place and told how great they'd be. Then, not selected -none of them.
Uh oh. This is not good.
Any board member who may have done the recruiting would surely have known who they were recruiting, right? And if their background was lacking national experience, or lacking in any way, why encourage them to go through the process? It could only lead to heart break.
I couldn't blame such a person if they felt seduced and abandoned. ...and of course, really hacked off. I hear some folks are resigining from state efforts in the wake.
Now, having hyped the quality of the field, and passing on the in-state talent, the board's finalists have got to measure up. But do they? That's being questioned in public; hotly in private. So C-J advised the board to slow down.
One of my former colleagues blamed the twice-as-expensive-for-roughly-the-same-low-quality search firm for circulating the same old resumes, which certainly seems to be true for three of the finalists.
And, speaking of the search firm, when is Kentucky going to find one that will actually vet the candidates? The revelations made public by KSN&C about Dennis Cheek should never have been news to the board, or the search firm, but they were. C-J went further today asking,
What are the implications of Dennis Cheek's background as a pastor and church-planter, his appearance on Stanford University Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship leader Glen Davis's list of "Pentecostal/Charismatic/Third Wave leaders" and his years with the controversial and polarizing John Templeton Foundation?
Cheek did not respond to KSN&C's inquiries, but C-J's Nancy Rodriguez caught him at the interviews today. Cheek said he concurs with court rulings, and does not believe intelligent design should be part of the science curriculum. He did note that there are differing opinions on evolution, which he said is "part of being in a free society."
He's right. He was free to keep all mention of it off his resume. Why did he? And KSN&C was free to go find it.
He also freely stated his opinion that,
"After some consideration of the philosophical cautions which should be observed in any scientific discussion, the fossil evidence having to do with primates is reviewed. It is concluded that there is no real evidence to show either that the primates evolved from anything else, or that man evolved among them. The Scriptural view, that man and these other creatures were created separately, is fully as much in accord with the evidence, and is more credible on other grounds."
Shame on Greenwood and Associates for not researching the candidates any better than Ray & Associated did and - again - leaving our board victimized by shoddy work.
Hey wait a minute! Joe Brothers? Why does the state board of education keep calling Stu?
...and on such a busy day?
Well for now, the board is doing the right thing. Nothing.
KSBA reports,
Kentucky will wait until July 17 to learn who will be the state’s next commissioner of education.
The state Board of Education spent more than eight hours today in Lexington interviewing four finalists before deciding that more vetting of the candidates needed to be done.
Chairman Joe Brothers said all four finalists remain under equal consideration. He does expect that the board, when it meets next week, will be ready to hire a new
commissioner.
My thanks to Silberman and his assistant Cheryl Neal for their hospitality and allowing me to spend the bulk of the work day in his office researching former superintendent M A Cassidy and the history of the Fayette County schools.
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