Educational experts say build a shared vision for new PPS superintendent

Clockwise from the Botton-left: Michele Shannon-Mingo, Shallegra Moye, Thomas Ralston and Kaya Henderson.

by Oliver Morrison, PublicSource

The path for a new superintendent is fraught. People who disagree with your priorities will complicate decision-making. Competition from charter schools will make it difficult to increase enrollment in Pittsburgh Public Schools. School closings to stem the growing district deficit will upset people. 

But these are not insurmountable challenges, according to three former leaders of other districts who spoke on a Zoom panel on Monday.

Black Women for a Better Education, a group that was critical of the district’s former superintendent who resigned in September, organized the virtual event to stir discussion about the search for a new leader for Pittsburgh Public Schools [PPS]. The district’s board is in the process of selecting a firm that will lead the search. 

The three leaders emphasized the need to build a shared vision for the district that a new leader will be able to walk into and embrace. Few ideas were reiterated more frequently than the need to involve the community at every step.

Thomas Ralston, former superintendent of Avonworth School District for nine years, said he used to add people who were likely to disagree with him to important committees so that they would be invested in the decisions.

Michele Shannon-Mingo, the former chief of schools for Boston Schools, said she once negotiated with a community that was about to lose its neighborhood school by creating a Haitian-Creole magnet school. The families and students that would’ve otherwise been upset instead could get excited about the changes.

Kaya Henderson, the former chancellor of DC Public Schools for six years, said one of the keys to closing schools during her tenure without the kind of backlash her predecessor faced was involving the community throughout. 

“Together, together, together. I cannot stress this enough,” said Henderson. “This was radical for us, and we got so much stuff done in the 10 years I was in leadership at DCPS because we did everything with the community.”

About 20 people attended the event, largely members of Black Women for a Better Education [BWBE]. BWBE formed in 2020 to raise concerns about the previous superintendent, Anthony Hamlet. But since Hamlet resigned last year after the conclusion of an ethics investigation, the group’s leaders say they are trying to build it into a sustainable political action committee, holding educational events, making endorsements and continuing to recruit candidates for the school board.

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