Parents, teachers describe ideal superintendent

BRIDGEPORT — The next superintendent of Bridgeport Public Schools should be an experienced administrator and effective communicator who is committed to serving the district for the long term.

That is according to parents, teachers and other Park City residents who described their ideal schools chief at a recent community forum with a consulting firm hired to help coordinate the search effort.

“Bridgeport needs someone who understands Bridgeport,” said Chaila Robinson, a parent who was one of several speakers who urged the Board of Education to appoint a superintendent with firsthand experience working in the city’s school system.

The school board is aiming to name a top administrator by early June as part of an aggressive search that began last month with the hiring of McPherson & Jacobson, a Nebraska-based search firm.

McPherson consultant Ralph Ferrie Jr., who himself is a former superintendent, said the firm plans to use the public feedback to identify a handful of finalists that will be interviewed by the board sometime next month.

“The pool of candidates we are going to recruit are going to be specific to what we’re hearing in Bridgeport because we believe in longevity in the position and we believe in matching the best possible candidate to the position,” Ferrie said.

In addition to the forum, the consultants have also issued an online survey to learn the public’s views and plan to meet with a series of local groups, including city officials, religious leaders, students and others.

Ana Batista, president of the

Bridgeport Education Association, the union that represents the district’s nearly 1,500 fulltime teachers, told the consultants the next superintendent should be someone who is easy to communicate with and who respects staff members.

“We will need a leader who will have the political skills to secure improved funding from the city. We will need a leader with experience facing the unique challenges urban school districts face daily, and we will need a leader who will make recruitment and retention of staff a top priority,” Batista said.

Aida Rivera, a member of FaithActs for Education, a nonprofit made up of churches that has advocated for more funding for public schools, said the board should consider candidates with a bold vision for running an often cashstrapped school system.

“Our student outcomes don’t match the God-given potential that we know they have,” Rivera said. “We are one of the lowest performing school districts in the state and need someone who has a proven track record of student success.”

Multiple people proposed the schools chief should be an educator who has experience living and working in Bridgeport, or at least a similar city. Former state Rep. Christopher Caruso, however, suggested the firm should not limit its search to applicants who have only worked in cities.

“It would be beneficial for us to have a superintendent that has worked in a suburban community,” Caruso said. “We can learn how suburban communities educate their children as much as they can learn from us how we educate urban children.”

Some speakers were skeptical the next superintendent will stick around for the long haul given the short tenures of recent chiefs. Former superintendent Michael Testani, who stepped down last fall, and his predecessor Aresta Johnson each served in the role for just a few years before departing.

But Ferrie said the firm has agreed to hold a new search at no cost if the individual ultimately selected by the board leaves the school system within two years of being hired — a scenario he suggested was unlikely to occur.

“I have not had to do that since I’ve been doing these searches and I’ve done many of them,” Ferrie said. “The superintendents we placed are still in the positions that we placed them in.”