Unwanted attention

Schools chief Hamlet fosters the wrong publicity

The leader of an urban school district must be a dynamic individual with bold plans and the ability to generate excitement about them.

But Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Anthony Hamlet is an underwhelming figure who’s called more attention to himself than his students. And unfavorable attention at that. The board already should be thinking about replacing Mr. Hamlet when his five-year contract expires in 2021.

Unlike his immediate predecessors, Mark Roosevelt, a former Massachusetts legislator who enjoyed working a crowd, and Linda Lane, a lifetime educator who loved being in schools and around students, Mr. Hamlet has cut a low profile except when generating controversy.

City Controller Michael Lamb last week announced that he had contacted the state Ethics Commission to report that Mr. Hamlet had failed to file financial disclosure forms for 2017 and 2018 by the required deadlines (May 1 of each year). The forms are required by state law, and Mr. Hamlet should understand his obligation to file them on time. The forms list sources of income and any gifts, meals or travel a public official received from a third party.

School district solicitor Ira Weiss said Mr. Hamlet filed the forms last week.

Mr. Lamb’s complaint about the overdue ethics forms comes amid questions over a trip Mr. Hamlet and a handful of other administrators took to Cuba for what’s been described as the companion piece of a professional development event in Miami. The Cuba trip — led by the vendor who organized the Miami program — occurred without school board approval. No superintendent should venture out of the country without letting the board know his or her plans.

The board has hired an independent investigator to review the trip, a regrettable if necessary expense. The trip also piqued the interest of state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, who has demanded records pertaining to administrators’ travel, gifts from vendors and nobid contracts. None of this makes the district look very good.

A troubled school district is a drag on the city’s future. Pittsburgh can’t afford that.

No one person can solve an urban school district’s academic or discipline problems, let alone cure the economic challenges and family dysfunction that put some students at a disadvantage before they ever step foot in a classroom. However, students learn discipline and good habits through example. That’s why the superintendent of schools must be a person of unquestioned competence and sound judgment who wants nothing more than to be in the trenches, leading by word and deed every day.