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I vote to appoint school superintendents in Clay County


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Addison Davis soon will remove his name from the ballot as soon as he finishes clearing his desk, delivers his final State of the Schools address and gets ready for the three-hour drive to Tampa to start his new job as Superintendent of Hillsborough County schools.

That will leave Clay County with the choice of only three candidates in the next election who will have the responsibility enforcing policies that educate our children.

The county’s policy of electing the school district’s superintendent is ridiculous. The overwhelming majority of districts in the nation have figured out it’s more practical for our children to have the superintendent appointed by the school board, not be a successful politician.

Davis was one of 51 superintendents who made the first cut in Hillsborough. From there the field was narrowed two more times until he was one of three. From there, the school board spent a week checking and double-checking credentials, as well as conducting two more interviews before unanimously deciding Davis was their man.

Hillsborough had a group of 51 highly qualified administrators from around the country in its field of candidates. Clay County, so far, has three locals.

The reason is simple: Clay County will never attract other qualified superintendents as long as it requires them to leave their current jobs, move to the county and run a campaign. Residency requirements alone eliminates qualified candidates from other districts.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau there are 13,506 school districts in the United States. Of that group, only 320 districts elect their superintendents. Clay County is one of just 2.2% of the nation that elects, not appoints, a superintendent.

In Florida, 45 of 67 superintendents are elected. The only other states that allow superintendent elections are Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina. Apparently, it’s a Southern thing.

An independent report from the George Peabody College for Teachers recommended an appointed superintendent “to help facilitate good working relationships with the school board and promote creative leadership, which is difficult to achieve with the politics surrounding superintendent elections.”

It’s clear Davis didn’t like campaigning. What educator does? It’s not clear whether he would have stayed in Clay County if he didn’t have a campaign looming in the next nine months. The challenge to elevate test scores, graduation rates and enthusiasm in the nation’s eighth-largest school district probably was the overriding factor to take the job. Better yet, he won’t have to campaign in Clay to keep his job past the general election in November.

Another thing is clear: Hillsborough picked him from a group of extremely talented candidates. All 50 one of them.

Former Clay superintendent Charlie Van Zant, Aaron Smith and Melanie Wells are the only candidates who’ve entered the local race. Since no other administrator outside the county is likely to mount a candidacy, there won’t be a lot of options to run our schools.

The debate isn’t whether any of the current candidates are qualified to carry on, if not improve, Davis’s work. Matched up against other current superintendents across the country, Van Zant, Smith or Wells still could be the best candidate.

But why do we limit ourselves to such a small field by our outdated selection process?

We elect our school board members to make those kinds of important decisions. Voters still will have a say in who runs our schools through school board elections.

Proponents of elected superintendents believe earning votes makes them more accountable to parents and taxpayers. They also argue appointed superintendents only need to appease three of five school board members to keep their job.

There are 13,186 school districts across the United States that disagree with that logic.

A smart vote would be to appoint our superintendents.