City Superintendent Search Farce

The word farce is a noun. It is defined as “a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations.” Words synonymous to farce include mockery, travesty, absurdity, sham, pretense, masquerade, charade, and joke. I’ll get right down to it because there’s no reason to sugarcoat about I’m about to say. In my not-so-humble opinion, the Superintendent search currently being conducted by the Thomasville City Schools system in Thomasville, Georgia is a farce. I call shenanigans on the whole thing.

Exactly 6 months ago, I wrote in the very same space an op-ed piece entitled “The Next Superintendent.” It was my response to an article written in the Times-Enterprise by my dear friend Patti Dozier – which was based on her interview of Chris Rodd, the chairman of Thomasville City School Board. At the conclusion of my “Next Superintendent” op-ed, I wished you the very best in the search process, Mr. Rodd. I also told you that I would be watching the superintendent search process very closely. As a personal rule of life, I say what I mean and I mean what I say. And after 6 months, I’m not at all impressed by what I’ve seen. Why? Because while the fine citizens of Thomasville and Thomas County are being bombarded with the message that the search for the next superintendent of schools for the city of Thomasville is happening precisely as planned, the truth of the matter is that it isn’t so. There is no clear timeline, no discernable plan, no common sense application(s), and no transparency here. The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. The toes aren’t communicating with the fingers. The nose is disjointed. 

Thomasville City Schools used to stand for something. In athletic endeavors as well as academic endeavors, the city school system truly mattered in decades past. I’ll use myself as an example. Insofar as I’m aware, there is exactly one – one – nationally syndicated newspaper columnist in Thomasville. That columnist is me. That’s not a humblebrag. That’s not a big deal. Here’s the big deal: this nationally syndicated newspaper columnist – yours truly – is a proud product of the Thomasville City School System. That fact is worthy of celebration. Thomasville City Schools has produced doctors and lawyers and judges and architects and educators and engineers and businessmen. This school system used to routinely equip young people to go forth and be productive, law-abiding, tax-paying citizens whether they attended college, served in the armed forces, went to technical school, and/or went to work right after graduation from Thomasville High School. But that was in the past. As for the present and the future, I no longer know what Thomasville City Schools stands for. I don’t think you know what it stands for, either.

The majority of the city’s teachers, administrators, and support staff members are walking on eggshells 24/7. Their morale is limbo low. They feel underpaid, unappreciated, and overburdened. They have little sense of direction – and dare not confide in their leaders because anyone who complains runs the very real risk of unemployment. Thomasville City Schools has a culture problem. In business and in life, your institution or corporation goes as its leadership goes. The city school system is being poorly run: backwards, inversely, upside down, sideways, or counter-intuitively depending on your vantage point. You choose the term.

I don’t believe Thomasville City Schools knows what qualifications, experience, or vision its candidates for superintendent should have.

If I had to assign a grade for the city school system’s efforts thus far in applying best practices towards attracting top notch candidates to apply for its superintendent vacancy thus far, that grade would be a D-.

There is no doubt that the search for the next superintendent of Thomasville City Schools is largely being hindered/sabotaged/deaccelerated from within by those who have designs on the job themselves. They know who they are. Unfortunately for them, so do I.

I’m all but convinced that the city system’s Superintendent Search Survey is a thinly-veiled attempt to hoodwink the good people of Thomasville and Thomas County – shareholders, parents, and taxpayers all – into buying into the false belief that their opinions matter. I completed that survey myself. What assurances are there that those surveys are being received, read, considered, and/or complied? If asked, could the city school system produce hard copies of every survey submitted? If so, I’m asking: right here and now. Publicly.

The next superintendent needs to be overqualified. Perhaps, grossly overqualified.

The next superintendent is not currently living or working in or near Thomasville. Otherwise, "the fix" will be revealed for all to see.

If Thomasville City Schools gets this hire wrong, then perhaps it’s time to wave the white flag of surrender and open negotiations for consolidation with Thomas County Schools. Thomasville Unified School System, anyone?

Happy New Year, Mr. Rodd. I’m still watching closely. You’re officially on the clock, sir. And you have some explaining to do.

This search process would be hilarious if it wasn’t so serious. Thus far, it’s been an absurdity. A farce.