The Broward County School Board wanted a "transformational leader" when board members fired the previous superintendent, Dr. Vickie Cartwright.
They launched a national search with help from the consulting firm McPherson and Jacobson.
At Tuesday’s workshop meeting, board members grilled an executive from the search firm and showed they’re not thrilled with the progress made so far.
"I'm not excited about the pool at all," said board member Torey Alston.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
No one, it seemed, was overjoyed about the list of 26 candidates compiled by the firm.
"Are any of them on there, they don’t meet the job requirements for superintendent?" asked board chair Lori Alahdeff.
"I believe so, yes," replied Dr. Ralph Ferrie of McPherson and Jacobson. "We have candidates on there, just in general, who are teachers with the no experience at a certified office level, directors at very small districts, folks who have never worked in education before."
Local
"So respectively sir, it’s very frustrating to me that you brought them forward to us," Alhadeff shot back. "You’re wasting our time, why would we have someone on this list if they don’t meet the job qualifications for superintendent, why would we even be looking at them?"
Ferrie admitted to being frustrated himself.
"On this list, there’s probably three people that can do the job, two that I’m pretty confident with," he said.
One of them might be the only internal candidate, Dr. Valerie Wanza.
So why is the qualified applicant pool so small? Ferries said one reason is that Florida’ political climate around education is scaring candidates away.
"I know it is," said board member Dr. Allen Zeman. "And there’s significant evidence, when you look at applicants to the university of Florida from people outside of Florida, when you look at retention statistics of faculty in Florida, there’s absolutely a political effect."
"Absolutely not," said Alston, disagreeing with the premise. "I think, and based on conversations I’ve had with different candidates, they love Florida, they love South Florida."
"We live in paradise, people should be flocking to come here, and they’re staying in freezing cold places because they’re not being micromanaged there," said board member Debbi Hixon. "I 100% believe that the political climate has a huge impact."
Next Tuesday, the board will decide whether to move forward with a few candidates from the list or cast a wider net for more applicants. The interim superintendent, Dr. Earline Smiley, is not a candidate for the permanent job.
