Public comments and a little reading between the lines provided the impression that Coleman Lew and Associates Inc. was not having the success it hoped for in attracting the type of candidates and number of candidates it expected for the position of superintendent of Hamilton County Schools.
In a letter to the Hamilton County Board of Education last month, Coleman Lew President Ken Carrick termed the "overall response/interest" in the position "very light."
"Based on the relatively soft level of interest we have experienced so far," he wrote, "I strongly anticipate that we will have to contact more than the typical number of individuals we contact on similar searches."
Originally, a list of candidates was to come to the school board in late February, then late March, then, it was said, perhaps later.
School board chairman Steve Highlander last month said he was "a little disappointed" in the response. However, he surely spoke for the board and the public when he maintained "it's such an urgent need to get the right person."
For Hamilton County, a district that has struggled on so many fronts, from low test scores to lawsuits to threats of municipalities leaving the school system to a stagnation of creativity in the past, that has never been more true.
Now the list is public, and the 14 names provided to the board, at first blush, offer a mix of educational and business experience, state and local administration, Tennessee and non-Tennessee background, and secondary schools and higher education experience.
Our hope is the final individual chosen will have had some experience as a change agent - in turning around a struggling school system. Interim Superintendent Dr. Kirk Kelly and his staff, sensing the public lack of confidence in the district after its handling of a December 2015 pool cue rape case and the subsequent resignation of Superintendent Rick Smith, have made various changes. But we believe a candidate more seasoned in turnarounds would have the best opportunity to move the district forward.
Two names on the list have local administrative experience. Kelly is one, and the other is Natalie Elder, director of school improvement and professional development for Stamford (Conn.) Public School System, who was principal at Hardy Elementary School from 2001 to 2009 and worked at other schools in the Hamilton County and Chattanooga City school systems.
Kelly applied for the superintendent's post, but Carrick said in January that he would be on the list of names the firm would give the board because he doesn't believe the firm should be in the position of making "the decision up or down on an internal candidate."
However, Carrick said Coleman Lew was willing to give the board its opinion on how the internal candidate stacks up against any external candidate it recommends. How the interim superintendent does stack up has not been revealed.
The board will whittle down the candidates to a handful in the near future before holding public video conference interviews with the finalists. The board has a goal of having the new superintendent in place by July.