MONTGOMERY, Ala. – State school board members are looking to an outsider to lead Alabama public schools, naming the former Massachusetts education secretary as the next school superintendent over candidates who have worked extensively in state classrooms.
It took several rounds of voting Thursday morning before members narrowly selected education consultant Michael Sentance for the job. Sentance spent his career as an education adviser and reformer. He has worked as an education consultant, the New England regional representative for the U.S. Department of Education secretary and as the senior education adviser to the governor of Massachusetts. Board members who voted for him praised his innovation, saying he would bring fresh ideas and needed changes to the public school system in Alabama.
“Mr. Sentance, I think, brings something unique to the state. Massachusetts is the number one state in the country in education. Test scores show that. We are not number one, obviously, but we would like to be,” Gov. Robert Bentley said after the vote. “Changes are going to be made, and changes have to be made,” Bentley said.
His lack of classroom and school administration experience was named as a concern by board members who supported other candidates.
“I felt we needed someone who had experience as a superintendent. Mr. Sentance does not have that experience. That was my biggest concern, along with the fact that I thought that someone from the state of Alabama would know our needs better. I feel like Mr. Sentance will get here and learn, but it’s a lot easier if you know what the needs are,” board member Yvette Richardson, a former principal and school superintendent, said.