I recently had coffee with a community member and the topic of the selection process for the new superintendent came up. Some points went back to coverage from Sept 14, 2011 by your opinion columnist Bob Roegner.
However, one point of interest raised was the possibility of having students participate in the selection evaluation process. The idea seemed to have many positive benefits to consider and highlighted the value of community input. People do not have a monopoly on good ideas by virtue of a job title so more brainpower is always better than a few.
Any opportunity we can find to incorporate learning about real life while in school should be leveraged whenever possible. What a great opportunity it would be for the elected student body president and vice president at our high schools to evaluate and rank candidate resumes, develop recommendations for interview questions and sit in on the interviews to provide their evaluations and rankings for the school board for our consideration.
They could contact student body representatives at schools or districts where candidates would be coming from to supplement their assessment. This could provide a great insight into the world of personnel selection processes.
They could learn a great deal about themselves and come to appreciate the value of diverse perspectives in arriving at better understandings on which to base their judgment. In many ways, it can also mirror the jury deliberation process and how people judge credibility and attribute characteristics to people regardless of what that person may have said or what credentials they might possess.
Some organizations conduct “climate” surveys to help leadership set the course for the future. The Federal Way school district could conduct a community survey to get input on what the community wants to see in terms of future program emphasis, personal qualities, future outcomes or key selection factors.
The school board would certainly find this information useful and so would the panel of student body officials. Community survey inputs could help shape questions for the interviews and set criteria to narrow the pool of candidates for interviews. It could also be a great opportunity for the community to communicate and reconnect with their school district.
On further examination of this concept, there came a peripheral point of interest. Many schools have traditional policies requiring that certain academic standards be met in order for a student to participate in student government. Students who don’t meet a particular academic standard, say a “B” (3.0 grade point average), are prevented from running for student body positions.
We have to wonder how many presidents of the United States would have been eliminated for lack of a college transcript showing a “B” average? The civics question then becomes, if a disabled student can try out for the wrestling team with a “C” (2.0) average, then why can’t that same student run for student body government? Good question for the Associated Student Body and the parents of children at our schools to discuss and consider.
Hiroshi Eto, Federal Way Public Schools board
