Search for new Lancaster ISD superintendent no easy task

by Brian Allen of Best Southwest Citizen

Best Southwest Blog is speculating that the new Lancaster ISD superintendent could be former Waxahachie superintendent Bobby Parker Jr., and we recommending heavily against it. Lancaster ISD is in quite the pickle, though. The top notch candidates are not going to be lining up for a job with the TEA looking lovingly over their shoulder. This job almost has to end up in the hands of somebody with a lot of experience that may bring some of their own baggage, or a young up-and-coming official with more enthusiasm than actual experience. As far as that candidate’s concerned, the bright side is that anyone who can turn this ship around should be able to name their price at the next job they get.

That’s unfortunate because there are few districts in the state (Dallas comes to mind) that could use a capable superintendent more than Lancaster. Former superintendent Larry Lewis was always reminding us that the district was in bad financial shape when he and his administration got there. There’s some truth to that and no one could argue it has improved. The district could conceivably still be trying to dig out of this mess two-three supers down the road. Even districts like Duncanville, traditionally supportive of bond packages and other financial initiatives, can’t get anything passed right now.

This is the wrong economy to be asking anyone for money in, even though students need it. It takes a while for a new superintendent to gain people’s trust. Through no fault of their own, whoever ends up with the LISD job will have an even tougher time of that than most. Lewis still has a lot of supporters and there are some divisions that could take months, if not years, to heal properly.

But it’s up to the adults to work this out because nothing is more important than the children who need good schools. Because when kids are involved, I would much rather see a happy ending than have all the crazy story leads I can handle.