The ones who may have been smarter. competition and see who is More qualified.

Community won't know if Bria is the best choice
August 1, 2006

Rochonne Bria has a doctorate degree and 13 years of experience as a superintendent. She's been named superintendent of the year in Arizona and was a finalist in Washington state. With her help and leadership, her current district boasts a lower dropout rate, increased success on state-mandated tests, passed a $100 million bond issue and achieved higher teacher retention rates. When she first started at Battle Ground School District, one board member was suing the district and teachers had a walkout over pay.

She still has managed to get things done in her eight years there.





Bria very well could be the perfect fit for Corpus Christi. But her stellar resume and skills as a mediator may do her very little good. When she arrives here today for her public debut, she'll have her work of schmoozing and swaying the community cut out for her. CCISD made sure of it.

First, she's not from Texas. She comes from a district much smaller than CCISD (Battle Ground serves almost 13,000 students. CCISD has a population of about 40,000.) She's not familiar with the area or its people. And the first time the community heard her name is when the board of trustees announced Friday she was the sole finalist to replace Jesus Chavez as superintendent.

Bria is battling for CCISD's top job with a gaggle of ghosts - the mystery candidates that no one in the community got to meet.

The ones who may have been smarter. Hispanic. More qualified.

According to state regulations, a school district is required only to give public notice of the name or names of finalists being considered for the job 21 days before the board moves to hire them.

Not a bad idea, really, but many districts now use the law to sidestep the public completely. Instead of choosing a few qualified candidates and introducing them to the community to get input (support or opposition), boards narrow the selection process to one - the one person they want to hire.

CCISD, like many districts in Texas, abused the spirit of the law by doing just that.

No one is suggesting the district bypass the law completely. Legislators passed the regulations to allow districts to narrow down the pool of qualified applicants without outside influence and so candidates could apply without fear of repercussions from their own districts.

But CCISD can be different by going against the current grain and allowing the public some choice in the matter once the short list is in hand.

Bria may have a strong grasp of curriculum and instruction. She may understand the challenges of educating various demographics and have the answer to our dropout problem.

Maybe she has bigger and better ideas than any other candidate.

But who knows?

Contact Venessa Santos-Garza at 886-3752


dream of californation~qualified