To lead a school system, does someone need experience in an actual school?
There’s been talk about considering “non-traditional candidates” to be the next superintendent of Palm Beach County’s public school system.
That could include, in theory, considering business executives, academics and the heads of successful non-profit charities.
But Chuck Shaw, the school board’s chairman, is having none of it.
Chuck Shaw
The next superintendent needs to have on-hands experience in schools, Shaw told The Palm Beach Post’s editorial board on Wednesday.
“If you have not lived on a campus and been there, you don’t know what it is,” Shaw said during a meeting with the editorial board.
Shaw, a former principal, likened a school campus to a “self-contained city.”
A visceral understanding of how these “cities” function is fundamental to a superintendent’s job, he said.
The school board is getting underway with its search for a replacement for outgoing Superintendent Wayne Gent, who announced last month that he will step down this year.
The board hopes to name a new superintendent by the end of April.
