Pulliam pullout has left members of Unified steamed
BY PAUL SLOTH
Journal Times | Posted: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 12:00 am
RACINE - Members of the Racine Unified School Board don't know what they'll do next after learning Tuesday that their choice for superintendent, Barbara Pulliam, accepted a job offer in Georgia.
Their options could include reopening a search with PROACT Inc., the same Milwauke firm which charged the district $40,000 for its services.
The firm's contract with Unified included a guarantee that they would reopen a search for the district at no additional cost if the board's chosen candidate decided against the job.
The district would only be responsible for expenses, which according to the original contract, amounted to $16,000. The district also paid the firm a flat fee of $24,000.
The School Board isn't expected to meet before its next scheduled business meeting Monday, said President Tony Baumgardt. The issue isn't expected to make it on to what is an already full agenda, Baumgardt said.
The board will have to meet soon though to discuss what it will do without a new leader and how they'll start their next search, Baumgardt said.
"I have asked board members to create a list of the things they liked about the search process and the things they didn't like," Baumgardt said Wednesday. "So we can at least learn from what happened. That will be a starting point for a board discussion."
Pulliam abruptly backed out of contract negotiations with the district less than a month before she was scheduled to start as Unified's superintendent. The situation has left Unified board members and district officials in the lurch, wondering what their options might be.
Jack Parker, Unified's interim superintendent, has agreed to continue working through the summer, Baumgardt said. Beyond that, School Board leaders are left guessing who they might find to take the reins until they hire a permanent replacement for Tom Hicks, who left the district in August.
The situation in Racine surprised people throughout the state, including Miles Turner, executive director of the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators.
"I was shocked. This is very rare. That just doesn't happen in Wisconsin," Turner said Wednesday. "I've watched a few hundred superintendent positions get filled and it is very unusual to have this happen at such a late stage in the game."
The hiring season for school administrators usually happens mid-year, during the months of December, January and February, Turner said.
"As we know, right now, these are unusual times," Turner said.
Racine was just one of several urban districts in the state that was looking for a new superintendent this year at a time when there is a shortage of urban superintendents, Turner said. Districts in Green Bay, Kenosha and Oshkosh are currently looking for new leaders.
Unified board members learned Monday, during a closed-session meeting, that Pulliam wasn't coming to Racine. Initially, nobody knew why.
They soon learned that she had accepted another job offer as interim superintendent of the Greene County School District in Greensboro, Ga.
"There was no indication at all that the bottom had fallen out. (I'm) very upset about the fact that (Pulliam) would not call and tell anybody and didn't talk to the board," said Sue Kutz, board vice president and chair of the committee that was responsible for searching for a new superintendent. "There was no indication that there was something else in the hopper."