Miami Cautionary Tale Speaks To Urban Superintendents

Being an urban superintendent is a tough job on its best day, but a fundamental fact of life about the public sector makes it even more difficult: style can trump substance, attitude can overshadow achievements and people skills can obscure technical skills.

There’s no greater proof of this than the reversal of fortunes for Miami Superintendent Rudy Crew. In February, he was honored as National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators. On August 4, he kept his job as Miami-Dade superintendent by a 5-4 vote of the Miami school board.

While his peers praised him as national superintendent for his “innovative school improvement programs” and gave him credit for making significant changes in his four years at the helm of the Miami district three times larger than Memphis City Schools. Back at home, while there were problems in the district, it seems that the momentum to remove him from his job had more to do with complaints about an “I know all the answers” attitude, an intimidating management style and an air of condescension.

Style Matters

We don’t know enough directly to make a judgment about the Miami conflict, but it is a powerful cautionary tale for urban district superintendents everywhere, including former associate of Mr. Crew, new Memphis City Schools Superintendent Kriner Cash. In fact, Mr. Crew’s endorsement weighed heavily in Superintendent Cash’s appointment, and because of Mr. Crew’s history as a turnaround school leader, we too saw that as positive.

But we were reminded of the importance of style when we heard Superintendent Cash’s back-to-school phone message to parents. It was more reminiscent for many of the commandant at a military school than someone whose job is to create the kind of district that attracts back the middle class families who have abandoned it.

We heard from one such family who, despite warnings from friends, put their children in city schools as a gesture of their commitment to improving their city. After receiving the phone message, they weren’t as sure that they had made the right decision because it seemed to be a failure-as-default-setting message.

Mixed Message

We suspect that Superintendent Cash intended for his welcome and appreciation for “wonderful parents” to be the predominate message, but it came after a warning that students better be dressed appropriately, a warning that the dress code would be strictly enforced and a warning about the use of cell phones.

“It is also important that our students get plenty of rest each night and understand that school is a place of learning and development and that inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated. Parents, I ask that you have conversations with your child about what is expected of him or her when they are in school, in the community and at home,” the message said.

There’s no question that Superintendent Cash has been sending a strong message about his commitment to rules, but it might have been a chance for a more nuanced and positive delivery. We don’t mean to second guess him. We just think he needs to be sensitive to the fact that the parents of city school students aren’t a monolithic group and shouldn’t be treated as if they are.

Amped-up Rhetoric

But back to the cautionary tale of his former boss, Superintendent Crew. Its ugly racial overtones, pitting black and brown elected officials against each other, led the superintendent to clumsily quote Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and call the vote by the Miami board of education a “high-tech lynching.”

But he wasn’t through. He also said that the board engaged in a “witch hunt,” “a sad chapter of street politics” and “a bad example for our children.” It did nothing to tamp down the strident criticism of the superintendent in Spanish language media outlets.

Managing a major urban district is hard work, but it’s little fun at all when it’s done with a one-vote margin on your board. It’s worth noting that this isn’t a new phenomenon in Miami where Mr. Crew’s predecessor spent most of his administration with the same 5-4 margin.

Tide Turns

And yet, it’s a sad controversy on how tenuous superintendent jobs can be. Only a few years ago, Superintendent Crew was hailed as the savior for Miami-Dade County Public Schools. In the “what have you done lately” environment that often surrounds urban districts, some people don’t even want to give him credit for turning around many Miami schools. For the record, we give him major points though for refusing, while serving as New York City schools chancellor, to lose his job rather than back Mayor Rudy Guiliani’s plan for private school vouchers.

In both New York and Miami, however, he worked to remove independent oversight, and he was even sued by the district’s inspector general for slander and defamation for undermining investigations. Also, others say that he seems reticent to accept different points of view, leaving the impression that “he knows it all,” said a Miami school observer.

Most damaging of all is Superintendent Crew’s tendency to talk about transparency and accountability while stonewalling questions and refusing to release reports critical of his initiatives.

Our point? Style, attitude and tone do matter, and they often need as much attention as programs, plans and initiatives. That’s the main lesson that we take from the destructive drama in Miami.