Superintendent Smith's soft landing: Editorial Agenda 2016

For those angry about Portland Public Schools' culture of dysfunction, where even the discovery of lead-contaminated water in schools' drinking fountains initially netted a ho-hum response, the news that Superintendent Carole Smith will simply skate into retirement next June may feel wholly unsatisfying.

It is, however, not that surprising. Smith is merely getting the same soft landing that she consistently has provided to principals, district administrators and others who failed to make the grade. A majority of the Portland School Board, which supervises Smith, apparently subscribes to that same ethic of sparing feelings no matter the cost to the public. Board chairman Tom Koehler said he and others support letting Smith serve out the final year of her contract, despite the fact that they have not yet received results of an independent investigation they commissioned into the district's mishandling of lead testing and communication.

Accountability, it seems, is everyone's favorite catchphrase only until they have to show it.

Certainly, it's important for the school board to act judiciously in the midst of the high emotion surrounding revelations last month that drinking water in two schools were found to have lead levels exceeding federal standards. Fear quickly turned to anger as district officials admitted employees failed to turn off access to the contaminated water, didn't bother notifying the superintendent or the affected communities and that the district has done little to address lead issues across multiple schools for years.

Editorial Agenda 2016

But the announcement sends a discouraging message from a board whose primary job is to supervise the superintendent. Board members should have at least waited to review the investigation before giving their blessing to her chosen exit strategy from her $247,000-salaried position. Instead, their support suggests that they aren't interested in hearing any information that would merit immediate termination. Board members should remind themselves that their responsibilities and loyalty should be directed first to the students, not to face-saving sendoffs for its employees.

To be fair, Smith's actions since the lead crisis unfolded show how deeply committed, hardworking and devoted she is - and has always been - to the needs of the district. But at the same time, she has been the person responsible for creating a culture that continually makes allowances for administrators who fail to do their jobs, despite the costs to students who bear the brunt of her accountability-free leadership.

Principals known to be ineffective leaders were routinely shuffled from school to school or reassigned  - with no cut in pay - as vice principals. She generously issued double-digit percentage increases in salaries to already-high paid administrators despite their failure to ensure that students across the district were getting access to core classes and electives. And as the lead contamination crisis shows, her hands-off management of those who directly report to her meant that she was never even looped in to critical information that needed decisive action, not cavalier dismissal.

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Credit board member Paul Anthony, who wants Smith to resign or be terminated, for speaking up about the board's capitulation. He criticized the quiet manner in which Koehler tallied board member support for keeping her, saying that nothing short of an immediate change in leadership will help the district restore its standing with the public, parents and students.

"We are in the crisis over lead because Carole Smith has perpetuated a culture in the district that relies on hiding problems," Anthony told The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board. "If she in fact did not know about the lead in the water, it was because the system was designed to keep that from her."

Koehler rightly counters that there's nothing to stop the board from voting to terminate Smith early if the investigation reveals information meriting her firing. He also said he believes Smith's announcement helps remove some of the uncertainty, assures the community that there will be a change in leadership and provides the time to make an informed decision and smooth transition. In the meantime, he said, Smith is needed to help identify and address the health-and-safety concerns that the lead crisis exposed.

Koehler and the rest of the school board then must make good on those goals. To that end, Koehler said he will ask board members on Tuesday to authorize a search for both a new superintendent as well as a deputy superintendent to handle day-to-day operations. As part of the search, board members should start a public conversation about the qualities that the next superintendent should have and the priorities he or she should address.

But the board needs to demonstrate it can change the culture of zero-accountability in other ways as well. That means ensuring objective evaluations for Smith's top administrators and determining what their roles are. As Anthony noted, some roles overlap, leading to duplication in some areas, such as parent outreach, and insufficient attention to others. And the board must endow the next superintendent with the power to hire and fire as needed in order to remake the district into one that exudes professionalism, demands results and is responsive to the community. Those should be guiding principles for board members as well.

- The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board