Report sheds light on school hiring
As promised in an earlier post (see Who Wants to be a Principal?), we have the facts on school hiring practices. Check out Jackie’s Op-Ed on this subject in today’s Sun (or read it here) which opens as follows:
Finally, we can put to rest the unfounded accusations that the Lowell School District does not promote from within or hire residents for key jobs in our schools. At last week’s school committee meeting, the superintendent presented a “Personnel Report on Hiring Practices” that showed 66% of all those hired for administrative positions over the last seven years have been promoted from within, 33% of the new hires live in Lowell, and 38% were raised here.
I never understood why geography should be more important than a person’s qualifications, especially when it comes to educating our children. If all things are equal, then yes, to hire locally or from within is preferred; however, the rumors we’ve been hearing seemed to suggest that a person from Lowell is not only not preferred, but actually given less consideration than an outsider. I think the report shows how false these rumors are.