Ann Arbor school board President Deb Mexicotte joined local radio talk show host Lucy Ann Lance on air Monday morning to talk about the top candidate for the district's new superintendent declining the job offer.
Deb Mexicotte
Over the weekend, Osborne turned down the job offer citing an ailing family member, concerns about moving his family of four with two young children from the East Coast and a desire to finish what he had started at his current district.
Mexicotte joined Lance via phone from a conference she is attending out of state. Lance asked the board president about a number of topics including: next steps in the superintendent search process; whether the board should have been more aggressive this past week, trying to pressure Osborne to come to Ann Arbor; and about how well the search firm, Ray & Associates, has performed for the district.
Mexicotte told Lance she personally is reconsidering whether the runner-up candidate, Jeanice Kerr Swift of Colorado Springs School District 11, would be a good fit for the district as well. She also told Lance the Ann Arbor Public Schools has a strong interim superintendent and central administrative team in place, so if the board chooses to wait a while to conduct another national search, she thinks "we're in good shape either way."
On the topic of the search firm, the two discussed whether Ray & Associates should have known that Osborne had some personal and family issues that would weigh heavily on his willingness and ability to take the job out of state. Mexicotte told Lance she knows the search firm asked those questions and was comfortable bringing Osborne's name forward to the district when it did.
Danielle Arndt covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. Follow her on Twitter @DanielleArndt or email her at daniellearndt@annarbor.com.